Red Lentil Soup with Couscous (Kuskuslu Mercimek Çorbası)

Is there anyone who does not like red lentil soup? I haven't met that person yet. Here is one more red lentil soup from central Anatolia. The original recipe requires couscous. Turkish couscous is just like pearl couscous and is prepared like pasta as opposed to North African couscous. However, for this recipe, I used regular, north African small couscous.

1/2 cup red lentil
1/3 cup couscous
1 carrot, peeled and petite diced
1 tsp paprika
2 tbsp butter
salt
6 cups of chicken or vegetable stock

optional
black pepper or
crushed pepper flakes or
green chili powder

-Heat the stock in a pot.
-Once it starts boiling add red lentils and carrot. Cook until lentils are cooked--approximately 20 minutes.
-Add couscous and cook for another 10 minutes.
-Turn it off and add salt.
-In a small frying pan heat butter. Add paprika and let it sizzle for 10-15 seconds.
-Serve the soup in bowls and pour the butter+paprika on top of each.

Tweet

Green Lentil Soup with Rice (Pirinçli Yeşil Mercimek Çorbası)

Fall is here and I'm as excited about the turning leaves as I am about making soups again. As most of the Turkish green lentil soups, Green Lentil Soup with Rice is also a Central/Eastern Anatolia specialty. It is very simple, yet really delicious one, particularly with a crusty bread.

1 cup green lentils
1/4 cup rice
1 onion, finely chopped
6 cups of beef or vegetable stock
2 tbsp red pepper or tomato paste
2 tbsp olive oil
salt
black pepper
dill

-Boil 1 cup lentils with 3 cups of water until cooked but firm. Rinse.
-Saute onion in a pot with olive oil until soft.
-Add pepper or tomato paste and stir for another minute. (If you cannot find red pepper paste at Middle Eastern stores, you can spice up your soup by adding 1 tsp of spicy Thai roasted pepper or any Asian pepper paste to tomato paste)
-Add vegetable or beef stock, green lentils, rice, pepper, and salt, and cook on medium to low until rice is cooked.
-Sprinkle dill before you serve.

Tweet

Purslane Tomato Salad (Pirpirim / Semizotu Piyazı)

I first had this purslane salad in Gaziantep, a city in southeastern Turkey at a kebap house. My childhood friend Özge, an archeologist by training, and I were on an archeological/historical tour covering three southeastern cities Adıyaman, Gaziantep, and Urfa. After watching the sunset at Mt. Nemrut in Adıyaman, we hopped on a minibus, arrived in Gaziantep late at night and found one of the restaurants that were recommended by friends from Gaziantep. With the first meal and baklava we had at our first stop, İmam Çağdaş kebap and baklava house in one of the narrow streets of Gaziantep, we knew that ours would be a culinary trip rather than an archeological one.

When we were served this purslane salad as a side with a variety of Antep kebaps and lahmacun--my all time favorite dish--that we sampled that night, I must admit that it did not receive the attention from us that it deserved. However, you would agree that after a long exhausting day of traveling, meeting with friends, climbing Mt. Nemrut, exploring Adıyaman, and doing all those things under the brutal southeastern sun in mid August, what one craves for is not a healthy salad. We were in the baklava and kebap capital of Turkey, after all. Two days later when we were leaving Gaziantep, we noticed that everyone on the plane, including the pilots, flight attendants, and us--of course, had at least two boxes of baklava with them, the best souvenir from Gaziantep. I had three.

Although I thought neither of us paid any attention to the purslane salad that night, I never forgot it and the perfect combination of purslane with fresh vegetables and paprika. I had the chance to have purslane salad at a dinner over at a Gaziantepli friend's house, and get the recipe. In Gaziantep purslane is called pirpirim as oppsed to semizotu, a common name for purslane in the western part of Turkey.


























1 bunch purslane (~1 lb), washed and chopped in small pieces, stems discarded
1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, diced
1 cucumber, peeled and thinly cut in half moon shape
1-2 green peppers (anaheim, Hungarian wax, banana, etc.), finely chopped
1 red pepper pepper, finely chopped
1 onion, cut in thin half moons
juice of half lemon
1 tsp pomegranete syrup (if you cannot find it, use juice of one lemon in stead of half)
1 tsp sumac powder or flakes
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp paprika (I used 1 1/2 tsp of a spicy variety)

-Put thin half moon shape onion in a bowl. Scatter 2 tsp salt on top. Rub onion with salt for a minute. Rinse salt off the onion with water. Drain.
-Put all the ingredients in bowl, season with lemon juice, pomegranate syrup, olive oil, sumac, paprika, and salt.


Weekend Herb Blogging, founded by Kalyn, is hosted this week by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once.

Tweet

Flaky Spinach Pie (Ispanaklı Tepsi Böreği)

After gathering courage to make my mom's zucchini börek, I now am familiar with using phllyo dough for other various börek recipes. As I mentioned before börek is a common term for all pastries that use Turkish yufka i.e. phllyo dough. Depending on the filling, the shape and sometimes the region the term börek is preceded by a descriptive noun: kabak böreği (zucchini börek), ıspanak böreği (spinach börek), kıymalı börek (börek with ground meat) or su böreği (water/boiled börek), tepsi böreği (layered börek) etc.

Spinach börek is definitely a nation-wide favorite. It's made for and served at afternoon tea gatherings; sold by street vendors or patisseries early in the morning for breakfast; or can be a whole meal for lunch or dinner served with a yogurt beverage, ayran, or coke, but 95% of the time with tea.

Although spinach börek can be made in different styles such as bundles, rolls, or spiral, the most common version is layered, tepsi in Turkish which literary translates as "tray."




















20 phyllo dough sheets (1 packet usually has 40)
1 lb fresh or frozen spinach
1/2 cup white cheese or feta
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/3 cup olive oil (I prefer olive oil, but others can be used too)
1 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)
black seeds (nigella seeds)















-Thaw phyllos according to the instructions on the package.
-Put fresh spinach in a bowl. Sprinkle a little bit of salt. Rub spinach leaves with your fingers until wilted. Drain excessive water. (If you're using frozen spinach, let it thaw first. Squeeze to drain excessive water. Sprinkle salt and rub spinach leaves with your fingers. Drain excessive water once again)
-Add feta, black pepper, and crushed red pepper to spinach and mix well.
-In another bowl beat the eggs and add milk and olive oil. Mix well.
-Grease an 8 X 11.5 pan (or in a pan that's approximately the same size with phyllo sheets)
-Layer half of phyllo dough sheets in the pan by brushing every single layer generously with the egg+milk+oil mixture.
-On the 10th phyllo sprinkle spinach mix.
-Cut the 1 tbsp butter in to small pieces and sprinkle on spinach.
-Keep layering the rest of phyllos by brushing each layer with the mixture.
-After putting down the last phyllo, pour whatever is left from the egg+milk+oil mixture on top.
-Sprinkle the pie with black (nigella) seeds or sessame seeds or neither.
-Bake in a preheated oven at 390F for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.
-Wait for 10-15 minutes and then cut into square pieces.

Tweet

Vegetarian Stuffed Globe Zucchini (Zeytinyağlı Yayla Kabağı Dolması)

I hadn't seen these round zucchinis, globe zucchinis or zucchini ronde de nice, or whatever you call them, in a long time. They are perfect for stuffing. They are very easy to scoop, yet the outside is firm and stays so even after an hour of cooking.














10 globe zucchinis

1/2 cup olive oil

1 heaping cup of rice (I measured 1 1/2 tbsp rice for each globe zucchini)

2 medium onions, grated or finely chopped

3 tomatoes, grated or blended

3-4 tbsp pine nuts
3 tbsp dried currants
1 tsp all spice
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped finely or 1 tbsp mint flakes
1/3 cup fresh dill, chopped finely
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt

-Wash globe zucchinis, slice the top as a hat and scoop out the flesh. (you can save the flesh to make zucchini fritters later)
-Mix all the ingredients (except for zucchinis) in bowl.
-Stuff the zucchinis with this mixture. (If there's stuffing left, you can stuff a bell pepper or a tomato)
-Place those little hats on top and place zucchinis in a pot. Pour 2-2 1/2 cups of water or more to cover the zucchini dolmas half way.
-Cover and cook on low-medium for approximately 50 mins to an hour or until rice is cooked.
-Serve warm or cold, preferably with yogurt on the side.


recipe update
There was a little bit of whining about the slight sweetness caused by currants and all spice, so the next time I made stuffed globe zucchinis, I did not use those two ingredients. I replaced them with 2 tbsp of sumac (powdered or flakes, or you can use juice of 1 lemon). I also discarded the zucchini tops, and covered little dolmas with a slice of tomato; this way dolmas were juicier than when I made them using the tops.

Tweet

Zucchini Börek (Kabak Böreği)

Börek is a common name in Turkey and neighboring regions that were influenced by Ottoman cuisine for a pie made with flaky pastry: phyllo or yufka. Börek can be made in different forms (bundles, rolls, rounds, squares, etc.) and with different fillings (eggplant, ground meat, milk, potato, spinach, and white cheese).

This particular recipe is my mom's signature dish. This is the dish that I asked her to make every time I went back home from boarding school, college or from the States, and that my friends ask her to make whenever they come over for tea, for dinner, or for a visit. I haven't made zucchini börek before simply because it is hard to find Turkish yufka here and phyllo doughs that you can find in the stores are too thin (harder to deal with), starchier (fit better for baklava than börek), and come in rectangles rather than rounds as we have them in Turkey. However, for the first time I haven't been to Turkey over a year now. I decided that I couldn't wait for another year for zucchini börek.



~30 sheets of phyllo dough=1 box (since they're really thin, a couple will be lost along the way)

for the filling
2-3 zucchinis, grated approximately 4 cups of grated zucchini
3 eggs
1/2 cup finely chopped dill
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh mint or 3 tbsp dry mint flakes
1/2 cup crumbled Turkish white cheese or feta
1 tbsp paprika (or Hungarian paprika)
1 tbsp or less black pepper
salt (depending on how salty the cheese is)
1 tsp spicy red pepper flakes (optional)

for brushing phyllos
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup plain yogurt (nonfat, reduced, or whole)

-Thaw frozen phyllo as indicated on the package.
-Mix well all the ingredients for the filling in a bowl. Set aside for 10-15 minutes.
-It will be a juicy mixture. Squeeze the mixture and pour that excessive juice into a smaller bowl. Add 3 tbsp olive oil and 1/2 cup yogurt into the juice and mix well. You will use this to brush phyllos.
-Place a phyllo, wide side facing you, on the counter. Brush it with the mixture and put another phyllo on top and brush it, too. Since phyllos are too thin, it's better to use two at a time).
-Place filling ~one seventh of zucchini filling on the long side of phyllo and roll up to make a long cigar.
-Grease ~ 11 X 13 or ~11 X 11 oven tray.
-Hold one end of the long cigar and coil roll around to form a spiral shape as in the picture above.
-Repeat brushing, filling, rolling, and coiling until there's no more filling.
-Pour whatever juice left in the brushing and filling bowls on the börek.
-Bake in a preheated oven at 380-390 F until golden brown. Approximately 50 minutes.
-Cut into triangle pie slices. Serve with tea or soda for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

It is not a common practice throughout Turkey, but where I come from, Thrace, we love to eat our savory börek by dipping it into jam, especially into cherry jam.

Tweet

Vegetarian Stuffed Zucchini Flowers (Zeytinyağlı Kabak Çiçeği Dolması)

In his novel Karıncanın Su İçtiği (Ant Drinking Water), the second volume of a series titled Bir Ada Hikayesi (An Island Story), one of my favorite Turkish writers, Yaşar Kemal, writes about stuffed zucchini flowers in a way that resembles his famous descriptions of cotton fields, horses, snakes, the Taurus mountains, rain, the sea, i.e. nature in general. He writes in meticulous detail about this delicate Aegean dish so that while reading the novel you feel like you almost can taste it. After finishing Karıncanın Su İçtiği, I really wanted to have stuffed zucchini flowers, a delicious dolma dish that I first tasted when I was visiting Bodrum peninsula. Bodrum offers a great variety of Aegean dishes once you can pass its ranked #2 after Istanbul wild nightlife.
Although dealing with delicate flowers might seem difficult, to make stuffed zucchini flower is not harder than any other dolma dish. The demanding part is to find zucchini flowers. If you are already growing zucchini plants, pick flowers early in the morning when they are open and free of bugs. On the other hand, if you don't have a garden you might find zucchini flowers at farmer's markets (possibility:low), flea markets with produce sections (possibility: medium), or at Mexican grocery stores/markets (possibility: high).












serves 4
20 zucchini flowers
1 1/2 cup rice
2 medium onions, very finely chopped or grated
1/3 cup + 2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp currants
2 tbsp pine nuts
1/2 tsp allspice or cinnamon
1 tsp sugar
1 or more tsp salt
juice of 1/2 lemon or 2 tsp pomegranate molasses
1-2 tsp black pepper
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh mint
1/2 cup finely chopped dill
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley (save the stems)
-Trim the stems and remove the stamens from the flower. It might be tricky to remove the stamen; I used a little knife to cut the stamen. Wash the zucchini flowers, check inside for any unwanted guests, and then place them in a bowl of hot (not boiling hot, though) water to soften. Set aside.
-Heat 1/3 cup olive oil in a pot. Add onions and cook for 3-4 minutes.
-Add rice and stir for 5 minutes.
-Add currants, pine nuts, sugar, allspice or cinnamon, black pepper and salt.
-Add 1 cup water and cook on low until water is absorbed. Turn it off.
-Add greens: dill, mint, parsley, and lemon juice or pomegranate molasses. Mix well and set aside to cool down.
-Place the parsley stems that you saved at the bottom of a pot. If you do not have parsley stems you can cover the bottom of the pot with vine leaves or apple skin. Flowers are very delicate so you don't want to put them directly on the pot.
-Drain zucchini flowers. With a small spoon or your fingers stuff each flower with the rice stuffing: gently open up the petals, put the stuffing, and seal the flower by folding the petals one by one around the filling.
-Place stuffed flowers tight on parsley stems (or whatever you have). Sprinkle 2 tbsp olive oil and pour 1 cup of water.
-Find a flat-ish plate that would fir in your pot. Place the plate on stuffed flowers. The weight of the plate will hold the dolmas down and intact.
-Cook covered on low heat until water is absorbed, approximately half an hour.
-Wait at least 20 minutes before taking stuffed zucchini flowers out of the pot.
-Serve warm or cold. Goes well with yogurt.

Tweet

Purslane with Rice (Pirinçli Semizotu)

Long before Dr Mehmet Öz, aka Dr. Oz, started to appear on morning shows on Turkish TV channels and regularly on Oprah Show to talk about healthy eating habits with a great emphasis on purslane (surprisingly rich in Omega 3 fatty acids), the weed frequented our tables in dishes and salads all summer long. If Dr. Oz's advice on healthy food triggered interest in purslane in Turkey, it also caused inflation in purslane prices. A couple of summers ago on questioning a sudden increase of purslane prices, just out of pure curiosity not by any reluctance to pay, I was almost scolded by a vendor at my hometown's farmer's market: "Mam, even Dr. Mehmet Öz appreciates purslane, why don't you?" I always have and especially do now here in the States, where it's relatively harder to find it. I do so much so that I can stop going to trendy organic farmer's market for fresh tomatoes and peppers and make a trip all the way to almost-out-of-town chaotic and dusty flea market with the hopes of finding "verdolaga" (that's what Mexicans call purslane and it seems like they enjoy it as much as Turks do); it's totally worth it. If I can find purslane seeds I wouldn't even mind turning the backyard into a purslane field. But for now I'm making a trip to the flea market every weekend.

If you cannot find purslane in your backyard or at the farmer's market, check out Mexican grocery stores or flea markets for 'verdolaga.'


























2 bunches or ~2 lb purslane (aka verdolaga, pigweed, hugweed, or pusley)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/4 cup rice
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
juice of half lemon
3/4 cup water


























-Wash purslane well and chop it into 1-1 1/2 inch pieces. You don't need to discard the stems.
-Heat olive oil in a wide pot. Stir in onion and garlic. Cook until soft.
-Add purslane/verdolaga. Stir a couple of times until wilted.
-Add lemon juice, salt, pepper, and water.
-When it starts boiling, add rice and turn the heat down to low.
-Cover and simmer until rice is cooked.
-Serve warm or cold with garlicy yogurt (for garlicy yogurt use 1 clove of minced garlic per 1 cup of yogurt) on the side.


ps: if you are not very enthusiastic about green leafy vegetables, there's big chance you won't like purslance with its crunchy stems and tangy taste.

Tweet

Sour Eggplant Stew (Ekşili Patlıcan)

Eggplant dishes from south eastern part of Turkey are usually cooked with a sour ingredient: lemon or pomegranate molasses. I love eggplant dishes in every form, yet I find those tangy ones such as Adana style stuffed eggplants or eggplant and lentil stew with pomegranate molasses to be even more delicious during the summer days.

























4 medium size eggplants, stem removed, peeled in occasional vertical stripes, and cut into edible chunks
2 medium onions, thinly sliced in half moons
4-5 tomatoes, diced
5-6 cloves or garlic, minced
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
juice of 1 lemon
a generous 1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped

-Place eggplant chunks in salted cold water for half an hour.
-Drain eggplants and squeeze them to remove excessive water.
-Mix eggplants with other ingredients in a pot (save half of the parsley).
-Cover and cook on low heat for 30-40 minutes, until eggplants are cooked (no water is necessary).
-Sprinkle rest of the parsley and serve hot or cold. Sour eggplant stew is even better the next day.

Tweet

Turkish Eggy Toast (Yumurtalı Ekmek)

Mornings of my first couple of years in the States were marked by fruitless search for non-meaty, moderately eggy, feta cheesy, and above all definitely savory breakfasts. In time I let it go and settled down with sunny side ups, hash browns, and occasionally crispy bacon strips. One Sunday morning, back in Bloomington, IN, when we were at our favorite local breakfast place Wee Willie's (the dirty or the old one on South Walnut St) which had real Bloomingtonian customers, heaviest gravies in town, old wooden booths soaked with grease, awesome fresh squeezed orange juice, and chatty middle age waitresses with great sense of humor, I had a sudden craving for Turkish toast. I was going on and on about how delicious it was. Jen, Nolan, and Aaron, probably hoping to change my regular subject of homesickness times, "Turkish food is awesome," asked me what Turkish toast was. I explained with great enthusiasm how it was made and they said "it's like French toast, the idea is the same!" The French toast specialist Jen reassured me that those two sounded quite similar. They encouraged me to order French toast with no powder sugar and cinnamon. In another attempt to have an almost Turkish savory breakfast, I did not only what Jen and Nolan suggested, but also asked the waitress to add a slice of cheese on top; shouldn't have gone so far. The expression on our waitress' face was way more pleasing than the "Turkishized" French toast I had that morning.

























"Aklın yolu birdir" or "great minds think alike": Whether Turkish or French, the idea is really the same; to save stale i.e. "lost" bread (pain perdue). In Turkey , this toast is served for breakfast or as a snack for afternoon tea always with white cheese (feta) on the side.


























half of a regular round loaf bread, sliced (approximately 10 slices)
3 eggs
1/4 cup milk (whole, 2%, or skim)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup frying oil (canola, vegetable, etc.)

optional
1/2 tsp crushed oregano leaves
2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
1/2 tsp herbes de provence
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

-Beat eggs well in a bowl.
-Add milk and spices, salt and pepper. Mix well.
-Soak each slice in the mix for 5-7 seconds. Make sure each side is well coated.
-Heat oil in a frying pan.
-Fry soaked slices until golden brown on each side.
-Place fried slices on a paper towel to soak excessive oil.
-Serve warm or hot.

To make your eggy toast even more flavorful, use rosemary, olive, etc. kind of bread.

Tweet

Black-Eyed Pea Pilaki (Börülce Pilaki)

Pilaki is a general name for a group of dishes that are cooked in tomato sauce with onion, garlic, carrot, potato, parsley, lemon juice, and most importantly olive oil. Among favorite pilaki dishes are barbunya pilaki and fish pilaki.


























serves 6 people
1 lb frozen black-eyed peas (once you soak them you can also start with dried ones)
1 big onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
2 green chillies, finely chopped or 1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 carrot, thinly sliced
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
3-4 tomatoes, diced
3-4 tbsp olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup chopped dill or parsley
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
ground pepper
crushed red pepper flakes (optional)


-Heat oil and add onion and garlic. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
-Add green chillies, potatoes, and carrot. Cook until soft.
-Stir in black-eyed peas and diced tomato. Let boil.
-Once it boils, stir in sugar, salt, pepper, bay leaves, pepper flakes, juice of half lemon, and 1 cup of water.
-Cook on medium heat for 30-35 minutes until peas are soft.
-Once it's cooked, take out bay leaves and add dill or parsley.
-Let it cool down a bit. Serve warm or cold.

Tweet

Carrot Salad with Yogurt (Yoğurtlu Havuç Salatası)

Carrot salad with yogurt is one of the greatly respected rakı companions. Mainly for this reason, that it's highly associated with consumption of alcohol, it's made rarely at homes by women who do not want to cause an increase in rakı consumption of their husbands, because any reason is a good reason to have rakı. Therefore, carrot salad with yogurt is made usually for big dinner parties or special occasions like New Year's eve or bayram dinners. However, you can find this simple yet delicious meze (appetizer/starter/hors d'oeuvre) at every pub that serves rakı, especially at seafood pubs. Surprisingly carrot salad with yogurt tastes even better at sloppy pubs than it does at home although it's most probably made with a low quality oil, you're lucky if it's olive oil at all, and yogurt. Yet again rakı fixes every imperfection.


























serves 2 to 3 people
4 cups of grated carrot
1 cup plain yogurt, preferably whole milk yogurt
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
3-4 tbsp finely chopped fresh dill
salt
1 tbsp mayonnaise (optional)

-Heat oil in a skillet and add grated carrots. Stir until carrots are wilted.
-Put carrots in a bowl with yogurt, garlic, dill, and salt. Mix well.

Serve with crusty bread with any kind of meat.

note: At people's houses this meze is made with yogurt, but at pubs they sometimes use mayonnaise to thicken it up.

Tweet

Vegeterian Zucchini Boat (Kabak Bayıldı)

Remember that eggplant dish with a funny name, İmam Bayıldı (the priest fainted)? Kabak bayıldı is the "zucchinized" version of the same dish. Unlike imam bayıldı, which was originated in the Palace kitchens, kabak bayıldı was created in regular, non-imperial kitchens, yet inspired by the eggplant version.

In the very traditional way of preparing kabak bayıldı, zucchinis are deep fried before the stuffing process; however, I choose not to for a lighter and healthier dish.
























5 medium zucchinis, washed and halved lengthwise
3 medium onions, cut thinly in rounds or half moons
5-7 cloves of garlic, chopped
3-4 tomatoes, diced
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp spicy crushed peppers (optional)
1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
1/2 bunch dill, finely chopped

-Cut the zucchini into two lengthwise and scoop out the seedy part. Place them in a wide, not so deep pot, scooped part facing up.
-In a skillet heat olive oil.
-Add onion and garlic. Cook until soft.
-Add diced tomato, sugar, salt and crushed pepper.
Cook for five minutes on medium stirring occasionally.
-Add parsley and dill after turning it off. (save some to garnish at the end)
-Stuff generously the zucchini boats with the sauce.
-Pour 1 cup of water on top. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer on low heat for half an hour.
-Sprinkle dill and parsley and serve luke warm or cold.

Kabak bayıldı goes well with rice or bulgur pilaf and yogurt.

Tweet

Baked Zucchini with Feta (Fırında Peynirli Kabak)

Except for white cheese that's used to stuff zucchini halves, this recipe doesn't seem very Turkish or very authentic Turkish. However, I've never had this dish anywhere other than in Turkey. My mom and I usually had this kind of zucchini and baked zucchini as light summer lunches, yet I have seen it served to impress guests at parties numerous times.

























4 small-medium zucchinis
1/2 cup white cheese or feta
1/4 cup mozzarella or cheddar, grated
1 egg
1/4 cup fresh dill, chopped or 1/4 cup fresh mint, finely chopped
1/4 or 1/2 cup flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
1/2 tsp black pepper
red pepper flakes
salt (depending on feta you are using)
olive oil, approximately 1 tbsp or less


-Wash zucchinis and boil them until tender but firm. Let cool down.
-Cut them in halves lengthwise to make boats. Scoop out the seedy part and save half of it to use for stuffing.
-In a bowl, mix egg, feta, mozzarella or cheddar, dill parsley, black pepper, and half of the seedy part of zucchinis until creamy.
-Load zucchini boats with the stuffing.
-Sprinkle a couple of drops of olive oil and red pepper flakes on each.
-Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for 10 to 15 minutes until cheese melts. Then broil for a couple of minutes to have a crispy top.
-Serve hot.

Tweet

Bulgur Pilaf with Spinach and Fried Onions (Ispanaklı ve Kızarmış Soğanlı Bulgur Pilavı)

I like bulgur pilafs as light summer lunches , because they are easy and quick to make, and if cooked with olive oil, can be eaten cold or warm. Bulgur Pilaf with Spinach and Fried Onions recipe is introduced as a rural Arab recipe by Paula Wolfert in The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean. I decided to try it, because it reminded me of a Turkish pilaf recipe with white rice and spinach. It is a really tasty, refreshing recipe with a nice twist of fried onions. It goes well with red meat and/or yogurt.



























2-3 medium onion, halved and cut in thin half rounds
3 tbsp olive oil
1 pound fresh spinach, stemmed coarsely chopped (frozen spinach would be fine, too)
1 1/2 cup coarse bulgur
2 cups of stock (chicken, beef, or vegetable)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp allspice (I skipped this one)
1-2 tsp spicy crushed red pepper flakes (this was my addition)

-Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a skillet and cook the onions on high-medium covered, stirring frequently, until they are golden brown.
-While onions are cooking, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pot and add spinach to wilt approximately 5-7 minutes depending whether it's fresh or frozen.
-Once spinach is wilted, stir in bulgur, stock, salt, and spices. Cover and cook over low until it soaks all the stock or bulgur is tender.
-Remove bulgur from heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes.
-Stir in the fried onions.

You can find more bulgur pilaf recipes here


This recipe is for a bulgur recipes event held over at Deryadan Lezzetler.

Tweet

Fried Eggplant (Patlıcan Kızartması)

For a Turk, a summer without fried eggplant is simply impossible, unheard-of. Along with other eggplant dishes such as stuffed eggplant "split belly" , or its vegetarian version, "imam fainted," or roasted eggplant salad, fried eggplant honors our tables at least once every week. However, if you live or spend your summers on the coast, which is not very uncommon since Turkey is surrounded by seas (Aegean, the Marnara, Mediterranean, and the Black Sea), your eggplant intake might be daily; there's something about coastal weather and eggplant. Fried eggplant is the easiest eggplant dish in Turkish cuisine. The simplicity should not deceive you; it is as delicious as any complicated eggplant dish. It's always served either by a tomato or a yogurt sauce. Both sauces should be loaded with garlic.

Although this is a simple dish, there are a couple things to be careful about when cooking with eggplants. Buy eggplants right before you cook and pick the firmer ones. Eggplants tend to get soft in the refrigerator. Even though its skin is thick and sometimes bitter, do not peel it all the way; peel it lengthwise in 1/2 inch stripes. Once peeled eggplants darken fast. To prevent this you can take out the spongy middle part with seeds and keep eggplants in salty water until you cook them.

























for 4 people 3 eggplants-I used regular American big eggplants, peeled as described, and diced (I prefer diced eggplants, but you can also cut them in 1/3 inch thick rounds or slices)
1-2 cups of frying oil (vegetable, corn, canola, etc.)
salt

for tamato sauce
3-4 tomatoes, petite diced or grated (or 2 cans of diced tomato--it's better if you put in a blender for a couple of seconds)
1 clove of garlic for each tomato (this is optional; you can use more or less garlic), minced
salt

for garlicy yogurt sauce
2 cups any kind of plain yogurt
2 cloves of garlic, minced

-Keep diced eggplant in a salty water until ready to fry them. Drain the water, squeeze eggplant, and pet them dry in a clean kitchen towel.
-Heat oil in a pot. When it's really hot put eggplant in and fry in portions.
-Fry until golden brown.
-Put a paper towel at the bottom of a plate. Take out eggplant with a slotted spoon and put over the paper towel.
-For the tomato sauce, put grated tomato, minced garlic, and salt in a pot and cook for ~20 minutes until tomato is cooked.
-For the garlicy yogurt sauce, beat minced garlic with yogurt.
-You can either pour the sauce on fried eggplant on the serving plate or on your plate, the choice is yours. But do not have it without sauce. What brings the beauty of this dish is definitely the garlic.
-Serve fried eggplant as a side with meat or rice. My favorite way to eat fried eggplant is to have in a fresh crusty bread. mmmmmm

bon appetit!

Tweet

Stuffed Red Bell Peppers (Zeytinyağlı Kırmızı Biber Dolması)

It's almost summer and I cannot help but cook summer dishes. Dolmas simmered in olive oil, i.e. vegetarian dolmas, are perfect summer dishes. They can be served as the main dish for lunch. Also there's nothing like a cold delicious dolma as a side dish for dinner.

stuffs 8-10 medium size red bell peppers

1 cup white rice
2 medium size onions, finely chopped (you can use a food processor)
2 tomatoes, grated or 1 can of petite diced tomato
1 tomato (this one is for covering the tops of red bell peppers after stuffing)
2 tbsp pine nuts
2 tbsp currants
1/2 tbsp all spice
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp mint flakes or ¼ cup fresh mint, chopped finely
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp white sugar
salt
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup olive

optional1 tbsp basil flakes (it goes really well with the sweetness of red bell peppers)

-Mix well all the ingredients (except for peppers and 1 tomato) in a bowl.
-Wash peppers and take out the top part and the seeds.
-Stuff the peppers with the rice mix with a spoon or your hand.
-Cut small pieces from 1 tomato to cover the top parts of peppers. Press the tomato slice down a bit so that it won’t come out.
-Place the dolmas in a pot. Pour water. Make sure water is 1 inch below the dolmas.
-Let it boil on high heat then turn it to medium and cook for 35-45 minutes.

-You can serve it hot, but olive oil dishes like dolmas taste better when they cool down and taste even better the next day.
-Try them with yogurt.

*If you end up with extra stuffing, you can either freeze it for another time or stuff whatever you have in the fridge: potato, zucchini, tomato, etc.

Tweet

Garlicy Bulgur Buttons (Sarımsaklı Köfte)

These little delicious buttons are known by a variety of names in different regions of Turkey such as sarımsaklı köfte or fellah köftesi, etc. Along with the name change come a variety of sauces. I am posting the recipe with three different sauces. Whichever sauce you pick, there are must do's when following the recipe: buttons should be small, you really need to press you finger on each one (it holds the sauce), and do not go light on garlic.




for buttons
2 cups of fine bulgur
1/4 cup semolina
1/4 cup white flour
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp pepper paste (if you can find)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 cups of water

for the tomato sauce1/4 cup olive oil
4-5 medium tomatoes, petite diced (or 2 cans of organic diced tomato)
1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped
5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp dried mint flakesfor the yogurt sauce
2 cups of yogurt
2 cloves of garlic, mincedfor the sour sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp pepper paste
5-6 cloves of garlic
juice of 1 lemon
mint flakes
chopped parsley
black pepper

-In a bowl wet bulgur with 1 cup of warm water. Cover with a clean kitchen towel or a lid and let soak for 10 minutes.
-Add semolina, salt, cumin, black pepper, tomato and pepper paste. Start kneading until semolina and bulgur stick to each other.
-Add flour and keep kneading. Add 1 cup of water in small amounts and knead until the mixture can hold together.
-Take dime size pieces from the mix and roll it in between your palms. Press on top with your index finger. (If it cracks on the sides when you press with your finger, it means you need to knead more) Place buttons on a tray.
-In a big pot, boil approximately 2 liters of water with salt.
-Throw buttons in boiling water. Take them out with a slotted spoon when they come up to surface.

Start preparing for the sauce while cooking buttons.
-For the tomato sauce heat olive oil in a pot.
-Add garlic and mint flakes and stir until fragrant.
-Add diced tomato. Simmer on low until cooked.
-Add chopped parsley after you turn it off.
-If you like sour sauce, heat olive oil in a pan. Stir in garlic and tomato paste (and pepper paste) until cooked. Add mint flakes, black pepper, and lemon juice. Cook for another minute and it's done.
-If you prefer a yogurt sauce, mix well 2 cups of yogurt with minced garlic.
-Serve buttons with the tomato, sour, or yogurt sauce on top, or with both.

Tweet

Garbanzo Beans and Soft Wheat Berries Soup (Nohut ve Buğdaylı Çorba)

A hearty delicious soup for the last cold days of winter from Lezzet's February 2007 issue.

1 cup dry garbanzo beans
1/2 cup soft wheat berries
1/2 cup red lentils
1 small celery root/celeria, grated
1 carrot, petite diced
5-6 parsley stems, chopped
2-3 celery root stems, chopped
2 tbsp butter
2 small onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp tomato paste
6 cups vegetable or beef stock
2 tsp oregano leaves
1 cup plain yogurt (non-fat, 1%, 2%, or whole milk)
1 tbsp olive oil
salt
pepper


























-Put garbanzo beans and soft wheat berries in a pot. Cover with water ~3 inches above garbanzo and soft wheat berries. Bring to a boil. Then turn it off, cover and soak overnight. Wash and rinse them well the next day.
-Heat butter in a big pot. Add onions and cook until soft.
-Add in red lentils and tomato paste. Stir for 2-3 minutes. Then, add soaked garbanzo beans and soft wheat berries. Stir for another 2-3 minutes.
-Add grated celery root, diced carrot, chopped parsley and celery root stems, oregano leaves, black pepper, salt, and stock (vegetable or beef).
-Let it boil on medium heat for approximately an hour.
-In a small bowl, mix yogurt and olive oil.
-Slowly stir yogurt into the soup. Mix once and let it boil for a couple of minutes. Then turn it off. The soup is ready.

Tweet

Purslane Salad with Yogurt (Yoğurtlu Semizotu Salatası)

When I was 7 or 8 years old, purslane was introduced to me as one of the cousins of spinach, namely its aunt's daughter. Since I loved spinach very much, my parents introduced every other green leaf to me as a member of extended spinach family. Purslane grew on me in time, and ascended to the throne of spinach. During my dad's futile trials of having a lawn, one batch of grass seeds came mixed with purslane seeds! We never had a lawn, but we had delicious purslane for many summers. In Turkish cuisine we use purslane raw in salads or cook them just like spinach. It has a sweet and sour delicious taste.

You can find purslane--it's also called verdolaga--at Mexican or Latin American markets here in the States or in your yard.


























purslane, washed and leaves picked
yogurt, enough to cover purlane leaves
as much garlic as you want, minced
salt

optional
crushed red pepper flakes
olive oil, a couple of drops

-Mix yogurt, salt, and garlic in a bowl.
-Add purslane to this mixture.

Tweet