Nice Weekend

I know it is been too long but i felt lazy to write something. I had fully busy weekend with friends and relatives. On saturday , my friends came to my home and they were so eager to taste the foods i cooked , that was their first time, i had a lot of unsucsesful cooking experiencence ,that is why they all were used to think i cant even cook an egg:))

till they tasted the foods i done. Even i didnt let my mum to help me because when someone even touch a bit, it would be "ooo , your mum cooked that" :) i didnt take risk , i done all. I went home around 7 pm on friday, had shopping and preaperad cookie very tasty called Ladies Kisses; I have seen it in Cafe Pepela. Also from friday i cooked cake and Yaprak Dolma . on Saturday i prapeerad Hummus, Eggplant Salad, Chicken Burger, Falafel&Tarator Sauce.





My mum also made a dessert and Borek (pastry), maybe she was doubt that i may fail:) dont know.. but they mostly liked as they told.. And we had nice lunch with chating about old stories in university..

Bon Appetit..

Potato Ravioli (HINGAL)

I am feeling right now that i am in the heaven , while i am tasting potato , butter.. yummy!!

When i was a kid ,we had a neighboor who used to cook "Hingal" , i always loved it , and i felt like i am kid now, the taste the same like she did, her name is Yasemin who was living next door; i have liked her, life is weird, i havent seen her from years , i dont know where she is or what she does, this hingal just made me remember great memories. I guess i am getting old as i started to talk about past:)

She is Circassian , and this Hingal a Circassian food which is also cooked in Cantral Anatolia area of Turkey.

The difference from the usual turkish ravioli is ; hingal bigger than regular turkish ravioli, there are some different shape variations, you can do whatever you like. I used a form that i like.

Ingredients

For the dough;

1,5 gl of all purpose flour (300 gr)

1 egg

1/2 table sp salt

water

For inside;

2 potato

1 onion

red pepper

black pepper

salt

butter

peel potatos, and cook them till they get soft, other hand with some butter cook sliced onion till they get golden brown. Mash cooked potato and add on the onion, include pepper and salt, cook a few min more and let it cool.

Mix all dough ingredients , knead enough , it shouldnt be soft, open it enough , dont make it so thin, i used my form and cut them circular.

i put the circular dough, add inside some potato mix , and close it. It got nice shape , you can also close yourself but pay attention not them to open.

Wıth the ingredients i used, it is been 16 pieces which is enough for 4 but it is so delicious maybe just 2 may eat all too:)

Boil some water add a bit salt, put the hingals inside , cook for 10 min. Drain it . For the top melt some butter with red pepper and add on the hingals.

Bon appetit..

Banana Roll Cake

I found this recipe at Food in Life. It is my first trial to make a cake. Was i succesfull?? Honestly the taste was good but the apperance not really.. I dont like so much about sweet, dessert, cakes etc. ; maybe that is why i am not succesful at this kinda things, but i believe i will be better. I brought the cake at the bank today for my colleagues to taste, and everybody seems happy; i dont know if they really liked or just to be nice , but they really seemed happy. Here is the proof :)

Kavurma

It is Eid , and every Eid my mum make kavurma..

And i have to give recipe. It is sooooo delicious meat. The specialty of this kavurma, it is maden in ;we call "Sac" ; a special iron plate.

Ingredients

2 kg boneless lamb/beef

200 gr tail fat

Salt



Cut meats small pieces, add into "Sac", it doesnt need any other thing, it should cook around 2 hours with low heat. It should get water first by itself, after it will remove water itself, after it removed all the water add tail fat&salt, and mix it well , cook till all the fat melted, and it is ready, serve it warm with rice.

Bon appetit..

Puff Pastry (Pofuduk Borek)

Eid is going on in all muslim countries with all beauty. People visiting each other, eating dinner, sharing good things with feast sole. In every home there is a hurry to cook something for their guests and to welcome their guests in best way.

I cooked a pastry for guests, sure it is not only thing , i will share most of them with you so you can a bit feel about the feast we are having.

This recipe; i saw my friend Ferhat's blog, he has put inside onion and green pepper but i didnt add , i think you can add whatever you want.

It is really easy&delicious recipe which everybody loved.

Ingredients

10 puff pastry

150 gr feta cheese (whatever you like)

1 clove garlic

parsley chopped

100 ml milk

1 egg

black pepper

red pepper

mix all ingredients, put inside pastry, you can roll them or make triangles, the shape is up to you.

put some egg yolk on the pastris and cook in the oven till they got golden brown.

Bon appetit..

a Sunny Istanbul Day with Kuru Fasulye&Boza

Yesterday my long 9 days holiday started and the weather was luckily better than i could wish..

I had chance to walk the places i have never been in my city, walked all the ways around 15 km.. WOW.. i cant believe myself walked all the way; we just stopped every store ,every places, kissed every children and interracted with people as much as we can.

Our walking group was 8 people, enjoyed with the day a lot.

We stopped by a restaurant for lunch and ate Kuru Fasulye ( Haricor beans) with pastirma (beef that has been smoked or dried in the sun after being treated with spic) , pilaf (rice), pickle and for the dessert ; semolina dessert. All was soo delicious, i reccomend you to stop by there and taste kuru fasulye.

The other stop was Vefa Bozacisi which is here from 1876.

Boza is a drink made by a kinda semolina, water and sugar; it is known as winter drink, served with cinnamon on it.

also roasted chickpeas inside inseperable from boza.





Mustafa Kemal Ataturk has drunk Boza there and they still keep the glass there ..

Eid ul-Adha (Kurban Bayrami)

Eid ul Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice or Kurban Bayrami; whatever you call it.. It is one of important religious holiday celebrated by muslims. We will celebrate it in Turkey on next tuesday, as i know some arab countries it is 1 day later on wednesday. in Turkey it is offically 4 days holiday by this feast; when i combined it with weekends, my long 9 days holiday officially started yesterday :)
I always loved to celebrate these feasts, but it was better when i was a kid, was more meaningful, I had grandparents to visit, had neighboors to knock the door and get some money&candy.. I dont have any of them now unfortunately, my grandparents passed away long years back and the neighbourhood almost dead. Thanks God there are still some children to knock our door and ask for candy:)
Kurban means ; to sacrifice an animal for God sake. Some people comments very badly about this feast. They are calling it barbarity but really dont understand why; by this feast we just dont sacrifice animals, we help poor people as well.It doesnt mean just sacrifice the animal, put the meat in fridge and eat all year! NO! it is not like that, it is for also charity..
For example in Turkey (in other muslim countries can have other variations) when someone cut an animal, they have to share it with at least 7 people who didnt/cant sacrifice an animal so it give you chance to help other people, there are millions who cant buy meat, millions of children..
Also to cut an animal , there are some islamic rules which will give minumum pain to the animal.
Sharing is great habit, and the Sacrifice feast is great chance for people to share, to remember poor people maybe who never ate meat.
Happy Eid El Adha to everybody..
Kurban Bayraminiz Kutlu Olsun..

Chocolate Soufflé

I know i was away too long, was quite busy week.. Yesterday i felt asleep at 9pm. I think it is because of the all week exhaustion but today morning , i woke up at 7 am as lusty. There is a food competition program in Turkey, yesterday my mum told that a competitor cooked Chocolate Soufflé, she talked about it all evening till i sleep:) i love it but didnt know how to cook , my mum told the recipe, the problem my oven has broken so we went to market today,bought a new oven, new knife set, cake mould, I loved all but the most i liked the cake mould , it is 6 small cake place inside, it s silicosis mould which i learnt new. I know maybe you will think how i am ignorant :) but i am not the one who cook cake always.. when i was a kid my mum was cooking cake and to take it out of mould was really big problem ,it was always sticking it , with this new silicosis mould didnt get it to stick , perfect!!

Tomorrow i have an exam , i suppose to study today , but first i decided to cook Chocolate Soufflé which is easy to cook, soo delicious and will give me too much power to study at least thats what i hope :)

P.S: I got a lot of blog awards ,i am sorry to late to reply, i will do that soon and thank you so much for everyone who think my blog deserve an award!! big kisses.. :)

Ingredients

250 gr bitter chocolate

200 gr butter

70 gr flour all purpose

3 eggs

1/2 table spoon sugar

1 table spoon cacao (for sprinkle to cake mould)

Put butter and chocolate in a bowl and melt with low heat

mix well eggs , flour and sugar, add melted chocolate slowly while you are mixing well..

Lay some butter and sprinkle cacao into mould, put the Soufflé mix, cook 7 min into preheat oven with 250 ° C.

Serve warm , it is good with ice cream.

Bon appetit..

Lady's Thigh Meatballs (Kadin Budu Kofte)

Turkish cuisine is full of foods which has funny names. It is one of them. Today after i decided to cook kadinbudu kofte, i searched why they gave this name? but i couldnt find.. Maybe it is because chubby:)) i really dont know. If you think this is funny name, also hear there are turkish desserts called "A Beatiful woman's Lips" (Dilber dudagi), "Finger of the vizier" (Vezir parmagi), "Ladys Belly" (Hanim gobegi) and etc.. I really dont know why this kinda names were given or who gave but funny.. isnt it? :)

I like kadinbudu kofte, very delicious and filling.

Ingredients

500 gr medium ground beef

1 onion, grated

1 egg (yellow part)

1 cup rice (200gr)

1/3 cup parsley chopped

feta cheese (optional)

3 cloves garlic (optional)

salt

black pepper

red pepper

For frying

4 spoonfuls of flour

2 eggs, lightly beaten

oil

First cook 1/2 of the ground beef with the onion. on the other hand , boil rice with 2 cup of water till the water goes off but dont make it so dry, you can add some salt while it is cooking.

Place in a large bowl and add in the remaining raw ground beef, egg, rice, parsley, salt and pepper, garlic and feta cheese. I like cheese and garlic and try to add everything, in original recipe there is no cheese and garlic, just i believe they can make a food just better!

Knead it for sometime. Leave in the fridge for 30 minutes. Then give them the shape . This makes approximately 16 kofte. Pour the sunflower oil in a frying pan and heat it up. Place the flour on a plate and beat the eggs in a bowl. First dip each kofte in the flour, then dip in the egg mixture.

Fry the kofte evenly.

I like it to serve it warm but it is also eaten cold.



Bon appetit..

Anchovy Rice (Hamsili Pilav) Recipe

As i have mentioned yesterday, in black sea region , you can find thousands recipes with anchovy. The rice is one of them . I never tried it before neither in a restaurant or at home so it was nice for me to cook this. I felt it was a real challange for me, i cooked it in a pan not in the oven , so i needed to turn the food and fry both face of it. But i was succesful, honestly i was afraid to screw it but didnt. The result is perfect either look or taste..

I cooked it in a medium pan , wish i have done more:)

Ingredients

1/2 kg fresh anchovy (filleted)

1 onion

1 cup rice (200gr)

pine nuts

currants

oregano

salt

black pepper

cinnamon

corn meal

Let the rice wait in hot water for 20 min, slice onions into small pieces. Cook it with some olive oil for a few min, after add pine nuts, cook few min more than add other spices and currants, i put little cinnamon,not much, some people like it sweet but i dont..

mix it well , drain the rice , pour onto onions , add hot water 2 glass, or it should cover onto rices..

Cook it with low heat till the water goes off ,but dont make it dry.

on the other hand lie some olive oil into pan , cover the outside of anchovies with corn meal and line the base and sides with just over half the anchovy fillets skin side outwards.

Pour the rice mixture into the centre ,

and cover the surface with the remainder of the anchovies.

Sprinkle a little olive oil over , and fry it with low heat 10 min, after 1 side fried , close a plate on the pan reverse it and cook other side of it. i know it sounds difficult but if i done it everybody can!!

Just one note; as the anchovies will get smaller after cooked, you have to put anchovies more,and line anchovies without any hole..

Serve it warm and enjoy with Turkish/Black Sea Region Traditional food.

Bon appetit..

Anchovy Recipe (Hamsi)

For the who dont know about, Turkey is a country surrounded with 3 seas; Black Sea at north, Aegean Sea at the west, and Mediterrian Sea at the south. For this reason, it is very rich with the fishes and fishes products, but unfortunately we arent so fan of sea foods. We are mostly bread, wheat people as anatolian culture. It is like , although it is surrounded with 3 sea, most of turkish people dont know to swim!

This season is very generous with the fish, yesterday on the news they were anouncing that it is anchovy season and it is so cheap, and bla bla bla. A chef gave 12 recipes with anchovy which is so easy and tasty.

In Turkish we call it "Hamsi". In black sea region there are thousands recipes are avalible with it, whatever u think ; anchovy bread, pickle, rice ,everything..

When i surprise to see Americans use pumpkin in a lot of ways, if you have known about how anchovy is used in Turkey, i am sure you would be really surprised!

It is very easy and tasty way to eat fish.

I got 1 kg anchovy , was planing to use some part for Hamsi Kusu and rest of them for the rice with anchovy, but the tast of it was soo amazing and my family asked me to cook just this and tomorrow we will buy some more and use it for rice. This is winter time and the weather is cold and rainy, i dont wanna go out, so my sister promised to go out and buy it for me tomorrow, so we were agreed and all of them cooked as hamsi kusu, Win Win game !everybody happy:))

It was a real challange for me , because when my mum brought the fish and it wasnt cleaned so i needed to clean inside. I have never done it, first try was disaster, i almost mashed the fish!

I learnt the way from my mum.

First i had to break off the head , one finger has to clean inside of it,and take the bone out with the tale. I felt so weird , it was hard for me to do it and was a challange to see my hands with some blood although it is fish. Anyway i was succesful , just it took much time as i had to wash my hands quite often:)

Ingredients

Fresh Anchovy

Corn meal

Salt

pepper

Mix the fishes with salt and pepper ,very well. Put a fish above to other one. The inside part has to face to face. After mix it with corn meal, cover the fish very well with the corn meal. Heat the pan and fry them with some oil. If you fry some onion rolls and serve them with lemon.

Bon appetit

Belated "Happy World Pasta Day"&"Happy Birthday"

Yesterday,25th October was so important day. One ,it is one of my best friend' s birthday who is actually my manager, my friend&my sister.. She tought me a lot as much as she can with patient. She tried to make me convinced with the job and made easier my boring day at work. I am sorry to tell this but i havent heard any good things about lady managers all my life, everybody told lady managers mostly, jelous, aggresive,who has complexes and so on.. But she is the opposite of all of this.. Very kind,helpful, and try to make my life easier..
Happy Birthday Ender! you deserve all the best, hope God gives you what you deserve in the life..
And second important event at 25th Oct was World Pasta Day. I recognized there is a "World Pasta Day" exist. It has been celebrated from 15 years. I havent noticed it before but as the pasta is my favourite food , i thought it s good for me to cook a pasta to celebrate this nice day. Pasta is the cheapest, easiest and the most tasty way to get full..
My coughing getting worse. I dont like this dark, rainy weather, i should live in somewhere always warm and sunny. Although i am always so careful , i always get cold very easy, i think it is coz of what i eat , i should eat more healthy foods, but i love to eat pasta and patato:) i can live with just that 2 in all my life, can u do that? :) I
I cooked pasta yesterday with cream,garlic,basil,cheddar,parmesan,and some vegs.. It was so good , my family loved it. Unfortunately no pic coz of my pc&internew screwed:(
Btw when i was searching about this day , i learnt Turkey is the 2nd pasta exporter country in the world.
Happy World Pasta Day!!

Stuffed Cabbage Leaves (Zeytinyagli Lahana Dolmasi) Recipe

Today i feel so sick , have fever, throat pain and coughing:( dont have too much energy but we had some cabbage at home and cooked it , it was so tasty so i couldnt avoid to share with you.

I cooked it veg but also you can cook it with ground meat as well..

Ingredients

1 medium cabbage (one that is not rock hard, but kind of soft when press on top, they're easier for taking the leaves out)

1 onion, finely chopped

1 gl of rice (200 gr)

salt

currant

mint

cumin

cinnamon

black pepper

sugar

Cook the onion with olive oil till they get golden brown. Add rice (before keep it in water for 5 min and drain) , after put all the other spices and ingredients, it will be a flovur harmoni. I added all of them around 1 tea spoon, just the mint and currant was more, but you can try your own mix as per your taste.. Cook it for few min.

On the other hand boil some water with salt in a big pot. Take out cabbage leaves one by one and add in the water, cook for 5 min . Take them out and place on a tray or a flat plate to cool down.

Once the leaves cool down. Place one on a flat surface. Cut the big vein of the leaf out; If you have a very big leaf, cut it into two.Add some rice filling to one cabbage leaf, closer to the bottom.

Fold sides of cabbage over the filling. Roll it up starting from the stem end.

Place rolled cabbage leaves in the pot lined with cut out veins and leaves in an orderly fashion.Pour lemon juice and hot water to cover the stuffed cabbage.Place a flat-ish plate on top of stuffed grape leaves so that they won't move around.Let it boil first on medium. Then cover and cook on low for 30-35 minutes.

Bon appetit...

Haricot Beans with Turkish Sausage Recipe(Sucuklu Kuru fasulye)

I was busy last days with a lot of things including some dates;)

it is pity that i just dont have enough time to cook. I try to follow a lot of blogs and try not to miss anything but unfortuantely sometimes i do. One of them is green girl and her recipe Bulghur pilaf recipe, i got upset when i recognized late. It is really look tasty.

And if i dont comment at your recipes ,doesnt mean i dont read, i defintely enjoy to read all of bloggers recipes , and try to follow as much as i can, just not enough time for everything.. Today dish is great Haricot beans which is a King at Turkish cuisine..

Haricot beans which has lots of type a kinda national dish of Turkey:) especially when the cool weather starts , at almost every home legume dishes are cooked include haricot beans.



And it is very healthy food which is rich carbohydrate, protein, and B vitamins.

When you ask someone here where to eat Kuru fasulye, they will all tell you "Comlek". It started in istanbul with a small place and now, they have big place to serve it. Their kuru fasulye is best in Istanbul. If you ever visit in Istanbul , dont forget to eat kuru fasulye at Comlek.







Ingredients

500 gr haricot beans

2 onions finely chopped

2 green pepper chopped

1 carrot sliced

15-20 sliced Turkish sausage

1 table sp tomato paste

salt

red pepper



Boil haricot beans for 30 min, if you use canned ,you dont need to boil.

Drain water. At the another pot, cook onion with oil for few min, add one by one all ingredients, green pepper,turkish sausage,tomato paste, mix it some , and add haricot beans. Add hot water on it, it should cover the haricot beans. Add salt and red pepper. Cook 25 min.

I reccomend you to serve it with pilaf.

Bon appetit..

Roasted red bell pepper salad

Here is another easy to make,delicious recipe..

I like red bell pepper. And all recipes with it. At home we make this salad quite often . Hope you all like it..



Ingredients

4 roasted bell peppers, sliced (I used canned)

2 table spoon olive oil

1 table spoon mayonnaise

1 table spoon vinegar

4-5 cloves garlic(finely chopped)

Salt



mix all ingredients, add some parsley on it and ready to serve..

bon appetit..

Celeriac with orange juice

As i have told before , i started a kinda diet. Actually i cant tell it is a diet ,it is impossible for me to diet because i really enjoy to eat . But at least i try to eat light foods at least for dinner. I really like celeriac and this recipe is from my mum. I have ate celeriac out ,restaurants and i have hated it and was avoiding to eat it till my mum cook it in this form. I really enjoy with this dish , hope you like it too..





Ingredients

4 middle size celeriacs

2 oranges

1 teaglass boiled peas(around 100gr.can)

1 onion chopped

1 carrot chopped

dill

3 table spoon olive oil

salt

3 cuse sugar



Peel celeriacs, slice it. Into a deep pot ,put celeriac,onion,carrot,olive oil,salt and sugar, close the cover, cook it for 10min onto low heat. Press the oranges and add the orange juice into pot, also add the peas. go on to cook for 20min more.

After you close the heat, add onto some dill and close cover, let it rest till it get cool.

Serve it cool..

Bon appetit...