Cheese Stuffed Zucchini

I have been busy for sometime , no time or energy i had to cook. And even i dont wanna eat anymore,i feel i am getting fat and i dont like it. It is better for me to stay away from my loves;pasta-potato and this kinda tasty and fatty things. Also i will stay away from frying foods for sometime. If you have noticed most of foods i cook and eat a bit fatty, already most of healthy foods arent delicious , what can i do:) But today i cooked and ate as dinner very light, healthy and tasty dish.

Ingredients

2 zucchini

100 gr white cheese

1 clove garlic

dill

1 table spoon tomato paste

1 tea spoon soy sauce

Black pepper

red pepper

It is for 4 portion , peel the zucchinis and cut it to half, cook them in boiling water with little salt, for 10 min or till the zucchinis get softer. while it is boiling; mix the cheese,dill,grated garlic,soy sauce and peppers.

After the zucchinis get soft, get them into a tray , with helping a tea spoon get away some zucchinis inside gently. Fill in with some cheese mix. Melt tomato paste into 2 glass hot water, and pour on the food. In pre heated oven, cook it for 15 min.

Serve it warm.

Bon appetit..

Potato&Carrot Crocket

I love potato, i can eat it everyday ,i dont think i am gonna get bored of it. Today morning my mum has made potato salad for breakfast. But it wasnt enough potato for me i guess and i wanted to eat more potato :)) I like potato crocket, i wanted to try something else. I added carrot in it.. The taste was good. I reccomend you to try..

Pilaf/Rice with green bean (Fasulye Dible)

All the areas in Turkey has different kinda food culture. In north east of Turkey which is Black Sea Region ,they cook almost all geens' "Dible". Dible is rice with veg. And Fasulye(green bean) Dible is one of them. Black Sea Regions is the most green areas in Turkey, so they cook a lot with green,vegs and so on..
Rize/Turkey

Normally i dont like to add recipes which i didnt cook in my blog. But after i started blogging thing and my mum saw that i got comments and Top 9 bla bla bla, she started cook better , unusual foods than normal times. I think she thinks that she has been cooking from 30 years and nobody appriciated in proper way:) and now she has a kinda chance with me to show her foods more people and got claps:) She is really great cook, best that i knew. Honestly she didnt want me to go in kitchen too much because she was afraid from the mess after i cooked.. But she couldnt do anything about it:) After she cook , always ask me to add the foods in my blog but i reject, but this time i thought i can make privilege for one time:) i liked the fasulye dible too much (normally she wasnt used to cook it, i think she cooked for you:) ) The taste is so good.. It is fillig,tasty and easy to cook. What you can ask more from a food? :))

Ingredients
250 gr green beans
400 gr rice
1 onion
1 tomato
Salt
oil

After the beans are washed and cleaned , cut into pieces. Into a deep pan, put beans, on it, add tomatos(chopped),onion(chopped),1 table spoon olive oil,and salt. Close the cover ,on the low heat ; cook 15min. Add 2 glass(around 400gr) hot water, and close the cover again, cook 10 min. After you are sure the beans are softened. Wash the rice and add on the beans. Cook till the all water gone. After take it away and rest for 15 min.
Serve warm.
Bon appetit...

Is your job what you have dreamed??

If you ask to a kid "what you want to be when you grow up", they will probably reply you to be a teacher ,doctor,pilot,astronaut.. How many people working in their dreamed jobs? or i am not sure if there is such a lucky person. I studied economics, had master in financial markets and currently work for a bank. Am i happy? is this what i wanna be? i really dont know nowadays. I query myself too much recently, about my life, what i wanna be.. I am 26 but i am still not sure.. everyday i wake up at 6.30 am.,take 3 busses and going work in 1,5 hour and is it worth?? what if i quit? what i am gonna do?i dont know .. do i enjoy with my job as much as cooking, or if i was a chef/cook, would i be happy that time?? This kinda questions in mind.. I dont know everybody ask this questions to theirself time to time.. If you lived same feelings, share with me please..

Stuffed Eggplants with Mince (Karniyarik) Recipe

That is the one basic recipe of Turkish&Ottoman Kitchen and this is my favourite dish that can be cooked with Eggplant. I really like it, and i reccomend if you cook it , you should cook rice also, they are very good friends i guess:)

This dish is normally served warm , but for vegetarians we have another version ,it is filled with onion,garlic&parsley. This dish is served cold and we call it "imambayıldı"(imam:prayer leader,bayıldı:to be fainted). I know it is so funny name. There are a lot of rumours about this name; someone tell a lady cooked this dish for her imam husband and he got fainted because of the delisious taste, some others tell imam fainted because of the cost of the dish and so on :)) this kinda funny stories about foods. But i like both ways of eggplant dishes. As you can understand from the stories ,it is very well known , old and important dish for Ottoman&Turkish kitchen..

Enjoy!!

Ingredients

5 small or medium eggplants

2 onions

250 gr mince (you can choose any meat you like)

1/2 table spoon tomato paste

1/2 bunch of parsley, finely chopped

2 tomatos

Oil

Salt

Black pepper

Peel alternating strips of skin lengthwise as seen in the picture for each eggplant. Most of people fry it but i like it light so i lay some oil in a tray and i put eggplants , add little oil on the eggplants also and cook in oven for 30 min with 180 degree. While it is cooking, chopp the onions well , with some oil and meat , cook it for 20 min with low heat. Add parsley, tomato paste,salt,black pepper, and cook a few min more all together, and it s ready. after the eggplants ready,Cut a slit in each eggplant , and fill the eggplants with the mince ingredients with a tea spoon. Cut tomatos and 2 pieces put on the every eggplant, add 100 gr water(1 tea glass) in the tray , cover the tray with aluminum foil, and cook 20 min in beforeheat oven with 180 degree..

Bon appetit...

Eggplant

Dates&Cinnamon Cake

There are some free courses which is supported by Municipality. Yesterday evening after work i went one of them to get web designing course. You know i am not so good with PC ,coding, web etc and sometimes i wanna do smth about my blog , but i cant do it because i am not familar about it, and for that i need to find an IT guy and ask and wait for respond and bla bla bla which make me nervous, so i thought i can get one of these course and make smth better. But when i went there , i saw there are too much people i guess who are thiking same with me, there were more than 100 people but they just get 20 people, so i got an exam and if i can success ,i will start a web designing course.. please wish me luck, i will learn the result after 1 week.. anyway lets talk about food abit:)
you know i am not so fan of sweet,dessert.. if you bring me a cake and pasta and ask me to choose i would never choose cake:) so that is why i guess i am more conservative about cooking sweet,desserts, cakes etc.
But there is one sweet called "mamul" which has date inside. We dont have it here, i order from arab countries, i am not sure if it is available any other place.
And when i was checking last day other people is blog , i saw a recipe Date Bread , the blog adress http://treatntrick.blogspot.com/ ; i really liked it and thought to cook it. but i cooked it a bit different.. and the result was really good , the taste is amazing... and one thing, i didnt add any sugar in this cake:)) but date and cinnamon enough sweet. it is as i like no so so sweet.. but great taste..
I should confess the above the cake a bit burned but it s because of my stupid oven:) but result is really good, i reccomend you to try..

Ingredients
2,5 glass flour (around 500gr)
20-25 dates
100 gr butter
1 gl milk (200 gr)
2 eggs
1/2 table spoon salt
1 table spoon cinnamon
1/2 table spoon baking powder

Soak the dates with hot water for 20-30 min. it will make easy for you to seperate the kernel from the dats..
Melt the butter and mix with other ingreidents exept dates.. finelly chopp the dates, i used blender for that.. and add on the dough, mix all well.. the dough doesnt become so liquid or also not so solid.
Lay some oil in a tray and put your dough.. heat your oven to 180 degree and cook 20-25 min. I added some castor sugar to serve..
Bon appetit..

Homemade Pickle (Tursu)

I am not sure if the pickle is right word for this, because when i write pickle in internet it just give me the one is cucumber pickle but when we make pickle at home normally it includes a lot like;cucumber,cabbage, tomato, gherkin,red cabbace,green pepper,beet,unripe melon and so on..we call it in Turkey "Tursu". My mum make pickle in big cans , after they been, we eat them with our dinner mostly. I like the salty taste of it. Also the water' s flavor in pickle is amazing, in Turkey there are some stores which sell pickle, and also the water of it.

If you never drunk that water ,at least once give a try if possible.. you will not regret.

Our can was for 5 lt. And the amounts we put in can is for that..

Ingredients

cucumber
cabbage
tomato
gherkin
red cabbace
green pepper
beet
unripe melon
20-25 cloves garlic
200 gr vinegar
1 tea glass mineral salt (around 70 gr
water (fill the can)

Wash your vegetables and fruits , put in can after garlic,vinegar, mineral salt, and the last fill all the can with water, if the water is good, fresh ;it is better. Also one of the important point is salt, it should be mineral salt which is thick ,and amount of it for 5 lt can 70 gr is enough, if you add too much salt ,your "tursu" will be so salty and you may not able to eat and if you add less salt ,the tursu can be spoiled. After you add all ingredients ,close the can cover very well.. It shouldnt touch to air. At least 15 days DONT OPEN it..

Keep it cool and dry place, also keep it away from sunshine. after 15 days open it and serve with your dinner.

Bon appetit...

Falafel & Tarator Sauce

Here is another delicious dish that i have tasted in Lubenon. It was soo good, they serve it in the bread with tomato, radish, lettuce and tarator sauce. One of best thing also i have just paid less than 2 usd:) it was so cheap and great taste. It is famous food in Middle East. Good food also for vegeterians.

One of my Egyptian friend told it is called as food for poor people.. but i dont care, i like it:))

maybe i should open a place to sell falafel , i am sure i d make good business:) in Egypt, Mc Donald sell a special called Mc Falafel:)))

I went a place in Beirut which is famous with falafel called BARBAR.. and they are open 24 hours i guess , you cant guess how much it is full. You never find it empty.... always someone wait to get falafel:)

Ingredients For Falafel

1 gl of chick peas (250 gr boiled)

1 onion ,finely chopped

3 cloves garlic

2 table spoon finely chopped parsley

2 table spoon bulghur

1 table spoon flour

1 tea spoon cumin

1 tea spoon coriander

2 tea spoon salt

1 tea spoon red pepper

I used canned chick peas already boiled, but if you are gonna cook yourself, the beans have to be soaked 1 days before , and next day you have to boil it around 1-1,5 hour..

It was easy with canned beans. First i put in blender onion , parsley,garlic, and chop a bit, on them add chich peas. Chopped them together, take them in a bowl, add on them other ingredients. Just before you add bulghur , soak it a few min, after add on the mix. knead them 5 min . Put the dough in the fridge for 15 min.

After you took them out, get small pieces , and roll them like a small ball, repeat it till your dough finish.

Heat oil as much as possible, fry the balls few min. After they get dark ,mean it is fine..

You can serve it with tarator sauce as warm..

Ingredients For Tarator

4 table spoon yoghurt

2 slice stale bread

1/2 table spoon lemon juice

1/2 table spoon vinegar (grape)

2 cloves garlic chopped

1 table spoon tahin (crushed sesame seeds)

6-7 pieces walnut,mashed

Salt

cumin

All ingredients has to be chopped well or mashed, then mix it very well..

Easy and tasty sauce, you can serve this sauce with meat , chicken foods and also i like it to eat with potato chips..

Bon appetit...

Assaha Hotel&Restaurant-Beirut

Assaha is the maybe nicest hotel i have ever seen, it has unique design, it looks like a castle, very authentic, fully stone . I felt so great there. I had chance to see the rooms as well..

All the rooms has different country concept; Morocco , Egypt, Lubenon,Africa, America and more ... and all were perfect, and i can say also prices are so reasonable.

It is near Beirut airport which is around 10-15 min away from city centre. 1st day i went there and saw rooms but didnt has chance to taste delicious foods , 2nd day i felt to eat there and went again. Good i did it.. The food was perfect. After the meal , they give you around 10 type of dessert as courtesy, and with it; very nice old man who has long mustache threat you tasty arabic coffee..

People are so nice, smiley and helpful .

Also the hotel has a museum which i loved. It has very nice concept which shows the traditional Lubenon jobs, people, lifestyle.. I enjoyed there alot. The pics i publish here ,all taken by me; if you wanna see more see the website; http://www.assaha.info/en/musuem.php

If you got a chance to go Beirut , i highly reccomend this hotel to stay or at least to have a meal at the restaurant.

Trust me , you will never regret..

Enjoy!!

Hummus

Here is the another tasty Lebanese dish.. We have it in Turkey as well with same name "Humus", it is an appetizer, we call this kinda dishes as "Meze".. Hummus mean in arabic "chick peas ". Mostly famous in arab countries but also in Turkey, Greece,Syria serve it as traditional food. While you are preparing it, the taste is detarmined by how to order the ingredients. For example; if you add garlic while you are mashing the chick peas , you will taste garlic more light..

Ingredients

1,5 cups dry chickpeas (around 300gr)

3 cloves of garlic crushed
1/2 cup tahin ( crushed sesame seeds)
1/4 cup lemon juice
Salt & pepper

Saok the chick peas in water and 1/2 tsp. salt overnight.
Drain the chick peas and rinse well, then put in a saucepan with plenty of water and cook over high heat till it starts boiling, then lower the heat and simmer covered for about one and a half hours, or until the chick peas are soft . Drain the cooked chickpeas and put all other ingredients and mash all together and mix it by help of either blender or just with a spoon. Add on it some olive oil and parsley, or chick peas... Ready to serve..

Bon appetit..

Waraq Enab (Yaprak dolma)

This is one of my favourite food.. maybe i can say my favourite!! :) in Turkey we call it yaprak dolma(yaprak: grape leaf, dolma:being filled up) and in Lubenon they call it Waraq Enab, it is one of best mediterianne dish i suppose, you can cook it as olive oil as cold (zeytinyagli) or if you desire, it can be cooked with meat and serve hot..

But i like the cold version more .. in Lebanon they cook it more sour than we do here ,but it is tasty , it is up to you how much lemon you wanna add ..

Ingredients

400 gr grape leaves, washed one by one
1 cup rice (200gr), washed and drained
4 medium onions, chopped
3/4 cup lemon juice
2 tbsp pine nuts (optional)
1 tbsp currant(optional)
1 tbsp dry mint
Salt
Sugar
Black pepper
Allspice

Dip the vine leaves in boiling water for 1 minute, remove and put aside. If using the ones from the packet remove and wash a few times to get rid of the salt. Put the onion at nonstick pan with 1 tbsp olive oilstire until light brown then add rice, lemon juice and other ingredients. 1 pinch of sugar would be enough. Cook over very low heat until the rice looks almost see-through. Add one cup hot water, cook until all the water evaporates.Put aside and let it cool down.

after everything is ready and enough cold to be rolled;

Open the leaves on a board one at a time. Put 1 tsp of the mixture on each, fold in 2 sides then roll like a small cigar. Repeat till you finish all the leaves or the stuffing.Pour in 1 1/2 cup of water from the side of pot. Line up all the rolls in the pot side by side tightly, without any holes in between. Cook over low heat until most of the water evaporates. Leave a little bit of water at the bottom, it will go away as it's cooling down. Serve cold..

Bon appetit...

Mutabbal (Lebanese Eggplant Salad)

I would never think the tahin (crushed sesame seeds) would suit into eggplant with yoghurt and garlic. But it does.. really.. Mutabbal was also one of my favourite dish in Lebanon. I am thinking , after i started this blog, i cooked a lot of variations of the eggplant! it is really good vegetable that you can cook in different and tasty ways. And mutabbal is one of them..

Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 large eggplants, about 1 kg

¼ cup lemon juice (as desired)

¼ cup crushed sesame seeds

3 cloves garlic crushed with ½ tbls salt (as desired)

2 tbls parsley, finely chopped

200 gr yoghurt

50 gr mashed chickpeas

Grill eggplants on high heat for 20 minutes after piercing them by a fork on all sides. Turning frequently. After it cooked, peel off skin.Pound to a purée (use a food processor, if available). Mix it with crushed sesame seeds,lemon juice,chickpeas. When mixture is consistent, add garlic, yoghurt and beat mixture well. If thick, adjust by lemon juice and water.Serve it garnished with parsley, red pepper and olive oil.

Bon appetit..

Tabouleh (Lebanese Salad)

It is the most tasty salad till i ever ate , i really loved it, i liked the sour taste with it, i think the sour make it more tasty, if you like try to add more lemon , Eksi (pomegranate molasses )
Tabouleh is a salad but also one of main dish in Lebanon.
If you like you can add more bulghur and make it "Kısır" as a Turkish variation. but i loved the way i ate in Lebanon..
You can start adding little lemon and eksi , and after you taste decide how much you wanna add..

Lebanon...

Dear friends,
I finished my short Lebanon trip and back to home . Lebanon is a small country full of history, nature, great people and amazing dishes. You can drive in 3 hours the country from north to south. It is a place that you should mark for your holiday destination.

Also i liked the feeling to be a tourist in this lovely country, people are so helpful and nice. Once, one lady wanted to take my photo with her kids, i felt like a superstar:)
Jeitta grotto is amazing ,it is a gift from GOD..
I had chance to visit Beirut, Jbail, Baalbeck, Jounieh.. all of them i loved, met a lot of nice lubenese people..
And sure i tasted a lot of nice lubenese foods:)) Beydan, waraq enab,fettush,mutebbel,tabbuleh,falafel and more.. all were sooo delicious.. in most of restaurants before the food they serve Beydan(almond), pickle etc, and after meal , they serve you a lot of type of fruits or somewhere even desserts and sure arabic coffee.. and all free:)
Will share with you some recipes and more information about Lebanon..


Just follow me;)

Tavuk Guvec (Chicken Casserole)

I got the food taste which made with casserole ,
i have cooked it with lamb so this time i tried with chicken and eggplant. The thing with casserole; it should cook on the low heat ,and long time, like 1-2 hours. I love the smell when it is cooking , reult is amazing , the meat or chicken or the vegs just delectable. And the favourite food to serve with guvec is rice which is cooked with butter and chicken broth; how can i say no these foods:))


Enjoy..




Ingredients
1 kg chicken (boneless) sliced
3 eggplants sliced
3 potatos sliced
1 onion sliced
2 tomatos sliced
7-8 mushrooms sliced
3 cloves garlic
Salt
Black pepper

First put onions at the floor of the pot, after garlics, and chicken, potatos on it, after eggplants,mushrooms and cover the top with tomatos sliced... add oil,salt and black pepper. I covered the pot with aluminum foil and close the cover. fisrt cook 10 min with high fire, after get it on the low hear and cook 1 hours, i just tasted it , all the taste mixture perfect, althought i dont eat mushrooms, it has melted and the taste inside the food yummyyyyyyy:)
if you cant find guvec or tajin, you can cook it in regular pots.

Bon appetit..

iyi bayramlar..

Yesterday Eid ul fitr started, we call it "bayram" ,"Şeker bayrami(Bayram of Sweets)" , it is the celebration day after Ramadan, conclusion of fasting. Honestly i dont like bayrams as before. When i was a kid,it was more meaningful, people were more friendly with eachother, human relations was everything, now everything changed. Nowadays, Bayram means holiday for people, to chance to run away from work,city or people.. When i was a kid, it was rituel. The men of the street where i live were going to mosque for pra. When they came back ,we been made ready the breakfast table, the table was perfect, after we ate, people were greeting to eachother. "iyi bayramlar"-have good bayrams.. visiting relatives, friends.. When we are going to someone s home ,we are getting mostly chocolate or candy as gift.. i am a kinda traditional girl who like to keep alive this kinda good traditions.. Although my family got a bit angry with me , i still woke up early ,went market, prepared breakfast and woke my family up and pushed them to go out. Still had nice bayram day with all relative visits..

İyi bayramlar to all...

Turkish Coffee

Turkish coffee is more than coffee, it is a culture. I think we are the only nation which charge this much meaning on the coffee:)

We have even songs about coffee , "Coffee comes from Yemen" very old song ; it is true, Istanbul was introduced to coffee in 1543 during the reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent by Özdemir Pasha, the Ottoman Governor of Yemen, who had grown to love the drink while stationed in that country.

It takes two minutes to prepare it. Using the coffee cup as a measuring cup, pour one cup of drinking water in the cezve per cup of Turkish Coffee (the quality of the water affects the quality of the coffee).
Add two teaspoons of coffee (5 g) and two teaspoons of sugar (as desired) per cup.
Blend the coffee and sugar with a spoon over a low flame.
When the coffee boils over a second time, pour the remaining coffee into the coffee cups.
Allow the remaining coffee to brew a while longer before adding it to the cups.
It is customary to serve Turkish Coffee with a glass of water. The water prepares the mouth for the coffee's flavour.When serving a large group, it is best to prepare semi-sweet Turkish Coffee.

After people decide to marry, the guy' s family comes to visit the girl family, and as a tradition ,the girl cook turkish coffee and serve. Sometimes she put salt inspite of sugar in the boy' s cup and he has to drink it to show how much he loves her, the taste is awful with salt:))) it is cruel tradition i guess:))

Also when we drink coffee ,we close our cups and after it get cool, there is always someone to tell your fortune.. You will marry with a great guy, you will be so succesful bla bla bla... i didnt find anyone who is good fortune teller.. if you know someone ,please let me know:))

Bon appetit...

Guvec/Tajin (Lamb and Veggie Casserole)

One of my morrocon friend Rachid give me a gift called Tajin . Actually in Morocco it is the traditional way of cooking, they cook meats, chicken,fish etc. in that pots. The traditional tagine pot is formed entirely of a heavy clay, which is sometimes painted or glazed.
in Turkey we call this type of foods "guvec", it is a kinda similar . And the taste is i think similar.





I served it in the tajin which is given by my friend. If you cant find this much attractive plate to serve, you can serve with your regular plates , the taste is same and everybody will love it:)

I cooked rice with this, they are good friends i believe..

Enjoy..

Ingredients

750 gr lamb cut in cubes
oil
2 medium onion, sliced
4 garlic cloves, sliced
2 tomatos,sliced
2 potatos
3 green pepper,long and thin cutten
Salt
black pepper

First put onions at the floor of the pot, after garlics, and meat, potatos on it, after green peppers, and cover the top with tomatos sliced... add oil,salt and black pepper. I covered the pot with aluminum foil and close the cover. fisrt cook 10 min with high fire, after get it on the low hear and cook 1-1,5 hours..if you cant find guvec or tajin, you can cook it in regular pots.

And also you can cook it in oven ..

Bon appetit..

Chicken Burger (Tavuk koftesi)

Today when i checking some recipes, i saw one fish burger recipe in one of supermarket website, me and my family is not fan of fish so i decided to try this with chicken and you cant guess how much i made a good decision. while i was cooking it, all family came to kitchen to check what is been cooking:)) the smell was good and the taste hmmmmm.... really amazing..

Hope you try and like it too.. i highly reccomend this recipe..

Ingredients

2 chicken fillets

100 g grated cheese

2 slices stale bread

1 onion

1 egg

2 cloves garlic

A tea cup bread crumbs

5-6 parsley

Salt and pepper

For frying oil

Finely chop chicken , you can also ask butcher to make it as mince. Chop well onion, parsley,garlic . wet the bread and after squeeze iy. add all onto chicken ,also cheese and egg, mix well all of it ,add salt and pepper, knead well , form the chickens as burger.. after rolling them with bread crumbs , fry their 2 faces till it get golden brown..

Bon appetit..

Rice with Tomato Recipe (Domatesli pilav)

I think because of Ramadan and i stay long hours hunger , everyday i want different foods badly. And today i came home earlier, after i got some rest , i went market and shopped for my foods.


Oh by the way, i have been staying with one of my friend from 15 days and today i came back home and i have missed them , thats why i wanted to cook something, i thought they may miss my foods:)) hopefully i cooked well..


Tomato with rice is my favourite pilaf, hope you like it too..

Ingredients

3cups rice
3 tomatos
1/2 sp tomato paste
Salt
Black pepper
1 sp butter


Let the rice to wait in warm water for 15 min. Grate the tomatoPour in a medium sized pot along with salt and butter. After 5 min add the tomato paste.When it starts boiling, add the rice, cook few min, after add the enough water. For the rice normally enough water means ,it should cover on the rice and it should be a bit risen on rices.. Cook on low heat with covered.Continue cooking until the rice is done, till all the water has evaporated.





Bon appetit..