TURKİSH CUİSİNE

Zeytinyagli Lahana Sarma - Cabbage Rolls In Olive Oil

Ingredients:

1 small cabbage, make sure it is not too veiny, thick and wrinkly

3-4 liters of boiling water

4-5 medium size onions, finely cut

1/2 + 1/2 cup of olive oil, virgin

A handful of pine nuts

3 cups of rice, adjust depending on how many rolls you’ll make, keep in mind that each tablespoon of rice makes 2 normal thickness sarma

1 teaspoon of ground black pepper

1 teaspoon of ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon of powdered cinnamon

2 tablespoons of sugar

2+1 teaspoons of salt

A handful of dried black currants

1/2 cup of fresh dill leaves, washed and chopped finely

1/2 cup of fresh basil, finely chopped

1/4 cup of fresh coriander, finely chopped

1/4 cup of fresh mint leaves, finely chopped

4.5 cups of water, 1.5 times the amount of rice, adjust if need be

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Carefully remove outer layers of the cabbage, until you reach the unmanageable core. Boil the outer layers in a pot for 5 minutes. Remove the leaves from boiling water and drain.

Now we’ll prepare the filling: Heat 1/2 cup of olive oil in a pot and cook onions and pine nuts for 5 minutes. Then add rice, all the spices, sugar and 2 teaspoons of salt, keep stirring on low heat. Rice will absorb the juices of onions and become translucent. Add black currants and herbs. Mix well and remove from the heat.

While the filling cools off, arrange the cabbage leaves. Cut them into hand size pieces, either rectangular, triangular or square, doesn’t matter much as long as they are roll-able.

Make a wide steel pot ready (olive oil dishes turn out way better in steel ware). Line spare cabbage pieces at the bottom of the pot.

On a clean and flat surface start rolling out the cabbages. Lay one piece of cabbage leaf on the surface and place 1/2 tablespoon of rice filling on one end, fold three sides (1-2 cms on each side) and roll. There is no single straight rule to do this. Go as you please. You can make samosa like triangles, big fat rolls or thinner ones. You can even skip rolling the sides and just make sushi-like rolls.

Line cabbage rolls into the pot, tightly, but do not squeeze. Place a flat plate right onto the rolls to keep them in place. Add water, remaining 1/2 cup of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of salt and lemon juice, bring to boil. Cover and turn the heat to the lowest possible setting, almost like candlelight, cook until the rice absorbs all the water and is cooked. Add more boiling water if needed and cook further. Remove from the heat when al-dente. Let sit at room temperature for at least 12 hours, in the same pot with the lid on. The next day, remove cabbage rolls from the steel pot and serve with lemon, parsley leaves or dill.

Cılbır-Poached Eggs In Garlic Yogurt

Ingredients

2 liters of boiling water

3 tablespoons of vinegar

1 teaspoon of salt

4 eggs

–

3-4 cups of plain yogurt

2 cloves of garlic

A pinch of salt

–

2 tablespoons of butter

1 teaspoon of paprika

Red pepper flakes

Dried or fresh mint leaves

Crush the garlic cloves and add them into yogurt. Stir well until the yogurt holds a creamy texture. Add salt. Divide garlic yogurt sauce into two plates.

Melt butter in a saucepan, add paprika and red pepper flakes to season. Remove from heat when it sizzles.

In a deep skillet, bring water to boil. Add salt and vinegar into water. Keep the skillet on low heat. The surface of the water should not be trembling, but it should still be hot enough. If you’re worried about your poaching skills, there is a safer way of doing this. Crack one egg into a small cup and holding it up right, lower the cup into simmering water and then gently twist it and turn the egg into boiling water. Repeat the same for the remaining eggs. Allow the first one to settle a bit before adding the second egg. Cook each egg for about 3-4 minutes until the outer layer becomes opaque and the yolk is still a bit wobbly, but not too runny.

When you are ready to serve, remove the eggs from the water with a slotted spoon, drain and place them atop the yogurt in each plate. Drizzle melted butter sauce over the eggs and yogurt, re-heat the butter sauce if needed, sprinkle mint leaves and serve immediately.

Zeytinyagli Pirasa-Leeks In Olive Oil

Ingredients:

4 cups of chopped leek, 2-3 cm-long pieces,

2 carrots, peeled and cut into 2cm long pieces,

Juice of 1 lemon,

Juice of 2 oranges,

2 teaspoons of sugar,

2 level teaspoons of salt (adjust according to your liking),

2 cups of water,

1 cup of extra virgin olive oil,

1/2 cup of rice washed and drained,

1/2 cup of fresh parsley leaves, washed and drained.

Prepare all the ingredients, chop the vegetables, squeeze lemon and oranges, wash and drain the rice. Then, put all the ingredients, except for rice, into a steel pot. Cover and bring to boil on high heat. Then lower the heat, cover and simmer for at least 20-30 mins. Check one piece of carrot and leek to see if they reached the al dente stage. If so, add in the rice and cover again. Simmer for another 10 minutes, make sure the rice is cooked. Add 1/2 cup of boiling water(or more) if need be. Remove from the heat, throw in the parsley leaves, cover and let sit on the kitchen counter for overnight. Serve the next day at room temperature. Pairs nicely with white puffy sorts of bread.

         Cerkez Tavugu-Circassian Chicken
Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, divided into 4-5 pieces preferably free-range organic chicken 

2 teaspoons of sea salt

3 cups of water (more if need be)

1 large onion, halved

2 cloves of garlic

4-5 black pepper corns

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 cup fresh cilantro

1/2 cup fresh parsley

1/2 cup fresh purple basil

—

1 teaspoon of ground black pepper

2 teaspoons of ground coriander

1 teaspoon of sea salt

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

200 g (around 2 cups) finely chopped walnuts

100 g (1 cup) roasted corn flour (you can roast it on the stove top in a nonstick ware)

—-

5-6 tablespoons of walnut oil

1 teaspoon of paprika

Mix everything listed in the first section of the ingredients list in a cooking pot or pressure cooker. Reduce  the amount of water to 2 cups if you use pressure cooker, as it will not evaporate as much. Cover, bring to boil and simmer until chicken is cooked, try not to overcook it, it takes around 30 minutes in a regular pot on low heat or 15 minutes in a pressure cooker.

Set aside and let cool off. Then, drain and shred the chicken and discard all the bones, spices and herbs. Keep the broth aside in another bowl, we will use that for the sauce.

Mix everything listed in the second section of ingredients list and add in the broth (it should be luke warm, not hot or cold)  slowly. This is our sauce and it should be creamy, like mayonnaise. Add more liquid (milk or warm water) if needed.

Add in the shredded chicken pieces, taste and add more salt, pepper, coriander depending on your liking. Place the mixture onto a serving plate.

In a pan, warm up walnut oil and add in the paprika until it all turns red. Pour this over the chicken mix. Garnish with halved walnuts. Serve warm or cold. It’s usually served as a meze in Turkey, but I find it great as a main meal as well.  Oh, one more thing: The original recipe calls for extracting the walnut oil from the nuts by mashing them with a stone and squeezing afterwards,  if you find the guts to try it, let me know of how you go.

      Pacanga Boregi-Fried Pastry With
            Pastrami and Kashar

Ingredients:

2 store-bought pastry sheets, around 300-400 g (try Turkish grocery stores, they usually sell these in vacuum packs of 5-6 sheets),

200 g of grated Kashar cheese,

16-18 slices of Turkish pastrami,

1 egg,

1/2 cup of milk,

1 cup of corn flour,

2 cups of sunflower oil,

Divide each pastry sheet into four quarters, then to eight pie-shaped pieces. Put one slice of pastrami and 2 tablespoons of grated cheese on the wide end of these pastry pieces. Pull up the sides and roll. Wet the narrow tip of pastry with water to make sure it sticks well and the roll keeps intact during frying. In a bowl crack an egg and beat it well with milk. Soak each pastry roll into this batter and then cover with corn flour. Heat sunflower oil in a wide pan on medium-high heat and fry each borek on both sides. Remove from the pan when the boreks turn red and crispy and place on kitchen towel to rid excess oil. Serve warm with cherry tomatoes and fresh parsley leaves.

Mucver-Zucchini Fritters

Ingredients:

4 medium size zucchinis

3 eggs

1,5 cups of flour

1/2 cup of milk

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 cup of finely chopped parsley

1/2 cup of finely chopped dill

Black pepper

Red pepper

Salt (I put around 1,5 teaspoon)

Mix all the ingredients into a thick pancake batter. Add more flour if too runny, add milk if too thick. Heat olive oil or sunflower oil in a pan on high heat. When the oil is hot enough, scoop up some batter with a serving spoon (twice the size of a  regular tablespoon) and drop it into the pan, keep doing this and form not-too-close heaps in the pan. When they get golden on the underside, flip over and fry on other side. Remove the fritters from the pan and drain on paper towel. Garnish with dill, parsley, basil, purple basil and serve warm.

Etli Kabak Dolma-Stuffed Zucchini

  

Ingredients:

10-12 8-ball zucchini, any kind of squash would do

300 grs of minced meat, beef or lamb or a combination of both

Rice (uncooked) — I’ve measured one level tablespoon of rice for each squash and no stuffing mix was left in the end

Water (I measure the rice with a cup and add water twice the amount of rice)

1/2 cup of sunflower oil or 100 g of butter

2 tomatoes

2 onions

1 clove of garlic

1 tablespoon of tomato paste

1 tablespoon of red pepper paste (you can find this in mid eastern shops, it’s basically a mixture of red bell peppers, red chillies, salt and olive oil)

1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper

1/2 cup of chopped dill

A dash of sugar

Salt (1.5 teaspoons)

Chop the onions finely, crush the garlic. Peel and grate the tomatoes. You can use a food processor to do all this. Wash the dill, drain and chop it. Wash and drain the rice. Add half of the tomato paste and pepper paste, onion, garlic, tomatoes, minced meat, spices, dill and half of the salt into the rice. Add in half of the oil or melted butter. Mix thoroughly. Here is our stuffing.

Wash the zucchini, drain and cut their tops off careful not to damage them. Carve away the fleshy bits in the center of all the zucchini with a small knife or with the tip of a potato peeler.

Stuff the zucchini with your rice-meat mix. Put back the tops and line the dolma (stuffed vegetable) into a pot. Remember we used only half of the tomato and pepper pastes, salt and oil/butter? Now, add all those remaining ingredients into water, mix and pour over the dolma. Cook the dolma on low heat with the lid on for 20-30 minutes. You can check with the tip of a knife or fork to see if the dolma are softened and cooked. Remove from the heat once they are done.

You can garnish with fresh dill weed and yogurt. In Turkey, yogurt is a must-serve with this one

Kaburga Dolması-Stuffed Ribs

Ingredients:

1 set of lamb ribs (one side),

with a pocket opened between the meat and the bone

1 onion, grated

Salt, black pepper

Filling:2 T vegetable oil

1 onion

1/3 c almonds

2 c coarse bulgur

2 c water

1 c finely chopped purple plums

1 T pepper paste

Salt, black pepper, mint

Toothpicks

Rub inner and outer surface of ribs with salt, pepper and grated onion. Put oil in a pan, and sauté onion and almonds. Add washed bulgur and water, bring to a boil, add plums, salt, black pepper and mint. Cook, covered, until the bulgur has absorbed the water. Fill the pocked in the ribs with the pilaf, and close the open end with toothpicks. Wrap in foil, put in pressure cooker and add water to cover, then cook for ½ hour. Remove from pressure cooker, remove foil, place in a baking dish. Rub with pepper paste, and brown in a hot oven.

Fırında Patlıcanlı Köfte-Baked Croquettes with Eggplant

Ingredients:

Eggplant and croquettes:

3 eggplants (long narrow type)

½ c vegetable oil for cooking

400 gr ground meat

2 slices stale bread, crusts removed

1 onion, coarsely grated

Salt, pepper, cumin

For top:

6-7 cloves garlic

2 tomatoes, sliced

2 “sivri” peppers, cut into strips

1t tomato or pepper paste

½ c water

1 T butter

Wet bread and squeeze out excess water, then knead together with meat, onion, salt, pepper and cumin, and make round flat croquettes. Peel strips off eggplants lengthwise, leaving them striped, then cut into thick slices. Salt, allow to stand for 15 minutes. Wash, pat dry and fry in hot oil, turning once. Arrange on the bottom of a baking dish, and place the croquettes on top. Arrange the sliced tomatoes, peppers and garlic any way you like over the croquettes. Mix 1t tomato or pepper paste with ½ c warm water and pour evenly over top. Dot the top with butter, and bake at 200C until the croquettes are brown.

      Kadınbudu Köfte-Lady’s Thighs croquettes

Ingredients:

2 onions, minced
750 gr ground meat
1/3 c rice
2 T oil
2 t salt
1 c oil for cooking
4 eggs
1/5 c water
Salt, black pepper
Lightly sauté onions in 2 T of oil until transparent. Add 1.5 c water, rice and 2t salt, and simmer until the rice is very tender.  Leave to cool. Saute half the ground meat in an unoiled pot, stirring until all its water has evaporated. Remove from heat and add the rest of the ground meat, mix well and process in a food processor. Add 2 eggs, black pepper and the rice mixture, and knead together. The mixture will be fairly soft. Form in the palms into flat oval croquettes.  Beat the remaining 2 eggs in deep plate. Heat oil in a pan. Dip the croquettes into the egg, then fry immediately in the hot oil.

 Mantarli Et Sote- Meat Sauté with Mushrooms

Ingredients:

1 onion, finely chopped

500 gr small-cubed meat

2 tomatoes, grated

1 T pepper paste

2 “sivri” peppers

300 gr mushrooms, halved

1 c water

Butter or margarine

Salt, black pepper, thyme, mint, red flake pepper

Sauté onions till transparent, add meat and cook until the water it gives off is gone. Add grated tomato and pepper paste. Add mushrooms to the meat, add water, butter, water, salt and spices, and simmer, covered, on medium heat until the water is nearly gone.

                  Su Böreği-Water Pastry

ingredients :

for dough

6 eggs

1/3 cup water

salt

flour

for filling

1 cup crumbled feta cheese

1/3 bunch parsley, chopped

400-450 g melted butter

Direction

Mix all the ingredients and make a dough. The dough should be soft but should not stick to any surfaces.
Cover the dough and rest it for half an hour. 

Divide the dough to 12 pieces, and make a phyllo like pastry sheet using a roller pin. The thickness should be between 1/16 to 1/8 in.

In the mean time, fill a cooking pot with water, add some salt and bring it to boil. Also place another large bowl filled with cold water, next to the boiling water. Mix feta and parsley in another bowl and set aside.

Grease a round baking tray (14 inch, round baking dish, with at least 2 inch thickness) with melted butter.

Place the first pastry sheet you rolled into the boiling water, and cook approximately 30 seconds-1 minute, or until the dough starts floating. Transfer the dough to the cold water, and let it cool down. Drain the excess water with hands.

Place the dough on to the baking dish or tray you prepared, and spread melted butter evenly (about 2-3 tbsp) on top of the dough.

Repeat process until you finish half of the dough. On top of the 6th phyllo dough, spread the filling instead of the butter.

After spreading feta filling, repeat the steps for rolling as thin as you can, boiling, dipping into cold water, and placing on to the tray and spreading melted butter till last piece.

Place the last pastry sheet on top, and  generously spread butter on top. Preheat the oven to 200C-400F. Cook the pastry until both of the surfaces become golden brown. Let it cool down, and slice it afterwards.

                Babagannuş/ Babahannuş
ingredients:
2 globe eggplants

3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbsp tahini (sesame paste)

2 tbsp yogurt

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 lemon juice salt

Paprika

Preheat oven to 375°F. Place eggplants on a baking sheet. Roast until very tender, about 40-45 minutes. Let eggplants cool and drain in a colander for 20 minutes, then peel the skin off. Place eggplants, olive oil, yogurt, tahini, garlic, cumin, lemon juice, the salt, and a pinch of paprika in the work bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the eggplant is smooth. Serve after chill in the fridge or allow dip sit in room temperature for an hour.

                İnegöl Köfte-Inegol Meatballs
Ingredients :
1 lbs ground beef
1 tsp baking soda
¼ lemon juice
Salt
Black pepper
3 tbsp water
3 tbsp bread crumbs
1 medium onion, grated
In a medium mixing bowl, combine ground beef, onion, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and baking soda. In a separate small bowl, mix bread crumbs and water evenly. Add bread crumbs mixture to the beef mixture and knead well. Let that sit in the fridge overnight.
Grab piece and shape like thin and oval meatballs as you see in the picture. In a medium skillet, add some oil and cook meatballs on medium high heat. Serve hot with rice and salad.

 Yayla Çorbası-Turkish Yogurt Soup

Ingredients:

2 cups plain yogurt

4 cups water or chicken broth
1 egg
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons rice
3-4 tablespoons butter or cooking oil like canola or sunflower oil
2 teaspoons finely crushed dried mint
Pinch of paprika
Salt, to taste
In a medium pot, pour just enough water to boil rice first. When the rice is cooked, add water or broth and simmer until water comes to boil.
Combine the yogurt, egg, and flour in a medium mixing bowl. Whisk until well blended and smooth and no lumps remain. Set that aside. Do not season the yogurt mixture or the boiling water with salt until you are done or the yogurt will curdle. You’ll add it once the soup is cooked completely.
Turn the heat to medium to low. Get a few scoops from water and pour into yogurt mixture. Whisk that evenly and gradually stir in boiling water back. Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon in a circular motion, until the mixture comes to a boil. Stirring is very important to prevent the yogurt from curdling.
Meanwhile, heat the butter or oil in a small pan. When it begins to sizzle, immediately remove the pan from the heat and add the dried mint and if using,paprika, to it. Stir and then pour the mixture into the soup. Season the soup with salt, to taste. Stir. Remove the soup from the heat.
Divide the soup into individual serving bowls and serve immediately, with bread or croutons.