BAKLAVA, BOREK RECIPES

For a really long time, I and my blog partner couldn't add any recipes here. I was busy with my English courses and my cake decoration classes. I was totally falling in love with cake decoration stuff. I spend most of my time with them. If you want to see some of my cake images you can click here but they are in Turkish. Minik Kus is very busy with her research that she is doing for her PhD degree. I hope we will not do this again.

Finally, I am adding some Turkish food recipes now. Today is our traditional "Kurban Bayrami". It is a religious celebration. I made them for Bayram for our guests. Enjoy!

Adopted from Ceylan
Borek recipe:
Ingredients:
For dough :

• 2 eggs (one of the egg yolks is for topping)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1\3 cups olive oil plus 1 tablespoon for topping
  
• 2\3 whole milk
• 1 1\2 teaspoon baking powder
• flour (almost 4 cups)

For filling:

• 1 packet baby spinach (chopped small pieces)
  
• 1 big chopped onion
  
• 1 pinch salt and pepper
• 1 packet blue cheese (*my contribution)
  
• 2-3 tablespoon olive oil
  

Method:
Lightly grease a round 27 cm (10 inch) cake pan with olive oil
Preheat oven 350F
1. In a large pan, cook the onion with olive oil until it turns yellow. Add the spinach, cook until spinach dies down and add the salt and pepper. You can also use beef and potatoes for filling.
2. Next, in a large bowl, add all the ingredients but with only 1 cup flour. Start kneading. It should be very sticky, add flour one cup at a time and continue kneading until dough becomes soft and not sticky. Stop adding flour.
3. Dust the work surface with some flour. Make small balls from dough and roll each ball very thin 8 inch diameter. ( or little longer and narrower)
4. Pour 2 or 3 tablespoons filling and 1 tablespoon blue cheese one side of dough and make a tight roll. Make a ring and put it in the middle of the pan. And than start wrapping the roll from middle to out.
5. Brush the Borek with the egg yolk and olive oil, bake it until brown. Serve when it is almost hot.

Baklava Recipe: (updated)
Ingredients:
For filling:

• 12 filo dough sheets
  
• 3 cups walnuts very finely chopped
  
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 2\3 cup unsalted melted butter
  

For syrup

• 1 1\2 cups water
  
• 2\3 cup sugar (or more sugar if you have a sweet tooth)
  
• 1 lemon zest strip
• 2 tablespoon lemon juice

Method:
Lightly butter 9-13 inch pan
Preheat oven 325F
1. In a small saucepan, mix water, sugar, lemon zest and juice and boil them properly and let it cool completely.
2. In a separate bowl, add the nuts and cinnamon, mix them well.
3. Next, in a lightly buttered pan, line the first filo sheet and brush it with butter. Tuck the overhanging parts in...and do it same thing to second and third filo sheets. Next, sprinkle nuts with spoon on the dough. And then line 3 more filo sheets as above and sprinkle nuts top of them. 2 more times do it same thing until you finish your ingredients. Remember to brush each filo sheets with butter. Brush the top of filo sheet. Finally, cut only the top 3 filo sheets diagonally across and bake until golden brown. Approximately 40 minutes.
4. When it is baked cut it all the way to the bottom using the same lines and pour the syrup on the baklava immediately. I like to eat Baklava when it is a little warm but normally it is served when it is completly cool. You can serve with extra nuts on the top, ice cream and with my favorite "Kaymak". Enjoy!

Irmikli Sutlu Tatli (Pudding with Semolina)

I love deserts that are made of milk. After my number one dessert "sutlac", which we will give the recipe in future posts (hopefully), and number two fake chicken breast pudding, this one is number three. If you want to prepare something sweet but you're on a diet or you want something light, you should give this delicious pudding a try.

Ingredients:

12 tbs sugar
12 tbs semolina
0.26 gal (1 lt) milk
1/2 tbs unsweetened butter (or margarine)
1 tbs vanilla
Some small oreos (this is optional)

Method:

1. Stir milk, sugar and semolina in a pan.

2. Simmer the mixture by mixing it with a mixer or a spoon.

3. Add vanilla and mix it.

4. Put the butter into the mixture and melt it by mixing the pudding.

5. Pour some water into a pyrex (or a glass rectangular pin) and wash the inside. This will give you the easiness when you try to take the slices out.

6. Pour the half of the pudding into the pyrex. Put some small diet oreos, if you like, on the pudding. Then pour the remaining pudding.

7. You can decorate the top with oreos or with chopped walnuts.

Enjoy!

Food in Film: Chicken Sandwich and Cherry Dessert

There is a lovely event at the well-seasoned cook by Susan. When I saw the announcement I thought we should join the event "Food in Film".
I chose two movies and two recipes for this event. I made a delicious chicken sandwich for "Big Night" (above) and cherry dessert for "Woman on Top" (below). I hope you enjoy them!




The first movie is "Big Night". It is a lovely comedy-drama and also a yummy foodie movie. It is about two Italian brothers. They own an Italian restaurant called "Paradise". Their restaurant's popularity is going down so they tried to make a big come back again by throwing a big party. Definitely worth watching!!

Here are the recipes for Italian flat bread Focaccia and chicken sandwich! Che bello!Muahh! :)

Focaccia
Ingredients;

• 2 packages (5 teaspoons) of active dry yeast
• 1 3\4 cups warm water (105-115 F)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 3\4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 5 cups all purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
• 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
• 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt (optional)

Method;

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the sugar, 1\2 cup of the olive oil, the flour, and the fine sea salt and stir with your hand or a wooden spoon until a rough ball forms.
3. pour the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead the dough until smooth and elastic, 5-7 minutes.
4. Add up to 1\2 cup flour to the work surface while kneading to prevent the dough from sticking.
5. Form the dough into a ball, transfer it to a lightly oiled bowl, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in a warm, draft- free spot until it doubles in bulk, 1-11\2 hours.
6. Pour the remaining 1\4 cup oil evenly into a half-sheet pan. Turn the dough out into the pan. Press the dough evenly into the pan. If it is too elastic to spread without springing back, let it rest for 5 minutes. Cover the pan loosely with a dry kitchen towel. Let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free spot until it doubles in size, about 1 hour.
7. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven, and preheat to 450F. Dimple the dough by pressing your fingertips all the way into it a 1 inch intervals over the entire surface. Sprinkle it with the coarse salt, if desired.
8. Bake the focaccia until golden brown, 20-30 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool in the pan. Cut it into squares and serve warm or at room temperature. Store tightly wrapped in a aluminum foil at room temperature for up to 1 day or freeze fpr up to 2 weeks. Reheat at 375F for 10 minutes.

The Focaccia recipe is from my first baking book Williams-Sonoma (Essentials of baking). I totally love this cooking book. I don't remember how many recipes I tried and fell in love with.

Chicken Sandwich
Ingredients;

• 2 boneless, skinned chicken breasts
  
• ~ 1 1\2 cup fine chopped cabbage
• ~ 1 1\2 cup grated carrot
• 1 cup plain Yogurt
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 2 grated garlic
• 2 tablespoons butter
  
• A little bit salt and black pepper
  

Method;

1. In a frying pan, fry the chicken breasts with butter until cooked well and slice them thin.
   
2. In a large bowl, put the cabbage, carrot, yogurt, mayonnaise, garlic, salt and pepper mix them well.
3. Cut the focaccia into four-inch squares. Then split them in two and put the chicken and salad between them. Serve with Big Night movie. :))

The second movie is "Woman on Top".
Isabelle (Penelope Cruz) is a beautiful girl who has a talented for cooking but she is also a control freak. She needs to control everything and if she is not in control like cars, elevators, planes she gets ill. Her target is become the top chef in a famous restaurant but when she falls in love with Toninho her mind changes. When Toninho cheats on her she leaves him and moves to San Fransisco to become the chef that she has always dreamed of.

I decided to make a dessert that would go with the movie.I put all the cherry , chocolate, coconut on the top of my dessert. :))

Ingredients;

• 1 package cherry pudding (I used strawberry pudding)
  
• 3,5 cups milk
  
• 1 1\2 package plain biscuit (tea biscuit)
• For toping decoration; a half pound cherry, 2 tablespoons coconut, 1\2 cup chocolate chips
  

Method;

In a sauce pan, cook the pudding according to package directions with 3,5 cups.
Place the biscuits side by side on bottom of 8x8 inch pan. And than pour 1\3 pudding on the top of biscuit. Continue to make the dessert until you finish all the biscuits and the pudding. Let the dessert cool and than put it in refrigerator.

Icy Pyramid With Chocolate And Strawberry

This is our first Monthly Mingle. My blog partner and I are very excited about it. Actually, I am not sure how this monthly mingle works but I hope, we did right and Meeta can accept my icy dessert.

I went to farmer's market and I just got a packet of strawberry from there for my icy pyramid. I like buying vegetables and fruits from farmer's market rather than supermarket. I love being outside. It is nice to feel, touch and smell vegetable. However, I can't find any market in Orlando as big as what we have in Turkey.

This icy pyramid is a very simple dessert. You don't need to cook anything. If you have a guest and don't have much time to make a cake, this recipe will be very helpfully to you, especially at summer. You can change the recipe easily. You can add what ever you want. For example, this dessert might be nicer with nut, dried fruits and also some juice as orange or cherry. My mom used to make this icy pyramid a lot. I added chocolate and strawberry in it. Here is my recipe, enjoy! :)


Ingredients:

• 1 1\2 package plain biscuit (tea biscuit) (200-250gr)
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1\2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons cacao
  
• 1\3 cup chocolate chips
  
• 1 cup chopped strawberry

Method:

1. In a medium bowl, melt butter and add the milk. Stir together and beat well. After then add the cacao and mix them together.
   
2. Break the biscuit into large pieces. Add the broken biscuits and the chocolate chips to the mixture above. Mix them lightly, but be careful don't mix them into a paste. Biscuits pieces should remain intact.
   
3. Pour out the mixture on a parchment paper. Spread evenly with a spatula.
4. Sprinkle the strawberry on the mixture.
5. Lift the parchment paper from both sides and make a pyramid shape by hand.
6. Cover all sides with parchment paper and put in the freezer over night or at least for 3 hours.
   
7. Take out the dessert at least 20 minutes before serving.
8. Cut it into slices.
9. Serve cold.