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!

Acma (Turkish Bagel)

I'd like to start with a question: Do you like bagels? If you do, try to cook a Turkish style bagel, namely Acma (it is read as "achma"). Actually, acma is a little bit different from a bagel but I think bagel is the most appropriate word that can describe acma. My mom bakes acma so nice that every time she has guests, acma is one of the most popular foods among the guests :) Now, I'm living far far away from my mom, so it is time to bake acma by myself.

My first try was not that good because I make the dough wait too long :( But every bad experience teaches you something good. So, my second try was good and tastes almost like my mom's acma :) My guests also like it, and now they always ask me to bake some acma when I invite them to my house. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup warm-hot milk
1 1/2 tbs dry baking yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil (I prefer canola oil) (2/3 cups for dough)
1 egg (separate yolk from the white)
1 tea spoon salt
4-6 cups of all purpose (or bread) flour
1 tbs oil
2 tbs black cumin

Method:

Pour warm-hot water into a large bowl. The water should be between hot that when you put your fingers you should be able to bear with it. Add the sugar and yeast and stir it with your fingers or with a spoon that is made of wood for just 5-6 seconds. Wait for about 5-6 minutes. during this time the yeast will grow. Add the milk, white of the egg, 2/3 cups of oil and salt, and mix them. Then add some flour until your fingers can separate from the dough. But still some of the dough should remain on your finger. I mean the dough should be thick but it still needs to be sticky. This is the thickness that we want. I don't give the exact measurement because the amount of flour that is enough for our dough changes with the brand of the flour. But I usually begin with pouring 3 1/2 cups of flour, and add 1/2 cups each time if I need more flour. You should use your fingers to feel the correct thickness.

Then cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel or with the bowl's cover if it has :) Wait until the dough rises and doubled in volume. Grease the pan or use baking shhets. Put the remaining (1/3 cups) oil into a plate. Grease your hand with this oil and take some dough that is as big as your hand. Make a long cylindrical dough like you are making a bagel. Then twist this cylindrical dough and wrap it around your hand until the two sides mashed. Put it on the pan. Do the same procedure until you use the entire dough.

Now mix the yolk of the egg and 1 tbs oil and brush acmas with these mixture. Be generous and brush all the surface of acmas that is seen from outside. Sprinkle black cumins or sesame seeds and bake them in a prehetaed oven. The temperature should be 380F~400F. When the tops become brownish take acmas out oven and let them cool. That's it, enjoy!

Turkish Appetizer

I invited my friends from my English class to our house last month. My friends are from all over the world. They didn't know much about Turkish food. So I wanted to cook some Turkish food, so that they have some idea about our foods and culture. I thought the best trick was preparing Turkish appetizers for my guests. It was like an appetizer buffet. They loved everything :)
After buffet, we had Turkish tea and some dessert. One of my friends has never tasted Turkish tea. He didn't want to drink at first because the weather was so hot. But when he tried he couldn't make himself stop :)

Here is some of my recipes. Also, I forgot to take pictures of some of my foods. I prepared more different salad and desserts. Anyway I hope you will enjoy!

Eggplant Salad
Ingredients;

• 2 large eggplants
  
• 1 tomato
• 1\4 cup chopped parsley
• 1 lemon juice
  
• 2 crushed garlics
  
• salt, a little bit black pepper, olive oil.
  

Method;
Prepare the oven to 350 F. Line a sheet pan with a piece of aluminum foil. Make a few cuts to egg plants by using a knife. Cook the eggplants until they become very flabby. Then let them cool. Peel the skin and mash the eggplants. Add lemon juice, garlic, salt, black paper and olive oil; then mix together. Decorate your salad with cut tomatoes and parsley.

Potato Salad
Ingredients;

• 6-7 potatos
• a half bunch of parsley
• 2-3 fresh green onion and also if you like you can put finely chopped onion, too
  
• 1 tablespoon mild paprika
• 1 lemon juice
  
• black pepper, salt, olive oil as you taste
• 2 cups of chopped romaine lettuce

Method;
In a large pot, boil the water. Cook the potatoes until the toothpick goes in easily. Let them cool.
In a large bowl, chop the parsley, green onions, romaine lettuce, mix them with lemon juice, paprika, black pepper, salt, olive oil. Peel the skin of potatoes. Cut into squares. Add into salad. Mix well but do not mash potatos. Serve cool.

Borek with spinach
Borek with Cheese
Borek is the main appetizer as my partner mentioned in her last post. Of course, I always serve borek for my guest. I made the same borek as Minik Kuş made. And also I made borek with spinach and cheese.

Hummus
Ingredients;

• 1cup chickpeas
• 2 tablespoons tahini (crashed sesame seeds)
  
• 1 large lemon juice
  
• 3 grated garlics
  
• salt,a little bit black pepper, olive oil
• Hot water
  

Method;

The night before, put the chickpeas in the hot water. In a large pot, boil the water and add a little bit salt, olive oil and chickpeas. Boil until cooked. The best way for cooking chickpeas is using pressure cooker or you can use canned chickpeas. Because it takes a long time to cook.
When chickpeas are ready, mash the chickpea with blender and add a little bit hot water if it needs. It shouldnt be dry. Add tahini, lemon juice, garlics, salt,a little bit black pepper, olive oil in it, mix them well.
Bon appetite!

Peynirli Borek (Cheese and Parsley Pastry)

Hey Folks,

We were thinking about preparing some posts on traditional Turkish food for you. Actually we have lots of different recipes but most of them require lots of effort. For the beginners we want to give a relatively easy recipe. I don't know if you ever heard about Turkish borek. If you have a Turkish friend, I'm sure he or she has already cooked some borek for you. It tastes like soufflé that we like to eat for breakfast in Panera Bread. I just translate borek as a pastry, but I'm not sure if it is a correct translation. Actually, I don't know what kind of word can explain it correctly, so if you have any idea after you read the recipe, you can offer a different English name that you think will be more appropriate.

Borek is one of the main dishes that we prepare for our guests. Of course it is not a main dish for dinner, but just like an appetizer or a side dish. We sometimes prepare borek for breakfast. If you haven't tasted it yet, take a chance and try it. I'm sure you won't regret it. One more side info; borek was one of the popular food in our Turkish cooking class that we held in University of Florida in the last three semesters.

I'll give you the recipe of cheese and parsley borek, but you can prepare different types of borek by changing the stuffing. Spinach cheese borek is one of my favorites.

Ingredients

2 rolls of phyllo dough (a package of phyllo dough contains 2 rolls of dough)

2 1/2 cups of milk

1/2 cupsof vegetable oil (I prefer canola oil)

2 large eggs

16 oz crashed feta chese

4 oz chopped parsley (curly or Italian)

Beat the eggs in a bowl. Add milk and vegetable oil and mix them. Lay two sheets of dough in a rectangular pyrex or in a baking tin. Pour 4 or 5 tablespoons of the liquid mix onto sheet evenly. Then lay two more sheets and apply the same procedure until you use all of the sheets in a roll. At the same time mix feta cheese and chopped parsley in another bowl and spread it over the last sheet of first roll that you lay. Then lay two sheets from the second roll of dough and pour 4-5 tablespoons of mix. Continue until all the sheets in the second roll is used. Pour the remaining mix at the top. Cook borek in a preheated oven (350F) until the top becomes brown. After letting it cool down, cut borek in squares and serve warm.

I hope you like it :) Bon appetite!

Manti and Fake Manti Recipe :)

I love eating Manti more than making it. Wonderful taste, it takes a bit long time to make but eating takes 5 mins. Not fair! :)

My husband, of course, loves it, too. He was always bugging me to cook it soon. Finally, I cooked it. Everyone is happy now.:)

In my country, you can find different types of Manti. Recipe varies region to region. I learned it from my grandma and my mum. They used to make the way I described below. Hopefully, one day, my kids can learn it from me! :))

My grandma has a lot of grandchildren. I remember her making Manti for all of us, when I was a little girl. We used to help her. She used to put a few chickpeas inside the Manti. The idea was if you could find the chickpea while eating, you will be the luckiest grandchild. We loved this game. :)
Now, I honor the tradition by putting two chickpeas when I make it. My husband is very lucky not just because he has me, but also he found the first chickpea in the first spoon today.:)))

Here are my first recipes, I hope you will enjoy them.

Manti Recipe:
Ingredients:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup water
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

For the filling:

• 250 gr ground meat
• 1 large onion (chopped in very small pieces)
• Salt and black pepper

Yogurt Sauce 1:

• 2 cups plain yogurt
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  

Red Pepper Sauce 2:

• 6-7 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons red pepper ( hot or mild, its up to you)

Method:

1. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, water, egg, olive oil and salt.
2. Knead them very well until the dough is formed. The dough should be smooth and not sticky. If you feel it is sticky, add a little bit more flour.
3. Cover the bowl with some plastic wrap and let stand at cool room temperature for an hour.
4. Meanwhile, prepare the filling. In a medium bowl, put onions, meat, salt and black pepper. Knead them together for one minute (do not cook.)
5. Lightly dust a work surface and a rolling pin with flour. Divide the dough into 4 equal balls. Roll out each ball into sheets as thin as you can roll out, but be careful don't tear it.
6. Cut each sheet into squares of about 1.5"x1.5".Put a very small piece of filling at the center of each square. Continue until the dough is finished.
7. As you see below, bring the opposite corners together and make a triangle or, fold them to make a rectangle. Both works fine. Press the sides firmly. (Don't forget to hide your chickpeas for the game. :)
8. Bring two of the adjacent corners together as shown in the picture.
9. In a large pot, boil the water and add a little bit salt, olive oil. Add Manti and stir. Cook for about 15 minutes. Please check while cooking. Don't overcook.
10. Meanwhile, prepare the sauces. Firstly, in a small bowl, grate cloves of garlic and add yogurt, water, salt. Stir them together. Secondly, in a separate sauce pan add olive oil and red pepper, stir together and cook them only for half a minute.
11. When Manti is ready, you can drain well or not, the way you like, it is up to you.
12. Serve warm with yogurt sauce and red sauce.

Fake Manti:

Also, there is another option for Manti. In Turkey, we call it Fake Manti. It doesn't taste the same as original Manti, but pretty close.
Lazy girls, like me, love it :)

You only need; shell pasta instead of dough.
Enjoy Fake Manti, too.