TURKISH NIGHT PART 1

Have you ever been to a Turkish Night?
If you haven't, this post will give you an idea.
Turkish Night is all about food, dance and having fun.

In Turkey, Turkish Nights are big tourist attractions. Almost every touristic site throws a Turkish Night party at least once a week. They serve Turkish food with folkloric costumes with traditional music. Also, it is not a Turkish Night unless there is belly dancing.:)

There is a small tour of my country I added photos of our famous places, our restaurants and some shopping places and also you can watch one of our famous Turkish dance show, too. :)

We have a rich variety of recipes coming from all around the country.
Here comes the food!
I hope you will enjoy.

Blog name: Illede Yemek
From: Istanbul
Name of dish: Carsaf Boregi
Main ingredients: Flour, water, olive oil and for the filling cheese...
For the full recipe, please email me.

Blog name: Mutfakta Hos Seda

From: Istanbul
Name of dish: Kofteşir

Main ingredients: Dried crushed wheat(Bulgur), meat, yogurt with garlic...
For the full recipe, please email me.

Blog name: Ananenin Kuzusu
From: Istanbul

Name of dish: 1.Badem Corbası, 2.Coven Kremalı Kerebic,

Main ingredients: 1. Flour, almond, milk, water of meat, basil, spices...2.Coven herbal, confectioner's sugar, butter, flour, pistachio

For the full recipes, please email me.

Blog name: Binbir Cesni
From: Kocaeli Gebze
Names of dish: 1 Mualle, 2 Dogaba

Main ingredients:1. Eggplant, green lentil, tomato, onion, green pepper, garlic

2. wheat, meat, yogurt for the meatball; ground beef, rise, spices...
For the full recipes, please email me

Blog name: Yeşimce Yemek
From: Izmir

Name of dish: El acması borek

Main ingredients: Flour, water, olive oil for the filling herbal, cheese...
For the full recipe, please email me.

Blog name: Bahar Cicegi
From: Kayseri

Name of dish: 1.Karnıyarık, 2.Zeytinyaglı yaprak sarması

Main ingredients: 1.Eggplant,onion, ground beef, tomato paste (Turkish Salca), spices...

2. Grape leaf rolls (vegetarian): grape leaves, rise, onion, raisin, spices...
For the full recipe, please email me.

Blog name: Burçin'in Denemeleri
From: Istanbul

Name of dish: Sütlaç

Main ingredients: Rise, sugar, vanilla, milk and water
For the full recipe, please email me.

Thank you very much for all your recipes...
note: My email address is yamantarifleratgmail.com

TURKISH NIGHT PART 2

Blog name:Sofra Ozlemi
From: Istanbul

Name of dish: "Islama"

Main ingredients: Chicken, pyhllo dough, butter
For the full recipe, please email me.

Blog name: Selince
From: Izmit

Name of dish: "Zeytinyagli top tabak dolmasi"

Please check her blog she has an english recipe of the dish.

Blog name: Leziz Ozlem
From: Istanbul

Name of dish: 1 Sutlac, ayva tatlisi

Main ingredients: 1 Rise, sugar, vanilla, milk and water, 2 quince,sugar
For the full recipe, please email me.

Blog name: Lezzet Duragı
From: Istanbul

Name of dish: Pabucaki

Main ingredients: Eggplants, egg, tomato, onion, cheese...
For the full recipe, please email me.

Blog name: hashaslicorek
From: Kocaeli

Name of dish: Kete

Main ingredients: Flour, milk, water, yeast, salt
For the full recipe, please email me.

Blog name: "Işıl ışıl tatlar"
From: Ankara

Name of dish: Asure

Main ingredients: milk, wheat, chickpea, bean, sugar, rose water, dried fruit...
For the full recipe, please email me.

Blog name: hayatintatlari
From: Istanbul

Name of dish: Sacaklı

Main ingredients: chicken breasts, egg, flour, water,
For the full recipe, please email me.

Blog name: Yaman mutfak
From: Istanbul

Name of dish: Fırın sutlac

Main ingredients: Rise, sugar, vanilla, milk and water
For the full recipe, please email me.

Blog name: Almura,
From: Izmir

Name of dish: Bamya

Main ingredients: Okra, beef, onion, tomato, lemon juice...
For the full recipe, please email me.

Thank you very much for all your recipes...
note: My email address is yamantarifleratgmail.com
List of illustrations: İstanbul Fotoğrafları, Maxionline, Kocaeli Resimleri, Kayseri,
Ankara Ata Kule, Şirince,

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!

Nisasta Kurabiyesi (Starch Cookies)

I made these cookies for the foodie blog event between Turkish food bloggers. These cookies have a funny story. I ate these cookie in my sister's house. Every summer, my sister cooks these cookies and we eat them during the tea-cookie time (5pm is the traditional tea-cookie time in Turkey :) ). Then, when our friend announced the May's event as a cookie event, these starch cookies are the only ones that I wanted to cook.

Thanks God, I cook them like my sister. Both the appearance and the taste are exactly the same. I don't know the name of the cookies so I just entitled it as starch cookies. After I posted the recipe, my aunt called me and told me the real name of these cookies: wife silencer or mother in law silencer :)))) The reason is that if you try to eat these cookies alone, without coffee or tea or anything liquid, you might be choked because of the starch. You know the contention between the bride and the mother in law is classic in almost every culture. So, the brides that want their mother in laws to be shut up, they can cook these cookies and serve them without any drink :) Of course it is just a small joke, but who knows may be one day you need something like that, huh?

Ingredients:
2 sticks unsweetened butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 all purpose flour
1 package of baking powder
3-4 cups corn starch

Method:

1. Butter should be at room temperature, so take them out of the refrigerator at least 1/2 hours before starting. Mix butter and powdered sugar in a large bowl.

2. Break the eggs into butter-sugar mixture and mix them.

3. Add flour and baking powder, and mix.

4. First add 2 cups of starch. Then add 1/2 cups each time until you get a cookie dough that is not sticky. To understand if the starch is enough, take a small pieces of dough into your hand. If dough does not stick to your hand, it means your dough is ready.

5. Take small pieces into your hand at a size of golf ball. Roll up between the palms of your hands and make balls.

6. Lay baking sheets and put the balls onto the sheet.

7. Cook them in the preheated oven (330F) until their surface become pink.

8. Serve them cool with a coffee or tea. Don't forget the drink, otherwise you couldn't be able to swallow even a bite :)

Enjoy!

Turkish Night

Hi everyone!

I just would like to let you all know that I will have a "Turkish Night" event in my Turkish cooking blog on 30 August 07. After that day I am going to carry all the delicious Turkish food here in English.
So you can check many pictures and recipes from here.
What do you have to do? It is very simple only come over on 1st of September and enjoy our "Turkish Night".

And also there would be a small tour of my country I will add photos of our famous places, our restaurants and some shopping places and also one of our Turkish music which is adapted into many language. :)

I hope everything goes well and we can meet here. If you have some Turkish recipe you are welcome to share it with us by sending it to yamantarifler@gmail.com

Please don't miss the Turkish Night!

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.

Yalanci Tavuk Gogsu (Fake Chicken Breast Pudding)

Finally, we're in foodie blogroll :) If you haven't heard about the blogroll, I strongly recommend you to visit JennDZ's blog and read this post. This blogroll's aim is helping foodies find each other on the web. Also she opened a forum, so you can visit and share your recipes with others :) I think, she did a great job. You can find this blogroll on the left hand side of our blog :)Thanks again!

Now, it is time to give a new recipe :) In Turkish cuisine, one can find plenty of desserts that are made of milk. Personally, I love this type of desserts, especially sutlac (this is another dessert, hopefully we'll give its recipe soon). The name of this dessert is Tavuk Gogsu which means, literally, chicken breast. The original of this pudding contains some chicken breast. It sounds weird, doesn't it? But it is not. Actually, you don't taste the chicken because chicken breast is cooked very well, and it is cut into very small pieces (like smashed into fibers). The originality of this pudding comes from the fiber of the chicken breast. When you try to put some pudding into your spoon, you will see the fibers. But, I cook this pudding without chicken breast which makes it fake :) (like fake manti :))

Ingredients:

2 1/2 tbs unsweetened butter
1 cup of all purpose flour
0.26 gal milk (1 lt milk)
1 1/2 cups of sugar

Method:

Put the butter into a pan and melt it. Then pour the flour into pan and roast it until its color changes to yellowish-brownish color. Then add sugar and mix it. Begin to add some milk while stirring the mixture with a hand mixer. Do not add the entire milk at the same time, try to pour little milk each time. Also, you need to stir it all the time. If not, the mixture will get lumpy. After you add the entire milk and the mixture boils, take the pan away from oven. Stir the pudding with an electrical mixer for about at least 5 minutes. You will see that the pudding becomes smooth. By the way, don't worry if despite all of your effort the mixture gets lumpy. The mixture will become smooth after this stirring procedure. In the end, pour the pudding into a pyrex (or oven proof glass pan) and cool it down. Pour some cinnamon at the top and refrigerate it over night. The pudding is ready to serve :) 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!

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.