REDDEST FRESH DRINK OF THE WEEKEND!

My husband and I have this weekly habit of going to the open air market which is every saturday. This year, we did not have the feeling of proper spring. It is still fresh outside, the number of the bright days are few so far. People are complaining and they are getting depressed!!! I have to think the grey if not dark and rainy days in Belgium and the times that I was happy for a couple days of sunshine! Then I stop complaining. :-)


We are just back from the market; the stalls start to show the generousity of the mother nature: strawberries, black berries, greengages, loquats are colouring our kitchens; rocket, purslane, coariander, purple and green basil, mint...they are getting tastier and tastier! The plants I should not forget too! The vegetables, the grains...! Rapacious I get when I think of what to get and how much to get for the entire week! Thanks to these open air markets, I get vegetables, plants, etc seldom from the supermarkets. Not that they are not as good than in the open air markets, it is also the whole experience in the open air market that makes you go there!!


After the bazaar, we spoiled ourselves with a glass of fruit juice made from strawberries and black berries! Delicious!


Cheers guys,

strawberries and black berries mix

SOUR AND HOT SPINACH ROOTS WITH GREEN LENTIL AND CHICKPEAS

(English text is below. Türkçe tarif için burayi tiklayin)

In Belgium, I used to buy spinach in plastic bags of 500 grams and washed. The only thing I needed to do was to open the bag and do whatever I want to do with it. Here in Turkey, the spinach that you bought from the open air market will be with its roots. And you have to clean them yourself. Most of the people that I know throw away the spinach roots that they’ve cut off from the spinach with their organic waste. 

But here’s one yummy and quick recipe with spinach roots that I got to learn from my mother. It is not something that I am used to from my mother’s kitchen though; it’s only recently that my mother got this recipe from a friend of hers. And when she made us try the dish, we could only appreciate the success of the recipe! I noticed only then that in the supermarkets, you have these roots in bags. So, it is not only when I want to use the roots I cut off from the spinach that I make this dish. When I feel like it, there are these bags of 500 grams or so. 

You may say that you don’t want to have spinach and its side products in a row of days, then the roots you can keep a few days in a box. I haven’t tried to freeze them yet; but if one day I try; I’ll also let you know! 

Below is the recipe. I added pepper and carrot too, but the original recipe doesn’t include these two ingredients. You are free to add them or not. This time I forgot to boil lentil but that’s not too bad either. If you say, “oh, my dish won’t be perfect without lentil”, you could still boil and add them to the dish later on. 

One more thing that I’d like to say: we like to make things sour sometimes. A bowl of lentil soup? We add a few drops of lemon juice. We make bulgur salad called “Kısır” and to it we add a few drops of lemon juice. The main salad dressing in Turkey is a mixture of olive oil, salt and of course lemon juice. I observed from my Belgian husband and Belgian family or friends that sour is not very much liked there. With this recipe, you can limit the amount of lemon juice to try if you haven’t yet or totally disregard it. What makes the recipe hot is the red pepper paste that I use. If the dish is a bit hot, it's also very nice!

Ingredients (Serves 2 small plates)

200 grams spinach roots; carefully washed and drained

spinach roots, washed and drained

Half a glass of chickpeas, boiled and drained

2 spoons of lentil, boiled and drained

1 desert spoon tomato and red pepper paste (two types of “salça” as we call them)

1 small onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped (the original recipe does not include pepper, however I added some and it’s still nice with it)

Half a carrot, sliced thin (see comment above for the pepper)

onion, carrot, pepper and salça (tomato paste)

 



2-3 spoons olive oil

Juice of half a lemon
Half a glass of warm water

Salt to your liking

Method:

1. Sauté the chopped onion on medium fire for about 2 minutes.
2. Add the pepper and the carrots and stir for 2 minutes
3. Add the paste and stir for 2 to 3 minutes till the paste lost its smell.
4. Add the lentil and the chickpeas. Bring to low fire, stir a few times.
5. Add the spinach roots.  Add the lemon juice. Add the water. Close the lid. 10 to 15 minutes should be enough.

Ready to cook for 10 to 15 minutes

The dish is ready when you think your spinach roots are ready (depending on how soft you like them)

happy ending!!!

Enjoy!!! 

 

GREEN ALMOND AND FAVA BEANS DISH WITH YOGHURT

(CAGLALI BAKLALI AS)

We are now April and we see the green almonds in the local markets. So green, so juicy and so bitter sweet! Some people eat it raw just like that and in Anatolia some make a soup like dish with yoghurt and with the green almonds. In my family, I’ve never seen this dish cooked before, so I browsed the internet for recipes.

Yes, this recipe is based on yoghurt and we will cook the yoghurt! In Turkey, yoghurt is consumed a lot! We eat it with almost anything: at the side of a vegetable dish; or cacık (tzatziki) with different ingredients (cucumber or carrots, to name a few), or yoghurt based meze’s, or we even make soup of yoghurt! Cold yoghurt soup in summer and warm yoghurt soup in winter!  For that, we use strained yoghurt. That’s the yoghurt that they drain by the help of cloth bags hung. By this, the yoghurt gets sourer in taste and it becomes quite thick in texture. We make drink of it too (called “ayran”). When somebody fainted, or had low blood pressure all of a sudden, you see people running to grab the yoghurt drink. In factories, the blue collars are served yoghurt drink every day.

For a few weeks, we also see the fava beans on the stalls. My husband does not like it very much if I sauté the beans with some onion and mix it with fresh dill (quite simple and common recipe for fava beans here). A few weeks ago, when my friend and I were strolling on the big Bağdat Avenue; we got quite hungry and tried this authentic Anatolian cuisine. There, we both tried yoghurt soup with fava beans and lambs meat. So, that’s yet another variation of yoghurt soup we have in Anatolia. Good to know! 

As my recipe includes both green almonds and fava beans, you can imagine I got a bit inspired. I had no clue if these flavors would be nice together. But, I could honestly say, it was a successful one!

As my husband doesn’t like fava beans, I could not be generous in the amount that I’ve used. If you prefer, you can add more fava beans and less green almonds. Or you can choose between green almonds or fava beans depending on what you like. The method remains the same as the rest of the ingredients. I don’t remember that I have seen fava beans in the big supermarkets in Belgium, but surely in the Turkish markets. I don’t remember having seen any green almonds. Ummm…

Ingredients: (Serves 4 to 6 people)

100 grams of green almonds, cut into halves 

green almonds cut into halves

50 grams of fava beans, cut into small blocks

fava beans

150 grams of lamb meat, cut in cubes

meat cut into cubes

Half a glass of chickpeas, boiled

2 glasses of cold water

3-4 fresh onions, cut into 1.5 cm pieces

250 grams of strained yoghurt

1 egg

1 table spoon flour

3 glasses of hot water

False saffron

Butter

Method:

1. Heat a pot and throw the lamb meat in it. Roast the meat till they release their water and soak it again. 
2. When the meat is cooking, you can work with the yoghurt. Add the cold water to the yoghurt and mix till creamy and soft. Then add the flour and break the egg in it. It is very important that this mixture is evenly mixed so I prefer to mix it by the help of the blender. 
3. After the meat soaks its water, add 2 glasses of warm water to the pot, and continue cooking until the meat is soft (a few minutes should be enough). Add the green almonds and the fava beans and add the rest of the hot water. Cook until the vegetables get soft. Then add the chickpeas and cook for a couple of more minutes. 
4. Time to cook the yoghurt. This is a process in which you have to be very careful otherwise the yoghurt will lose its even texture. We will pour the yoghurt mixture in a pan and heat the pan in low heat. We will continuously stir the yoghurt mixture until it boils and this always following the same direction. Otherwise you will lose the creamy texture. When the mixture boils, you can turn off the fire (see picture below)
5. Another step that we will have to be careful about is that when we add the yoghurt mixture to the vegetable and meat that we cooked. It is all about to have a nice texture with the yoghurt! But, before you start with this, add the spring onions to the meat (see picture below)
6. Before you pour the yoghurt mixture into the pot with the meat and the vegetables, add a spoon of the broth to the yoghurt mixture and mix it well. You can do this a couple of times. And then you pour the yoghurt mixture into the pot with the meat and the vegetables. Don’t forget to stir fast when you do that!
7. Now, you can add the salt to your liking.
8. The last step is about the decoration: for that we heat a saucepan and melt the butter in it. Then add the false saffron and fry it a bit. This you can pour it on the dish.

Tell me if you liked this dish! I hope you did!!!

Giggles,

Ceren

step 4

step 5

happy ending!!!

ABOUT

Hello everybody! 

Welcome to my blog! 

This is a blog about good food made in my kitchen. If you are located in Turkey, and if you want to discover the Turkish home cooking, I think this blog will be helpful for you! Or if you are in Turkey, and you want to get a bit of international hints, I think you will enjoy this blog as well! 

My name is Ceren and I currently I live in Istanbul, Turkey. I say ‘currently’ because my husband and I have moved from Ghent (Belgium) to Istanbul back in 2010 as my husband was assigned to a new position here as an expat. Our life as an expat family in Istanbul has been quite smooth so far. We do not feel like aliens here. This is mainly thanks to the fact that I am from Istanbul myself: I was born in Istanbul and I spent my entire life in this beautiful city until I graduated from the university. I met my husband here, a Belgian tourist in Istanbul back then, in the warm and beautiful summer of 2003. Madly in love, I moved to Belgium to be together with him.

Over the years, the geographies that I’ve been to might have changed, but one thing remained the same: the love and passion for cooking good food and sharing it with the people who are dear to me! 

I have been lucky to discover various ingredients and recipes from all over the world over the years. Especially, the years in Belgium have been quite informative and inspiring for this young Turkish girl. It is in Belgium that I was acquainted with cuisine of all sorts and ingredients (vegetables, fruits, spices…all you want) from all over the world. In Flanders, people are quite modest to think that there is nothing so special about their kitchen (they’d usually say “what is there else than steak and fries?”) but I believe that they are underestimating their appreciation to good food and even gourmet food! The restaurants in Belgium will never disappoint you (okay, you may think that I am talking in big words here; but I can’t really think one that was disappointing) with how they combine various ingredients and how they serve and of course how the food tastes. 

And to talk about Turkey, we have a very long and mixed tradition of food here. I am disappointed in a sense to see that the Turkish kitchen is popularized with the kebabs and sorts but there is much more to taste! As there is much to discover (and especially vegetarian!), the Turkish kitchen as I know it is also quite simple but efficient. I am talking about the Anatolian country style home cooking though. 

There are sometimes differences in the consumption and in the way of preparation in Turkey than in Europe: The consumption is of the seasonal products that are produced locally. When you go to the bazaar in the summer, you might not find oranges - but don’t you worry, because you will be amazed how rich this land is! The imported vegetables and fruits are seldom to see as these that were imported back in the day could also be produced locally (such as kiwis). 

The preparation is usually so simple without much acrobatics in the kitchen that you almost think it is nothing special. Personally I think it is in a way that the nature has spoiled us: the vegetables, the fruit, and the grains,… – they are so tasty that you don’t have to put much effort to make them tasty!

My aim with this blog is not necessarily to try and prepare very difficult dishes of which you don’t know where to get the ingredients from or for which you have to spend hours in the kitchen. I love good food but I also like to keep it simple and efficient in my own kitchen. Therefore, the recipes I’ll post here will be food I’ve prepared at home for myself and my husband, for my friends or family. The recipes I usually get to learn from cooking books, magazines, from my family, from friends, from a restaurant that I’ve been to. It is not rare that I also change the recipes to my own liking; I never got anybody complaining so far so I trust the inspiration and creativity I have in the kitchen as well!

 

I hope you enjoy and I hope I could be any help for you to enjoy what you made for yourself and/or for your beloved ones!

Hugs and giggles,

Ceren