TURKISH LENTIL SOUP

(Text in English is below. Türkçe tariff için burayi tiklayin)

This one is a real classic. Delicious yet so simple. 

Ingredients (serves 6 – 8 people):

1 glass of red lentil, washed and drained

1 medium onion, grated

1 small potato, grated

2 spoons of butter, 1 drop of olive oil

1 desert spoon of thick tomato paste (Turkish salça)

6 – 7 glasses of hot water (depending on how thick you would like your soup to be)

Spices to your liking: cumin, laurel, pepper, grounded red pepper

Juice of half a lemon (add more if you like sour)

Method:

1. Sauté the onions in the butter and olive oil for two minutes.
2. Add the salça and continue sautéing for a minute.
3. Add the potato, continue sautéing for a minute.
4. Add the lentil, the warm water, laurel (optional), lemon juice and boil till all the ingredients are soft, lost shape and mixed.
5. Once cooked, add the salt and the rest of the spices to your liking.

 

turkish lentil soup

CHEESECAKE WITH SOUR CHERRY TOPPING

(Text in English is below. Türkçe tariff için burayi tiklayin)

Ingredients: (8 – 10 people)

For the bottom:

2 packages of oat cookies, grinded until fine crumbs

50 grams of butter, molten

2 spoons of milk

For the cheesecake dough:

400 grams of labneh cheese

4 eggs, egg white and yolk are separated

50 ml of sour cream

2 espresso cups of powder sugar

For the topping:

Half a kilo sour cherries, pitted

2 spoons of sugar

1.5 glasses of sour cherry juice

1 glass of water

2 spoons of wheat or rice flour

Method:

1. Preheat the oven at 160 degrees.
2. For the bottom, add the cookie crumbs and the butter and mix well. Then add the milk and continue mixing. Pour the mixture into a spring form mould (that doesn’t need to be buttered) and put it in the deepfreeze.
3. For the cheesecake dough, mix the egg whites with a pinch of salt until the mixture is like white foam.
4. In a separate deep bowl, mix the egg yolk with the cream and the powder sugar.  When mixed, add the labneh cheese and continue mixing.
5. Pour the white foam mixture into the cheese mixture and whisk.
6. Take the spring form mould from the deepfreeze and pour the cheese mixture on the cheesecake bottom.
7. Bake in the oven for at least 45 minutes in a preheated oven at 160 degrees. The top of the cake must turn into light brown colour. Check if the filling is baked well with the help of a toothpick. If not ready yet, continue baking. When ready, set it aside to cool.
8. For the topping, in a large skillet, combine cherries and 2 tablespoons sugar. Boil over high heat until liquid is thick and syrupy. It will take 10 to 15 minutes.  Set the sour cherries aside. Pour the water and the sour cherry juice into the skillet. Add the rice flour and mix well. Cook until the liquid becomes thick like pudding. Mix with the sour cherries. Set aside to cool.
9. When the cake and the topping are cool enough, top the cake with the topping. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours.

step 6

step 7

step 8 - cooking the cherries

step 8 - cooking the pudding

step 9 - cheesecake ready to be refrigrated

cheesecake with sour cherry topping

a slice of cheesecake with sour cherry topping

PAKISTANI GINGER CHICKEN

(For the recipe please click here. Türkçe tarif için burayi tiklayin) 

I found this recipe here while surfing the internet and thought it would be a great way to use the fresh ginger and coriander that I had in the kitchen. I think it is a great recipe but I replaced some of the ingredients with other things as I didn’t have them at home: I didn’t have turmeric, so I used false saffron instead; and I didn’t have coriander powder, so I chopped the stem of the fresh coriander instead. 

It is really delicious; my husband thanked me for being such a good cook whoohoo :-)

pakistani ginger chicken

pakistani ginger chicken

MINIATURE MEATBALLS IN SOUR CREAMY VEGETABLE SAUCE

TURKISH MEATBALLS IN SOUR CREAMY SAUCE

(Text in English is below. Tarifin Türkçe versiyonu için buraya tiklayin)

Hello everybody!

I am proudly posting this delicious winter dish! It is also like soup – one of those where you will only have a rich and filling soup for the dinner!

The vegetables are not pureed nor taken out of the water once they leave their taste in it. This way it is a bit different than the European kitchen, I know, but give it a try this way as it is quite healthy to consume vegetables swimming in water as well :P It is also sour and I know that Europeans are not fond of sour stuff very much, but hey you can decide how sour you make it!

Anyway, it is a traditional Turkish home recipe again; however, I added a few more vegetables and changed a few things here and there. I think it is better this way :-)

 

I suggest you give this delicious dish a try! You won’t regret it!!! 

It is warm, it is juicy and it is delicious - what else you'd want, eh? :-)

Ingredients (serves 4 – 6)

300 grams of minced meat

1 medium sized onion, grated

4 – 5 leaves of parsley, finely chopped

2 spoons of rice or fine bulgur (bulgur is quicker to cook)

1 medium sized carrot, grated

1 green celery (or less, if you have some left in your fridge from another kitchen adventure!), stalks and leaves separated from each other, the stalks are cubed and the leaves are chopped fine

1 medium sized potato, cut in small cubes

4 spoons of strained yoghurt (or Greek style yoghurt)

1 egg

1 spoon of flour

Juice of 1 lemon (or you can use lemon salt to your liking)

Salt and pepper to your liking

10 glasses of warm water 

Method:

1. Boil the carrots and the cubed celery stalks in 4 – 5 glasses of warm water. When it starts to boil, reduce the heat to the lowest.
2. While the carrots and celery is boiling, prepare the meatballs: mix the minced meat, the parsley, the fine bulgur (or the rice), salt and pepper very well. Make balls a bit bigger than nuts and a bit smaller than walnuts :-) ) each time you make a meatball, you can soak your fingers in water before and then give the meatball shape – it will go smoother!
3. When the meatballs are ready, add them to the carrot and celery mixture. Add 4 – 5 glasses of warm water and let it cook on low fire. The meatballs should be ready in a few minutes. But in case you used rice, you can cook them a few minutes more until the rice is soft enough.
4. Add the potato cubes and continue boiling for 3 – 4 minutes more.
5. Add the celery leaves and continue boiling for 3 – 4 minutes more. When it boils, reduce the heat.
6. For the sour creamy sauce, take the strained yoghurt to a bowl, break the egg in it, and add the flour and the lemon juice. By the help of your blender, whisk it very well into a creamy texture. It is very important at this step that you mix these ingredients very well.
7. Once the sauce is ready, take one ladle of juice from the pot with the kofte and add it to the creamy sauce and whisk it very well! Do this 1 or 2 times more.
8. Add the creamy sauce into the kofte and mix it very well! Let it cook for 2 – 3 minutes more until you see signs of boiling and turn off the fire. Add salt to your liking and mix well. 

Enjoy!!!!

meatballs in sour creamy vegetable sauce