İNCASİYE (DRIED PRUNES STEW WITH GRAPE MOLASSES)

(Recipe in English is below. Pekmezli erik yahnisi tarifi için burayi tiklayin)

Recipe from Mardin. Found it on a turkish food magazine! It is quite delicious and special!

Ingredients: (serves 3 – 4)

300 gr. veal, cubed

8 – 10 dried prunes (pitted will of course be better but I had unpitted and we didn’t make it such a problem to take the pits out with the help of our knives while eating it)

1 medium size onion, chopped

2 spoons olive oil

1 desert spoon of red pepper paste (biber salçasi in Turkish)

Half a glass – 1 glass of chickpeas, boiled

1 spoon of grape molasses

3 + 1 glasses of warm water

Method:

1. Soak the veal in one glass of water and cook it until it is soft. Keep the broth and the meat seperate.
2. Sauté the onions and the meat in the olive oil for 3 – 4 minutes.
3. Add the chickpeas, red pepper paste and the dried prunes.
4. Add the broth and one glass warm water and cook until it boils. After it boiled, bring it to low fire and continue cooking for 10 more minutes. If the meat soaked the water you added, add one more glass of hot water and cook it till it boils.  
5. Add the grape molasses and salt to your liking. Let it rest for sometime.

dried prunes stew with grape molasses

TABBOULEH INSPIRED BULGUR SALAD

(The recipe in English is below. Türkçe tabuleh tarifi için burayi tiklayin)

In Turkey, we have this boulghur salad that we call “kisir”. It is consumed as one of the other things on meze table. I think it is a variation to the middle eastern Tabbouleh (which has tomato, cucumber, onion and a lot of parsley as well as lemon juice to make it sour). I remember having seen two other variations to tabbouleh: one in a vegetarian belgian cookbook, and the other in a turkish food magazine. The vegetarian recipe included also raisins, and it was very nice combination. The one in the Turkish food magazine was the recipe from Syria and it included pommegranate arils. Anyways, my recipe is something between the Turkish and middle eastern version of bulghur salad and you know what – it is still delicious!!!

Ingredients (Serves 2 – 3)

8 spoons of bulgur

3 – 4 fresh onion, chopped fine

A bit less than half a bundle of parsley, chopped fine

One small green pepper, chopped fine (optional)
3 - 4 leaves of lettuce, chopped fine 
1 - 2 tomatoes, pureed in the food processor

A handful of walnuts, chopped fine

1 drop of somac syrup (you gotta be very careful with this as it is extremely sour – if you don’t have this you can replace it with somac)

3 – 4 spoons of pommegranate syrup

Juice of half a lemon

isot pepper (urfa red peppers)

boiling water just enough to cover the bulgur

olive oil and salt to taste

Method:

1. Soak the bulgur into the boiling water and let it rest a couple of minutes covered until the bulgur is soft.
2. Add all the ingredients and mix. 

tabbouleh inspired bulgur salad

PATIENCE DOCK

(English recipe is below. Labada tarifi için burayi tiklayin)

This recipe I posted back in  May 2011 but when I wanted to add the link to the turkish recipe, the recipe appears under February 2012 instead of May 2011. In February you don't find patience dock in the markets, FYI.


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(LABADA)

I am right back from the kitchen to tell you about this new plant dish that I’ve tried! This is something I’ve seen in the open market last Saturday. Happy to discover yet another plant that Mother Nature has offered us and that is prepared in the Anatolian kitchen. 

patience dock

I have to admit that I’ve cheated with this one though. The most common recipe with the patience dock is that they make “dolma” with it (grape leaves stuffed with rice and herbs). I also saw a few recipes of ravioli and pasta. I was impatient and, okay, lazy too so I just chopped the leaves and cooked it with onion and bulgur and spiced it to my own liking. The amount of bulgur is a bit more than what I usually add, but I wanted it to be tasting also more like dolma :-)

Ingredients:

Half a kilo patience dock, chopped

patience dock, chopped

1 big onion, chopped

3 spoons of olive oil

A spoon of tomato paste (called salça in Turkish)

Half a glass of chickpeas, boiled

3 spoons of bulgur

2 glasses of warm water

Half a glass of stock

Flaked red pepper to your liking

Dried mint to your liking

Somak to your liking

Juice of half a lemon

Method:

1. Sauté the onion in the olive oil. Add the tomato paste and sauté some more.
2. Add the boiled chickpeas.
3. Add the patience dock. Add the bulgur and the water and the lemon juice.
4. After it is cooked, add the spices and salt. 

step 2

step 3

happy ending!!!

The result is just awesome! The bit of sourness thanks to the lemon juice and somak, the amount of bulgur, the dried mint - everything is just so well in proportion. Yay!!