CRUNCHY YOGURT DESSERT WITH BLACK MULBERRIES

(Recipe in English is below. Karadutlu yogurt tatlisi tarifi için burayi tiklayin)

It is something that I make for myself when I am desperate for some quick dessert. I just love it (though my husband does not like it at all :p) and I keep making it. I decided to post it because I think simple yet delicious recipes should be shared! 

Ingredients (for 1 person)

1 bowl of black mulberries, washed

black mulberries, looking good, tasting great!

1 small package of vanilin sugar (5 gr packages of Dr. Oetker – you can add as much as you like)

3 – 4 spoons of strained yoghurt (or greek yoghurt)

2 – 3 spoons of milk

4 spoons of cornflakes with red fruit

Method:

1. Mix the yoghurt, the milk and the vanilin sugar.
2. Take a big glass; add one spoon of cornflakes, then a few black mulberries on top and then some yoghurt. Continue with this process until your glass is full. I never have the patience to do so but I believe storing in the fridge before serving the dessert would work out fine as well!

Step 1

crunchy yoghurt dessert with black mulberries

crunchy yoghurt dessert with black mulberries

 

PURSLANE AND LENTIL SALAD WITH HALLOUMI AND SLICES OF PEAR

(Recipe in English is below. Mercimekli semizotu salatasi (hellim peyniri ile) tarifi için burayi tiklayin)

I love purslane! It never disappoints, never! In Turkey we make yoghurt dip with purslane, or green salad with purslane or purslane dish with chickpeas and some garlic. All delicious! 

This time I wanted to make something different with purslane; so I created this delicious salad! I found it delicious indeed and my husband could only agree – that’s why I decided to post it! Hope you will enjoy it as much as we did! 

Ingredients (Serves 2)

The leaves of ¾ of a bundle of purslane (or simply said: purslane as much as you want :p )

2 cups of lentil, soaked in water the day before and boiled

2 spoons of balsamic vinegar

2 spoons of pomegranate syrup (optional)

150 gr halloumi cheese, sliced

8 slices of pear (I peeled off the skin)

A handful of walnuts

A handful of dried cranberries

2 spoons of olive oil

Note: as the halloumi is quite salty kind of cheese, I do not add extra salt to the salad.

Method:

1. Share the purslane leaves into the salad bowls.
2. Add 5 spoons of the boiled lentil in each bowl and mix with the purslane leaves.
3. Mix the balsamic vinegar with the pomegranate syrup and pour over the purslane mix.
4. Garnish with the pear slices (4 slices to each bowl), the rest of the lentil, the walnuts and the dried cranberries.
5. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and fry the halloumi on low fire. I like them golden-brown. Alternatively, you can grill the cheese! Share the cheese into the salad and serve!

Step 5

the very delicious purslane and lentil salad with halloumi

the very delicious purslane and lentil salad with halloumi

 

BEANS WITH FENNEL

(Recipe in English is below. Arapsaçli kuru fasülye tarifi için burayi tiklayin)

Quite easy. Quite tasty. Quite healthy as well! 

bundel of fennel I bought from the bazaar

Ingredients (serves 4 – 5)

300 – 400 gr beans, soak them in water the night before. 

1 bundle of fennel foliage, the hard and old stalks and leaves cleaned, cut into 2 – 3 

fennel, cleaned

1 big onion, cubed

2 tomatos, peeled and cubed

1 spoon of tomato paste (optional)

1 spoon of olive oil (you can use more if you like)

2.5 – 3 cups of warm water

Salt

Method:

1. Drain the beans and boil them until they are soft. I boiled the beans for half an hour but I think the beans I had were a bit old; therefore some of them came apart and some were still not that soft.
2. Warm the olive oil in a pan and saute the onions on warm heat.
3. Add the tomatoes that you cubed and saute for five minutes more.
4. Add the warm water, close the lid and let the water boil.
5. When the water boils, add the fennel foliage and cook for 5 minutes more.
6. Add the beans and the salt ; cook for 15 minutes more. 

Step 1

Step 3

Step 5

Step 6

Beans with fennel

Beans with fennel

ARABIAN CACIK (ARABIAN TZATZIKI)

(Recipe in English is below. Arap cacigi tarifi için burayi tiklayin)

Here in Istanbul, there is a kebab restaurant that we visit every now and then. There they serve this meze which they call “Arap cacığı” (Arabian Cacik) - something we like! I am not sure anymore how they prepared it but this did not stop me from trying their Arabian cacik at home! So I am not sure what they call Arabian cacik is the same as mine, but who cares? I can assure you that what I made at home had this mild taste that was really good and accompanied the vegetable dish that I made very well! I think you can serve this cacik next to anything!  

The restaurant serves their cacik with tiny bulgur balls that are fried. I had some bulgur balls in my deepfreeze from the other day that I made some bulgur balls in sour sauce (click here for the recipe). I had put them already boiled, so the only thing I did with them was to defreeze them in the microwave. If you don’t have any bulgur balls available at hand, you can try to serve this yoghurt meze with meatballs or so as well. Or just omit the bulgur balls! I think it will still be very tasty!

Ingredients (makes 1 small plate of mezze)

1 courgette, in small cubes

I cubed the courgette

3 – 4 spoons of strained yoghurt (or greek yoghurt)

Coriander / cilantro, as much as you like, chopped fine (I added as much as seen in the picture but I really love coriander and cannot get enough of it! But if you do not want the strong taste of coriander dominating every other taste so much, then I suggest you to add much less than the amount as in the picture!)

coriander

As many bulgur balls as to spread over the meze plate (10 - 12 of them if they are as big as mine) For the recipe of bulgur balls you can click here

1 – 2 cloves of garlic, crushed

Salt

Method:

1. Steam-cook the courgette cubes for about 10 – 15 minutes.  Set aside to cool down.
2. Distill the strained yoghurt with water to your taste. Add the crushed garlic, the coriander and the salt and mix.
3. When the courgette cubes cooled down a bit, mix them into the yoghurt mixture.
4. Garnish with the bulgur balls and serve.

Step 1 - I steam-cooked the courgette in cubes

Arabian cacik

Arabian cacik

 

MALLOW WITH SPINACH AND MINCED MEAT

(Recipe in English is below. Kiymali ispanakli ebegümeci tarifi için burayi tiklayin.)

Finally the old guy who sells all sorts of herbs and legumes is back in the bazaar! That means that the season is on! This week I bought some dock, some fennel foliage and something I’ve not tried before: mallow!

a bundle of mallow

mallow

I am hoping to make the fennel foliage with some beans. If I am not too lazy, I am hoping to make filled dock this time.

As it is the first time that I used mallow in my kitchen, I would like to note the following: In my cooking book, the way to clean and process the stalks of the mallow seemed a bit too long for me. If the end parts of the stalks that look like Y are too thick, then they are not desirable and are advised to be peeled off or chopped off. I didn’t peel of anything, to be really honest, and neither did I throw away the too thick Y-looking-like ends of the stems. Instead, I separated the stalks and the leaves and I steam-cooked the stalks in my pressure cooker. But after 10 minutes of steam cooking, I noticed that the stalks are indeed hard, and I continued to steam-cook the stalks some 10 – 15 minutes more.

In my cooking book, the recipe did not include any spinach. However I had some at hand which needed to be consumed as soon as possible. Adding spinach is also a good idea if it is the first time you’ll taste mallow and you don’t know what to expect of the taste! Smooth first-encounter! 

I am very very happy with the result! What I cooked tasted delicious, and I am looking forward to cooking some more mallow soon when it is still the season and when the plant is apparently so healthy! Needless to say, it tastes 1000x more delicious with some yoghurt and garlic sauce!!!

Ingredients (serves 4 – 5)

1 bundle of mallow, washed very well; stalks and leaves separated and chopped roughly

I seperated the leaves and the stalks of the mallow

I seperated the leaves and the stalks of the mallow

mallow leaves

mallow stalks - I chopped them roughly

200 – 300 grams of spinach, washed well, and chopped roughly

1 big onion, cubed

150 – 200 grams of minced meat

2 spoons of bulgur (can substitute with rice, but count in that the rice cooks slower than the bulgur so I suggest you soak the rice in water a few minutes beforehand)

2 – 3 spoons of olive oil

1 glass of warm water

Salt 

Method:

1. Steam cook the stalks of the mallow. Because of the reasons I mentioned above, I suggest you start with 15 – 20 minutes of steam-cooking first and steam-cook some more if needed.
2. Sauté the onions in the olive oil for a minute or two.
3. Add the minced meat and sauté until the meat changes colour and it is cooked.
4. Add the spinach leaves and the mallow leaves bit by bit (as it is always too difficult to fit them in the pot at one time). When the leaves sink a bit, add the stalks that you steam-cooked.
5. Sprinkle the bulgur over, add warm water and close the lid. Cook on low heat for about 15 – 20 minutes lid closed. When the dish is cooked, add salt, mix and voila! It is ready to serve! 

Step 1 - I steam-cooked the stalks

Step 3 - Saute the minced meat with onion

mallow with spinach and minced meat - ready to serve!

mallow with spinach and minced meat - with yoghurt and garlic sauce next to it!