AUBERGINE KEBAB

(Recipe in English is below. Tencerede patlican kebabi tarifi için burayi tiklayin)

Aubergine is something very popular in the Turkish kitchen. It’s consumed a lot and as main dish, as mezze, as stew etc. This recipe is of a traditional and a simple stew; but we also tend to call stews as kebabs sometimes (kebab in a stew pan, would be more correct). I made this dish yesterday. It’s been a while that I’ve used aubergine in my kitchen so it was missed a lot and very welcome! 

As side dish (see in the pictures), I boiled some bulgur with some “firik”. Firik is also some kind of wheat but rather unripe. It has a smoky fragrance and it has a taste of its own. You gotta try! 

With such a plate, you gotta have "cacik", the amazing threesome of strained yoghurt, grated or chopped cucumber and garlic! You can garnish your cacik with dill, mint or coriander.

Ingredients (serves 4-5)

5 aubergines, stripe-stripped lengthwise and cut in very big cubes. The cubes should be big enough otherwise you’ll have aubergine soup :) You may also consider resting your aubergines in salted water in order to release the bitter taste they may have.

aubergines peeled

aubergines cubed

100 – 150 grams of lambs meat, cut in cubes (not too small though)

lamb meat cubed

2 medium onions, cubed

onions cubed

2 medium tomatoes, cut in cubes

3-4 teeth of garlic, chopped roughly or not chopped at all!

tomatoes cubed and garlic

1 spoon of tomato paste (domates salçasi in Turkish)

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

1 glass of warm water

3 spoons of olive oil

Salt to your liking

1 – 2 sugar cubes

Method:

1. Sauté the onions and the garlic in the olive oil for a minute or two.  
2. Add the meat and continue sautéing for two minutes. 
3. Add the aubergines. Add the tomato. Add the water. Close the lid and cook in low temperature for half an hour or three quarters. The aubergines should be soft but they should remain intact qua shape. 
4. When the aubergines are ready, add the salt and sugar and mix. 

step 1

step 2

step 3

happy ending!!!

THAI INSPIRED SALAD

I am a big fan of Thai kitchen. I love their salads, their curries, their soups…everything I have tried so far, I loved.  The characteristics of the Thai food for me are the rich flavors, the fragrant and the understanding of aesthetics gifted to Thai people. The richness created with legumes and herbs! I believe that the Mother Nature has been so generous to that part of the world and we are blessed to enjoy such delicious ingredients! 

No matter where I am on travel, I am always digging to dine in a Thai restaurant if I know there is one on my way. I have been to many of them so far around the world: for example in Brussels and in Antwerp, in Berlin, in Madrid, in London, in Istanbul and of course in Bangkok and Koh Samui! I am so determined to go to a Thai restaurant (because I hear the delicious food calling me everytime :) ), whoever travelling with me has to join. I take people to Thai restaurants and explain them what I know. I think Thai government should give me the title of “thai kitchen embassy” or something. :) For Europeans, and for Turks, it is a kitchen that is still quite foreign, I have the impression. Such a shame. 

This salad is something that I prepare with pleasure and it is a quite quick kind of recipe. But why not a Thai salad but instead a Thai inspired salad? Years ago, in a supermarket in Belgium, they gave a piece of paper with a Thai salad recipe on it in order to promote their Thai products. Having been inspired by the many other Thai restaurants I have been to, I don’t know how far away I am from a genuine recipe anymore. But more important, in London, in Istanbul and in Belgium what they serve is not that far away in what I have eaten in Thailand. Though, to some Thai people, it is still not genuine due to the difference they taste in the aroma of the herbs and the freshness of them. And, despite the fact that I love Thai kitchen, I can’t eat so many chili’s as they do :) Somebody in Thailand once told me that it is not Thai food unless there is chili in it :) I didn’t use any chili in my salad. So I want to remain modest and I want to call my salad a Thai inspired salad :)

As for some of the ingredients, I don’t think it should be difficult to find them in Europe. In Turkey, I haven’t seen any glass noodles yet. I know I have seen some rice noodles. If you can’t find any glass noodles, you can use rice noodles instead. When in Thailand, I went to a supermarket, and I bought all the glass noodles I saw on the shelves :-) They were of course cheaper, they are genuine and they can remain fresh in their package for years :)

I used some lemon grass paste and Thai chili ketch-up as well. The lemon grass paste I brought from Belgium, and the Thai ketch-up is something I got to learn in Thailand. In Samui island, there was this nice little restaurant we used to go to, and there I was finally invited in the kitchen to be shown how my favourite Thai food is genuinely being prepared. There I saw that they add a bit of this ketch-up to the salad dressing with something like starch. To this day, I still don’t know what exactly it is because the people in the restaurant didn’t know what this product was called in English and I can’t read any Thai. Still, I brought some with me :)

glass noodles, chili ketch-up and lemon grass paste

Instead of salt, fish sauce is used and luckily I still have some left in my big bottle of fish sauce. You can find that in the supermarkets everywhere, I think.

As for the herbs are concerned, coriander is the queen of all the herbs in the Thai kitchen. It is something I love!  If you haven’t tried it yet, it has such an aromatic taste, you will either love it or hate it. It is the Asian parsley, as some people call it. Anyway, in the restaurant in Istanbul, I was told that despite the fact that coriander grows in Turkey, the aroma is not like the herb grown in Thailand. Could very well be. So that’s why they import it as well. 

Below is the recipe, but the amounts I used might seem to be too much for you, but it is for a salad-only dinner. Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves 2-4)

5-10 leaves of fresh mint, sliced roughly or not sliced (depends on how you like ‘em) 

mmm, fresh mint

Coriander (the amount you add is up to you, but you gotta add it!!!)

coriander

1 spring onion, chopped

4-5 leaves of purple basil (it something that I had in my fridge, so I didn’t stop myself from adding it :) it is not a must)

purple basil

coriander, purple basil, mint

1 small to medium size onion, sliced

5-10 leaves of lettuce, sliced thin

1 medium to big size tomato (you could use 4-5 cherry tomatoes instead), cut in big cubes

1 cucumber, sliced in halves

1 lemon (Lime is used instead of lemon in Thai kitchen; however, I didn’t have any), pressed

lettuce, onion, cucumber, tomato and lemon

onion, tomato, cucumber

 80 grams of glass noodles , soaked in cold water for 20-30 seconds; then in hot water for 4-5 seconds (or according to the instructions on the package)

glass noodles, ready

1-2 spoons of Thai chili ketch-up

1-2 spoons of fish sauce

1 spoon of lemon grass 

200 grams of minced meat (pork, lamb, veal – whatever you like)

1-2 teeth of garlic, chopped fine

Method:

1. Mix the lettuce, mint, coriander, spring onion, onion, cucumber, tomato, purple basil leaves in a big salad bowl.
2. Mix the lemon juice with the chili ketch-up and fish sauce to a dressing. And soak the glass noodles in this dressing.
3. Cook the minced meat on a pan and add the garlic and lemon grass paste.
4. In the middle of the salad, place the glass noodles. Toss the rest of the juice and scatter on the salad. Spread the minced meat over the salad

step 3

yummy ending!!!

mmm!!

PASTA WITH TOMATO AND CREAM SAUCE

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

Ok, this one might be no surprise to anyone, but it always works! I haven’t met a single person who doesn’t like pasta! 

This particular recipe is not something too difficult to make. It is quite basic and yet successful. However, I have to admit that I’ve never cooked pasta with cream sauce before. In my kitchen, pasta is either made with tomato sauce or with minced meat. The reason why I have never made pasta with cream is that cream is something I almost never buy in the first place. Yes, too fat. And tastes too good. We are addicted to good taste and I don’t want cream to become our guilty pleasure. The friendship should remain on a “hello, hello” basis and that’s all. 

Aaah, and having said that and having eaten a big plate of pasta tonight, I feel kind of guilty. I started to do sports regularly and somehow I feel guilty now. Ah well.

Ingredients (Serves 2-4)

250 grams of Bavette

I use Barilla Bavette

200 grams of cream

1 big tomato (or 2 medium ones), pureed

1 small onion, diced

2 teeth of garlic, minced

1 table spoon of grounded sweet red pepper

cream, tomato, onion, garlic and sweet red pepper

tomato pureed

3 spoons of olive oil

Purple basil to your liking

Method:

1. Cook pasta according to the instructions on the package.  
2. Sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil for maximum two minutes.
3. Pour in the tomato paste. Cook for 10 minutes over medium heat.
4. Turn off the heat. Add the cream into the sauce and stir.  Stir in the purple basil and the grounded sweet red pepper.
5. Stir in the pasta.

step 1

step 3

step 4

yummy ending!!!