CHICKEN RULO STUFFED WITH CHEESE AND WALNUTS ON A BED OF GRAPE LEAVES

Ok guys, it’s been a while I know but I have been quite busy lately: family visit from Belgium, a short trip to Madrid, pilates and sporting and many other fulfilling activities… Though, I have to tell you that during this period that the efforts in the kitchen have been slackening.  I have been dining outside most of the time as well. 

Anyway, today I have something special in the menu. It’s my recipe (which I created just an hour ago, which also means that the dish plate is in the oven at this very moment when I am typing you all that) however I will have to say that the concept or the idea is something I got inspired from other dishes that I have tried. What makes it my recipe is the changes I brought to these original recipe(s) that I know. 

Let’s see how it will work! 

Ingredients (serves 2-4)

2 or 3 chicken breasts, pounded thin by the help of a meat mallet

200 grams of labneh cheese

5-6 walnuts, roughly chopped

1 desert spoon of truffle oil

2 medium sized grape leaves, soaked in boiling water for about a minute and chopped fine

8 big grape leaves, soaked in boiling water for about a minute

 

4 spoons of extra virgin olive oil

Method:

1. Mix the cheese, the walnuts and the chopped grape leaves. Add in the truffle oil.
2. Lay four of the grape leaves on a oven dish.
3. Spread this mixture over the chicken breast and roll the chicken around the filling.
4. Arrange the chicken rolls on the oven dish (make sure that the edges remain at the bottom)
5. Pour the olive oil equally on each breast
6. Cover the rolls with the rest of the leaves.
7. Preheat the oven at 150 degrees for about 10 minutes
8. Cook for 30 to 45 minutes at 150 degrees.

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step 6

happy ending!!!

happy ending!!

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.

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step 4

yummy ending!!!

FENNEL FOLIAGE

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

(KUZU ETLI ARAPSACI)

Today I didn’t feel like cooking dinner so I thought let’s order something: sushi? Kebab? Fish? While browsing the menus to choose, I saw “fennel with lamb’s meat” in one of the menus. Fennel? I have fennel leaves in the fridge as well as lambs meat! So back in the kitchen! 

Fennel has a strong aroma, so maybe not everybody’s favourite but we like it very much at home! This dish is quite rich: it has vegetables, meat and a yoghurt based creamy sauce (surprise, surprise J). And the strong aroma of the fennel is balanced with the rest of the ingredients in such a nice way! Already one of our favourites! 

Below you will find the details for the recipe: 

INGREDIENTS:

fennel leaves, carrot, onion, potato

250 grams fennel foliage washed and cut apart from its stem. Chop the leaves fine. 

fennel leaves cut apart from the stem

250 grams lambs’ meat cut in cubes

lamb's meat cut in cubes

1 big onion, chopped

1 medium carrot, sliced

1 small or medium potato, cut in cubes

carrot and potato chopped

200 grams yoghurt

1 egg

2 table spoons of flour

Juice of half a lemon

2,5 glasses of warm water

METHOD:

1. Sauté the meat for a few minutes. Add the onion, continue sautéing for a minute. Then add the carrot and the potato.
2. Add 1 glass of warm water and close the lid and cook till the meat is soft. You will see that the meat soaks almost half of the water.
3. Add the fennel leaves and 1 glass of warm water. Cook till the fennel leaves are soft.
4. While the fennel leaves are simmering, mix the yoghurt, the egg, flour and half a glass of warm water with the help of a blender.
5. When the fennel leaves are cooked well enough for you (you will have to decide for yourself how soft you like them), take a spoon of the remaining water in the dish and add to the yoghurt mixture and mix it well. Do this a few times. The yoghurt mixture should now be ready to be added into the fennel dish! But you have to do it very carefully; very slowly and bit by bit. While you add the yoghurt mixture into the dish, you should stir the dish this time.
6. Let it cook till it boils and then let it simmer for a few minutes.
7. Add the salt the very last.

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Step 6

happy ending!!!