HOME MADE MULBERRY JAM

Last week the mulberries that I bought were a bit too much so I made some jam with them.

I browsed the internet for the recipe. For jam, they talk about at least 1 kg of sugar for 1 kg of fruit. For the mulberries this is 1.5 kg sugar. As it was the first time I made jam, I used the amounts indicated. But oh boy! I should have know; it is Turkish style: sickeningly sweet! I regret that I added so much sugar really. Next time, I will add less than 1 kg of sugar for the mulberries; because they are sweet enough anyway!

Ingredients:

1 kg of mulberry; washed (throw away the bad ones as they will only ruin the taste of your jam)

Max 1 kg of sugar (please note the comment above)

Juice of 1 lemon

Method:

1. In a big deep sauce pan, take the ingredients by placing them layer by layer: one layer of mulberry, and one layer of sugar over it. Let the mulberries rest for 2 hours with the sugar.
2. Heat the mulberries with the sugar and the lemon juice on low fire until the sugar melts. Let it boil. Continue boiling for 10 minutes more.  Skim off.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 2

home made mulberry jam

KNOTGRASS

(Recipe in English is below. Madimak otu yemegi tarifi için burayi tiklayin)

I posted a recipe with knotgrass before (a year ago or so).

The recipe I am posting now is not much different from the past one, but I still wanted to have it here as last time I did not know that I had to clean the stalks off and only cook the leaves of the knotgrass! The stalks never get soft!

Ingredients (serves 3 – 4)

Half a kilo knotgrass leaves (pick the leaves and throw the stalks away)

we will use the leaves of the knotgrass, therefore clean the stalks off of the knotgrass

we will use the leaves of the knotgrass, therefore clean the stalks off of the knotgrass

knotgrass leaves

1 big onion, cubed

2 spoons of bulgur (alternative: rice)

5 – 6 slices of sujuk (Sujuk is a Turkish spicy sausage. A substitute would be the Spanish merguez)

2 – 3 tomatos, pureed

1 -  1.5 glasses of warm water

2 – 3 spoons of olive oil

Salt

Method:

1. Heat the olive oil in a pan and sauté the onions in the olive oil for 3 – 4 minutes.
2. Add the sujuk and continue sautéing for 2 – 3 minutes more.
3. Add the knotgrass and mix until it shrinks a bit.
4. Add the tomato puree, bulgur and the warm water, close the lid and cook over low heat for 10 – 15 minutes. Add the salt.

Step 2

Step 3

knotgrass dish

knotgrass with sujuk and tomato

knotgrass with sujuk an tomato

STUFFED BORAGE LEAVES IN TOMATO SAUCE

(Recipe in English is below. Domates sosunda hodan dolmasi tarifi için burayi tiklayin)

When I made this delicious dish of borage, I kept some leaves apart in order to make dolma! (Btw, I know that in English the Greek word “dolmades” is the common term used for what we call “dolma” here. But as the Greek word is also derived from the Turkish word, I kind of find it absurd to call it “dolmades” in my English blog. FYI: Dolma comes from the verb dolmak (to fill/to stuff) in Turkish and this way dolma means “stuffed”)

I tried to make pictures of the process of rolling the borage leaves, but none of the pictures were clear; therefore I cannot post any here! I will try to explain in words!

Actually I know nobody that makes dolma of the borage leaves. I got the inspiration to use a few borage leaves to make dolma from a food magazine in Turkey. However, I did not like the recipe that had for filling; therefore I browsed the internet to see if there is anything worth trying. I saw only two recipes which were similar but not interesting. Therefore I created my own filling! And it was simply delicious! Too bad I have used the minced meat that came out from my deep-freezer, otherwise I would have kept the dolma’s in the deep-freeze in order to serve to my guests! The combination with the tomato sauce was also very successful; the tomato sauce just completes the taste of the dolma! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Ingredients (serves 3 – 4 people)

20 – 25 borage leaves, small leaves if possible. 

borage leaves, the ones I had were quite big!

For the stuffing:

150 gr. Minced meat

A handful of dill, chopped fine

A handful of parsley, chopped fine

A handful of çeçil cheese (I did not find the English word for this specific cheese of Turkey. But that’s what I found on the internet: http://davescupboard.blogspot.com/2009/03/turkish-cheese-3-cecil-peyniri.html) , chopped. On the link it is said that “Çeçil peyniri's flavor is very similar to young, mild cheddar”, therefore you can substitute this specific cheese with young cheddar)

çeçil cheese

çeçil cheese, chopped

1 egg

Flaked red pepper to your liking

2 spoons of corn flour
1 garlic tooth, crushed

1 spoon of olive oil (in case you use low fat minced meat)

Salt to your liking (take the salty taste of the cheese into account)

For the tomato sauce

1 spoon of olive oil

1 teeth of garlic, chopped

2 – 3 tomatos, pureed

Salt

1 spoon of pomegranate syrup (optional if you do not have any, but it’d be a pity if you did not have any because it tastes great and takes the simple tomato sauce into another level! :) )

Method:

1. Steam-cook the leaves for a few minutes. Alternatively you can boil water, soak the leaves in that water for a minute and take the leaves out of the water and drain by squeezing a bit.
2. If your leaves were as big and as thick-veined as mine, fold the leave from the middle where you see the thick vein and cut the vein off without damaging the leave. The dolmas should be small, not too big; therefore I cut the big leaves into two or sometimes three pieces. Cut a medium sized leave into two in the middle where you just cut the vein off. If the leave is too big, then measure three fingers up from the pointy end of the leave and cut the leave from there. You can divide the rest of the leave into two by cutting from the middle.
3. Mix the ingredients for the stuffing.
4. Time to fill the leaves with the stuffing: put the shiny side of the leave down and the veiny side up. Take a spoon of the stuffing and place it on the veiny side of the leave, give it a tubular shape. Take the upper end of the leave (if you cut your leaves into 2 – 3 pieces as I explained above, then place the stuffing on the longest end of your leave) and roll it under the stuffing (if not totally under, it should at least cover the whole stuffing.) roll once, and bring the left and right ends in, tuck them in, roll a bit more and tuck the unrolled part of the leave in and roll until you have the dolma.  
5. I steam-cooked the dolmas for about 15 – 20 in my pressure-cooker. Alternatively, you can place the dolmas in a Teflon pot, add a few spoons of water and cook on low heat for about 20 minutes. Cook some more if not soft enough.
6. For the tomato sauce: Heat the butter and a drop of olive oil in a sauce pan; sauté the garlic for a minute. Add the tomato puree and cook for a few minutes until you have a sauce. Add the pomegranate syrup and mix and turn off the heat.
7. Take the dolmas to a plate and pour the tomato sauce on the dolmas! 

Step 5 - I steam cooked the dolmas

Step 6 - tomato sauce

Step 7 - take the dolmas on a serving plate...

Step 7 - Pour the tomato sauce on the dolmas! Ready to serve!