Flour Halva (Un Helvasi)

Halva is a typical dessert in Middle Eastern cuisine. Some of them are made with tahini and nuts. The ones that are cooked at home are made with flour-base or semolina-base. It is a very simple dessert that requires only 4 ingredients. Butter, flour, sugar and milk. The only drawback is you have stir the flour and butter for about 15 mins. But the smell and the taste are worth every effort you make.

What do you need?

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1 stick unsalted butter

How do you make?

• In a sauce pan bring milk, sugar and water to boil and let it cool down completely.
• In a pan melt the butter and put the flour in and cook the flour and butter for about 15 mins stirring constantly. At first flour will be crumbly but after 5 mins it'll get easy to stir.

• Pour the syrup over the flour and butter mixture once they are done and stir very fast so it does not get crumbly. Turn off the heat and cover the pan and let it rest for 5 mins.

• The resulting color should be like light brown. Once you pour the syrup the color will darken little bit.
• Shape with two tablespoons and serve. You can serve warm or cold. This recipe yields 20 pieces.
  

SHEPHERD'S SALAD (COBAN SALATA)

This salad is so good I can eat it as a main meal. The exact translation from Turkish to English is 'Shepherd's Salad' but it is also called 'Spoon Salad' or simply 'Chopped Salad'. The idea is you dice everything small so you can eat it with spoon. It goes very good with rice pilaf.




What do you need?

• 2 onions (red, white, any kind)
• 1 cucumber
• 2 tomatoes
• olive oil, vinegar and salt
• fresh parsley (optional)

How do you make it?

• Slice the onions and place them in a bowl.

• Put salt on top of the onions about 3 tbsp. Do not worry you are gonna wash it. Rub the onions with salt as if you are kneading them. In Turkey we call it 'Killing the onions'. You rub them until they become soft and lose their juice. Wash and drain them.

• Dice tomatoes and cucumbers very small. Mix them with onions. If you want you can add fresh chopped parsley.

• Put olive oil, vinegar and salt to a small bowl and whisk. If you do not like vinegar you can replace it with lemon juice. Pour the dressing on top of the salad just before you serve.
  
• Grab a tablespoon and dig in the bowl :)
  

GINGERSNAPS

These spicy, crisp cookies with crackled tops are very good to dunk into tea or coffee. Since it is the holiday season it is time for me bake more:)









What do you need?

• 2 1/3 c all purpose flour
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 c shortening
• 1 c sugar
• 1 large egg
  
• 1/3 c molasses
• 1/2 c cinnamon-sugar (simply mix 1/2 c sugar with 2 tsp of cinnamon)

How do you make it?

• Preheat oven to 375F
  
• Sift flour, spices, salt and baking soda in a small bowl.
• In a mixing bowl beat together sugar, shortening and egg until creamy.
• Add molasses and beat until blended.
• Slowly add flour mixture until you obtain a soft and smooth dough.
• Drop 1 tsp rounded cookie dough into cinnamon-sugar mixture and roll them until they are covered with sugar.

• Line them on a lightly-greased cookie sheet 2 inches apart.

• Bake them 10 mins until golden brown.

• Cool them on a wire rack.

Please note that these are snaps so they are supposed to be crispy. But be aware that they are gonna be soft when you first remove them from the oven. So do not bake them in the oven until they are crispy.
This recipe yields 72 about 1 1/2 inch cookies. But I ended up with 70 cookies as I ate 2 cookies-worth dough :)

COCONUT POUND CAKE

I love everything about coconut. It reminds me summer time at the beach. Little bit of Malibu and Pineapple juice, mmmm can't resist that.
This coconut pound cake is out of this world. It's a McCormick recipe. It's definitely not something you'd like to eat if you are on a diet. But once in a while you need a treat too.





What do you need?

• 2 sticks of softened butter
• 1 stick (1/2cup) of vegetable shortening
• 3 c sugar
• 6 eggs
• 3c sifted flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 c milk
• 7 oz shredded coconut
  
• 1 tsp imitation coconut extract
• 1 tsp almond extract

Glaze

• 1 1/2 c sugar
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 tsp imitation coconut extract

How do you make?

• Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a Bundt pan
• Beat butter, shortening and sugar until they become fluffy.

• Beat in eggs one at a time.

• In another bowl sift flour and salt together.
• Gradually add to the egg mixture alternately with milk. Begin with flour and end with flour. Preferably add the ingredients in 3-4 times.
• Stir coconut and extracts and pour into pan.

• Bake abut an hour until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
• Remove cake from the oven and let it cool down for 10 minutes before removing from the pan.
  
• For the glaze, put ingredients into a sauce pan and stir until boils. Boil for one minute and brush it onto cake while cake is still warm.

Notes:

• My bundt pan is small for this recipe. So I end up with 1 bundt and 2 mini loaf pans.
• This cake is little bit too sweet for my taste with the glaze. So I only make 1/4 of the glaze.
  

RICE PILAF

Rice pilaf is one of the most cooked dish in Turkey. Although it is consumed a lot we do not have out of the box ready pilafs sold in the stores. Making pilaf is considered very easy but still tricky. It is said cooking good pilaf is a sign of being good cook. It shouldn't be mushy or undercooked. The rice grains should not stick together in other words they should be able to fall from the spoon. I always found making pilaf as the easiest thing to do and I never measure the water amount. But there is a ratio of 1 to 1,5-2. It means if you use 1 cup of rice you should use 1,5-2 cups of water. It depends how you like your pilaf or if you soaked the rice before. I usually soak the rice in hot salted water for at least 15 mins. You sacrifice from the vitamins but you get rid of the starch so you do not end up with mushy pilaf.

What do you need?

• 2 cups of medium size rice
• 3-4 cups of water (hot or cold) you can use chicken stock or beef stock
  
• salt
• 2 tbsp of butter

How do you make?

• Melt butter in a non-stick pan.
• Drain the rice really good so there is no water left.

• Add the rice to butter and cook for 3-4 mins stirring frequently until rice becomes little transparent.
• Add water and salt and cover the pan.

• Once the water is boiled reduce heat to medium.
  
• 5 mins later stir the pilaf gently make sure the ones in the bottom comes to top.
• From this point do not open the lid just shake the pan to see if rice absorbed all the water.
• Put paper towel between the lid and the pan.
• Let it rest for 10 mins.
  

BEANS OVER RICE PILAF

Especially in the winter time nothing could be better than beans served over rice. Usually we eat it with onion salad and mixed pickles. I'll give the recipe of mixed pickles later. Sometimes we cook beans with beef or soudjouk (which looks like pepperoni but it is not) or Turkish pastrami. Most of the times just with simple tomato sauce and green peppers. I always cook beans in pressure cooker. I love pressure cooker and I am not afraid of it. If you know how to use it, it'll become your precious helper. You can cook any meal in less than 30 mins. In the case of beans, I soak them in water first. I put the beans in a pot and fill the pot with water. I boil the water and turn the heat off. I make them soak in the water for about 3 hours or so. Once in a while you might want to stir the beans so every one of them gets enough water. And from this point it only takes 15 mins to cook the beans.

What do you need?

• 1 lbs of great northern beans (you can use any kind)
• 1/2 lbs of beef for stew (optional)
  
• 1 onion
• 1 cubanelle pepper or 1/2 green pepper or just omit pepper
• 3 tbsp oil
• 1-2 tbsp of tomato paste
• 3 cups of crushed tomatoes

How do you make it?

• Dice the onion, peppers and cook them in the oil and add meat and cook for 5 mins.
  
• Add the tomato paste and cook for a minute.
• Add crushed tomatoes and the beans with the water they soaked in.
• Season with salt and pepper.

• Make sure that beans have enough water to cover them 2 inches above.
• Lock the lid of the pressure cooker and wait the pressure indicator pop up and a whistling noise comes.
• Turn the heat to med and cook them for 15 mins.
• Do not open the pressure cooker immediately.
• Put the cooker under running cold water until you hear the pressure releases.
• According to the type of ypur cooker you should have a switch for steam release.
  
• Now you can open the lid. Sometimes because of the type of the beans cooking time may vary. If you need them cook more just close the lid and cook them for another 5 mins.
• Serve over a nice home-made rice pilaf (I'll give the recipe later.)
  

This recipe yields like 6-8 servings.

PUFF PASTRY BOEREK (TALAS BOREGI)

When I was growing up my mom used to do everything from the scratch. How did she manage that, I still have no idea. Although I love making things from the scratch, I love making things quickly more. This pastry is so easy to make, it takes only 15 mins to prepare. This kind of pastries are consumed a lot in Turkey. We call them 'boerek' in general. They are made from pyhllo dough or puff pastry or you make your own dough.


What do you need?

• 1/2 lbs of meat (I used beef chunks, you can use any type)
• 1 onion
• 1 can of peas and carrot
• 2 sheets of puff pastry
• 1 egg
• salt end pepper

How do you make?

• Take the puff pastry out of the freezer and let it thaw.
  
• Dice the onion and saute it in about 2tbsp of vegetable oil.
  
• Cut the meat in small pieces as the size of a peanut and add it to the pan.
• Lower the heat to medium and cook the meat almost all the way about 10 min.
• Turn the heat off and add the peas and carrots into the pan and let them cool down.

• Cut the puff pastry sheet into 6 pieces each. From one single sheet you are gonna have 6 rectangular pieces.
• Roll them on the counter with a rolling pin. All you need to do is just press lightly while you create a square.

• Put the meat stuffing in the center of puff pastry and fold each edge on top of the stuffing in the center. You can brush 1 egg white on every edge while you are folding which acts like a glue.

• Place them onto greased oven tray folded side down. Brush the top with 1 egg yolk and sprinkle some black seeds if you can find them. Bake them in 430F degree oven (preheated) until they are golden brown.

BULGHUR KOEFTE (CIG KOFTE)

Living far from your home country can be very hard. Besides missing all your loved ones, you miss the food that you grew up eating. Sometimes you cannot get exact the same necessary ingredients and you try to modify the recipe as close to the original one as possible which sometimes ends up like disaster. But if the ingredients are available for you then you get the chance of ease your home sickness little bit.

I came up with special type of bulghur the other day and immediately I grabbed it from the shell to make this delicious koefte. Bulghur is widely used in Turkish Food. It's a very healthy alternative for rice.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulghur

There are several Bulghur types sorted according to grain size and color. The biggest grain size is used for pilafs. The finest ones are used in making koefte which are like meatballs. The one that I am going to give the recipe is very popular in Turkey. It used to contain raw meat in it years ago. You put lots of spices especially cumin which eliminates the harmful bacteria and you knead the mixture for hours. Nowadays since it is forbidden the ones that sold in the stores do not contain any meat but the taste is very close. My recipe is even easier, only you need is food processor so it eliminates kneading by hands for a long period of time.


What do you need?

• 1-1/4 cups bulghur (the finest one, for making koefte)
• 1 heaping tbsp tomato paste
• 1 heaping tbsp red pepper paste preferably hot ones (Middle eastern stores)
• 1 onion
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• fresh parsley and green onions
• crushed red pepper (optional)
• salt, 1-1/2 tbsp black pepper, 1 tbsp cumin, 1tsp cinnamon
  

How do you make?

Put bulghur into a very fine strainer and pour boiling water just enough to wet the bulghur and let the water drained for about 5 mins. This will soften the bulghur but it won't make them mushy.

Put onion and garlic into food processor and pulse them until finely chopped. Add bulghur, tomato and red pepper paste, and seasonings. If you use red pepper paste be careful with the salt because most of the time it is salt added. Start food processor and let it run about 2 mins .


Meanwhile put red pepper flakes into olive oil and let it infuse the color and flavor into the oil by pressing and mixing them with back of a spoon. Add olive oil and red pepper flakes into the food processor and let them mix until they form a ball shape and become sticky. Place the mixture into a bowl and mix finely chopped parsley and green onions (only the green parts) by hand. Shape them with your hand (you can put some oil in your hands to get it done easily) and serve with romaine hearts and lemon juice. Usually it is rolled inside lettuce leaves.
If you do not have food processor of course you can make it by kneading with your hands. I recommend team work, call a strong friend of yours before you start.

Turkish Delight Cookies

Welcome to my blog. I am a Turkish woman living in USA with my husband and 6-year old son. We have been living here for 2 years now. We own a diner but my cooking doesn't end with that, I continue cooking at home too. I am gonna try to explain every step in my recipes with details because I know if you don't know how to cook, even boiling a pasta could be very hard for you.

Turkish food is a very good combination of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food. Even though I cook mostly Turkish food at home, I like to try new recipes from around the world all the time.

As my first recipe I would like to share a pastry with you. It is called Turkish Delight Cookies but it is in more like a munchkin consistency rather than cookie.

I had leftover Turkish Delights that I took from Turkey with me this summer. It was the one with rose flavor. Turkish Delight is something that looks like some sort of marshmallow but the consistency and flavor is completely different. In USA you can find them in Middle Eastern markets or on international food aisle. I even saw them in TJ maxx once. Also you can buy them online. www.yiyelim.com is a good web site with a wide variety of Turkish food.

This cookies are very easy to make and you need very few ingredients.

What do you need?

• 1 stick of unsalted butter (at room temperature)
  
• 200 ml (little less than a cup) of whipping cream
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• flour
• confectionery sugar

How do you make?

• Put all the ingredients except flour and confectionery sugar into a mixing bowl.
• Add little bit of flour at a time and knead with your hands. It requires about 2 cups of flour. The resulting dough should be soft but not sticky.

• Pinch about walnut-size dough and roll them with your hands on the counter.

• Put the Turkish delight in the dough and close the sides by pinching them together on top.

• Put the dough on a greased cookie pan placing closed side at the bottom.

• Bake in preheated oven at 350F for 25 mins.
• Sift some confectionery sugar on top of the cookies and serve while still warm.

This recipe yields to 13 cookies. The rose flavor and sweetness of Turkish delight makes these cookies unique and irresistible.