Apricot Jam – Kayisi Reçeli

Apricot Jam

With their velvety skin, “melts in your mouth” taste and fantastic aroma, apricots are undoubtedly one of the delicacies of summer.

Apricot jam is great on bread for breakfast, but you can also use it as a refreshing fruit sauce over ice cream. Recipe below calls for 2 cups of sugar, but depending on how ripe or tart the fruit is, you may need to add more sugar to it.

Apricots

Ingredients:

• 1 lb apricots
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Directions:

Wash apricots, remove pits and cut each one into 4 pieces. Place apricot in a bowl. Pour sugar over apricot. Leave for about 2 hours or overnight. Apricots will release their juices, forming a syrup. Place apricots with the syrup in a pot. Add lemon juice and bring to a boil over medium heat. When it starts to boil, reduce heat to low and let it simmer. Remove any foam that might form on the top with a spoon. Take a small spoonful of the cooking mixture, place on a plate, let it cool and taste to see if it is sweet enough. Add sugar if necessary, stir gently. Cook until apricots are translucent and the syrup thickens, about 20 minutes. Let it cool to room temperature. Place in a glass jar and keep in the refrigerator.

Apricots cut into pieces

Apricots covered with sugar

Apricots release their juices

Apricots cooking in their syrup

Apricot jam

 Afiyet Olsun! Bon Appetit!

Purslane with Ground Beef – Kiymali Semiz Otu

Here we go, two purslane recipes backt o back! Spring and summer are the time a lot of olive oil based vegetable dishes are cooked in Western Turkey. Though most of them are vegetarian dishes, some have meat in them. This recipe has ground beef, but you can modify the recipe by deleting the meat or adding ground turkey instead.

Purslane with Ground Beef

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup olive oil
•  1 medium onion, sliced
•  3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 4 oz extra lean ground beef
• ½ cup chopped fresh (or canned) tomatoes
• 4 bunches of purslane
• salt & pepper to taste

For the garlicky yogurt sauce:

• 1 cup yogurt
• 1-2 cloves garlic, crushed

Directions:

Nip tender portions with the stem (top 1 inch) and pick the leaves on the bottom portion without the stems. Wash thoroughly and drain in a colander.

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions, garlic, and ground beef, sauté for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, sauté for another 5 minutes. Add purslane and black pepper. Cover the lid and let it simmer over low heat until purslane is tender, about 10-12 minutes. Add salt and remove from heat. Serve hot with plain yogurt or with garlicky yogurt.

Purslane

Purslane pieces, slices onions and garlic and ground beef

Sauted ground beef, onions, garlic and tomatoes

Purslane cooked, ready to be served

Purslane with ground beef

Purslane Salad with Garlic Yogurt

Purslane Salad with Garlic Yogurt

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch purslane (about 1 cup)
• 1 cup yogurt
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• Salt to taste

Directions:

Nip tender portions of the purslane with the stem (top 1 inch) and pick the leaves on the bottom portion without the stems. Wash thoroughly and drain in a colander.

Arrange purslane greens on a shallow serving dish.

In a bowl, mix yogurt and crushed garlic very well. Add salt and mix until it is smooth.

Pour garlic yogurt over purslane leaves. It will cover most of it. Garnish with a sprig or two of purslane. Serve chilled.

Purslane pieces

Purslane pieces arranged on a serving dish

Yogurt and garlic to be mixed

Purslane salad with garlic yogurt

Afiyet Olsun! Bon Appetit!

Swiss Chards with Bulgur in Olive Oil – Zeytinyagli Bulgurlu Pazi

Swiss Chards with Bulgur in Olive Oil

This dish is a sort of "West meets East" version of the traditional Swiss Chard dish from Turkey. Swiss chard in olive oil is usually cooked with rice in it. I changed the rice with bulgur (mostly used in Eastern Turkish cuisine) to enhance the taste and to make it healthier. Hope you like this version.

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 onion, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 2 bunches of Swiss Chards (about 6 large leaves)
• 2 table spoons No 2 or No 3 bulgur
• pinch of crushed red peppers (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste

For the garlicky yogurt sauce:

• 1 cup yogurt
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced

Directions:

Wash Swiss chards. Remove the toughest parts of the stalk, discard. Cut the rest into pieces about ½ “ thick. It will make about 4 cups of cut chards.

Place bulgur in a strainer and wash it, set aside. It will absorb some water and will cook easily.

Heat olive oil in a pot over medium heat. Add onions, garlic, and crushed red pepper (optional) and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add Swiss chards, bulgur, and black pepper. Cover the lid and let it simmer over low heat. The idea of cooking it over low heat is to let the chard release its juices so that you won't have to add any water to cook it. It will take about 15 minutes to cook. Add salt and remove from heat. Serve hot or at room temperature with plain yogurt or with garlicky yogurt.

Swiss Chards

Sliced onions and garlic with rinsed bulgur

Swiss chards cooked, ready to be served

Swiss chards with bulgur in olive oil

 

Afiyet Olsun! Bon Appetit!

Mosaic Cake - Mozaik Pasta (no baking)

Mozaic Cake - Mozaik Pasta

This is a light chocolate cake made with tea biscuits (or Petit Beurres). I use tea biscuits since they don’t have butter & are much lighter than Petit Beurres. This cake is easy and quick to make since no baking is needed. Mom’s original recipe called for one egg. If you have access to fresh, healthy eggs you may want to try it, but to avoid any risk, I deleted the raw egg from my recipe.

Ingredients:

• ½ stick unsalted butter, melted
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup milk, warmed
• 4 heaping tablespoons of cocoa powder
• ¼ cup walnuts cut into small pieces
• ¼ cup pistachio nuts (optional)
• ¼ cup roasted almonds (optional)
• 12 oz (about 50 pieces) tea biscuits (or Petit Beurre), broken into pieces
  
• 3 table spoons of light coconut flakes (optional). These are unsweetened, drier, smaller pieces compared to regular sweetened coconut flakes.

Directions:

Break the tea biscuits into small pieces, but do not crumble.

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except for the biscuits and the nuts. Make sure the milk is warm to avoid caking of the butter. Stir well with a wisk or a hand held mixer. Add broken biscuits and nuts into the mixture, stirring gently making sure the sauce covers all the pieces.

Place a large piece of plastic wrap on a flat surface. Spoon the mixture over the plastic, forming a long log. Wrap the plastic around the mixture, making sure edges of the wrap overlaps. It will look like a big salami. Gently squeeze from all sides. It will reduce to almost half of the loose log you started with. This will get rid of the air bubbles inside and the log will feel solid. Then roll the wrapped log to make sure it is a well rounded cylinder. You can also shape it as a triangle or square if you want.

Place the log in the freezer for at least 2 hours. When ready to serve, take it out, unwrap the log. Sprinkle coconut flakes on a flat surface (optional). Roll the log on coconut flakes. Cut into slices, place on a serving dish and enjoy! 

Broken Tea Biscuits

Butter, milk, sugar & cocoa mixed into chocolate sauce

Walnuts, pistachios and almonds

Biscuits and sauce mixed

Cake mixture placed on plastic wrap

Mosaic Cake log wrapped in plastic

Frozen mosaic cake rolled in coconut

Mosaic Cake slices

Afiyet Olsun! Bon Appetit!

Circassian Chicken Salad – Cerkez Tavugu

Circassian Chicken Salad - Cerkez Tavugu

This is one of classical mezes (appetizers) of the Ottoman Cuisine. It originates from the Caucasus Mountains where the Circassians live. It is an excellent alternative to mayonnaise based chicken salads.

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts
• 3 slices of day-old bread, crusts removed
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 cup walnuts, crushed
• 4 tablespoons (2 + 2) extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• ½ teaspoon red chili powder (optional)
• A few sprigs of parsley
• Handful of walnut halves for garnishing (optional)

Directions:

In a pot combine chicken breasts with 4 cups of water, bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low, skim the broth to get rid of the foam that forms on top. Simmer until chicken is cooked, about 40-45 minutes.

Transfer chicken to a platter and let it cool. Continue to cook the chicken broth until it is reduced to one third. Save broth. When chicken is cool enough to handle, tear the meat into shreds.

Cut bread slices into pieces. In a shallow bowl, pour 1 cup of water over the bread to soften it. Then squeeze dry.

In a food processor, coarsely crush 1 cup of walnuts.

In a large bowl, combine crushed walnuts, crushed garlic, softened bread, 2 table spoons of olive oil, 1/2 cup of chicken broth, red chili powder (optional). Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir with a spoon until it is well mixed into a puree. Add up to 1/2 cup more chicken broth to obtain desired consistency. Transfer into a serving dish. You can refrigerate at this stage until ready to use.

In a small saucepan, heat remaining 2 table spoons of olive oil over low heat. Add paprika, gently cook until it starts foaming, about 1 minute. Drizzle the paprika infused hot oil over the chicken salad. Garnish with walnut halves and parsley sprigs. Serve at room temperature.

Afiyet Olsun! Bon Appetit!

Pulled chicken and crushed walnuts

Chicken, walnuts, bread mixed into a paste

Circassian Chicken Salad - Cerkez Tavugu

White Beans in Olive Oil - Kuru Fasulye

White Beans over Rice - Kurufasulye - Pilav is one of the most basic, traditional, comforting dishes in the Turkish Cuisine. If you go to a restaurant and ask the waiter for "over the rice" without even mentioning the word "beans", he would bring you white beans over rice. Some famous restaurants are known for their "White Beans over Rice". Many colleges and high schools serve it on their "Alumni Days" with pride.

Below is the vegetarian version of the recipe. However, you can add chicken, beef or lamb to it. If you want to add meat, cook meat separately. Add cooked meat to the sauce before you add the beans. Cook the sauce with the meat for 5 minutes to mix the flavors, then add the beans.

Ingredients:

• 1 cups dry white beans
• 5 +1 cups boiling water
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• ½ cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon paprika or chili peppers
• 1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Soak beans overnight or at least for 6 hours.

In a pot combine 5 cups of boiling water, 1 teaspoon of salt and beans.  Let it simmer over medium heat until the beans are tender, about 30-45 minutes. Drain, set aside.

Soak Beans overnight

Beans soaked, drained, ready for cooking

In a pot sauté onions in ¼ cup olive oil for about 5 minutes. Add tomato sauce, paprika, sugar (optional), salt and pepper, mix all with a spoon. Add 1 cup boiling water, bring to a boil. Add beans to the pot, stir. Let it simmer for another 5 minutes to let the flavors mix. Serve it hot with some sort of pilaf like rice, bulgur or quinoa.  In Turkey, it is customary to serve beans over white rice with pickles on the side. Ayran, a yogurt drink goes well with this meal.

Afiyet Olsun! Bon Appetit!