Penne Baked with Tomato Sauce ( Fırında Domatesli Penne)

This is a very flexible recipe; you can use any kind of pasta you want or you have at the moment. I usually make this recipe with macaroni, but this time I tried it with penne.
You can be really creative with the sauce, too.

1 pack of whole wheat penne

what I used for the sauce:
4-5 tomatoes, grated or 2 cans of petite diced tomato
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
2 peppers, chopped (I used sweet red Italian peppers, but any pepper would be good)
1/2 cup of black olives
1 tsp oregano leaves
1 tsp crushed pepper
1/2 tsp mint flakes
1/2 black pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
salt
1/4 bunch parsley, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cups grated cheese

what can be added:
basil
mushroom
corn kennels

-Boil penne as to your wish; do not over cook it
-In a deep skillet heat olive oil and stir in onions and garlic. Cook until onions are soft.
-Add peppers and olives (and mushroom if you're using any). Stir for 2-3 minutes and add the paste. Stir for another 2 minutes
-Stir in tomatoes, black pepper, crushed pepper, oregano leaves, mint flakes, cumin, and salt (and basil)
-Simmer on low until the tomatoes are cooked. After turning it off, add parsley
-In an oven dish put the penne, the tomato sauce, and 1/2 cup water. (If you want to add corn kernels, this is a good time) Mix well and bake in a preheated oven at 375F for 20-25 minutes. Cover the top during this 20-25 minute baking process with aluminum foil, so that the pennes on the top won't be dry
-After 25 minutes, put the grated cheese on top and bake for another couple of minutes until the cheese melts

White Beans with Pastrami (Pastırmalı Kuru Fasulye)

What we call pastrami in Turkey is completely different from the lunch meat pastrami that you can find at the stores here. At Sahara Mart, I found this pastrami which was, to my surprise, a product of USA--not imported from Middle East. It looked like Turkish pastrami; however, it was way less spicy and as a result way less flavorsome and stinky.



















2 cups of cannellini: white kidney: fazolia beans or 2 cans of those beans
10 pastrami strips (I used 10, but you can use less or more)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves
2-3 banana peppers, chopped
1 tbsp pepper or tomato paste, or half & half
2 tomatoes, diced or 1 can of petite diced tomato
2 tbsp butter or 1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp crushed pepper
1/2 tsp dried mint flakes
1/2 tsp oregano leaves
1 tsp salt
2 cups of water

-Heat the oil in a big pot and stir in the onions and garlic cloves. Cook until onions are soft
-Stir in peppers and cook for 2 more minutes. Add the paste, cook for another 2 minutes
-Add tomatoes, oregano, crushed pepper, mint flakes, and salt. Stir for 4-5 minutes
-Stir in the beans (I used dry beans. I didn't have time to soak them over night, so I pressure cooked them for 30 minutes. Either soak them over night and then cook them in water until they're soft, or use canned beans) and water. Bring to a boil.
-Tear the pastrami strips in to bite-size pieces. Place them on top of beans with dried hot peppers.
-Seal the pot with aluminum foil and cover. Cook on low for an hour.

Mung Bean Beef Stew (Maş Fasülyesiyle Etli Güveç)

Since last week's experiment with mung beans went really well with the soup, I wanted to try the Uzbek mung bean stew which is called "Mashkitchiri." I found this recipe adapted from Lynn Visson's The Art of Uzbek Cooking. The recipe for mashkitchiri asked for a cup of rice in the stew, so it wouldn't be a stew but rice with mung beans and vegetables. Since I like to have my stew on rice, I just ignored the rice and cilantro! part, and added a couple of extra ingredients of my choice like stew beef, tiny mushrooms, garlic, and pepper paste.

1/2 cup mung beans
1/2 pound stew beef
1 big onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic
4 medium size carrots, cut in rounds
6 organic mini red potatoes, coarsley diced (if you'll use regular size potatoes 2 will be good)
1 box (6 oz) petite size mushrooms (petite mushrooms are very cute; you don't need to cut them)
1/2 tbsp pepper or tomato paste
1 can of diced tomato or 2-3 diced fresh tomatoes
3 tbsp butter or olive oil
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp pepper flakes
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 black pepper
salt
2 cups of water

-Heat 1 tbsp of butter in a big pot and add stew beef. Stir on low heat. Beef will first turn color, then release some juice, and finally soak the juice. When it soaks its juice, add rest of the butter/oil, onions, garlic cloves, and petite mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes on medium heat
-Add carrots + potatoes and stir for 5 minutes. Add the paste and stir for another 5 minutes
-Add team spice (paprika, cumin, pepper flakes, black pepper, salt) and diced tomatoes. Stir for a minute or two
-Stir in mung beans and water. First bring to a boil, then cover and simmer on low heat for 40 minutes to an hour, until the beans are soft and cooked.

PS: You can definitely make this a vegeterian stew by skipping the first beefy step of cooking.

Collard Greens Alaturka (Zeytinyağlı Kara Lahana)

Collard greens and chard along with corn and anchovy are the main requisites of the cuisine of the central and eastern part of the Black Sea region in Turkey. The use of corn in cooking is surprisingly higher in that region than it's here in Indiana. The most popular collard greens dishes from the Black Sea region are collard greens soup and collard greens dolma--they use collard greens in stead of grape leaves and sometimes replace rice with cracked corn. It's delicious. This was my first attempt to cook collard greens in States so I chose an easier dish.

2 bunches of collard greens (2 bunches might seem like a lot, but they cook down)
2 onions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
2 tomatoes, diced or grated
1 tbsp pepper or tomato paste
1/2 cup rice
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp crushed peppers
2 cups of water
salt

-Put a lot of water in a big pot and bring to a boil
-Cut the collard greens in two, lengthwise, and then chop them in approximately 1/2 inch pieces. Wash them well and boil them in the pot for 8-10 minutes and drain. You don't have to boil them beforehand; however, the leaves can be really though and so, hard to cook.
-Cook oil, onions, and garlic for 3-4 minutes and then add pepper/tomato paste. Stir for a minute and add tomatoes. Stir for 3-5 minutes
-Add collard greens and crushed peppers. Stir for another 5 minutes
-Add water and salt. Wait until it boils to add the rice, or the rice can be really mushy. Cook on low heat for 20-30 minutes. It's ready to eat when the rice is cooked
-Serve with yogurt

Stuffed Peppers with Groundmeat (Etli Biber Dolması)

This is an almost Turkish recipe because of the purple peppers. Purple peppers are rare in Turkey, and it's impossible to find Turkish green peppers here. So, we have purple Indiana peppers stuffed a la Turkish style. Once cooked, the purple peppers turned green just like purple beans. Do not try to stuff regular huge bell peppers that you can find at every store; they are really hard to cook (their skin is too thick), are too big (you can almost spend half of the stuffing on one pepper), and are unfortunately not flavorsome. Try farmer's markets. The purple pepper in the picture is from farmer's market and the red one is from Luke's garden.

10 peppers
1/2 pound ground meat (beef)
1 cup rice
3 onions, chopped finely
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped
1/2 bunch dill, chopped
1 1/2 tsp dry or fresh mint
1 tsp oregano leaves
1 tsp crushed pepper
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1/2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tomato

-With the help of a knife or your thumb, take out the tops of the peppers. Wash and take out the seeds. Make tiny holes at the bottom of peppers with a knife or a fork so that they can cook thoroughly
-Mix ground meat, onions, rice, herbs, black pepper, salt, crushed pepper, and olive oil in a bowl. Stuff the peppers with this mix. Leave 1/4 inch space at the top; we will put a slice of tomato there. Cover the tops with a slice of tomato
-Place the peppers in a broad pot facing up.
-Mix tomato paste with water and pour into the pot. Fill the pot half way up with water. Put butter in small pieces on top.
-Cook on medium heat for 30-40 minutes. Let it boil, but not vigourously; that might be harsh on your cute peppers and also unstuff them. To make sure taste the rice. If the rice is soft, that means the peppers are cooked.
Must be served with yogurt!

Mung Bean Soup with Coconut Milk (Maş Fasülye Çorbası)

I got these mung beans at Bloomingfoods a month ago, but since I didn't know what to do with them, they were locked in a jar waiting for me to come up with an idea. I did some research on them and found out that mung beans are used in either Central and East Asian cuisines or Indian cooking. I decided to go with Indian style and make a soup. (Jen and I decided to add coconut milk at the very end, so the recipe probably became a thaindian one) I will try later the Central Asian style and make lamb stew with them.



This is a chunky soup;
I didn't smoothen it
with a hand blender,
so you should probably
chop everything finely
or grate them if possible.



1 cup mung beans
3 tbsp olive or sun flower or corn oil
1 onion, chopped finely or grated
1 carrot, grated
1 bell pepper, chopped
1/2 bunch green onions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can petite diced tomato or 2 tomatoes, grated
1/2 tsp minced ginger
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp crushed pepper
salt
3 cups of water
1 can coconut milk
1/2 bunch parsley (or cilantro) to garnish

-Although these are dry beans you don't need to precook them. Mung beans are really tiny (and very cute) so even if they are dry it is easy to cook them. I cooked them for 5 minutes with the pressure cooker. It would probably take at most half an hour or 45 minutes to cook them with a regular pot. Or you can soak them in water over night.
-Heat the oil in a big pot and cook onions and garlic for a couple of minutes
-Add green onions, peppers, and carrots. Stir for 5 minutes
-Add tomatoes, ginger, turmeric, curry, garam masala, cumin, mustard seeds, crushed peppers, and salt. Stir for another 5 minutes, and add mung beans and water. Cook on medium heat for 15 minutes
-Pour in coconut milk and simmer 10 more minutes.
-Garnish with parsley or cilantro. You can also squeeze a little bit of lemon juice on the soup.

This soup turned out to be a great one.

Bourbon Split Pea Soup (Bourbonlu Bezelye Çorbası)

Here's a recipe inspired by Bardstown, KY Bourbon Festival.

1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
2 carrots, cut in rounds
1/2 cup green split peas
1/2 cup red lentils (or yellow split peas)
2 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped (or dried)
1 tsp crushed red pepper/ pepper flakes
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp paprika or red chili powder
salt
2 tbsp olive oil or butter
6 cups of vegetable stock or beef broth or just water
and THE most important ingredient 1/2 cup bourbon

If you will use a pressure cooker, you don't need to precook anything, but if you'll use a regular pot, boil peas and lentils for an hour or soak in water overnight.

-Heat the oil in a big pot and add onion, garlic, and pepper. Stir until onions are cooked
-Add carrots and 1 tsp rosemary, and cook for 4-5 minutes
-Add paprika and stir for a minute
-Put in split peas, lentils, bourbon, water, black pepper, crushed pepper, and salt
-With pressure cooker: Cook first on high then low heat for 20 minutes
With a regular pot, cook for 45 minutes on medium heat
-I used a hand blender to smoothen the soup and garnished it with the rest of the rosemary. If you want to have it chunky, you may want to cut everything in smaller pieces, especially the carrots.



























I used "Old Bardstown" 10 year old 101 proof bourbon, since the recipe was inspired by Bardstown; however, I'm sure it'll be good with any bourbon, especially with "Maker's Mark".
Cheers!

Back Alley Cherry Pie

The recipe for this pie is classic -- it is from the Joy of Cooking. What makes this pie special is that the sour cherries must be stolen from a back alley. I recommend early morning hours for your theiving, especially if your target tree is located in the yard of a rental inhabited by undergrads. After your acquisition, you should rinse the cherries, and then pit them. If you don't have a cherry pitter, forceps or small tweezers will work well too. Pitted cherries can be frozen in four cup portions for later use.















9" pie pan
2 pie crusts
4 C fresh sour cherries
2 2/3 tsp quick-cooking tapioca (or cornstarch)
1 1/3 C sugar
2 drops almond extract or 2 Tbsp kirsh
2T butter












-Add the tapioca or cornstarch to the cherries and let sit for 15 minutes.
-Place the bottom pie crust in the pie pan.
-Then add the sugar and almond extract or kirsh to the cherries.
-Pour the cherry mixture into the pie crust.
-Cut the butter into small pieces and dot the fruit with the butter.
-Cover the cherries with the second pie crust. Impress your friends by creating a lattice top or make a fancy design to vent. You may wish to make an aluminum foil shield for the easily-burned edge of the crust.
-Bake 10 mins at 450 then reduce to 350 for 40 mins longer or until golden brown. Your cherries should set up after the pie is cool as long as you bake until the filling is clear.















Enjoy the back alley pie, and be sure to use that label as often as possible.
-Jen

Richardson Family Guacamole

Actually measuring ingredients is somewhat counter to the spirit of this recipe, but counting them is central. The eight components are:
ripe avocado
pressed or diced garlic
tomato salsa
lemon or lime juice
chili powder
plain yogurt
mayonnaise
salt

Smash 1 large avocado with 1/2 clove garlic. Add some (1/2 table spoon?--see what I mean?) mayo, similar amount of yogurt, and 2 tablespoons salsa. Squeeze in a bit of lemon juice and spice and salt to taste.

In general, I add everything, mix it up, taste it, and allow one round of adjustments. Serve with tortilla chips and 3 friends.
Aaron

Fava Paste (Fava)

1 can of fava beans (or you can soak 1/2 pound dry fava beans in water over night and then boil them for a couple of hours)
1 clove of garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
pepper flakes (only if you want in spicy)
juice of one lemon
some parsley, chopped finely or dill (it depends how much parsley or dill you want)

The only way I know to make fava paste is with a hand-blender or a food processor.
Put fava beans, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, pepper flakes, and salt in the blender and let it do its magic. If the mix is too thick, you can add a little bit of water. Put fava paste in a bowl and garnish with parsley or dill.

Zucchini with Tomatoes (Zeytinyağlı Kabak)

This is a perfect summer time dish with fresh zucchinis and tomatoes. Also, this is a favorite appetizer or hors d'oeuvre (meze) at the pubs and is served cold with Raki.

3 zucchinis, cut zucchinis first into four lengthwise and then in 1 inch slices. In Turkey, people would usually peel zucchinis. Since I used organic zucchinis, I didn't peel them.
2-3 tomatoes, diced or 1 can of petite diced tomato
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped in half rounds
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp black pepper or 1 tsp peppercorn
2 tsp dried or fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup hot water
crushed red pepper, pepper flakes, spice it up however you want
salt

-Heat the olive oil over medium heat.
-Add onions and garlic, and saute until onions are softedned.
-Add carrots and stir for 3-4 minutes.
-Pour in tomatoes and cook until they start to look like a sauce
-Add zucchini, salt, pepper, mint leaves, and water
-Cover and cook over low heat for about 30-40 minutes, until zucchini is soft

This dish can be served hot or cold. It goes well with rice, bread, and yogurt.

Stuffed Artichokes (Zeytinyağlı Enginar Dolması)

1 pack of peeled artichokes. Since I don't know, or rather don't want to know, how to peel artichokes, I usually buy them peeled and frozen from international or middle eastern stores. What you should be looking for is something like this:


1/2 pound green peas
2 big carrots, diced petite (or you can use a 1 pound mixed peas and carrots, frozen)
1 onion, chopped finely
1/2 cup olive oil (if it's an olive oil dish, you cannot be stingy with olive oil)
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups of water
1/2 bunch dill, chopped





This is such a fancy looking dish, yet soo easy to cook.

-Mix onions, peas, carrots, sugar, salt, and 1/4 bunch of dill (we're saving the other half to garnish) in a bowl
-Place the artichokes facing up in a broad pot, preferably a shallow one.
-Cover the artichokes with stuffing. Do not actually try to stuff them, just put the stuffing in the pot and cover the artichokes
-Add olive oil and water
-If you will use a pressure cooker, do everything the same. It doesn't matter if you put the artichokes on top of each other. The pressure cooker will not probably be broad enough. Then cook artichokes for 20 minutes first on high, then on low heat
-If it's a regular broad pot, cover and cook on high heat for 5 minutes (or until it starts boiling), then on low for another 30-35 minutes
-Garnish with dill and do the finishing "stuffing" touches with a scoop on the plate

Just like all Turkish olive oil dishes, stuffed artichokes are best when they're served cold. Even better the next day!

Tomato Soup with Rice (Pirinçli Domates Çorbası)

This is my all time favorite summer soup.
3-4 tomatoes, grated (if it's winter you can use 1 can of diced tomato, you should smoothen it in a blender)
1 banana or 1/2 bell pepper, chopped finely
1 small clove of garlic, sliced
1 tbsp olive oil or butter
1/4 cup white rice
1/2 tsp paprika or red chili powder
1/2 tbsp peppercorns (I use peppercorns, because I love them and I think crushed black pepper changes the bright red color of the soup)
3 cups of hot water or stock
salt
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped to garnish
-In a pot heat the oil over medium heat
-Add the garlic and green peppers, and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes
-Stir in paprika and cook for half a minute
-Stir in grated tomatoes and bring to a boil
-Cook at low for app. 10 minutes, until it has a darker red color
-Stir in water and bring to a boil
-Add rice, salt, and peppercorns, and keep cooking on medium heat
-The soup will be ready when the rice is cooked
-Add parsley after turning off the heat

Spinach with Portobello (Portobello Mantarlı Ispanak)

1 pound spinach (fresh or frozen)
2 portobellos, finely chopped (you can also use the regular white store mushrooms)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 banana or 1/2 bell peppers, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp pepper paste
1/3 cup white rice
1/2 cup milk (sometimes spinach may leave a gritty taste in your mouth and on your teeth; milk smoothens the taste)
1 cup hot water
1/2 tsp (or as much as you want) black pepper

-Heat the oil in a pot and cook onions and peppers for 3-4 mins
-Add portobellos and stir for 2 minutes on medium heat
-Add flour and stir constantly for 2 more minutes. Watch out, flour can burn easily
-Add pepper paste and stir for another 2 minutes.
-Pour the milk, stir, and add spinach. Once spinach is slightly cooked, when it changes its color, add water.
-When water boils, add rice, black pepper, pepper flakes, and salt
-cover and simmer on low for half an hour or until rice is cooked

It's good with yogurt.

Chicken Burcu-Casserole (Fırında Sebzeli Tavuk)

This made-up recipe is not one of my favorite ones since I don't like chicken that much. So, it's just for you. The great thing about it is that it is a very very flexible recipe; you can put almost anything that you want in it--or whatever you have in the refrigerator at the moment, and as little oil as you wish.

The amount of food you'll cook depends on the size of casserole you have, so I will not tell you how much of everything you will need.

Pick your casserole, and put a layer of boneless chicken breasts at the bottom. On top of it,
put 1 onion, chopped in rounds,
1/2 bell pepper (green, yellow, red), chopped
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
1/2 bunch green onions, chopped.















The amount of the ingredients that follows, as I said before, depends on the size of your casserole:
mushrooms (portobello or the boring kind), sliced
carrot, diced
green peas
zucchini, chopped in half rounds
corn

Do not overload the casserole; you will add sauce on top.

Mix 1 tbsp pepper paste, 1/2 tbsp tomato paste, 1/2 tsp black pepper, crushed pepper, herbes (thyme, dry mint, parsley, dill--whichever you want), salt, and 1 tbsp olive oil with at least 1 cup hot water.
Pour the sauce on chicken + vegetables. Water level should be just a little below the surface. So if needed, add more.
Cover the casserole with aluminum foil.

Cook in a preheated oven at 375-400°F for approximately an hour, or you can check and see if chikcen is cooked.