Tekirdağ Meatballs (Tekirdağ Köftesi)

Tekirdağ, my hometown, is renown for its rakı (Turkish brandy made from grapes) and meatballs. Tekirdağ rakı is famous because although it's made from raisins everywhere else, in Tekirdağ rakı is made from fresh grapes. As for meatballs, the recipe is a mystery. The recipe is not widely known, because nobody in Tekirdağ would make Tekirdağ meatballs at home; you go out to one of the billion meatball restaurants in town for meatballs. However, if you're in the states, you need to solve the mystery and discover the recipe. At one of those times when I was craving Tekirdağ Köftesi, I searched cookbooks and foodblogs and finally found this recipe and changed it a bit after a couple of trials. I must say it's a very successful one; meatballs are yummy and the taste is quite similar to Tekirdağ Köftesi, but yet not 100% (you have to have it at a restaurant). Enjoy these delicious meatballs now, but if you ever go to Turkey, do eat Tekirdağ Köftesi with bean salad + spicy red pepper sauce on the side and try to figure out "the" recipe!

1pound ground lamb
1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 medium size onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp salt
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp crushed pepper
1 tsp mint flakes
1 egg
2 tbsp fine semolina

-Knead meat, bread crumbs, onion, garlic, cumin, and salt well in a bowl with your hands.
-Add baking soda, black pepper, paprika, crushed pepper (pepper flakes), and mint, and knead again.
-Finally add egg and semolina, and knead well for the last time.
-Cover with clear wrap and refrigerate over night.
-First wet your hands and then shape into oval-shaped meatballs. At meatball restaurants in Tekirdağ, meatballs are served in finger-shaped forms.
-If you'll save them for later use, place meatballs in a plate, freeze, and then put them all in a bag. They are good for months in the freezer.
-You can barbecue or broil them, or fry them with a little bit oil in a frying pan. The choice is up to you.
-Tekirdağ Köftesi goes well with rice and tomato salad.

Black Olive Cake (Zeytinli Kek)

It's a gloomy, cloudy, rainy, and miserable Sunday. The best to do seemed like baking a cake, making Turkish tea, and watching a movie. I found this recipe from a very popular Turkish foodblog: Portakal Ağacı. Except for a couple of additions, I followed the recipe.

2 cups of chopped and pitted black olives (I was going low with my delicious Turkish olives, so I used canned olives)
3/4 cup canola oil
1 cup plain yogurt
2 cups of flour
3 eggs
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint or 1 1/2 tbsp dried mint flakes
1 bunch green onions, chopped finely
1 tbsp red pepper flakes (if you want your cake to be a spicy one)
1 tbsp black seeds
1 1/2 tsp salt (depends on what kind of olives you use)
1 tsp baking powder



























-Beat the eggs and add yogurt and oil. Mix well.
-Add olives, green onion, mint, red pepper flakes, salt, and black seeds to the mixture and mix.
-Add baking powder and flour. You'll have a runny mixture.
-Pour in a greased oven dish. I used a 12 x 8 inches oval oven dish.
-Bake in for 40-50 minutes in a preheated oven at 375F.
-Let it sit for at least 15 minutes before you cut and serve.


This recipe which brings out the perfect harmony between mint and green onions has turned out so delicious that it'll go straight to Weekend Herb Blogging of Kalyn which is hosted by Anna of Anna's Cool Finds.

Salame di Cioccolata (Mozaik Pasta)

I am not sure where this absolutely delicious and extremely-easy-to-make mosaic cake recipe comes from; I guess it's originally Italian, but yet I don't have any source to support my idea. (After reading Ilva's comment, I did a research and became sure that Mosaic Cake is Italian; I even changed the post title to original Italian name.) Mosaic cake was very popular in Turkey 10 to 15 years ago. Since then, it has been forgotten, though it's still my #1 cake (#2: plain cheesecake, #3: carrot cake). My mom never made this cake, because the recipe requires raw eggs; she thought it wasn't healthy. I had to search for this recipe and I found it from my friend Özgür. Since he's a food engineer, I assume we're all safe!

1 pack of le petit beurre. [Le petit beurre is a thin, small, rectangle biscuit first made in France by the founder of LU company. They're great with tea: you have to dip it very fast, though! You can find them in the international food sections of big stores or in international markets.]

8-10 tbsp butter (1 stick) or if you feel generous, you can make it
1 1/2 sticks.
3 tbsp unsweetened coco
2 eggs
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup crushed walnuts or almonds or pistachios or all



























-Melt butter and let it cool down. In a bowl mix well sugar, eggs, butter, and coco.
-Crumble biscuits into this mixture. Mix all and pour this mixture on a plastic wrap. Roll it as a big candy as in the picture above. Put it in freezer for an hour. Cake will be firmer in an hour so you can give it whatever shape you want: round, triangle, or square.
-Mosaic cake is served cold so keep it in the freezer.
-Serve it on its own or with ice cream.

Turkish Scrambled Eggs with Vegetables (Menemen)

Menemen can be defined in a couple of different ways such as Turkish breakfast specialty or lazy dinner option or great summer dish. However you define it, it's delicious. Best part of all is whether you are a great cook or a poor one, you cannot go wrong with menemen; the ingredients secure the taste. Must-have traditional ingredients for menemen are eggs, tomato, onion, peppers (preferably banana peppers), and parsley. I modify the traditional recipe by replacing onions with green onions and adding feta cheese.

Here's how I make menemen for four:

6 eggs, well-beaten
4 juicy tomatoes, diced (you can also use canned diced tomatoes; prefer petite diced ones or put regular one in blender for a couple of seconds)
3 green onions with tops, finely chopped
4 fresh peppers, finely chopped (I used red and orange Italian sweet peppers and 2 green chilies)
1/2 cup crumbled feta
1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 tsp spicy pepper flakes
1 tsp black pepper
salt
1-2 tbsp oil or butter

Nothing is written in stone, so you can use more or less of anything above. You can use finely chopped onion instead of green onions, and you can also add pitted and chopped black olives.

-In a frying pan heat oil and add onion. Cook on medium until they're soft and then add fresh peppers.
-Once they're cooked, pour in tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Wait until tomatoes cook down a little. -Stir in beaten eggs and feta. Stir constantly.
-Right before eggs are cooked, add chopped parsley.
-Serve with bread.

This recipe with flat leaf parsley is for Weekend Herb Blogging which is founded by Kalyn and hosted by the Chocolate Lady from In Mol Araan.

Wheat Flour Halva (Un Helvası)

There are three different types of halva in Turkey: tahini halva, which is known simply as halva here in the Sates, wheat flour halva, and semolina halva. Tahini halva is usually store-bought; actually I've never heard anyone who made tahini halva. As a matter of fact, I never liked tahini halva which my family highly enjoyed as main dessert after fish dinners. Semolina and wheat flour, on the other hand, are always home-made for funerals or religious days. Moms would make big batches of either semolina or wheat flour halva and send a halva plate with kids to everyone in the neighborhood. Other than funerals and religious days, semolina or wheat flour halva is perfect for midnight sugar-craze. Between two, I've always liked wheat flour better than semolina. It's easy to make wheat flour halva, but it requires arm strength since you need to stir constantly. Here's the recipe for a small batch.

3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp canola oil
1 cup wheat flour
1 cup sugar
2 cups of water
2 tbsp pine nuts

-Start making roux with flour, butter, oil, and pine nuts on low heat. Important: Stir constantly until it turns into a brownish color. Change arms or pass the job to someone else, but stir constantly; you don't want flour balls in your halva. And don't forget; it may take a while.
-In a pot boil sugar and water.
-Once the flour mixture is brownish, pour syrup, one scoop at a time, and stir constantly until the whole syrup is soaked. It will get harder to stir. Turn it off, cover and let sit for 10 minutes.
-With two spoons give halva some sort of spoon-shape and serve!

You can experiment with this recipe by either replacing water with milk or using 1 cup water and 1 cup milk.

Adventure for chocolate and/or coco lovers: add 1 tbsp coco to roux before you pour in the syrup or serve flour halva with chocolate syrup.

Rice with Lentils (Mercimekli Pilav)

This is a recipe that I and my collage roommates made and enjoyed a lot of times in our dorm kitchen. This was the tastiest thing we cooked.

1 1/2 cup white rice
1/2 cup green lentils
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 tbsp olive oil or butter
3 cups of water
salt

-Boil lentils with 3 cups of water on medium for 20-30 minutes or until they're cooked. Be careful not to overcook them. You don't want them mushy. When they're cooked, rinse them well and set aside.
-Put oil in a pot and stir onions for 10 minutes.
-Add rice and keep stirring for 3-4 minutes until rice turns into a translucent color. [I used 1 1/2 cups of rice, but you can use as much as you want. Just do not forget that the ratio of rice to water is always 1 to 2]
-Add water and salt. Bring to a boil then turn it to low. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Then stir in lentils and cover again. Cook on low until rice soaks all the water (approximately 20 minutes).
-Turn it off and cover the top of the pot with a paper towel or a clean kitchen towel. Place the lid on paper towel and let rice sit for at least 10 minutes before you serve.
-Try it with yogurt.

Spinach with Yogurt (Yoğurtlu Ispanak)

Most of my friends when we were kids ate spinach only because of Popeye. I did not. I ate spinach because my mom made delicious spinach and I never understood how spinach that comes out of a can could be tasty or powerful, especially without yogurt. Here's my mom's recipe; almost her recipe, because I made a few moderations in years.

1 1/2 pound (app. 700 gr.) spinach, fresh or frozen - baby spinach would be good, too!
1 big onion, finely chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 tbsp tomato or pepper paste (or half/half)
1/4 cup olive oil or for a tastier spinach 3 tbsp butter
1/4 cup rice, definitely white
1/3 cup milk or yogurt (milk helps with that weird taste on your teeth after eating spinach)
1 cup hot water
1/2 tsp (or as much as you want) black pepper
salt
pepper flakes

-Heat the oil in a pot and add onion and garlic. Stir for 10 minutes or until they're cooked and add tomato/pepper paste. Stir on medium heat for an other 3-4 minutes.
-If it's fresh, add spinach in small portions, not all at once, and stir for approximately 10-15 minutes until spinach changes into a darker green.
-Pour first milk or yogurt, cook for a minute or two, then water, and then salt-pepper duo.
-Add rice when it starts boiling
-Cook on low heat until rice is cooked (approximately for 30 minutes).
-Serve with yogurt. Spinach means nothing to me if I don't mix it with yogurt, yet again there are a lot of people who like it plain.

PS: To digress from the Turkish recipe towards an Indian touch, replace tomato/pepper paste with curry.

This recipe is for Weekend Herb Blogging which is founded and hosted by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen.

Roasted Beet Soup (Fırınlanmış Pancar Çorbası)

I had found a recipe for a roasted beet soup at Cafe Fernando. I was mesmerized by the color of the beet soup and also by the fact that I'd never cooked with beets before. So I decided to try; however, the original recipe asked for celery stalks, which I cannot stand, and was introduced as a "sweet" one. So, to avoid celery stalks and sweetness, I modified the recipe a little bit, o.k. maybe a lot.

I updated the recipe after my 2nd trial.

3 beet roots, diced
1 cup beet stalks, chopped
5 cloves of garlic
1 carrot, cut in rounds
1 potato, diced
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup rice
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp white peppercorn
1 tsp crushed pepper/ pepper flakes (if you want it spicy)
1 tsp red chili powder
7 cups of water or vegetable stock
1/2 bunch dill

optional
juice of 1 lemon or lime
crumbled feta

-Wrap beet roots separately and garlic cloves together in aluminum foil and bake in the preheated oven at 375 F for an hour. You have to let them cool down to a bearable temperature before you peel and dice the roots.
-Heat oil + butter in a large pot and start cooking onions, peppers, and beet stalks
-Add carrots and potatoes. Stir on medium heat for 4-5 minutes
-Now it's time to add beets, garlic, and white peppercorns. Stir for 2-3 minutes
-Add red chili powder, stir for half a minute and add water, salt, and crushed pepper
-When the water boils add rice. Cook for 40 minutes on low to medium heat and stir every now and then
-The soup will be ready when rice is cooked
-I used the soup master (the hand blender) to smoothen it. If you won't smoothen the soup, you should probably chop everything finely
-Garnish with dill and serve with a slice of lemon or lime. The sourness gives it a nice flavor

Things to keeps in mind if you'll try to make this soup are 1) do not wear white! 2) do not skip on dill; you won't believe how well roasted beet and dill get along 3) be adventurous and sprinkle some crumbled feta on top with dill (it's good with lemon juice, too, but I think I favor feta over lemon).

This recipe with the must-have ingredient dill is for Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging which is hosted by Ulrike of Kuchenlatein.