Instant Coffee and Raisin Cake (Neskafeli ve Üzümlü Kek)

Although Turks are known to be a coffee --especially Turkish coffee--
drinking nation, we are actually obsessed with tea. Besides, it wouldn't be wrong to say that since late 80s Turks have become more of a Nescafé drinking nation. Instant coffee is cheap, easy to make, and tasteless compared to Turkish coffee. As a matter of fact Nescafé is consumed so widely that Turkish coffee became "the other" in its own land. 15-20 years ago, before globalization poked our lives, "coffee" meant Turkish coffee in Turkey. These days you have to specifically ask for "Turkish" coffee (Türk kahvesi) at a coffee house, restaurant, etc., because now "coffee" usually means Nescafé.

When my family was visiting, my aunt insisted on having instant coffee. After she left, the coffee container remained untouched for weeks until I decided to transform it into a new identity: cake mix. Apparently instant coffee can be flavorsome in baking.

1 1/2 stick butter or margarine, at room temperature
powder sugar, a little less than 1 cup
2 - 2 1/4 cups of flour
3 eggs
4 tbsp milk
8 tbsp instant coffee
1 cup of raisins
2 tsp baking powder


-Beat well powder sugar and eggs with a mixer until it becomes creamy (approximately 4-5 minutes)
-Add butter, milk, and instant coffee. Keep mixing.
-Add flour and baking powder. Mix all of them.
-Finally add raisins and stir with a wooden spoon.
-Pour cake mix in a greased cake pan.
-Bake at a preheated oven at 350-370F for 35-40 minutes.
-When it's done, wait for 5 minutes and then take the cake out.
-Once it cools down, sprinkle powder sugar on top.

Vegetarian Potato Casserole with Green Lentils (Mercimekli Patates Oturtma)

Back in the 80s, when I was in the elementary school, to support farmers who couldn't sell their produce Turkish government had bought hard-to-melt-down amount of lentils. The government's solution for agricultural crisis created another problem: warehouses stocked with lentils.

Government's solution to this new lentil crisis was Ayşe Baysal, professor of nutrition and dietetics, aka "auntie Ayşe" or "auntie lentil." Auntie lentil appeared every single day, seriously, for months on TV, on the only channel of the time--the state's channel TRT1, and gave a lentil recipe. Behind this obsessive non-stop lentil recipe creation was, of course, the determination of government and auntie Ayşe to reduce the national surplus of lentils.

Turkish public learned from "auntie lentil" that 100 gr. lentils is equal to ? gr. ground meat; how to make phyllo dough pastries (börek) with lentils; or how to make dolmas with lentils. Some of these recipes inspired Turkish people to cook more with lentils, and some scarred us; they became a nation's nightmare or a part of its dark collective unconscious like "baklava with lentils"!! The idea annoys me to this day. (I wonder if anyone tried)

I remembered auntie lentil a couple of days ago when I wanted to make a traditional Turkish recipe, potato casserole, which requires ground meat. I am not really fond of ground meat and I was thinking about how or with what to replace it when I clearly remembered auntie lentil saying over and over again that lentils are perfect substitute for ground meat. And here we go...


























1 cup green lentils
5-6 potatoes, cut in 1/2 inch rounds (This time I used red potatoes, but any potato is fine)
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 big red Italian sweet peppers or 2 green chilies, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, diced
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup chopped parsley
3 - 4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1 bay leaf
crushed red pepper flakes
ground pepper and salt

-Boil green lentils with 1 tsp cumin, 1 bay leaf, and 5 cups of water until cooked. Rinse.
-Boil potato rounds in salty water for approximately 10 minutes. Don't let them get mushy; they should be cooked but firm.
-Heat oil in a pan. Add onions and garlic. Cook for 5-6 minutes until onion is softened.
-Add peppers and cook for 3 minutes.
-Add tomato paste and cook for 2 more minutes.
-Stir in tomato and lentils. Add salt and pepper (and optional crushed red pepper flakes).
-Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes. (Add a little bit of water if it dries out)
-Grease an oven dish and place potato rounds. Cover potato rounds with lentils. Pour 1/4 cup of water.
-Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for 20-25 minutes.
-Sprinkle parsley on top before you serve.

The recipe turned out really good. We tried it with yogurt the first day; we loved it. And next day we heated it up in the oven with cheese on top. That was delicious, too.

This lentil recipe with my favorite herb parsley is for "auntie lentil" as well as for Simona of Briciole, my favorite lexiconist food blogger who is hosting Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging.

Milky Celery Root Soup (Sütlü Kereviz Çorbası)

When it's really cold outside my mom would make the traditional tarhana soup (a fermented soup mix with tomato, yogurt and flour) with milk. In Turkey I wouldn't even try the milky tarhana, but here since I cannot find it, I crave it. This milky celery soup is a result of longing for tarhana. It turned out very good and is really perfect for cold weather.

1 cup cubed celery root
2 carrots, chopped in rounds
2 potatoes, cubed
5 cups of water
2 bay leaves
pinch of ground cumin
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
salt


























-Place celery, carrot, potato, cumin, salt, bay leaves, and water in a pot. Cook until vegetables are cooked.
-Take out bay leaves and with a hand blender or a blender smoothen them.
-Put butter and flour in a frying pan. Make roux constantly stirring. Add milk and keep stirring until smooth. As soon as it starts boiling, pour this into soup.
-Stir well.

Black-eyed Peas with Sujuk (Sucuklu Tane Börülce)

The colder the weather gets, the more I cook with beans and grains. This is a hearthy, spicy, and belly warming stew from Central Anatolia. I was lucky to find fresh black-eyed peas, but you can start from dry black-eyeds or use canned peas.

Sujuk is Middle Eastern beef sausage dried with several spices black pepper, cumin, garlic, paprika, etc. You can find sujuk at Middle Eastern stores.

1/2 lb black-eyed peas
1/2 or 1/3 sujuk, sliced (I never tried but probably, you can substitute sujuk with pepperoni or kielbasa)
2 tbsp butter
1 onion, cut in thin half moons
2-3 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp sugar
4-5 tomatoes, peeled and diced
1 cup chopped parsley
salt and pepper



























-Heat butter in an earthenware. Stir in onion, garlic, sujuk, sugar, and cumin seeds. Cook for 3-4 minutes until onion is softened.
-Add tomato, salt, and ground pepper. (optional add pepper flakes) Cook for 2-3 minutes.
-Add black-eyed peas. Add enough water to cover the peas.
-If you started with an earthenware, cover and bake at 375 F for 40-45 minutes.
-If you use a regular pot, cover and cook on low for half an hour.
-After turning it off, add chopped parsley.
-Serve with rice, brown rice, or bulgur pilaf.

For parsley's refreshing power, the stew is for Weekend Herb Blogging which was founded and is hosted this week by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen.

Bulgur Risotto with Beet and Beer (Bira ve Pancarla Bulgurlu Risotto)

We've been obsessed with risotto lately. Once I got familiar with the ins and outs of making risotto, I felt like I gained the authority to explore with the "genre." I wanted to make an almost Turkish fall risotto. The recipe gets its Turkishness from bulgur, and its fallness from beet, beer, and walnuts.

I used Negra Modelo, a non-hoppy dark lager. I didn't want to bitter up the risotto with hops. Beets have somewhat sweet flavor that goes perfect with tarragon. This was one of the best risottos I've ever had and I'm not saying this because I made up this recipe.




























1 1/2 cups coarse bulgur
1 cup Negro Modelo
4 cups of stock (I used vegetarian stock)
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 spring onions, chopped
1 cup of grated beet root
2 tbsp olive oil or butter
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup Romano or Parmesan
1/4 cup feta cheese
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
2 tbsp tarragon
salt
black pepper


-Bring the stock to a boil and then turn it down.
-Heat the olive oil in a pot and stir in onion, garlic, and green onions. Cook until onions are soft.
-Add bulgur. Stir for a minute or so until bulgur is coated with oil and vegetables.
-Slowly add beer and and wait until it totally evaporates.
-Add in grated beet, tarragon, black pepper, and salt--be careful with salt if you're using already salty kinds of cheese. Stir for a minute or two.
-Start adding the hot stock into the pot 1/2 cup at a time. Simmer each 1/2 cup stock until absorbed, stirring frequently.
-Add cheese, walnuts, and 1 tbsp butter. Mix well. Wait for 5 minutes and serve.


With the perfect harmony of tarragon and beet, "Bulgur Risotto with Beet and Beer" is for Weekend Herb Blogging that was founded by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen and is hosted this week by Truffle of What's on My Plate

Red Lentil and Wheat Berry Soup (Kırmızı Mercimekli ve Buğdaylı Çorba)

1/2 cup wheat berries
1 cup red lentils
6 cups of beef or vegetable stock/broth
a pinch of saffron
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried mint flakes
1 tsp red pepper flakes
salt

-Boil wheat berries with 4 cups of water until soft. Rinse excessive water.
-In a pot boil 6 cups of beef or vegetable stock. Add first saffron threads, boil for a minute and then add wheat berries and red lentils. Cook for 20-25 minutes until lentils are cooked.
-Heat oil in a pan. Add mint and pepper flakes. Let it sizzle for a bit.
-Pour oil mix either into the pot or into every soup bowl on top of soup.

Veggie Oven Bag Stew (Fırın Torbasında Türlü)

A nice and easy fall stew.

1 eggplant, cubed
1 zucchini, cut in quarter rounds
1 carrot, cut in small half rounds
1 cup baby okra
2 green chilies, chopped
1 potato, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
1 big onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 cup water
2 tbsp tomato paste
salt
pepper
1/2 cup parsley,
chopped
2 tbsp olive oil or butter
and
1 oven bag



























-Mix all the ingredients except for water and tomato paste in a big bowl. (if you want to add any kind of meat, you can add it raw and it will be just fine)
-Put the mix in an oven bag.
-Dissolve tomato paste in 1 cup of warm water.
-Add it into the bag.
-Tie the bag with a twisty tie and place it in an oven dish. Make one or two small holes in the top part of bag.
-Bake it in a preheated oven at 400 F for 60-75 minutes.
-Serve with rice or fresh bread.


This recipe is for Kalyn's WHB which is hosted by The Expatriate Chef this week.

Peppers with Cheese (Lorlu Biber)

Another great Thracian specialty! Just like menemen, peppers with cheese can also be served as a side dish, main dish, or a breakfast treat. Many people enjoy lorlu biber for breakfast, but in my family we usually have it for dinner with fresh bread. it's really easy to make, and almost impossible to make it bad.

For this recipe you can use as many peppers and as much cheese as you want. Traditionally lorlu biber is made with banana peppers. However, we got so many different kinds of peppers from this week's farmers market that I was tempted to try at least one; Hungarian wax pepper.

























1 lb banana peppers, chopped in rounds (seeds taken out)
1/2 cup ricotta or farmers cheese (this can easily go up to 1 full cup)
1 cup frying oil (canola, corn, etc)
salt if needed

























-Heat oil in a deep pot.
-When it's really hot, add chopped peppers and fry until they get slightly brown (If you don't want to deep fry peppers, you can stir them with 2-3 tbsp olive oil until slightly brown and then add cheese)
-Take the peppers out with a slotted spoon and place them on a paper towel to soak excessive oil. (If you will fry two different kinds of peppers and one of them is spicy; first fry the non-spicy one. Otherwise, all the peppers will be spicy)
-Put 1 tbsp of the frying oil into a non-stick frying pan. Add peppers and cheese.
-Stir until cheese starts melting.
-Serve with bread.

Artichoke Heart and Lamb Stew (Kuzu Etli Enginar)

Artichoke and lamb stew is a very common dish in the western Aegean part of Turkey, where Turk and Greeks lived together for years. The original recipe requires artichoke heart, lamb, onion, and, the most important of all dill. Yet, I find the mix of just artichoke and lamb to be very heavy, so I modified the recipe by adding carrot ands green peas.


























serves 4-6

1 pound lamb
8-10 small or 4-6 big peeled artichoke hearts, cut into 4-6 pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped in half rounds
1 pound fresh green peas or 1 can green peas
1/2 bunch dill, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil or 4 tbsp butter
1 1/2 tbsp flour
juice of 1 1/2 lemon
1 tsp sugar
water
salt

-Soak chopped artichoke hearts in a bowl with lemon juice until you cook them. Otherwise, they will darken.
-Heat olive oil or butter in a broad pot and add lamb. Stir for a couple of minutes until it's cooked on each side.
-Add onion and carrot. Stir until onion is softened. Add flour and stir for another minutes.
-Add artichoke, green peas, lemon juice, sugar, and salt. Add water to barely cover vegetables.
-Bring to a boil, and then cover and simmer on low for almost an hour.
-Add dill after your turn it off.
-Serve with rice.

With the harmonious friendship of artichoke and dill, the recipe is for Weekend Herb Blogging, founded by Kalyn and hosted this week by Pille of Nami Nami

Bulgur Pilaf with Green Lentils (Mercimekli Bulgur Pilavi)

A perfect bulgur pilaf recipe!

1/2 cup green lentils
1 cup coarse bulgur
5-6 sun dried tomatoes, finely chopped
2-3 dried hot chilies, chopped
2 red or green chilies, chopped
2 medium onions, finely chopped
3 tbsp tomato paste
4 tbsp olive oil



























-Boil 1/2 cup green lentils with 3-4 cups of water until soft, approximately 15-20 minutes, and drain. (!/2 cup lentils will make 1 cup after boiled)
-Heat olive oil in a pot. Add onion. Stir for 5 minutes.
-Add sun dried tomatoes, hot chilies, and green peppers. Stir for 3-4 minutes and then add tomato paste. Stir for another 3 minutes.
-Add bulgur, lentils, 2 cups of hot water, and salt.
-Once it starts boiling, turn it all the way to low. Cover and cook until there's no more water left.
-Cover the top of the pot with paper towel or a clean kitchen towel. Seal with the lid and let sit at least for 10 minutes before you serve.

Kidney Beans with Beef Franks (Sosisli Kırmızı Fasülye)

This is a delicious fall stew with kidney beans.

1 1/2 cups dry red kidney beans
3 tbsp butter or olive oil
1 big onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 red peppers or 1 red bell pepper, chopped
4-5 beef franks, cut in 1/2 inch rounds
1 potato, cubed
2 tbsp tomato paste (+ 1 tbsp pepper paste, optional)
4 bay leaves
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp oregano leaves
2 tsp black pepper
salt
water



























-Soak kidney beans in water overnight. The next day, boil them lots of water and two bay leaves until soft. Discard bay leaves and rinse beans well.
-Heat butter in big pot. Add onions and garlic. Stir for 4-5 minutes.
-Add peppers. Stir for 3 minutes.
-Add beef franks, cumin, oregano, and black pepper. Stir on medium heat until they're cooked on both sides, approximately 7 minutes.
-Add paste and cook for another 2 minutes.
-Add kidney beans and two (new) bay leaves. Cover beans with water. Add salt. You don't want to break the beans, so mix them once and cover. Cook on low for 30-40 minutes.
-Serve with rice or bulgur pilaf, or with bread.

With bay leaves this recipe is for WHB which was founded by Kalyn and is hosted by Susan this week.

Vegeterian Stuffed Eggplants (İmam Bayıldı)

İmam bayıldı is one of the most popular olive oil dishes of Turkish cuisine. It literally translates as "imam (the priest) fainted." The rumor goes that imam faints, out of stinginess, when he learns the amount of olive oil used to make this dish.

İmam bayıldı is also known as the vegetarian version of another very popular eggplant dish: stuffed eggplants (karnıyarık). In traditional cuisine eggplants are deep fried as a whole, just like in stuffed eggplants, in preparation of imam bayıldı. And the stuffing is kind of stir fried with olive oil. However, my mom skips the deep and stir frying parts and starts with raw vegetables for a lighter and possibly healthier recipe.


























2 lb small eggplant
1 lb onion, chopped thinly in half-moon shape
4-5 green chilies, chopped
10 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 lb tomato, diced
1 tsp sugar
1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped
3/4 cup olive oil



















-Peel eggplants in stripes lengthwise. Cut them into four lengthwise leaving the bottom attached. Put them in salty water to prevent darkening.
-Chop onions very thinly in half moon shape. Place them in a bowl and knead with a pinch of salt.
Add finely chopped green peppers and cubed tomatoes to onion.
-Add finely chopped garlic, parsley, salt and sugar to the mixture. Mix them all well.
-Take eggplants out from the salty water by squeezing them well.
-Place eggplants in a broad and shallow pot. With your hand lift the top two parts, open them up, and fill them with the vegetable mixture. If there's any stuffing left, place it on top.
-Pour the olive oil on top along with ½ cup water.
-Cover and cook first on high until it boils, then on low until eggplants are cooked, approximately 30-45 minutes depending on the kind of eggplant.
-This is a traditional olive oil dish, which means that it's served when it's cold and that it's always better the next day.

Frozen Panda Cake (Panda Pasta)

One of my oldest friends, Sena, taught this recipe to me approximately 15 years ago. It was a big hit then. We would make Panda cake every week. Especially that coco sauce; we didn't seem to get enough of it. Although this is really a pudding, since you need to cut it and eat it with a fork we call it a cake. I wanted to have Panda cake again for a long time, but didn't ask Sena to e-mail the recipe, because I thought it wouldn't be as good without mastic gum. But it turned out just fine with vanilla, too. Thanks, Sena!

200 gr. butter
1 - 1.5 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)
1 cup flour
1 liter milk
1 tsp vanilla or 1-2 piece mastic gum

for the sauce
50 gr. butter
4 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp unsweetened coco powder
4 tsbp milk
1 egg


























-Heat butter in a pan. Add flour and sugar. Stir with a wooden spoon on medium heat constantly approximately for 5-7 minutes.
-Add milk. Stir constantly until it thickens up.
-Add vanilla or mastic gum if you can find it. (Read Haalo's post to learn more about mastic gum)
-Pour cold water in a big and shallow pot. Place the pudding pot in the big shallow one so that the pudding pot is surrounded by cold water. Beat pudding with electric mixer on medium to high for 15 minutes. This will air up pudding and give it a nice texture.
-Wet a 2 or 3 Quart glass dish like Pyrex. Pour pudding into the glass dish. Cover with a clear wrap and put in freezer.
-For the sauce, melt butter. In a mixing bowl beat butter, egg, sugar, coco powder, and milk. Add milk one tbsp at a time to lighten the sauce up.
-Spread the coco sauce on pudding which should be slightly firm by now. Put it back in the freezer.
-Take Panda cake out of the freezer 10 minutes before serving to give it a little time to warm up and be ready to be cut. Put the rest back into freezer.
-You can serve it with ice cream.

Stuffed Zucchini with Bulgur (Bulgurlu Kabak Dolması)

I made pepper dolmas with bulgur two weeks ago and we loved it. So, I decided to try the recipe again, this time with zucchini. I picked big zucchinis, carvable in my standards. I cut each zucchini into 3 equal parts and carved carefully so that each one had a thin bottom to hold stuffing. If you work with smaller zucchinis, just cut them into two. With zucchinis I used fresh dill and mint, and also added garlic. And in the end, stuffed zucchinis was as delicious as stuffed peppers with bulgur. Yet again if you don't like bulgur much, try stuffing zucchini with stuffing in this recipe.

3 big zucchinis
1/2 cup coarse bulgur
1 big onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 bunch green onions, chopped
1/2 bunch dill chopped
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint or 2 tsp mint flakes
2 long green chilies like anaheims, chopped
4 medium tomatoes, petite diced
approximately 1 tsp lemon zest
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp crushed peppers
salt
water


























-Saute onion, garlic, green onion, and chilies with 1/4 olive oil for 5-6 minutes.
-Add bulgur, tomato, dill, fresh mint, lemon zest, salt, and crushed peppers. Stir for a minutes. Add 1/3 cup hot water. Cover and cook until bulgur soaks all the water.
-Stuff zucchinis with bulgur mix. Place in a pot facing up.
-Pour hot water half way through zucchinis. Scatter rest of the olive oil. First bring to a boil and then cover and simmer on low for 40-50 minutes or until zucchini is cooked.

Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging is 2 years old! This weeks' WHB is hosted by Haalo of Cook (Almost) Anything.

Çanakkale Style Vegetable Stew (Şaraşura)

This summer stew is a specialty of Çanakkale. Çanakkale, the northern Aegean/ half Thracian city, has a rich cuisine, but once you taste its famous peynir helvası (cheese halva) and fresh fish from Dardanelles you forget to ask for more.

1 lb green beans, trimmed and cut into two
1 eggplant, peeled in stripes and largely diced
1 zucchini, largely diced
2 potatoes, largely diced
3 banana peppers, chopped in big rounds
1 big onion, roughly chopped
2 tomatoes, cubed
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 -2 cups of water
1 tbsp tomato paste
salt



















-Heat oil in a big pot. Add onions. Stir until cooked.
-Add in peppers and tomatoes. Cook for 10 minutes.
-Melt tomato paste in with a little bit of warm water and stir in.
-Add all the vegetables, salt and water. Mix well.
-Cover and cook on medium for 45 minutes or until vegetables are cooked.
-Serve luke warm or hot. It goes well with rice, bulgur, or couscous.

Stuffed Peppers with Bulgur (Bulgurlu Biber Dolması)

This dolma recipe is definitely for those who love bulgur. If you don't like bulgur, then your recipe for stuffed peppers is this one. On the other hand, if you like bulgur, this is a great recipe with fresh herbs and refreshing lemon zest.


























5-6 small bell peppers (do not use those huge American bell peppers; they have really thick skin, are too big for stuffing, and most important of all are not flavorsome)
1/2 cup coarse bulgur
1 big onion, finely chopped
1/2 bunch green onions, chopped
1/2 bunch dill chopped
1-2 tsp mint flakes
2 long green chilies like anaheims, chopped
4 medium tomatoes, petite diced
approximately 1 tsp lemon zest
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp crushed peppers
salt
water

























-Take the tops of bell peppers. Take the seeds out, wash and rinse.
-Saute onion, green onion, and chilies with 1/4 olive oil for 5-6 minutes.
-Add bulgur, tomato, dill, lemon zest, salt, and crushed peppers. Stir for a minutes. Add 1/3 cup hot water. Cover and cook until bulgur soaks all the water.
-Stuff bell peppers with bulgur mix. Place in a pot facing up.
-Pour hot water half way through peppers. Scatter rest of the olive oil. First bring to a boil and then cover and simmer on low for half an hour.
-Serve warm with yogurt.

This dolma recipe is for Weekend Herb Blogging for the enriching contribution of fresh dill. WHB is founded by Kalyn and is hosted by Ulrike of Kuchenlatein.

Eggplant Stew with Rice (Patlıcanlı Cive)

I'm still posting eggplant recipes, and I still have more, because eggplants and zucchinis are the main things we've been getting from farmers market every week for over a month now. And I took the opportunity to show how Turks are crazy about eggplant! Cive is a great summer dish from the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, Antalya. Cive is good warm or cold, with yogurt or bread. The main point is to make it with green tomatoes that give cive the desired sour taste.


























1 lb eggplant, peeled partially leaving lengthwise stripes and diced
2 medium onions, cut in thin half moons
10-12 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
3 green chilies, chopped
3 tomatoes (preferably green tomatoes for a sour taste), peeled and petite diced
3 tbsp rice
1/4 cup olive
1 tsp black pepper
salt
2 or 3 tbsp chopped fresh basil or mint OR t tbsp dry mint or basil



























-Heat oil in a pot. Add onion and garlic. Stir for 3-4 minutes.
-Add chopped chilies. Stir for a couple of minutes.
-Add tomato, eggplant, black pepper, salt. Stir one and do not stir again; otherwise eggplant will get mushy.
-Cover and cook on low-medium until vegetables will get juicy in the pot. Stir in rice nice and polite.
-Cover and cook on low for 30-40 minutes.
-Before you serve, sprinkle chopped basil or mint.

As much as the green tomatoes, fresh basil is what makes this eggplant dish distinctive and special. And for the sake of fresh basil, this is my contribution for this week's Weekend Herb Blogging, which was hosted by Kalyn and is hosted this week by Myriam of Once Upon a Tart.

Eggplant and Lentil Stew with Pomegranate Molasses (Mualle)

Here's another delicious certified Turkish eggplant recipe. I had mualle first in İstanbul at Çiya Restaurant. The owner and chef of Çiya, Musa Dağdeviren, is not only a great chef but also a passionate researcher of forgotten Anatolian recipes. He has traveled all around Anatolia and collected almost 4 thousand local recipes. That's why Çiya's menu changes daily. One of those 4 thousand recipes, Mualle, is a summer stew from Antakya. Mualle that I had at Çiya was so good that I got very excited when I found Dağdeviren's recipe in Food & Wine. Try this recipe before the last eggplants of the season start to disappear from farmers markets.

























3-4 long narrow eggplants, peeled in lengthwise stripes
1/2 cup green lentils
1 medium onion, chopped
4-5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
3 banana peppers or any long thin green chilies, seeded and chopped
2 tomatoes, diced
2 tbsp fresh mint, chopped or 2 tbsp dry mint
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tbsp tomato paste
2/3 cup olive oil
3 tbsp pomegranate molasses (you can find pm easily at Middle Eastern markets)
salt
























-Peel the eggplant partially and leave lengthwise stripes of skin. Cut them into 4 lengthwise. Chop every piece crosswise into 3. Place them on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt. Let them stand for an hour.
-Bring green lentils to a boil with 2 cups of water. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until lentils are soft.
-In a bowl mix tomatoes, green chilies, onion, garlic, mint, salt, crushed peppers, and tomato paste.
-Coat a small cast-iron casserole with 1-2 tbsp of olive oil. Put 1/2 cup of veggie mix on bottom. Cover with half of the eggplant, then half of the lentils, and half of the remaining veggie mix. Top first with remaining eggplant, then with lentils, and then with veggie mix.
-Pour olive oil around the side. Sprinkle pomegranate molasses.
-Bring the stew to a boil. Then cover and turn it down to low and simmer for 1-1 1/2 hours.

Mualle is good with rice and yogurt.

Stuffed Eggplants (Karnıyarık)

Another "certified Turkish" recipe from my mom: karnıyarık which literally translates as "split belly." Karnıyarık is widely made and dearly loved almost in every part of Turkey. But by going over the ingredients and cooking method, I believe it's from southeastern and eastern Mediterranean regions of Turkey. I must warn you; this is not a light dish, but it is absolutely fantastic and if you haven't had karnıyarık before, it will change your ideas on eggplant dishes. Enough said to advertise eggplant.

There are a couple things to be careful about when you're cooking with eggplants. Buy eggplants right before you cook and pick the firmer ones; eggplants tend to get soft in the refrigerator. And for this dish, do not use huge American eggplants. Try to find cute little ones or Asian eggplants.

1 lb eggplant, peeled in stripes lengthwise
1/2 ground meat
2 onions, cubed
1/2 bunch parsley, finely choppped
1 tomato, petite diced (for the stuffing)
1 tomato, sliced in half moons (for the top)
green banana peppers, as many as eggplants
ground pepper
salt
2 tbs olive oil
frying oil
1 cup hot water

-Peel eggplants leaving lengthwise stripes and then put them in salty water for 10 minutes. Dry them well and fry them as a whole in a deep pot with canola or corn or vegetable oil, whichever you're comfortable with. (Make sure oil is really hot before you place eggplants, otherwise eggplants will soak tons of oil)
-Once they're fried, first soak the excessive oil by resting them on a paper towel, and then place eggplants on an oven dish.
-In a deep frying pan, heat olive oil. Add onions and stir for 3-4 minutes.
-Add ground meat. Cook until ground meat soaks all the juice it lets out.
-Add diced tomato. Stir until cooked. Turn it off.
-Add chopped parsley, salt, and pepper. Mix well.
-With the help of two spoons, slit eggplants into two. But leave the tops and bottoms attached.
-Stuff eggplants with ground meat mixture.
-Place a slice of half moon shaped tomato and a green pepper on top of each split belly eggplant.
-Pour 1 cup of hot water on top and bake them in preheated oven at 400F until green peppers are nicely baked.

Serve with rice and yogurt.

Another eggplant recipe with parsley for Weekend Herb Blogging which was founded by Kalyn and is hosted this week by Katie of Thyme for Cooking.

Thracian Roasted Eggplant Salad (Tunçilik)

Roasted eggplant salads are very common in Thrace, where I come from, during the summer. Thrace (Trakya in Turkish) is the northwestern corner or the European part of Turkey. Thrace is a historical and geographical region that spreads over Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey. The Turkish part is the Eastern Thrace. Eastern Thrace, in years, witnessed major waves of migration--like the two big ones after the Ottoman-Russian war and the Lausanne Treaty--which created the marvelous ethnic, cultural, and culinary mosaic of the region today.

My favorite jewel of this culinary mosaic, Tunçilik, is one of the many different versions of roasted eggplant salad or meze (=appetizer) that's made in the region. Tunçilik is a specialty of the southwestern part of Turkish Thrace around Tekirdağ.



















for 6 people
4 eggplants
5-6 big red peppers or banana peppers
2 tomatoes, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
6-7 tbsp of vinegar
3-4 tbsp olive oil
salt
1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped
There's nothing written in stone. You can use more or less of everything. Whatever you do, make sure you use all the ingredients. There's no such thing as Tunçilik without parsley, peppers, or tomatoes, or vinegar. Make it less vinegary or more oily or peppery, but have all the ingredients.
















-Roast eggplants and peppers on a grill, or in oven at 450F. Roast tomatoes along with eggplants and peppers for 4-5 minutes.
-Let them cool first. Then peel eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes. And seed them.
-Chopped them all finely.
-In a bowl mix crushed garlic, eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, and parsley.
-In a small bowl, mix vinegar, olive oil, and salt. Add this on vegetables.
-Mix well. Taste. If you think you can handle a little more garlic and vinegar, do not hesitate to add more.
-Tunçilik goes well with red meat or poultry, especially if they're grilled. And do not forget to soak the juice with fresh bread.

One of the readers of the blog, Tash, has made some wonderful suggestions to perfect this recipe (also see Tash' comment below). I'd like to share them with you:
- After removing the roasted eggplants from the hot ashes, they are cut length wise, salted and kept vertically in a colander for a few minutes to drain. This I am told drains the bitter taste out of eggplants and removes excess moisture for a more consistent texture in the mix. 
-Roasted tomatoes and peppers are not always peeled to add texture and smokier taste to the mix. Just brush off the ashes. 
-If available Tahini and little lemon juice with a little roasted garlic was sometimes added to the mix.
-I also noticed that lemon juice was omitted if the roasted tomatoes were in the mix. 
-Mixing in fresh kaymak (solidified heavy cream) to the basic mix was my favorite version.

Eggplant-Meatball Casserole (Fırında Köfteli Patlıcan)

This delicious eggplant and meatball recipe was highly inspired by another recipe I found at one of Turkey's most popular and successful food blogs: portakal ağacı. In her blog Hatice, tells that she got the recipe from an aunt (in Turkey you call all the elderly ladies "aunt X or Y" for respect regardless of your blood relation to them) and that it's called "Antep kebap" (Antep Kebabı). I liked the idea of having meatballs and eggplant--my favorite vegetable--but I didn't follow the recipe strictly. I think this is the good side of casserole dishes; they give you room for flexibility. In the end it turned out to be a light and tasty recipe.

I particularly like meatball casserole dishes, because (1) they are really easy to make and (2) in the end they are delicious. I usually make meatballs from 2 lb of ground lamb and beef. Later I freeze meatballs and use them whenever I need them. As you can imagine, when you have already made frozen meatballs, making any kind of meatball casserole dish takes almost no time.

























2-3 eggplants, peeled in stripes and cut in 1 inch rounds
2 tomatoes, sliced
1 or 1/2 banana pepper for each meatball
1 big onion, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, sliced
1/4 cup olive oil
salt

for meatball (I used half of the meatballs from this batch for the recipe; the other half went straight to the freezer)
1 lb ground meat
1-2 slice of stale bread, processed in a food processor or grated
1 eggs
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp oregano leaves
1/2 tsp salt
1 big clove of garlic, minced
1 onion, grated or finely chopped
1/2 parsley, finely chopped
(the original recipe didn't ask for cumin, oregano leaves, onion, and garlic for the meatball part)

-Mix well all the ingredients for meatball in a bowl and make round , half inch thick meatballs.
-Peel the eggplants in stripes and cut them in rounds. Place the rounds in a casserole.
-Place one meatball on each eggplant round.
-Scatter chopped onion and garlic on meatballs.
-Underneath onion and garlic, you'll still see your small eggplant and meatball towers; put one slice of tomato and one or half banana pepper (or any pepper you want) on each eggplant+meatball tower.
-Salt to your taste and pour 1/4 cup of alive oil on top.
-Cover tight with aluminum foil and bake for an hour at a preheated oven at 450F. After an hour uncover, and bake for another 10-15 minutes.

I served eggplant and meatball casserole with bulgur pilaf and yogurt.