Celery Root Salad with Yogurt (Yoğurtlu Kereviz Salatası)

There are two common lies that Turkish moms tell their non-celery root liking kids. If celery root is cooked, the mom forces the dish as a potato dish. The different smell and taste? Oh, it's just the spice she used! However, if celery root is to be eaten raw, as in celery root salad with yogurt, then the kid is told that it is radish salad. I loved radishes as a kid and tried this so-called radish salad served on a New Year's Eve dinner, which is a big celebration in Turkey that includes lot of drinking, turkey, numerous raki friendly salads and olive oil dishes, bingo, several kilos of fruit, and a belly dancer that appears on every TV channel exactly at midnight.



























1 medium celery root, thinly grated
juice of 1/2 lemon
thick yogurt
mayonnaise
chopped walnuts
salt
dill, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tbsp olive oil

-Grate celery root in a bowl.
-Squeeze lemon juice on top and mix well.
-Add enough yogurt+mayo to cover grated celery root. The ideal ratio of mayo to yogurt 1:3, however, you can change it to adopt your taste.
-Add minced garlic, chopped walnuts, dill, salt, and olive oil. Mix well.
-Cover with a clear wrap and store in the fridge for at least two hours before serving.

Cheese Pastries (Peynirli Poğaça)

Although there are tens of different kinds of poğaça (savory pastry), none resembles anything like Italian focaccia, where the term poğaça derives from. There are two main ways of preparing savory pastry dough: with or without yeast. Non-yeast pastries are favored by many for their rich-in-butter-nature; yet, most people make pastries with yeasty dough because it requires less amount of oil. Since I don't bake poğaças very often, I see no harm in indulging myself with feta and butter.

makes ~25 cheese pastries

2 sticks of butter, melted
1 egg, white for the dough, yolk for brushing the tops of pastries
3 cups of flour
~1/2 plain yogurt
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup white cheese or feta crumbles
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
sesame seeds

-Mix cheese and parsley in a small bowl.
-Put flour in a bowl. Pour butter, egg white, and salt. Mix well.
-Start kneading and add yogurt as much as you need to make slightly soft, easy-to-shape dough.
-Roll walnut-size pieces in your hands to make balls. Press the ball between your palms to make a flat round, ~3-3.5 inches in diameter.
-Place a small amount of cheese+parsley filling in the middle of the flat round dough. Make it in to a ball by bringing the edges into the middle and covering the filling.
-Place on a cookie tray. Brush the tops with egg yolk and sprinkle sesame seeds.
-Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for 20-25 minutes.
-Traditionally poğaças are served with tea, but you can also serve them for dinner as a side. Although there are tens of different kinds of poğaça (savory pastry), none resembles anything like Italian focaccia, where the term poğaça derives from. There are two main ways of preparing savory pastry dough: with or without yeast. Non-yeast pastries are favored by many for their rich-in-butter-nature; yet, most people make pastries with yeasty dough because it requires less amount of oil. Since I don't bake poğaças very often, I see no harm in indulging myself with feta and butter.

Bulgur Kofte (Çılbak Köftesi)

Bulgur Kofte is a different version of another traditionally Turkish recipe, garlicy bulgur buttons, from southeastern Turkey. Koftes are usually made with ground meat but this one requires only bulgur, which explains the name: Çılbak Köfte. "Çılbak" means "naked" and "poor," so we can translate the name for this dish as "The Poor Man's Kofte."

These koftes are easy to make and delicious. You can have them with the garlicy yogurt, as well as with different sauces from the garlicy bulgur buttons recipe.




































for 4 people
makes approximately 45 koftes

for koftes
1 cup fine bulgur
1 cup hot water
1 cup white flour
1 egg
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp red pepper paste
1 tsp salt

for the sauce
2 cups yogurt
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2-3 tbsp butter or olive oil
1 tsp paprika




























-Put bulgur in a big bowl. Add hot water, cover and let it soak for 10 minutes.
-Wet your hands with cold water and knead bulgur for 5 minutes.
-Add egg, salt, tomato and pepper red paste, and mix well with your hands.
-Start adding flour slowly and knead the bulgur dough for 10-15 minutes, until everything is well mixed.
-Take one generous table spoon of the mix and roll between your palms to form a ball, wetting your hands with cold water now and then. Then, squeeze it in one hand to form the fingerprints on an almost oval shape.
-Fill a big pot with water half way through and bring to a boil. Add bulgur koftes, let it boil again, and cook for 15 minutes. Remove koftes with a slotted spoon.
-Beat yogurt with minced garlic with a fork until smooth in a bowl.
-In a small saucepan melt heat butter or olive oil. When it is hot, add paprika and let sizzle for 10-15 seconds. paprika easily burns, so watch out.
-Serve koftes in a deep plate. First pour garlicy yogurt and then sizzling paprika on top.
Simply delicious!

The recipe is from Lezzet Dergisi January 2008 pg 40.

Sultan's Delight (Hünkar Beğendi)

I have heard two different stories surrounding the name of this dish, Hünkar Beğendi, which literately translates as "the Sultan liked it." The first one is that the dish was created for Sultan Murad IV (1612-1640) and obviously he liked it. Where the dish was created--in the palace kitchens or in the kitchen of a moderate house that Murad IV spent a night on his way back from a hunting trip--is not clear. The second rumor is that the same dish was served for Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, in Sultan Abdülaziz's Beylerbeyi Palace in 1869, and she liked it so much that Abdülaziz promised her to ask his chef to give Eugenie's cook the recipe. And the rumor goes that Abdülaziz's chef was reluctant to share his recipe. I salute whoever shared the recipe later on.

Hünkar Beğendi is lamb stew served on a bed of creamy roasted eggplant puree. However, "begendi," in time, started to be used for eggplant puree. Now you can also find 'chicken beğendi' or 'meatball beğendi.'















for the stew
1 lb stew lamb (preferably from leg)
1 onion, finely chopped
2 green chilies or bell pepper, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, petite diced
2 tbsp tomato paste
2-3 tbsp butter
salt and pepper
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
1-1 1/2 cup hot water

for the eggplant puree
2 lb eggplant
1/4 cup white flour
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup grated Turkish hard mature cheese OR kashkaval cheese OR parmesan
1-1 1/2 cup milk
juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper

-Heat butter in a pot and sautee the onions for a coupe of minutes. Then add the meat. When browned on all sides, add green pepper. Stir for a couple of minutes.
-Add tomato paste and stir for another couple of minutes.
-Add tomaoes and cook for 5 minutes.
-At this point add the hot water and let simmer until meat is tender, approximately an hour. Add more water if need be.
-Meanwhile, wash and prick the eggplants with a fork on at least two sides.
-Place eggplants oon gas burner or under broiler turning them frequently until eggplant is collapsed and skin is charred. You can also bake them until flesh is soft, but charred tastes better.
-Let cool and then peel eggplants and discard stems.
-Mash eggplant with the back of a fork in a bowl and mix with lemon juice.
-Heat butther in a pot. Add flour and stir constantly to make a roux on low heat.
-Warm the milk and add slowly. Whisk to make the mixture smooth. simmer for 4-5 minutes.
-Add eggplant puree and mix well.
-Add salt and black pepper, and cheese. Mix well. Simmer for another 2-3 minutes.
-Make a bed on a plate with eggplant puree and place meat on top of eggplant puree. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Leeks in Olive Oil (Zeytinyağlı Pırasa)

Pırasa is one of those vegetables that you either love it or hate it. The existence of both positive and negative references to leeks in Turkish culture proves how divided we are on the topic of pırasa as well as many other issues. My favorite saying related to leeks comes from Albanian Turks. When they are very full and cannot eat more, they say "I wouldn't eat, even if it is pırasa." It seems like the divide between the pro- and anti- leek people inspired Baba Zula, a popular Turkish band, to compose a song called pırasa. The lyrics of pırasa goes: "There are two different kinds of people in this world: those who love leek, and those who don't."






































4 leeks, washed well and chopped in 1/3 inch rounds
1 big onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, chopped in rounds or half moons
1/4 cup rice
1/3 cup olive oil
Juice of half lemon
2/3 - 1 cup hot water
1 tsp sugar
Salt


-Heat olive oil in a pot and add onions, stir for 4 minutes
-Add carrots and stir for 4 more minutes
-Add leeks and stir for a couple of minutes
-Add water, sugar, and salt (black pepper and crushed pepper)
-when the water boils add rice and lemon juice
-Cover and cook on low heat until rice is cooked

Pırasa is best when it’s served cold with a little lemon juice on top.

Milky Semolina Dessert with Cocoa Powder (Sütlü Kakaolu İrmik Tatlısı)

Although the traditional milky semolina dessert is on the heavy side with butter and eggs, the contemporary take on the traditional recipe is much lighter, excluding both butter and eggs. The recipe for the milky semolina dessert remains almost the same, yet the dessert is served in different ways (in casserole dishes, bowls, or glasses), with various sauces (chocolate, raspberry, strawberry, caramel, etc.).

8 small wine glasses
5 cups of milk (whole, 2%, or fat free)
1 cup semolina
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
shredded coconut, ground or crushed walnuts, pistachios, orhazelnuts

-Put milk, semolina, sugar, and vanilla extract in a pot and start cooking on medium until it thickens. Taste it at this point, and if it is not sweet enough for you add more sugar and mix well.
-Pour half of it into glasses or bowls half way through.
-Add cocoa powder to the remaining mix in the pot and stir well.
-Add the cocoa semolina on top of glasses and bowls.
-Sprinkle coconut, walnut, pistachio, or hazelnut on top.
-Let them cool down at room temperature and then refrigerate.
-Serve them cold, with a scoop of ice cream on top if you wish.

Red Lentil Soup with Couscous (Kuskuslu Mercimek Çorbası)

Is there anyone who does not like red lentil soup? I haven't met that person yet. Here is one more red lentil soup from central Anatolia. The original recipe requires couscous. Turkish couscous is just like pearl couscous and is prepared like pasta as opposed to North African couscous. However, for this recipe, I used regular, north African small couscous.

1/2 cup red lentil
1/3 cup couscous
1 carrot, peeled and petite diced
1 tsp paprika
2 tbsp butter
salt
6 cups of chicken or vegetable stock

optional
black pepper or
crushed pepper flakes or
green chili powder

-Heat the stock in a pot.
-Once it starts boiling add red lentils and carrot. Cook until lentils are cooked--approximately 20 minutes.
-Add couscous and cook for another 10 minutes.
-Turn it off and add salt.
-In a small frying pan heat butter. Add paprika and let it sizzle for 10-15 seconds.
-Serve the soup in bowls and pour the butter+paprika on top of each.

Baked Zucchini Mousakka (Fırında Kabak Musakka)

There is something about mousakka recipes; they always turn delicious, even at the sloppiest restaurant. One of the best eggplant zucchini dishes I've ever had was at my boarding school's cafeteria where even a boiled egg could be a disaster. The reason why mousakka dishes are tastier out at a restaurant is the amount of oil used. Usually it's tastier when it's greasier. Although I love to eat greasy mousakkas out, I prefer healthier ones at home. For this recipe, in stead of deep frying zucchini rounds, I baked them. If you want a vegetarian mousakka, replace ground meat with TVP or try mousakka with garbanzo beans.


























2 lb zucchini, cut in 1/3 inch rounds
1/2 lb ground meat
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 banana peppers or 1 bell pepper, chopped
1 can of diced tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tomatoes, sliced in rounds
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup fresh dill, chopped
salt and black pepper


























-Bake zucchini rounds in a preheated oven at 400F for ~30 minutes.
-Heat olive oil in a frying pan. Add onion and green pepper, and cook until soft.
-Add ground meat. It will release some water. Cook until meat soaks the water.
-Add tomato paste. Stir for a minute.
-Add diced tomato and cook for 5 minutes.
-Turn it off and add salt, pepper, pepper flakes if you wish, and fresh dill.
-Layer half of the zucchini rounds in an oven safe dish. Cover with half of the ground meat sauce. Make the second layer of zucchini rounds and pour over the rest of sauce.
-Add 1/3 cup hot water.
-Place tomato slices on top.
-Bake at preheated 375F for half an hour.

Green Lentil Soup with Rice (Pirinçli Yeşil Mercimek Çorbası)

Fall is here and I'm as excited about the turning leaves as I am about making soups again. As most of the Turkish green lentil soups, Green Lentil Soup with Rice is also a Central/Eastern Anatolia specialty. It is very simple, yet really delicious one, particularly with a crusty bread.


























1 cup green lentils
1/4 cup rice
1 onion, finely chopped
6 cups of beef or vegetable stock
2 tbsp red pepper or tomato paste
2 tbsp olive oil
salt
black pepper
dill

-Boil 1 cup lentils with 3 cups of water until cooked but firm. Rinse.
-Saute onion in a pot with olive oil until soft.
-Add pepper or tomato paste and stir for another minute. (If you cannot find red pepper paste at Middle Eastern stores, you can spice up your soup by adding 1 tsp of spicy Thai roasted pepper or any Asian pepper paste to tomato paste)
-Add vegetable or beef stock, green lentils, rice, pepper, and salt, and cook on medium to low until rice is cooked.
-Sprinkle dill before you serve.

Green Olive Rolls (Yeşil Zeytinli Rulo)

In Turkey patisseries are real life savers with their wide range of offerings that include baklava, böreks, cakes, cookies, meringues, milk puddings, poğaças, syrupy desserts, Turkish delights, etc. When you're late for work or school and do not have enough time for breakfast; when you're in need of sugar; when you want to bring dessert to a dinner party; when you are having people for a tea party; or when you just want to have some sort of pastry, you know there is a patisserie around the corner. Although they may differ in terms of their specialties--for example, one patisserie may not carry baklava and syrupy desserts and the other may not offer eclair and puddings, without exception all patisseries would serve small savory and sweet snack pastries. These butter loaded crispy pastries are generally referred to as kuru pasta in Turkish, which translates as "dry pastry." Even the smallest, not too fancy neighborhood patisserie would have at least six different kinds of pastry, 3 savory and 3 sweet that are usually baked in the afternoon just in time for the tea parties.

The olive roll pastry was my neighborhood patisserie's specialty, in those good old days when I used to live in Ankara. Hand fulls of buttery crispy rolls with pitted black olives in the middle were what we used to grab from the patisserie twice a week on our way to the coffee house that I and my friends frequented after school to play backgammon and cards.

I replicated the recipe, but was too lazy to pit olives, so in stead of black olives I used cocktail olives. The result was delicious. However, the dough should be a bit thinner than it is in the pictures. Not surprisingly, I didn't do a good job rolling the dough.


























makes approximately 50 rolls
3 1/2 cups flour
2 sticks butter
1/2 cup crumbled white/feta cheese
1/4 cup plain yogurt
~ 50 cocktail olives
1 egg yolk, beaten
nigella and/or sesame seeds



























-Make a smooth dough with flour, melted butter, feta, and yogurt.
-Roll the dough to o.2 inch thickness (don't take my rolls as an example, I couldn't locate the roller so had to use a glass jar!).
-Cut 1 X 3 inch rectangles.
-Place an olive on the rectangle shape dough and roll. Place the rolls on a greased pan making sure the fold would be at the bottom.
-Brush the rolls with beaten egg yolk and sprinkle nigella and/or sesame seeds.
-Bake in preheated oven at 350F for 25-30 minutes.

Purslane Tomato Salad (Pirpirim / Semizotu Piyazı)

I first had this purslane salad in Gaziantep, a city in southeastern Turkey at a kebap house. My childhood friend Özge, an archeologist by training, and I were on an archeological/historical tour covering three southeastern cities Adıyaman, Gaziantep, and Urfa. After watching the sunset at Mt. Nemrut in Adıyaman, we hopped on a minibus, arrived in Gaziantep late at night and found one of the restaurants that were recommended by friends from Gaziantep. With the first meal and baklava we had at our first stop, İmam Çağdaş kebap and baklava house in one of the narrow streets of Gaziantep, we knew that ours would be a culinary trip rather than an archeological one.

When we were served this purslane salad as a side with a variety of Antep kebaps and lahmacun--my all time favorite dish--that we sampled that night, I must admit that it did not receive the attention from us that it deserved. However, you would agree that after a long exhausting day of traveling, meeting with friends, climbing Mt. Nemrut, exploring Adıyaman, and doing all those things under the brutal southeastern sun in mid August, what one craves for is not a healthy salad. We were in the baklava and kebap capital of Turkey, after all. Two days later when we were leaving Gaziantep, we noticed that everyone on the plane, including the pilots, flight attendants, and us--of course, had at least two boxes of baklava with them, the best souvenir from Gaziantep. I had three.

Although I thought neither of us paid any attention to the purslane salad that night, I never forgot it and the perfect combination of purslane with fresh vegetables and paprika. I had the chance to have purslane salad at a dinner over at a Gaziantepli friend's house, and get the recipe. In Gaziantep purslane is called pirpirim as oppsed to semizotu, a common name for purslane in the western part of Turkey.


























1 bunch purslane (~1 lb), washed and chopped in small pieces, stems discarded
1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, diced
1 cucumber, peeled and thinly cut in half moon shape
1-2 green peppers (anaheim, Hungarian wax, banana, etc.), finely chopped
1 red pepper pepper, finely chopped
1 onion, cut in thin half moons
juice of half lemon
1 tsp pomegranete syrup (if you cannot find it, use juice of one lemon in stead of half)
1 tsp sumac powder or flakes
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp paprika (I used 1 1/2 tsp of a spicy variety)

-Put thin half moon shape onion in a bowl. Scatter 2 tsp salt on top. Rub onion with salt for a minute. Rinse salt off the onion with water. Drain.
-Put all the ingredients in bowl, season with lemon juice, pomegranate syrup, olive oil, sumac, paprika, and salt.


Weekend Herb Blogging, founded by Kalyn, is hosted this week by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once.

Flaky Spinach Pie (Ispanaklı Tepsi Böreği)

After gathering courage to make my mom's zucchini börek, I now am familiar with using phllyo dough for other various börek recipes. As I mentioned before börek is a common term for all pastries that use Turkish yufka i.e. phllyo dough. Depending on the filling, the shape and sometimes the region the term börek is preceded by a descriptive noun: kabak böreği (zucchini börek), ıspanak böreği (spinach börek), kıymalı börek (börek with ground meat) or su böreği (water/boiled börek), tepsi böreği (layered börek) etc.

Spinach börek is definitely a nation-wide favorite. It's made for and served at afternoon tea gatherings; sold by street vendors or patisseries early in the morning for breakfast; or can be a whole meal for lunch or dinner served with a yogurt beverage, ayran, or coke, but 95% of the time with tea.

Although spinach börek can be made in different styles such as bundles, rolls, or spiral, the most common version is layered, tepsi in Turkish which literary translates as "tray."




















20 phyllo dough sheets (1 packet usually has 40)
1 lb fresh or frozen spinach
1/2 cup white cheese or feta
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/3 cup olive oil (I prefer olive oil, but others can be used too)
1 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)
black seeds (nigella seeds)















-Thaw phyllos according to the instructions on the package.
-Put fresh spinach in a bowl. Sprinkle a little bit of salt. Rub spinach leaves with your fingers until wilted. Drain excessive water. (If you're using frozen spinach, let it thaw first. Squeeze to drain excessive water. Sprinkle salt and rub spinach leaves with your fingers. Drain excessive water once again)
-Add feta, black pepper, and crushed red pepper to spinach and mix well.
-In another bowl beat the eggs and add milk and olive oil. Mix well.
-Grease an 8 X 11.5 pan (or in a pan that's approximately the same size with phyllo sheets)
-Layer half of phyllo dough sheets in the pan by brushing every single layer generously with the egg+milk+oil mixture.
-On the 10th phyllo sprinkle spinach mix.
-Cut the 1 tbsp butter in to small pieces and sprinkle on spinach.
-Keep layering the rest of phyllos by brushing each layer with the mixture.
-After putting down the last phyllo, pour whatever is left from the egg+milk+oil mixture on top.
-Sprinkle the pie with black (nigella) seeds or sessame seeds or neither.
-Bake in a preheated oven at 390F for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.
-Wait for 10-15 minutes and then cut into square pieces.

Vegetarian Stuffed Globe Zucchini (Zeytinyağlı Yayla Kabağı Dolması)

I hadn't seen these round zucchinis, globe zucchinis or zucchini ronde de nice, or whatever you call them, in a long time. They are perfect for stuffing. They are very easy to scoop, yet the outside is firm and stays so even after an hour of cooking.


























10 globe zucchinis
1 heaping cup of rice (I measured 1 1/2 tbsp rice for each globe zucchini)
2 medium onions, grated or finely chopped
3 tomatoes, grated or blended
3-4 tbsp pine nuts
3 tbsp dried currants
1 tsp all spice
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped finely or 1 tbsp mint flakes
1/3 cup fresh dill, chopped finely
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup olive oil


























-Wash globe zucchinis, slice the top as a hat and scoop out the flesh. (you can save the flesh to make zucchini fritters later)
-Mix all the ingredients (except for zucchinis) in bowl.
-Stuff the zucchinis with this mixture. (If there's stuffing left, you can stuff a bell pepper or a tomato)
-Place those little hats on top and place zucchinis in a pot. Pour 2-2 1/2 cups of water or more to cover the zucchini dolmas half way.
-Cover and cook on low-medium for approximately 50 mins to an hour or until rice is cooked.
-Serve warm or cold, preferably with yogurt on the side.




























recipe update
There was a little bit of whining about the slight sweetness caused by currants and all spice, so the next time I made stuffed globe zucchinis, I did not use those two ingredients. I replaced them with 2 tbsp of sumac (powdered or flakes, or you can use juice of 1 lemon). I also discarded the zucchini tops, and covered little dolmas with a slice of tomato; this way dolmas were juicier than when I made them using the tops.

Sea Bass in Paper (Kağıtta Levrek)

Levrek is a popular fish in Turkey all year around since it's farmed intensively. However, wild caught sea bass is exceptionally tastier and highly sought after. Fish fillets steamed in paper bags taste great. At seafood restaurants they are served with crusty bread and big green salad. Any fish can be prepared this way.


























serves 4 people
4 sea bass (or any fish you want) fillets
1 onion, thinly sliced in half moons
4 tomatoes, diced
2-3 green chilies, chopped or one green bell pepper, chopped
1-2 cups chopped mushroom
juice of one lemon
4 bay leaves
1/2 cup chopped fresh dill
salt and pepper
2-3 tbsp olive oil or melted butter
parchment paper

-Saute onion, mushroom and green pepper with olive oil (or butter) in a frying pan on medium heat until soft, approximately for 10 minutes.
-Add tomato, bay leaves, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Cook for another 10 minutes.
-Add dill after turning it off.
-Cut 4 pieces of wax paper approximately 12 in X 24 in (30cm X 60cm). Brush one side with butter and fold pieces into to to make squares. Fold over two open sides to create a pocket.
-Place one fish fillet in each bag. Spoon one of forth of vegetables in each bag. Fold over the open edge to seal the paper bags and place in an ovenproof dish.
-Sprinkle a little bit of water over the bags and bake in a preheated oven at 380F for 20-25 minutes.
-Serve fish immediately with the bags.

Zucchini Börek (Kabak Böreği)

Börek is a common name in Turkey and neighboring regions that were influenced by Ottoman cuisine for a pie made with flaky pastry: phyllo or yufka. Börek can be made in different forms (bundles, rolls, rounds, squares, etc.) and with different fillings (eggplant, ground meat, milk, potato, spinach, and white cheese).

This particular recipe is my mom's signature dish. This is the dish that I asked her to make every time I went back home from boarding school, college or from the States, and that my friends ask her to make whenever they come over for tea, for dinner, or for a visit. I haven't made zucchini börek before simply because it is hard to find Turkish yufka here and phyllo doughs that you can find in the stores are too thin (harder to deal with), starchier (fit better for baklava than börek), and come in rectangles rather than rounds as we have them in Turkey. However, for the first time I haven't been to Turkey over a year now. I decided that I couldn't wait for another year for zucchini börek.


























~30 sheets of phyllo dough=1 box (since they're really thin, a couple will be lost along the way)

for the filling
2-3 zucchinis, grated approximately 4 cups of grated zucchini
3 eggs
1/2 cup finely chopped dill
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh mint or 3 tbsp dry mint flakes
1/2 cup crumbled Turkish white cheese or feta
1 tbsp paprika (or Hungarian paprika)
1 tbsp or less black pepper
salt (depending on how salty the cheese is)
1 tsp spicy red pepper flakes (optional)

for brushing phyllos
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup plain yogurt (nonfat, reduced, or whole)

-Thaw frozen phyllo as indicated on the package.
-Mix well all the ingredients for the filling in a bowl. Set aside for 10-15 minutes.
-It will be a juicy mixture. Squeeze the mixture and pour that excessive juice into a smaller bowl. Add 3 tbsp olive oil and 1/2 cup yogurt into the juice and mix well. You will use this to brush phyllos.
-Place a phyllo, wide side facing you, on the counter. Brush it with the mixture and put another phyllo on top and brush it, too. Since phyllos are too thin, it's better to use two at a time).
-Place filling ~one seventh of zucchini filling on the long side of phyllo and roll up to make a long cigar.
-Grease ~ 11 X 13 or ~11 X 11 oven tray.
-Hold one end of the long cigar and coil roll around to form a spiral shape as in the picture above.
-Repeat brushing, filling, rolling, and coiling until there's no more filling.
-Pour whatever juice left in the brushing and filling bowls on the börek.
-Bake in a preheated oven at 380-390 F until golden brown. Approximately 50 minutes.
-Cut into triangle pie slices. Serve with tea or soda for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

It is not a common practice throughout Turkey, but where I come from, Thrace, we love to eat our savory börek by dipping it into jam, especially into cherry jam.

Vegetarian Stuffed Zucchini Flowers (Zeytinyağlı Kabak Çiçeği Dolması)

In his novel Karıncanın Su İçtiği (Ant Drinking Water), the second volume of a series titled Bir Ada Hikayesi (An Island Story), one of my favorite Turkish writers, Yaşar Kemal, writes about stuffed zucchini flowers in a way that resembles his famous descriptions of cotton fields, horses, snakes, the Taurus mountains, rain, the sea, i.e. nature in general. He writes in meticulous detail about this delicate Aegean dish so that while reading the novel you feel like you almost can taste it. After finishing Karıncanın Su İçtiği, I really wanted to have stuffed zucchini flowers, a delicious dolma dish that I first tasted when I was visiting Bodrum peninsula. Bodrum offers a great variety of Aegean dishes once you can pass its ranked #2 after Istanbul wild nightlife.
Although dealing with delicate flowers might seem difficult, to make stuffed zucchini flower is not harder than any other dolma dish. The demanding part is to find zucchini flowers. If you are already growing zucchini plants, pick flowers early in the morning when they are open and free of bugs. On the other hand, if you don't have a garden you might find zucchini flowers at farmer's markets (possibility:low), flea markets with produce sections (possibility: medium), or at Mexican grocery stores/markets (possibility: high).












serves 4
20 zucchini flowers
1 1/2 cup rice
2 medium onions, very finely chopped or grated
1/3 cup + 2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp currants
2 tbsp pine nuts
1/2 tsp allspice or cinnamon
1 tsp sugar
1 or more tsp salt
juice of 1/2 lemon or 2 tsp pomegranate molasses
1-2 tsp black pepper
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh mint
1/2 cup finely chopped dill
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley (save the stems)
-Trim the stems and remove the stamens from the flower. It might be tricky to remove the stamen; I used a little knife to cut the stamen. Wash the zucchini flowers, check inside for any unwanted guests, and then place them in a bowl of hot (not boiling hot, though) water to soften. Set aside.
-Heat 1/3 cup olive oil in a pot. Add onions and cook for 3-4 minutes.
-Add rice and stir for 5 minutes.
-Add currants, pine nuts, sugar, allspice or cinnamon, black pepper and salt.
-Add 1 cup water and cook on low until water is absorbed. Turn it off.
-Add greens: dill, mint, parsley, and lemon juice or pomegranate molasses. Mix well and set aside to cool down.
-Place the parsley stems that you saved at the bottom of a pot. If you do not have parsley stems you can cover the bottom of the pot with vine leaves or apple skin. Flowers are very delicate so you don't want to put them directly on the pot.
-Drain zucchini flowers. With a small spoon or your fingers stuff each flower with the rice stuffing: gently open up the petals, put the stuffing, and seal the flower by folding the petals one by one around the filling.
-Place stuffed flowers tight on parsley stems (or whatever you have). Sprinkle 2 tbsp olive oil and pour 1 cup of water.
-Find a flat-ish plate that would fir in your pot. Place the plate on stuffed flowers.
-Cook on low until water is absorbed, approximately half an hour.
-Wait at least 20 minutes before taking stuffed zucchini flowers out of the pot.
-Serve warm or cold. Goes well with yogurt.

Purslane with Rice (Pirinçli Semizotu)

Long before Dr Mehmet Öz, aka Dr. Oz, started to appear on morning shows on Turkish TV channels and regularly on Oprah Show to talk about healthy eating habits with a great emphasis on purslane (surprisingly rich in Omega 3 fatty acids), the weed frequented our tables in dishes and salads all summer long. If Dr. Oz's advice on healthy food triggered interest in purslane in Turkey, it also caused inflation in purslane prices. A couple of summers ago on questioning a sudden increase of purslane prices, just out of pure curiosity not by any reluctance to pay, I was almost scolded by a vendor at my hometown's farmer's market: "Mam, even Dr. Mehmet Öz appreciates purslane, why don't you?" I always have and especially do now here in the States, where it's relatively harder to find it. I do so much so that I can stop going to trendy organic farmer's market for fresh tomatoes and peppers and make a trip all the way to almost-out-of-town chaotic and dusty flea market with the hopes of finding "verdolaga" (that's what Mexicans call purslane and it seems like they enjoy it as much as Turks do); it's totally worth it. If I can find purslane seeds I wouldn't even mind turning the backyard into a purslane field. But for now I'm making a trip to the flea market every weekend.

If you cannot find purslane in your backyard or at the farmer's market, check out Mexican grocery stores or flea markets for 'verdolaga.'


























2 bunches or ~2 lb purslane (aka verdolaga, pigweed, hugweed, or pusley)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/4 cup rice
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
juice of half lemon
3/4 cup water


























-Wash purslane well and chop it into 1-1 1/2 inch pieces. You don't need to discard the stems.
-Heat olive oil in a wide pot. Stir in onion and garlic. Cook until soft.
-Add purslane/verdolaga. Stir a couple of times until wilted.
-Add lemon juice, salt, pepper, and water.
-When it starts boiling, add rice and turn the heat down to low.
-Cover and simmer until rice is cooked.
-Serve warm or cold with garlicy yogurt (for garlicy yogurt use 1 clove of minced garlic per 1 cup of yogurt) on the side.


ps: if you are not very enthusiastic about green leafy vegetables, there's big chance you won't like purslance with its crunchy stems and tangy taste.

Sour Eggplant Stew (Ekşili Patlıcan)

Eggplant dishes from south eastern part of Turkey are usually cooked with a sour ingredient: lemon or pomegranate molasses. I love eggplant dishes in every form, yet I find those tangy ones such as Adana style stuffed eggplants or eggplant and lentil stew with pomegranate molasses to be even more delicious during the summer days.

























4 medium size eggplants, stem removed, peeled in occasional vertical stripes, and cut into edible chunks
2 medium onions, thinly sliced in half moons
4-5 tomatoes, diced
5-6 cloves or garlic, minced
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
juice of 1 lemon
a generous 1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped

-Place eggplant chunks in salted cold water for half an hour.
-Drain eggplants and squeeze them to remove excessive water.
-Mix eggplants with other ingredients in a pot (save half of the parsley).
-Cover and cook on low heat for 30-40 minutes, until eggplants are cooked (no water is necessary).
-Sprinkle rest of the parsley and serve hot or cold. Sour eggplant stew is even better the next day.

Turkish Eggy Toast (Yumurtalı Ekmek)

Mornings of my first couple of years in the States were marked by fruitless search for non-meaty, moderately eggy, feta cheesy, and above all definitely savory breakfasts. In time I let it go and settled down with sunny side ups, hash browns, and occasionally crispy bacon strips. One Sunday morning, back in Bloomington, IN, when we were at our favorite local breakfast place Wee Willie's (the dirty or the old one on South Walnut St) which had real Bloomingtonian customers, heaviest gravies in town, old wooden booths soaked with grease, awesome fresh squeezed orange juice, and chatty middle age waitresses with great sense of humor, I had a sudden craving for Turkish toast. I was going on and on about how delicious it was. Jen, Nolan, and Aaron, probably hoping to change my regular subject of homesickness times, "Turkish food is awesome," asked me what Turkish toast was. I explained with great enthusiasm how it was made and they said "it's like French toast, the idea is the same!" The French toast specialist Jen reassured me that those two sounded quite similar. They encouraged me to order French toast with no powder sugar and cinnamon. In another attempt to have an almost Turkish savory breakfast, I did not only what Jen and Nolan suggested, but also asked the waitress to add a slice of cheese on top; shouldn't have gone so far. The expression on our waitress' face was way more pleasing than the "Turkishized" French toast I had that morning.

























"Aklın yolu birdir" or "great minds think alike": Whether Turkish or French, the idea is really the same; to save stale i.e. "lost" bread (pain perdue). In Turkey , this toast is served for breakfast or as a snack for afternoon tea always with white cheese (feta) on the side.


























half of a regular round loaf bread, sliced (approximately 10 slices)
3 eggs
1/4 cup milk (whole, 2%, or skim)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup frying oil (canola, vegetable, etc.)

optional
1/2 tsp crushed oregano leaves
2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
1/2 tsp herbes de provence
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

-Beat eggs well in a bowl.
-Add milk and spices, salt and pepper. Mix well.
-Soak each slice in the mix for 5-7 seconds. Make sure each side is well coated.
-Heat oil in a frying pan.
-Fry soaked slices until golden brown on each side.
-Place fried slices on a paper towel to soak excessive oil.
-Serve warm or hot.

To make your eggy toast even more flavorful, use rosemary, olive, etc. kind of bread.

Zucchini Salad with Yogurt (Yoğurtlu Kabak Salatası)

Zucchini salad with yogurt is a favorite sumer time cold delicacy. It is served as a side dish at afternoon tea gatherings along with any kind of pogacas or filo dough pastries, or as a meze/appetizer at dinner. It is quite easy and quick to make and truly delicious. Even those who do not like zucchini enjoy this salad. In Turkish cuisine to have a zucchini dish without fresh dill or mint is unheard-of. For this salad it's common to use both fresh mint and dill. If you do not like one of them you can leave that one out, but only one. Zucchini salad has to have at least one fresh herb.



























serves 3

3 medium size zucchini, coarsely grated (makes approximately 3 cups)
2/3 cup thick plain yogurt
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1-2 cloves of minced garlic, depending on how much you like garlic
1/2 cup crushed walnuts
1/8 cup or as much as you want fresh dill, finely chopped
1 tsp mint flakes or 1 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
salt and black pepper

optional
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

-Grate zucchinis in a bowl. Squeeze grated zucchini by hand and drain excessive juice.
-Heat olive oil in a pan. Add zucchini and cook for 5-6 minutes or until tender stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool down.
-Mix yogurt and minced garlic well in a bowl.
-When zucchini cools down, add zucchini, walnuts, dill, mint, salt, and pepper to the garlicy yogurt and mix well.
-Serve cold.

This recipe is for Weekend Herb Blogging that was founded by Kalyn and is hosted this weekend by Simona from Briciole.

Black-Eyed Pea Pilaki (Börülce Pilaki)

Pilaki is a general name for a group of dishes that are cooked in tomato sauce with onion, garlic, carrot, potato, parsley, lemon juice, and most importantly olive oil. Among favorite pilaki dishes are barbunya pilaki and fish pilaki.


























serves 6 people
1 lb frozen black-eyed peas (once you soak them you can also start with dried ones)
1 big onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
2 green chillies, finely chopped or 1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 carrot, thinly sliced
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
3-4 tomatoes, diced
3-4 tbsp olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup chopped dill or parsley
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
ground pepper
crushed red pepper flakes (optional)


-Heat oil and add onion and garlic. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
-Add green chillies, potatoes, and carrot. Cook until soft.
-Stir in black-eyed peas and diced tomato. Let boil.
-Once it boils, stir in sugar, salt, pepper, bay leaves, pepper flakes, juice of half lemon, and 1 cup of water.
-Cook on medium heat for 30-35 minutes until peas are soft.
-Once it's cooked, take out bay leaves and add dill or parsley.
-Let it cool down a bit. Serve warm or cold.

Rice Pudding with Gum Mastic (Damla Sakızlı Sütlaç)

When it comes to Turkish milky desserts, a considerable number of people in Turkey prefer mastic gum flavor. In Turkey mastic gum is used in milky desserts, ice cream (it's the best), and, naturally, chewing gum. Originally liquid, mastic gum is sold as hard small transculent lumps and melted in hot milk while making dessert. It can also be ground with mortar and pestle. This fragrant resin is cultivated from mastic trees that are native throughout the Mediterranean; however, the most famous ones come from Greek island of Chios. In the States, you can easily find Chios mastic gum, "tears of Chios" online, even through Amazon. I usually bring back a big bag of mastic gum when I visit Turkey.

Rice pudding is a traditional recipe that has different versions such as regular, baked, and with mastic gum.



























4 cups of milk (I used 2%)
1/2 cup long grain rice
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp corn starch
1/4 tsp salt
2-3 pieces of mastic gum

-Put rice and 2 cups of water in pot and cook until rice is soft. Drain.
-Put 3 cups of milk, rice, and salt in a pot and bring to a boil.
-Add sugar and keep cooking until rice gets really soft stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.
-Mix well corn starch and remaining 1 cup of milk, and slowly stir in to the pudding along with mastic gum lumps. Cook until pudding thickens.
-Pour pudding into individual bowls or cups. (If you want baked pudding, make sure the bowls are oven safe.) If you do not want to bake your pudding, wait until pudding cools down and then put the bowls in the refrigerator.
-If you want baked pudding, place the bowls in a deep oven tray / dish. Fill the tray with water half way through the bowls.
-Broil them until golden brown on top. Let them cool and refrigerate.

Rice pudding is usually served with ground cinnamon on top. Try a scoop or two of ice cream on top on hot summer days.