Monday, August 23, 2010

Menemen




I love this classic Turkish dish. It is usually eaten at breakfast (unless you're a single guy living alone and knowing only to make eggs cause until now you only have eaten your mom's food!!). This Sunday we went out for breakfast and ordered a menemen. Unfortunately this was a bad call. There was too much grease and tomato paste on it.  Definitely not good for my taste in breakfast… So this morning I wake up again to the idea of menemen, thinking how I can make this dish simpler with a more elegant presentation.
The dish consists originally of tomatoes, peppers, onions, butter and eggs. I love butter on top of my toast but I used olive oil for my menemen and I seriously don’t like onions when I just wake up. Hence my recipe is not exactly the original but just simpler… The servings are also per one whereas the original recipe comes to table in the skillet and is shared by everyone there.



Ingredients
1 medium tomato
3 or 4 red peppers
2 gloves of garlic
2 free range eggs
Salt, pepper
Dried chili

Put 2 table spoon of olive oil in a medium size skillet and add the garlic cloves. No needs to peel or chop since you are going to remove them once they have given their taste to the oil. Cut the peppers in half and remove the grains with the tip of a sharp knife. Slice the peppers thinly and transfer them to the skillet. Peel the tomato and chop it roughly. After 4-5 minutes add the tomatoes to the skillet and cook for 5 more minutes. Don’t let the tomatoes cook too much and become a purée. Season with salt, pepper and dried chilies. Transfer to an individual porcelain tart pan. Add the 2 eggs without disrupting the yolks. Cook in the preheated oven for 5 minutes. The whites should be firm while the yolks remain silky.  I used the maximum heating setting from the above.
Bon appétit!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

der Flammkuchen - La Tarte Flambée


 
                          



In German "der Flammkuchen", in French " la tarte flambée " and finally in Alsatian " Flammekueche"..

Meaning: baked in flames...
It's a traditional dish from the Alsace region of France made originally with bread dough because it was used to check out if the heat of the wood burned ovens were good for bread making!

The original recipe is made of creme fraiche, lardons and onions although many varieties can easily be found today in the region.

I used a simpler dough made with yogurt and unfortunately no lardons or any kind of bacon was easy, if not impossible, to find in Turkey so I baked two tartes. One with only cheese and onion and one with ham on it. They were both really great!

I am already thinking repeating that recipe in winter with leeks and finely sliced Turkish chorizo on it.


                           



Ingredients

For the dough


180gr flour
120gr yogurt
60gr butter

 
1 red onion, finely sliced as croissants
3 or 4 slices of ham
2 tablespoon of cream cheese
1 tablespoon of cream
Salt-pepper
Nutmag
Chives or spring onions

Sieve the flour and salt on to a large salad bowl. Cut the cold butter in small cubes and mix with the flour with your fingers until it feels like breadcrumbs. Make a well in the middle, add the yogurt and mix together untill smooth. Wrap the dough with a clinge film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Mix the cream cheese, cream, salt, pepper and the grated nutmeg and stir well.
Roll the dough on clean surface (don’t worry about the shape) and but it on greased and floured oven tray. Smear your cheese sauce evenly over the dough. Lay over your onions and ham slices. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Cook until crisp and golden and let it cool in the oven. Sprinkle your finely sliced spring onions and squeeze a small amount of lime juice on top for an extra touch of freshness.
Eat warm or even cold the next day!



                         



Bon Appetit!!!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Chick Pea Summer Salad with Bulgur Rice with Herbs: Perfect Lunch Combo!




I don't like to have lunch everyday in some fast-food or -quick restaurant where I have to pay a fortune for a salad. Especially salads are the most annoying meals. They usually are boring, no creativity, nothing , not well seasoned and overpriced. The result is quite often disappointment or an over budget meal. 

So I prefer to prepare my lunches at home  and put them in small boxes at least 2 to 3 times a week. In winter, the boxes contains mostly salads prepared with a variety of winter legumes and dried beans or sandwiches. In summertime I like to add a bit more colour to them, use more summer veggies.

I always loved chick peas. They are tasteful, full of proteins, zinc and follic acid and many other things that are good for you. My mother makes this great humus dish that I can't get enough of. (I'll maybe share the recipe with you some other time). For lunch I think they are perfect, they keep you full until dinner and give you energy. Inspired by this salad recipe form Jamie's Dinner I've done a chickpea summer salad which was a delicious and so quick and easy to prepare!

Ingredients
400gr of chick peas ( you can buy them in a can or put them in water the night before and cook them yourself)
2 red peppers, grilled on top of the stove and roughly sliced
3 spring onions, finely sliced
5-6 cherry tomatoes
a handful of fresh mint
1/2 lemon juice
Extra virgin Olive oil
dried red chili
salt and freshly ground black pepper


Mix red peppers, sliced onions and cherry tomatoes in a bowl. Add the lemon juice and olive oil. Meanwhile, heat water in a saucepan, drain the chickpeas and put them in the boiling water just for a few minutes. It's not for cooking them but to heat them slightly so that they will incorporate better with all the juices in the salad. Season to taste with salt, black pepper and dried red chili. Dress with the fresh mint. 


I took some bulgur rice cooked with fresh herbs and olive oil and a few fresh green nectarines with this salad for lunch today and it was great!






You can also add many other fresh herbs to this salad such as basil or parsely.

Bon appetit!

.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

cacık, tzatski, jajeek....


It's too hot these days, almost unbearable, sticky...I don't want to cook or eat anything at all but a glass of chilled milk. So I've decided to make "cacık" for my self today. Usually it is a side dish but personally I think it is a perfect lunch meal for these hottest days of summer. You can make a big bowl and put in the fridge and you'll see that it will be gone before you know!

So before giving the recipe let's make it clear all the fuzz about the cacık story. Who owns this dish? Turks or Greeks who both reclaim that it is a part of their culinary tradition? Well the answer is nobody! Because cacık is found in every part of the world where yogurt and cucumber exist! More or less the same dish is found under different names. "Cacık" in Turkey,"tzatsiki" in Greece, "jajeek" in Iraq, mast-o-khiar" -which literally means yogurt-and-cucomber- in Iran, "snezhanka" -snow white salad- in Bulgaria, "talattouri" in Cyprus or "ovdukh" in Caucasian mountains  are some of them.

The Greek version, tzatsiki, is thicker than the Turkish cacık which is made by adding a bit of cold water in it. In Greece, besides being a side dish, it is also eaten within the sandwiches made with pita bread. In Turkey cacık accompanies mostly rice and bulgour dishes with lamb meat.Plus, it is an inseparable "meze" of the national drink: Rakı

Altought the base ingredients are yogurt, cucomber and garlic many variations of cacık can be made. Some recipes uses grated cucomber and squeezed, while others just chopped roughly. Honestly it all depends on how dense do you like your cacık. I prefer a bit more juicy, freshening one. Because of this I will not give quantities in my recipe.And I also have to mention that I slightly modified the original recipe by adding fresh ginger in it. In stead of ginger the original recipe uses a few drops of lemon juice or vinegar.

 Ingredients

Plain yogurt
Cucumber
Garlic, mashed with salt
Dill, chopped finely
Fresh mint, chopped finely
Fresh Ginger, very small, grated
Olive oil 
Salt
Red chili, dried

Mix all in a big bowl. Stir well the yogurt so that it has a smooth consistency. Add  as much of cold water as you wish. Decorate with olive oil and red chilies.




 Bon Apetit!