Category Archives: Food

Yumurtalı Ispanak (Spinach with Eggs)

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2014-03-28 19.14.55 (2)

This is a traditional breakfast, lunch or light dinner meal.  If serving it for lunch or dinner, it is often made with ground beef as well (500 gr.)  If you want extra protein, vegetarian style, you can add cooked red lentils.  My husband likes his eggs scrambled in, in addition to lentils in this dish.  I like my eggs poached with runny yolks.  The beauty of this dish is that I can do both in the same pan.  Add lentils and mixed eggs to one side, and poach my deliciously runny eggs on the other.  I always serve it with bread or biscuits to soak up the yummy juices!!

Ingredients

2 bunches of  spinach (about 1 kilo with stems) cleaned
4 eggs ( you can poach them or scramble them)
1 small onion (finely chopped)
1 small garlic clove (minced)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp of tomato paste
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
½ tsp red pepper flakes

Heat the oil and add the onion, and allow to soften.  Chop the spinach roughly.  When the onion is softened and translucent add the minced garlic, salt, tomato paste, black and red pepper.  Add the spinach to wilt, and cover.  If you prefer your dish saucier, add a half a cup of water.  You may need to add a little more liquid if planning to poach your eggs in the spinach dish.

Hoşaf (Fruit Compote)

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This is a great winter fruit dish, using fruit that was harvested and then dried while in season.  Hoşaf is considered a drink, a dessert or a side. It can be made with a variety of fruits such as dried raisins, apricots, plums, pears, cherries, etc.  My father-in-law used to drink it in the summer when he was young, before soft drinks were popular. This drink is incredibly refreshing in the summer and a nice treat with or after dinner.   This is also traditionally served as a side with börek.

Ingredients:

4 cups of Dried fruits (mostly Apricots but it is nice to add dried plums)
8-10 cups of water
1 cup of sugar *Optional (add as much or little as you like)

 

Directions:

Rinse fruit thoroughly.
Bring 8-10 cups of water to a roiling boil.
When it is boiling add the dried fruit to the water (and sugar if using) and shut off the heat.

Let the fruit sit in the water until the water cools. Once the water has cooled, place the pot in the fridge. Let it sit a few hours, a day is better, before  eating the hoşaf. The longer the hoşaf sits the tastier it becomes.

I prefer a main component of apricots with some plums thrown in, the apricots release their sugar more than the plums do so you end up with a sweeter juice. I do not usually add sugar. 

Root Vegetable Roulette

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Hmmm…Maybe not the best idea.  I have been seeing lots of yummy winter vegetable recipes online.  One of them was for roasted root vegetables; beets, carrots, rutabaga, parsnips and turnips.  YUM!  In Turkey, from that list we only have carrots and beets.  There are some turnip varieties, but they are usually only used raw.  So I decided to try out what was available in the market.   I used carrots, black turnips, onions, beets, and celeriac.  I brought some to school for lunch yesterday, it was tasty.  Cue a sleepless night and intestinal distress.   I thought maybe it was the fiber causing indigestion.  So I kept food light today and packed chicken soup.  It was all homemade, down to the stock.  At lunch I ate my beautiful homemade soup, and vicious intestinal distress ensued.  Just in time for my most challenging classes.  Hmm.  So since I knew exactly what went into everything, I figured out the common denominator.  BLACK TURNIP.  I checked it out online and apparently it increases acid and bile production in the intestinal track, great for people with sluggish systems. But eating too much causes over production and irritation of the digestive tract.   Bummer.  So watch yourself with the black turnip.  It might get you.    Root Vegetable Roulette…almost as dangerous as the version with guns.   Well, that might be a slight exaggeration, but it is definitely no fun. 

Birthday Week

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Last week was my birthday.  I was very lucky to have many friends who want to celebrate it with me!  Bülent took me out for a lovely romantic dinner.  His gift to me is a romantic trip to Antalya, planned in April when it will be a bit warmer.  Another friend had me over on my actual birthday for a delicious dinner.  We also went over to Bülent’s parents and had a family diner with his parents and aunt an uncle.  His mom knows I love fish and made a special dinner for me. 

The day before my birthday I went out with my friend Terry from Adventures in Ankara, and had an adventure!  We went to Cer Modern, a modern art museum, for lunch.  Lunch was great, the museum very nice, and time with Terry—always fun!  What made our outing an adventure was that we got a traffic ticket!  I was driving and she was navigating from the GPS on her phone.  It told us to take a right, so we did, but turns out it was an illegal right on Ataturk Bulvari.  So we were sitting at the intersection and I was trying to figure out how we were going to make it across the traffic with no light when a police man waved me across.  I was very thankful to make it across in one piece, but then he asked for my license and registration.  We explained we didn’t know the area and were following the GPS.  He nodded knowingly and said, Ah yes, GPS…”   and then gave me a ticket.  It is kind of a novelty.  I don’t know anyone else who has gotten a traffic violation ticket from a real life police man.  It just doesn’t happen here.  Most people get tickets from cameras, even though I have talked myself out of one of those before too.  This office was very polite and apologetic but would not budge.   So ticket it was! 

For my birthday present to myself I made cupcakes.  Two kinds.  The first a carrot cake with labne frosting (tips coming soon on how to substitute Labne for cream cheese) and the second, devil’s food cake with peanut butter frosting.  I have to say, carrot cake is my favorite, but the peanut butter frosting was decadent on the moist chocolate cupcakes. 

Cupcakes

It was an amazing week, so filled with friends and family we had to rest all weekend to recover.  It made me feel so appreciated that so many people wanted to celebrate my birthday with me, I definitely have a community here.   It was fun and uncomplicated, my last birthday before marching into my 30’s, which seems a little bit daunting!

Hünkar Beğendi

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This is one of my favorite Turkish dishes.  I love making it as much as I love eating it!

The recipe below can be made vegetarian or carnivore friendly.  Below is the lamb version.  However, my husband says he actually prefers the vegetarian version, with the chipotle flavor. 

hunkar

Eggplant Purée

4 pounds of roasted eggplant
juice of 1/2 lemon
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup grated aged cheddar or  parmesan
Salt
Pepper

Roast the eggplant, poke holes in the eggplant and either roast in oven over broiler or on stovetop over open flame-until eggplants are soft.  Peel and mash (or purée)  with lemon juice.  Set aside.

Melt the butter, add flour, stir roux on low heat until combined.  Add min and salt and pepper, simmer for five minutes.  Add eggplant, stir well, then add cheese.  Stir well again.

Stew (Carnivore and Vegetarian)

1 pound of boneless lamb stew chunks (Vegetarian:Instead of lamb use 1 1/2 cups of green lentils)
2 cups water
1 onion, sliced
3 green peppers, chopped
3 tomato, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
3 tbsp tomato paste
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper

For vegetarian stew add a little chipotle chili for more body, otherwise the stew can be weak when paired with the eggplant purée. 

Sauté onions in olive oil, then add the meat.  (For Vegetarian: add washed lentils and more water to accommodate lentils.) Cook until browned, add the peppers and sauté for several minutes.  Add tomatoes, tomato paste and hot water.  Let simmer for an hour to and hour and a half, until meat is tender.  You may need to add more water.

To Assemble:

Make a base with the eggplant purée and spoon the stew on top.  It can be served family style in a large dish (my preference) or onto each plate.  This dish is lovely as it can be made ahead of time and heated up and assembled later. 

New Meze Posts

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I posted two new salads under Ev Yemeği, Mezeler.  These dishes are both variations of vegetable yogurt salads.  They are striking because of their coloring and depending on their garlic content, sometimes I serve them as a side or a condiment. 

Yoğurtlu Pancar Salatası (Beet and Yogurt Salad)

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Yoğurtlu Havuç Salatası (Carrot and Yogurt Salad)

New Page Under American and Turkish Fusion

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SUBSTITUTIONS!

We have all been there.   You are craving a certain dish from home, or want to make some food in your recipe repertoire but are lacking ingredients.  Maybe they are not sold in the local market, or you would have to sell a kidney on the black market to afford it.  I will keep adding substitutions as things I have done in the past occur to me.

 

Forks Over Knives

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So in June Bülent and I watched the documentary Forks over Knives which promotes unprocessed foods and veganism.   It advocates a plant based diet with no refined oils and lower ingestion of oily foods, such as avocados and nuts.  We were quite struck with the documentary.   While Bülent mostly focused on the health benefits, what struck me was the sustainability.  I was amazed how the amount of livestock we require in developed countries affects global warming (10 % of human based carbon dioxide emissions), deforestation, water pollution and soil erosion.  According to a 2006 University of Chicago study, if an average American meat eater reduced their intake of animal produce to 25% of their total calories it would reduce their carbon footprint by approximately one ton.   However, the largest impact on me was that if that if we ate the produce we grew, rather than using it to feed to farm animals that we will eventually eat, almost every one in abject poverty could be provided with more than they need to survive.  When I worked in San Diego it was the first time I dealt with real hunger.  Children who were so hungry they couldn’t concentrate in class.  I used to carry granola bars in my purse, and had an unlocked file cabinet filled with them.  If there is anything I could do to end hunger, I would work towards it, and so have given up meat for the most part.

While we have not adopted a true “plant based” Forks over Knives lifestyle, we have altered our diet.  I love a good raw steak , and though I haven’t mentioned it previously, we have been living a mostly vegetarian lifestyle since July.  Occasionally we slip (mostly when I am hormonally challenged and crave a steak rather than chocolate) , but for the most part we are vegetarians.  We have also cut back our lactose and egg intake by at least 75 percent.  Usually the milk in my coffee is the only milk product I eat each week.  Occasionally I bust out the non-fat yogurt, especially if I have  a funny tummy, but that is an exception.

I love meat, but really haven’t missed it.  I feel lighter, and healthier.  The grocery bill is also significantly lower.  Now that we are eating only veggies and beans, I spend a little more time and energy finding the best and juiciest of whatever I am looking for.  The most expensive organic beans are still way cheaper than meat.    If I do buy eggs or milk I buy from smaller producers, free-range and organic.  Since we are eating less of it, it hasn’t jacked up the bill either.    It has definitely been interesting adapting our normal recipes to a vegetarian style.  However, it is usually pretty easy and Bülent swears that the vegetarian version of Hünkar Beğendi  I made was better than any other he has EVER had.  (Secret: for a rich taste—instead of lamb: lentils and chipotle)  I will have some vegetarian recipes coming to Close to the Kitchen very soon!

An Early Gluten Free Thanksgiving

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Last night my friends hosted an early Thanksgiving.  They normally go to Austria for Thanksgiving holiday and celebrate  it the week before.   My friend’s husband was diagnosed with a gluten allergy last year and is still being tested for Celiac disease.  They have transitioned to gluten free living pretty easily, but he has been missing bread.  We also wanted to make sure we could have all the traditional dishes for Thanksgiving, that were safe for him.   My friend is a wonderful cook, but does not think of herself as a baker, so I wanted to test out the recipes before we did it together. 

So a couple of weeks ago I started practicing for Gluten Free Thanksgiving.  I made a loaf of bread using the local Turkish gluten free flour mix.  Thankfully the flour mix also includes xanthan gum.  The bread turned out really well, it was a little eggier than regular bread, but tasted great.  It was also fairly easy to make, I found this recipe to be one of the simplest and was very pleased with it.

GFbread

My friend and I got together on Wednesday to bake bread for stuffing.  As it had the time before, the bread came out nicely.  While we were baking she asked me to bake the pies for Thanksgiving as well.  I took on the challenge of the GF pies.  However, I have to say, it turned out to be much more difficult than the bread. 

I have been making pie crust from scratch for years, but really had trouble with this.  Perhaps it was the flour.  Many of the gluten free websites specify a mix of certain types of flours, but I only had one option available in the store.  Whatever it was, it was not working.  I could not roll it out.  Different recipes said rather than to roll out the dough, to extrude it, by rolling it between wax paper.  that worked well enough but then I couldn’t get the dough off the wax paper.  It was SOO sticky.   I finally pressed the flour into the pie pan itself, for the pumpkin pie.  I had been planning on making an apple pie as well, but since I could not roll out the dough, I decided on making an apple tart.  I “extruded” the dough using baking paper and managed to scrape it off one of the papers using a sharp knife.  Woot Woot!  Step 1 completed!

Then, using the gluten free base, I followed the recipe from Smitten Kitchen for Apple Mosaic Tart with Salted Caramel.  It came out really well.  I loved the salted caramel with the apples.  I think I will try it with the puff pastry base suggested in the recipe next time. 

We brought both with us last night, and had a delicious and traditional gluten free Thanksgiving.  As always, my friends cooked a beautiful meal, and the company was great!  We had such a lovely time.  This year I am not hosting Thanksgiving, much to Bülent’s relief, but I am very lucky to have such wonderful friends.  I was invited to 3 Thanksgivings this year, unfortunately 2 of them are are at the same time.  We so enjoyed Gluten Free Thanksgiving  last night, and are looking forward to celebrating with a different group of friends next week.

Revised Cooking Page!

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A while back I created an Ev Yemeği/Home Cooking page, which has been sadly neglected, thought I cook all the time.  When I post recipes, I have been doing so in a haphazard way.  So over the next few weeks I will try to dedicate some time and energy to both posting more recipes and organizing the page itself.   I spend a significant amount of my time cooking, and eating, as evidenced by this blog.  So here is the beginning of this new branch of Far From the Sticks:

 Close to the Kitchen: Ev  Yemeği 

RULING TURKEY