Crab Salad

We love crab surimi. Every trip to the local supermarket ends with us getting one pack of these. They can be used for many purposes: use it in sushi, eat from the pack like snacks, use them in fish soup, or make a nice salad.



Ingredients:
- Crab fingers (crab surimi)
- cornichons
- red bell-pepper
- spring onions
- dills
- lettuce
- salt & pepper
- ketchup
- mayonese
- lemon
- garlic (powder or 1 clove smashed)
- olive oil

Method:
- Wash all the vegetables
- Slice the lettuce
- Dice the red bell-peppers
- Cut dills thin
- Slice the crab fingers
- In a cup, mix 3 tablespoons of ketchup and mayonese, add juice of half lemon, a pinch of salt and pepper, garlic and a drop of olive oil. This will be the salad sauce.
- This is all: Put all vegetables in a bowl, mix them well, add the sauce on top.

Enjoy;)

Bruschetta

Istanbul is quite hot these days. It is around 30 degrees celcius everyday with a lot of humidity. I don't feel like eating much, so we prefer to have some light and fast dinner with salads. Today, I prepared two different types of bruschetta for supper.



In Poland we have something called zapiekanka. It is a bread (roll) with mushrooms, cheese and ketchup. I felt like I missed that, and I wanted to make something similar. Something that will make me feel home.

Ingredients:
(Zapienka)
- Mushrooms
- Onion
- Garlic
- Pepper and salt
- Butter
- Cheese
- Bread
- Ketchup

Method:
- Wash and clean the mushrooms and slice thin
- Cook mushrooms with fine chopped onion, pinch of salt & pepper in some butter
- Spread some butter on a slice of bread
- Grate the cheese
- Spread ingredients on the bread, cover with cheese and grill for 3 minutes

Ingredients:
(Bruschetta with Pepperoni)
- Pepperoni
- Tomatoes
- Fresh basil
- Pesto
- Butter
- Bread

Method:
- Clean tomatoes and dice them
- Mix tomatoes with pesto and basil and keep for 15 mins
- Spread some butter over a slice of bread
- Place pepperoni slices over the bread
- Spread the tomatoe-basil-pesto mixture on top
- Grill for 3 minutes

Enjoy ;)

Home-made Yoghurt

Yoghurt is probably one of the greatest inventions attributed to the Turkish. The original use was to preserve milk during travels where refrigeration is not available. The Turkish original is Yoğurt, which comes probably from "Yoğurmak" (to knead) and "Yoğun" (meaning dense or thick).


Yoghurt is basicly fermented milk, where 2 bacteria act together (L. bulgaricus and S. thermophilus) to produce lactic acid from lactose and convert milk proteins to make a sour and dense product.
Everybody likes yoghurt, although in different forms. In Turkey, the sour and dense original is preferred, it is used as a side dish in many meals. Ayran, a sour drink by simply adding salt and water to it, is still the most common soft drink.
In Europe, more sweet and softer versions are preferred and in Asia you can see more liquid and very sweet versions in bottles.
If you want to make your own yoghurt at home, all you need is a tablespoon of natural yoghurt and a litre of milk. I use organic milk to make yoghurt for our baby, but you can use any milk. I will tell more about it below.

Ingredients:
- One litre of milk
- 1 tablespoon natural yoghurt

Method:
- Boil the milk and let it cool to 40-45 degrees (you can measure with a thermometer, but you can also check with your hand)remove any foam or cream.
- Put one spoon of yoghurt in a small cup, and mix with a fort until smooth.
- Pour a glass of your lukewarm milk into the cup and mix the yoghurt slowly with this milk.
- Pour the mixture into the bowl and mix with the remaining milk
- If you don't have any yoghurt machine, cover the pan, cover it with a blanket and leave in a warm place in your house (in winter, it can be close to a heater, in summer it can be a place where it gets warm). You only want it to stay at almost the same temperature for 6-12 hours.
- After this time passes, put the pan in the fridge, let it cool down.
- Next time you want to make yoghurt, you can use one spoon from this one.

Some points:
- You can buy a yoghurt machine, or other similar product that can keep the temperature fixed over long time.
- If your yoghurt turns to be liquid, try doing it with more than 1 spoon or keeping it longer. You can adjust the density by playing with the amount of original yoghurt (more you put it will be denser) and the time it stays warm (the longer it stays, it will be denser)
- If you mix yoghurt into milk when it is still hot, you will kill all the bacteria, so the yoghurt cannot be made. It has to be around 40-45 degrees.
- If you use skim milk, you will have light yoghurt in the end.

Your yoghurt should be consumed within 1 week. Keep it refrigerated. You can mix icing sugar, small fruits to make yourselves some desserts... You can use it as baby food (after 10 months), you can use it in many dishes. Some recipes on this blog use yoghurt.

Try it, let me know if you have any questions.

Enjoy ;)

Sałatka z kurczakiem

Uwielbiam sałatki!
Ta jest bardzo prosta i za pewne już ją gdzieś w przepisach spotkaliście.



Składniki:
pierś z kurczaka
puszka ananasa w syropie
puszka kukurydzy
sałata
ser żółty
majonez
jogurt
pomarańcza
czosnek
oliwa z oliwek
przyprawy: sól, pieprz

Pierś z kurczaka płuczemy, następnie kroimy w kostkę i podrumieniamy na oliwie z oliwek. Sałatę dobrze myjemy, osłuszamy i rwiemy na małe części. Do salaterki z sałatą dorzucamy kukurydzę i ananasa, również pokrojonego w kostkę. Ser trzemy na tarce o średnich oczkach i dodajemy do reszty. Kiedy kurczak będzie gotowy dodajemy go do wcześniej przygotowanej salaterki. Czas na sos z majonezu, jogurtu, soku z pomarańczy, czosnku i przypraw.
Sosem polewamy sałatkę, odstawiamy na okolo 15 minut do lodówki a potem jemy ze smakiem!

Smacznego!

Fish Sandwich

What do you do when you cannot consume all the fish you cook for lunch? We use them for a nice sandwich for the supper or the next day.


When I was a student, our university's cafeteria offered cheap fish sandwich (called "balik-ekmek" in Turkish). That was one of my favourite lunches. Simple recipe, a slice of fish, mixed with few spices and lemon juice.

Later, when I moved to Istanbul, I discovered the real "balik-ekmek" served on fisherman boats on the bosphorus. A few years ago, these were banned due to security reasons (ending an era in Istanbul's fish cuisine).

It all came back when I cooked some seabass in the oven, definitely more than we could finish. Some stayed in the fridge for a day. On Sunday evening, hungry for a quick supper and a nice movie, we made a quick sandwich and side-salad.

Ingredients:

- Previously cooked, sliced seabass (no bones please)
- salt
- 1 small bread (2 paninies would have been perfect)
- spices to taste: a pinch of pepper, red pepper, thyme are must.
- lime juice

Method:

- Simply cut the bread in two halves, open each half.
- Place the slice of fish
- Use a knife to cut the slice into small pieces
- Put a pinch of salt and other spices inside
- Put some lime juice
- Close the bread, put in a toaster until warm and flat

Simple and fast, no need to heat the fish beforehand, since it will heat up in the toaster.

Enjoy ;)