Lentil patties (Mercimek köftesi)

Ingredients:
Ingredients:

- red lentil
- wheat (bulgur)
- water
- salt, pepper
- cumin
- green onion
- parsley
- tomato paste
- margarine or butter
- onion
- lemon
Preparation:
Cook a bit chooped onion on butter or margarine. Add tomato paste into onion and continue to cook a bit more. Wash 2 cups of lentils. Put to pot, add 4 cups of water. Boil. After water will go away, take it from fire, add 1 cup of wheat, and leave it for 15 minutes. Chooped parsley and green onion, add spices, and mix all ingredients together. Then format the dumplings.
In the end put lemon juice.
Enjoy your meal!

Something with Avocado...

I love avocado a lot.
But doesn't have much idea when to used it, with what?!
Ok sushi, salad..and?

Let's find an idea for avocado:)

I made base:

-avocado
-egg
-olive oil
-salt, pepper
-lemon
-garlic

Then started to add, all separately:

-capers
-picles
-tuna
-watermelon

All of them with my base taste great, and all togehter even better:)
Put this mix on bread with butter and leaf of salad... mniam!:)
Super snacks!

Paste for bread

Very easy snack, some people made this as a salad with chicken.
I don't put chicken and we have paste to put on crispy bread.



Ingredients:

- yellow cheese
- pineapple
- corn
- garlic powder
- salt and pepper
- maayonnaise or yogurt

Preperation:

Razer cheese on medium mesh friction, cut pineapple in small pieces, clean corn.
Put everything into a bowl, add salt and papper, garlic powder, maayonnaise or yogurt, or two of them. Mix good!then place on the bread.

Enjoy your meal!

Potato pancakes

I like very different kind of vegetable pancakes, for example:
this one with zucchini and carrots, known in Turkey as "müçver".
But what I like the most is our Polish potato pancakes, those with sugar and cream, or with only powder sugar. Çağatay is suprise, how can I eat vegetables with sugar?!
Yes, I can, realy can:)

and Melis can also...



What we need?

- potatoes
- eggs
- flour
- salt
- pepper
- cream (to make pancakes more fluffy)
- oil



How to prepare?

Wash potatoes and peel. Erase the friction on small holes.
Mix with flour, egg, cream, salt and pepper. Put small piece on hot frying pan with oil. Fry pancakes on both sides.

You can add chopped onions, mushrooms, and another spices and vegetables!

Enjoy your meal!

Gzik

Gzik-this is some food from Wielkopolska (meaning Greater Poland, the west of the country). It is the food for fasting. People eat this on Fridays because it is the no-meat day. It is very simple to prepare: White cheese with cream or yogurt, salt, pepper, spring onions or a small radish, and other stuff (an egg perhaps). It is very light and good for breakfast or a late supper.

Home made "Pide"

We should thank to Irem for the idea, she gave us some tips on how to do it.
I guess there is a bit of our touch and need for experimenting as well. Pide is a very popular Turkish flat bread, sometimes called as "Turkish Pizza" although I don't agree with the term. This is a simple way to make it, again using some yufka (flaked pastry).



Ingredients:

- 1 piece of yufka
- 100g minced meat
- half an onion, sliced thin
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 egg
- olive oil
- salt & pepper
- 2 tbsp yogurt

Method:

- Cut the yufka into 3 slices, like a "peace symbol"
- Mix one egg, yogurt, 1 tbsp of olive oil in a bowl. Spread about half of it on the slices, and put each slice on top of the other as you put this sauce.
- The pointy side of the pastry facing away from you, fold the two sides and roll over.
- With a sharp knife, cut it lengthwise without reaching the bottom and open up.
- In a saucer, cook the onions, garlic, pinch of salt and pepper with olive oil, add the minced meat and cook well
- Preheat your oven to 150 degrees Celsius
- Once the meat is cooked, pour it into your flat bread. Put the remaining of the yogurt sauce on the meat and on the flat bread.
- Cook in the oven for 30 minutes.

Enjoy ;)

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 ;)

Scrambled Eggs with Vegetables (Menemen)

If you love to make some variety of eggs for the sunday breakfast like I do, this can become one of your favourites. I made this a couple of times when our friends visit us and it always received perfect comments.



Ingredients:
- 4 eggs
- 1 tomato
- 1 small onion
- 1 green pepper
- 100g fetta cheese
- 4 tbsp olive paste
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
- dills to decorate

Method:
- Dice the tomatos
- Cut the onions into small pieces
- Dice the pepper
- Using a fork, divide the cheese into small pieces
- In a frying pan, put some olive oil
- Put onions first, peppers afterwards and tomatos the last
- Break four eggs over the vegetables and mix using a wooden spoon
- Add a pinch of salt and pepper
- Add the cheese and continue mixing as it cooks. You need to mix well.
- Lower the heat and cover the pan, let it cook for 3 minutes.
- Place a mold over your plate, put a layer of eggs, then a layer of olive paste and another layer of eggs.
- Decorate with a piece of dill.

This looks very colorful and nice. The eggs and cheese are yellow and white, the tomatos add a rich red color, and the peppers will be bright green. The olive paste, black adds a sharp contrast. It is both for your eyes and for your taste buds ;)

Burghul Salad (Kisir)

Kisir (Turkish: Kısır) actually means "barren" but I have no idea why they call such a rich salad "barren". This food is very delicious, easy and fast to make and a great dinner for those of you on a diet, or a great salad or sidedish for other food.



It goes great with some "ayran", a traditional Turkish sour drink made from yoghurt. Yesterday, I made some kisir when we wanted to have some light salad for dinner yesterday. I believe you can find all the ingredients at a store that sells middle east food stuff. I write some more suggestions after the recipe. There are many variations of this recipe available, this is how we like it most:

Ingredients (serves 2):

- 1 cup fine burghul (cracked wheat)
- 2 tea spoons salt
- 1 table spoon tomato paste
- 1 table spoon red pepper paste
- 2 tea spoons dried mint flakes
- 2 tea spoons cumin
- 1/2 tea spoon black pepper
- 1/2 tea spoon red pepper
- 3 table spoons olive oil
- 1 table spoon pomegranate syrup
- 1 cucumber
- 1 tomato
- 2 spring onions
- Parsley (fresh)
- Dills (fresh)
- Lettuce leaves

Method:

1) Put the burghul in a bowl, cover with boiling water and let it sit until the water is totally absorbed.
2) Add salt and mix
3) Add tomato paste and pepper paste and mix well
4) Add black pepper, red pepper, olive oil, pomegranate syrup and mix
5) Put in the mint and mix all over
6) Dice the tomatoe, cucumber and cut the spring onions into small pieces.
7) Chop a handful of parsley and dill finely
8) Add these vegetables into the mixture, and mix again.
9) Serve on lettuce leaves with a slice of lemon.

Here are some suggestions: If you cannot find pomegranate syrup you can use the juice of a lemon to replace it. Another thing is almost all of my foreigner friends think that burghul is kuskus. It is not. However, you can use slightly cooked kuskus instead of burghul.

Enjoy ;)

Zucchini (Marrow) and Carrot Pancakes (Mucver)

Wow, long name for such a simple food. The thing about this pancakes is that it is fast and easy to make, it is easy to create alternatives and you can enjoy it while it is still warm or when it is cold.
I really like to eat this as a snack during the hot summer days. They are called "Mucver" in Turkish and they do great as a sidedish with raki.



Ingredients:

- 2 large size zucchinis (marrows)
- 1 large carrot
- 4 eggs
- 6 tablespoons of flour
- 1 cup of yogurt
- 2 cloves of garlic, smashed.
- 1/2 spoon salt
- A pinch of dried mint flakes
- Parsley
- Dill
- Canola oil

Method:

1) Wash the marrows and the carrot
2) Peel the skin off the marrow
3) Grate the marrows and the carrot into a mixing bowl
4) Add the eggs, flour and salt. Mix well.
5) Fine chop a 1/2 bunch of parsley and dill, add to mixture and stir.
6) Put oil in a frying pan, heat nicely
7) With a big serving spoon or ladle place the mixture on the oil. Turn to cook both sides. Remove when cooked and let it rest on a piece of papel towel.
8) Mix the garlic and mint with yogurt.
9) Dip the pancakes in yogurt and enjoy.

If you are not a fan of garlic, you can put less or none in the yogurt. If you love garlic then you can increase the amount to your taste. You can do it with 3 marrows and no carrots or you can add a small potato instead of carrot to obtain different tastes. If you don't like fried food, you can place the pancakes on a tray and cook in the oven. Anyway, play around and find your own taste.

Enjoy ;)