kitchen adventures

Sekerpare

Ingredients :

For Sekerpare :

1 cup of unsalted butter (in room temperature)

1 cup of caster sugar

4 tablespoons of semolina

2 tablespoons of coconut

2 eggs

4 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 teaspoon of baking powder

For Sweetened Juice:

3 cups of sugar

4 cups of water

Half lemon juice

Also:Nut

Preparing Sekerpare :

1. Mix 1 cup of margarine, 1 cup of caster sugar, 4 tablespoons of semolina, 2 tablespoons of coconut, 2 eggs, 4 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1 teaspoon of baking powder and make a soft dough. (add flour little by little)

2. Take small pieces from dough like making a cookie , round & flatten them and put them on a tray after placing 1 nut at the center of each cookie.

3. Bake them in a preheated oven.

Preparing the Sweetened Juice :

1. Boil 3 cups of sugar and 4 cups of water in a pot. 5 minutes after boiling add the lemon juice and let it boil another few minutes.

2. Let the liquid get warm some time.

3. After the cookies are baked, wait for 3 minutes after you take them out from the oven. After 3 minutes drench the cookies with warm liquid (the vital spot is ; the cookies have to be hot, liquid has to be warm)

4. Close another tray onto the top of the cookie tray and make them wait until you serve.

Pastry with feta cheese

Ingredients :

2 cups of warm milk

1 cup of warm water

1 cup of olive oil

5 tablespoons of sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

1 package of active yeast(42 gr)

A bunch of parsley

By adding all these ingredients (except feta cheese&parsley) , make dough and leave it for fermentation for 10 minutes. During this 10 minutes, you mix your cheese and parsley to put in the dough and spread oil on the surface of your table. (It is troublesome but it really worths). Divide your dough into 5 pieces. Open the first piece in a round shape with the help of a rolling pin in 30 cm diameter. And then divide this dough into 8 equal pieces. Put cheese onto the tip of each piece and roll it like cigarette pastry. Apply this for all other dough. Wait for 45 minutes to have them puffy before you put them in an oven. Put them into a 325F (160C) heated oven after smearing yellow of an egg on them. (You will have 2 trays of this pastry)

cookie with tahini

Ingredients :
1 glass of powder sugar
1 glass of tahini
200 gr.margarine
1 egg
1 package of vanilla
4 glass of flour
1 table spoon of walnut

Stir 1 glass of powder sugar with 1 glass of tahini with the help of a mixer. Add 200 gr.of margarine which is kept in a room temperature to get mixed easily. And add 1 yellow part of an egg , 1 package of sugary vanilla and make a strong dough by sifting 3.5-4 glasses of flour on to these ingredients. Make balls in a size of a walnut and flatten them. Plunge them first into white part of an egg then into walnut which is already pulverized.

Bake them in an oven which is already heated at 350F (175C) for about 15-25 min. (I have dicreased the temperature down to 100 C after 20 min. And baked them some time more)

carrot cake

ingredients:

5 eggs
1,5 cups of sugar
1 cup of grated carrot (washed and peeled off)
1 cup of largely chopped walnut (if walnut is absent hazelnut may also be used)
2 cups of flour
1+1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of baking powder
powdered sugar

Preparation:
1. put the eggs in a wide and deep pot. Add in 1,5 cups of sugar and stir at the highest rate of mixer until it melts completely.
2. add in the cups of grated carrot and chopped walnut and go on stirring.
3. add in flour and cinnamon and stir until they get pure.
4. add in the baking powder and stir 2-3 times at the lowest rate.
5. warm the oven up to 350F (175C) for cake baking. Oil the inner surface of a baking pan thoroughly with the liquid oil using a brush. (i used my * cake pan.)
6. pour the mixture into the pan. Bake it until inside of the cake is cooked completely. Wait for it cool a little bit to take it out of the pan or it may stick at the bottom. scatter the powdered sugar after it cools or the sugar melts.

plum jam with cornelian cherry

dad’s paternal aunt nemide came to our summer house at the weekend. We had a nice chat with this circassian woman despite the difference of 43 years. Aunt nemide told me how to make plum jam with cornelian cherry while visiting a little village bazaar at Yalova. Wash 5-6 kilos plum, divide into two and take out the seeds. Soften it in a saucepan cooking with its own juice slowly. Mash those softened and pass through a fine sieve, only the peels should remain. Do the same for the cornelian cherries. Then add on sugar and water, and boil. City children like me are left open-mouthed in case of such recipes without any measures. I insisted on the quantity of sugar and water as kilograms but could get only the answer: “just decide depending how mildly sour you like.” Anyway, she had told the quantity of plums.
She also gave an interesting hint for jam cooking. After the sour cherry or peach jam is cooked aspirin is put into the saucepan proportioned to the fruit used. (1 aspirin/kg fruit) it is both health giving and protects the jam.

strawberry jam

after i wrote strawberry marmalade recipe for eda and sebnem on friday, i have cooked strawberry jam with the strawberries at home. if you want to make a marmalade, you may use the same recipe and sift the strawberries.

Ingredients:

1 kg strawberries,
1 kg sugar (4 cups)
½ lemon juice

Preparation

1. wash the strawberries a few times transferring from one pot to another. Snap off their stalk, put in a deep saucepan and pour 4 cup of sugar on them.

2. close the cover of the saucepan and wait for 1 ½- 2 days. (at the end of this period, sugar should be completely melted and the strawberries should be floating on the water.)

3. after this period put the saucepan on a medium temperature flame and boil the jam for 30-45 minutes. (to understand if it’s cooked put a drop of jam on a porcelain and tilt it. If it does not flow than it’s ready.)

4. add lemon juice after jam is ready and bring it to boil for a couple of times. Take the bubbles with skimmer. Put the jam into the jars and cool it.

Triangle bun with feta cheese

Ingredients

For dough:

• 30 gr wet yeast


• 1 kg flour


• 1 cup sunflower oil


• 1 cup yoghurt


• 1/3 tablespoon salt


• margarine

For bun ingredients

• 1 piece of feta cheese,crushed
• 1 bunch of parsley, cut into small pieces

On the top of buns

• 1 yolk of egg


• black cumin

1- Dissolve the wet yeast in a small cup with lukewarm water.

2- Mix 1 kg of flour, 1 cup of oil, 1 cup of yoghurt, dissolved yeast and salt in a large bowl to make a soft dough.

3- Divide the dough into 12 pieces. Roll out each piece of dough very thin. (Dough is greasy so it is easy to roll out. )

4- Grease the melted margarine on the top of the dough. Obtain a square by folding a thin sheet of dough like a pack.

5- Mix cheese with parsley. Put ½ tablespoon of cheese ingredients on each corner of the square. Join the corners of square at the center so that you have 4 triangles.

6- Repeat this process for the other 11 pieces of dough. And after then place the buns on the tray. Cut the triangles from the folds. Brush the top of the buns with yolk and spill black cumin.

7- Bake in preheated 200 degrees oven till the buns become red.

Note: folding like a pack: fold one corner of the dough, which is greased with margarine, to the 2/3 of the other corner. Grease margarine only to this side. Close the other corner to the folded part. Do it to the remaining parts without greasing with margarine.

Poppy Bun

Dough:

• 2 cups lukewarm milk
• 1 packet wet yeast
• 1 cup oil
• 4 tablespoon powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 1 yolk
• Flour

Filling:

• 1 bowl of poppy


• 2 tablespoon oil

1- Dissolve one packet of wet yeast with 2 cups of lukewarm milk. Mix the dissolved yeast with 1 cup of oil, 4 tablespoon of powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon of salt and flour how much it takes to make dough. After then, wrap the dough with a clean cloth and let it rest for 1.5-2 hours until doubled in size.

2-When the dough fermanted, divide it into three equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough with a diameter of 25 cm by hand. Among the doughs, grease with the inside poppy ingredients and put them one on the top of the other. Divide the 3 floors of dough in half. Cut each half of doughs with parallel pieces with a thickness of 2 finger. The 3 floors of dough pieces that u cut wring like a ring-shaped and wrap them around.

3-Place the buns in a tray, but previously brush the tray with oil. Also, brush the top of the buns with yolk. Bake in preheated 170C (375F) oven for 30 minutes.

Winter vegetables soup

Ingredients

• 1 onion


• 4 potatoes


• 2 cabbage leaves


• 3 carrots


• 2 leeks


• 3 tablespoon oil


• 1,5 or 2 lt water


• 1 tablespoon flour


• salt

First of all, wash all the vegetables and then chopped in small cubes. Roast onion with oil a little bit and add the flour. Mix 1 or 2 times and put all the vegetables except potatoes. When the vegetables are near to cook, add the boiling water. As the vegetables become soft put the potatoes and salt. Wait until the mixture boils, after then pass through the blender and garnish with mint and serve it.

Stuffed Vine Leaves (Dolma) with Olive Oil

Stuffed vine leaves is one of the important honor of the religious festival days for us. My mother shows honour to the guests filling 1-2 saucepans with stuffed vine leaves a couple of days before each festival... Several years ago, we had cooked stuffed vine leaves with my elder sister at eve night so that keeping on this custom while my mother and father were staying abroad during a festival. Now, whenever I see this meal, I remember making the stuffed vine leaves with my sister...

ingredients:

4-5 onion

1/3 cup uf olive oil 

1,5-2 spoon of pine nut

2 cup of rice 

1 spoon of dry mint 

2-3 g black pepper 

2 g cinnamon 

2 piece of sugar 

2 spoon of currant

½ lemon 

1 cup of minced parsley 

5 g salt 

1/3 cup of boiled water 

½ kg pickled vine leaves 

2 spoons of olive oil 

2 cups of boiled water

Preparing:

1. Cut into pieces 4-5 onion, roasted with 1/3 cup of olive oil and 1,5-2 spoon of pine nut  (till the pine nuts turn pink).

2. Wash 2 cup of rice and add the onions. Roast 1-2 more minutes. Then add into the saucepan turn in order; 1 spoon of dry mint, 2-3 g black pepper, 2 g cinnamon, 2 piece of sugar, 2 spoon of currant, ½ lemon’s water and 1 cup of minced parsley and mix them. Add in the pot 5 g salt and 1/3 cup of boiled water. Steep on very low fire till the rice absorb the water. When the rice absorb the water turn off the fire and cool them.

3. At the other side, wash ½ kg pickled vine leaves by warm water - changing water 4-5 times. Take out the leaves from water pressing between palms of your hands. Take each leaf in your palm, put on its centre 1 teaspoon of ingredient. Wrap the leaf cylinder style.

4. Spread some leaves bottom of the pot that you use for cooking (so that the pot’s bottom is not burnt). Arrange in a row the stuffed vine leaves top of the leaves. At the end, put one more row leaves at the top and pour 2 spoons of olive oil. (If you would like sour, you can also add ½ lemon water)

5. Cover a plate on the leaves and add 2 cups of boiled water. Put the pot on the fire. When water starts boiling, reduce the fire and cook 30 minutes. After cooking, cool them and row on the service plate. Serve decorating with lemon slides and parsley leaves.