Modern Turkish Cuisine

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:38:00 +0000

Well, we are back to normal :)) Actually it had been about 1 week now that blogspot is open in Turkey.

We would like to thank everyone that has helped this situation..

BLOGSPOT

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:56:00 +0000

Hi,
I want to let everyone out there know that for some "strange" reason, with the decision of one of the courts in Turkey, .blogspot extensions had been banned. And blogspot sites cannot be viewed from Turkey. (Some of us can always find backdoors) I just am sorry about this, but this is what "we" as Turks, understand from "solving problems"... I am not going to comment anymore on this. I am sure, what I meant is all understood..

I have to ask you all to forgive me for not being able to update the site often. The reason is that I have stated above.. I will keep posting until I cannot find any other backdoors..

let me know what you think. And let me know about any solutions you might have which will be very highly appreciated.. Thanks in advance.

A "THANK YOU" NOTE TO FOODBUZZ

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:06:00 +0000

I went to the vegetable market this morning, and was in a great hurry in cooking in the kitchen afterwards and the door rang. It was the postman, telling me that I have a package. I was quite curious, he came upstairs, handed me the package. It had a stamp of Foodbuzz on it :))

I tore up the package and found this beautiful apron and the spatula... I had to take a picture of it and show it to everyone. Here it is :)

Thank you for sending these beautiful presents. Timing could not be any better :)))

FOODBUZZ PUBLISHER COMMUNITY LAUNCHES:

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:33:00 +0000

Hey you guys out there.. Most and almost all of you know that I am a part of the Foodbuzz Community and have made a lot of friends and had found a lot of nice recepies in there.
I would like to inform you about the Foodbuzz Publisher Community Launch, so if you guys are interested you may find details in the public release below:

"San Francisco – October 13, 2008: Foodbuzz, Inc., officially inaugurates its food blogger community with more than 1,000 blog partners, a global food blogging event and an online platform that captures the real-people, real-time power of food publishing in every corner of the world. At launch, the Foodbuzz community ranks as one of the top-10 Internet destinations for food and dining (Quantcast), with bloggers based in 45 countries and 863 cities serving up daily food content.
“Food bloggers are at the forefront of reality publishing and the dramatic growth of new media has redefined how food enthusiasts access tasty content,” said Doug Collister, Executive Vice President of Foodbuzz, Inc. “Food bloggers are the new breed of local food experts and at any minute of the day, Foodbuzz is there to help capture the immediacy of their hands-on experiences, be it a memorable restaurant meal, a trip to the farmers market, or a special home-cooked meal.”
Foodbuzz is the only online community with content created exclusively by food bloggers and rated by foodies. The site offers more than 20,000 pieces of new food and dining content weekly, including recipes, photos, blog posts, videos and restaurant reviews. Members decide the “tastiness” of each piece of content by voting and “buzz” the most popular posts to the top of the daily menu of submissions. Foodbuzz currently logs over 13 million monthly page views and over three million monthly unique visitors.
“Our goal is to be the number-one online source of quality food and dining content by promoting the talent, enthusiasm and knowledge of food bloggers around the globe,” said Ben Dehan, founder and CEO of Foodbuzz, Inc.

The Foodbuzz blogger community is growing at a rate of 40 percent per month driven by strong growth in existing partner blogs and the addition of over 100 new blogs per month. “The Foodbuzz.com Web site is like the stock of a great soup. The Web site provides the base or backbone for bloggers to interact as a community, contribute content, and have that content buzzed by their peers,” said Mr. Dehan.
Global Blogging Event
Demonstrating the talent and scope of the Foodbuzz community, 24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs offered online food enthusiasts an international, virtual street festival of food and diversity. The new feature showcased blog posts from 24 Foodbuzz partner bloggers chronicling events occurring around the globe during a 24 hour period and included:
· Mid-Autumn Festival Banquest (New York, NY)
· The "Found on Foodbuzz" 24-Item Tasting Menu (San Francisco, CA)
· Aussie BBQ Bonanza – Celebrating Diversity (Sydney, Australia)
· The Four Corners of Carolina BBQ Road Trip (Charleston, SC)
· Criminal Tastes – An Illegal Supper (Crested Butte, CO)
· From Matambre to Empanadas: An Argentine Dinner (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
· A Sweet Trompe l’oeil (Seattle, WA)

“24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs” captures the quality and unique local perspective of our food bloggers and shared it with the world,” said Ryan Stern, Director of the Foodbuzz Publisher Community. “It illustrates exactly what the future of food publishing is all about – real food, experienced by real people, shared real-time.”
About Foodbuzz, Inc. Based in San Francisco, Foodbuzz, Inc., launched its beta Web site, foodbuzz.com, in 2007. In less than a year, Fooduzz.com and its community of over 1,000 exclusive partner food blogs have grown into an extended online property that reaches more than three million users."

PARSLEY STEW

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:51:00 +0000

Ingredients:

800 gr lamb stew meat
20 pearl onions
4 Cloves of Garlic
4 tbsp Butter
1 tbsp salt
1 stick cinnamon
1 bunch of fresh parsley
2 tomatoes (skinned)
1 tsp black pepper
2 cups of water
1 bay leaf

How to Cook:

Cut the meat into cubes. Melt the butter in a skillet and brown the meat cubes until the juices have been absorbed. Add the pearl onions, garlic, bay leaf and stick cinnamon. Brown 3-4 minutes and add the skinned tomatoes. Mix for 2-3 minutes add water and let it cook apprx. 30 min on low heat. When the meat is cooked through, add salt, pepper and parsley leaves. Serve when hot...

VEGETABLE AND WHITE CHEESE (FETA) SALAD

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:43:00 +0000

Ingredients:

2 cucumbers
2 tomatoes
100gr white cheese (feta)
100gr curd cheese
2 green peppers
1/2 bunch fresh dill
1/2 bunch parsley
3 fresh basel leaves
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp hot red pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
6 fresh mint leaves

How to Cook:

Chop the cucumber, green pepper and tomato finely. Than chop the dill, mint, parsley and basil finely and add them on top of the other chopped veggies and mix well. Add very little water to curd cheese and break the feta up into small pieces and add them all upto the mixture. Sprinkle with salt and red pepper and drizzle with olive oil and wala!! it is all ready...

BOSTANA

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:17:00 +0000

Hey guys!! Couldn't stay away too long. I am in Taiwan, in my hotel, having jetlag :S and working at the same time. Wanted to write down some recepies:

Ingredients:

6 Fresh Onions
3 Tomatoes
1/2 bunch Parsley
1 tsb tomato paste
1 lemmon (juice)
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
8 leaves of fresh mint
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup water

How to Cook:

Peel the tomatoes and chop them with fresh onions, parsley and mint leaves very finely. Add the tomato paste, lemon juice and salt and mix well. After the mixing, add the water and mix a bit more. Than put the pepper flakes on top as toppic and serve.
Easy ha? This is a traditional salad from Urfa, on the south-east of Turkey. Hope you like it!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:49:00 +0000

Hey you all out there!!!

I just wanted you all know that I am on my way to Tai Wan. Do not be jealous... I will be back in a couple of weeks and will start from where I left of...
Until then... take care of yourselves and your loved ones..
Byeee

GRANNIE COOKIES

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 21:42:00 +0000

Today, my 3 year old daughter, Dide, and her grandmother (Grannie) baked some cookies. She sat on the the kitchen counter and made the dough with her grandmother and actually she made the cookies (took the dough by spoon and put it in the oven tray) all by herself. She waited infront of the oven until they are cooked and ate 3 of them before she took her nap. Than she woke up and asked where the cookies were!! Well here is how to do the "Grannie Cookies" Ingredients:
Wallnuts (As much as you like)
1 small water glass of eggs
1,5 small water glass of sugar
1 small water glass of yoghurt
1,5 small water glass of olive oil
2,5 small water glass of flour
Grated Lemmon or orange zest
1 pack of Vanilla
1 pack of Baking powder

Basicly you will mix all these one by one. Your mixture should be softer than a cake mixture. And you should use a pre-heated oven. If you don't use a pre-heated oven, than your cookies will fall apart. You can use your creativity and add chocolate chips, nuts etc. to the mixture. Or remove the lemmon and orange zest as you please. Do it as you like, I am sure you'll find the best to fit you.

RAMADAN PIDE

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 12:44:00 +0000

Muslim communities would know that Ramadan is coming in one week and will go for a month. As it is a tradition in Ramadan to eat Ramadan Pide at the end of daily fasting; I wanted to give a recepie to cook a Ramadan Pide at home:

What you need to cook Ramadan Pide is:

500 gr of Flour
20 gr of Ferment
Half water glass of milk
1 table spoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
3 table spoon of flower oil

Put the the flour in a mixing bowl, open the middle part and put the ferment and add the milk in the middle. Than put the salt and the sugar in the flour part. After the ferment has melted add the milk and make it a dough. And let it rest for a while. Than cut the dough into small pieces. and make it in a shape with a rolling pin. If you'd like, you may add meat, cheese, eggs or any other ingredients you please on top and put it in a oven tray and cook it in a pre-heated oven (220 degrees celcius) until it is done. With a help of a brush, after taking it out of the oven, spread some oil on the sides of the Ramadan Pide.
Afiyet Olsun..

Tips on Ramadan: If you know someone fasting during Ramadan, if you say "Allah kabul etsin", this means "May god accept your fasting and wishes" this will make them feel alot better and stronger. In the first days of Ramadan, becuase people are fasting from sun up to sundown, not eating and drinking anything; they may be a bit angry, aggressive, feeling bad etc. Please understand their situation and have mercy on your words towards them. Let them adjust to the situation of not eating and drinking during the day.

VEGGIE SALAD

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 09:12:00 +0000

After giving out so many recepies with so many wonderful calories, I wanted to act like a very responsible person (in fact I really am) and give you a diet recepie with fresh goodies...

You will need:

1 bowl of broccoli
1 bowl of cauliflower (Cleaned and picked over)
5 pieces of fresh beans
1 carrot
1 red bell pepper
A bit of basil
Salt
Olive Oil
Lemmon Juice

Cut broccoli, cauliflower, carrot and fresh beans into big pieces. Boil some water and put the carrots first than add the beans and cauliflower and broccoli very last. Boil them for 2-3 minutes and if you want the veggies to look like alive with wonderful colours; put them into iced water. And drain them after they are really cold. Put the veggies in a mixture bowl and add the basil, salt, olive oil and lemmon juice and mix well.
That's it. No suprises. That is all.. An example of healthy nutrition :))
Not fun ha?

BANANA BREAD

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:52:00 +0000

Ingredients:

2,5 glass of flour
100gr butter
1 glass of sugar
450gr of banana
2 eggs

How To Cook:

Mix the eggs and the butter very well than add the sugar and continue mixing. Than add the flour and continue to mix again. Cut the bananas into small pieces and add to the mixture and put them all in a baking pan. Put it in the oven until it is done. It should be a pre-heated oven at 175 degrees Celcius. You can eat it as cake or you can put some soft cheese on top and eat it as a sweet bread. Upto you !! But can say very easy to cook, but can't say it is healthy with all that butter, sugar, flour in it :) Buuuutt very tasty!!

SEMOLINA HELVA

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:45:00 +0000

Ingredients:
150gr. butter
50gr. pine nuts or almonds
150gr. semolina
225gr. Caster sugar
400ml. milk

How to Cook:
Melt the butter in a pan and add the pine nuts or almonds and semolina. Cook on very low heat, stirring stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until golden. In another pan, heat the sugar and milk, stirring until the sugar melts. Bring to the boil and pour over the semoina mixture, stirring all the time. Cover the pan, and leave on very low heat until all the syrup is absorbed. When holes form on the surface, stir a couple of times, then cover with greaseproof paper and the lid, and lower the heat still further and leave for 2 hours. Stir to break up into grains. Turn on to a heated serving dish and serve hot. You may also serve it with icecream. yummiieee!!

POACHED EGG WITH YOGHURT

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:42:00 +0000

Ingredients:
6 Eggs
A bit of yoghurt and garlic sauce
(Put the yoghurt in a bowl. Peel the garlic and pound it with salt in a mortar until you have a smooth paste. Stir it into the yoghurt.)

For Poaching:
1 Liter of water
1 tblsp salt
1tblsp vinegar

For the Garnish:
50gr. butter
6 sage leaves
1/4 tsp red pepper

How to Cook:

Prepare the yoghurt and garlic sauce and pour into a serving dish. Boil the water with salt and vinegar than pop the eggs into it and cover with lid, lower the heat and poach the eggs for 2-3 minutes until the whites stiffen while the yolks remain soft. Remove the eggs with a perforated ladle and place tghem on the yoghurt sauce. Heat the butter in a frying pan with sage leaves. Add the pepper, remove from the heat in under a minute and pour over the eggs. Serve hot.

Fresh Black-Eyed-Peas

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:51:00 +0000

We went to a restaurant couple of days ago with some of our foreign friends. The name of the restaurant is Kosebasi. (For the foodbuzz members, I have written a critique about this restaurant a couple of months ago) As once I have stated, the food they serve is soo delicious. well, they have served some fresh blacked eyed peas. Our guests actually loved it. So I wanted to put down this very healthy food's receipe.

Ingredients:

* 1/2 kg of fresh peas.

* 2-3 cloves of Garlic

* Olive oil

* Salt

* 1 Lemmon

How to cook:

Peal the sides of the peas and if they are too long, break them into 1-2 pieces. Put 3-4 glasses of water in a pot and let it boil. After it boils, but lots of salt in it. After you put the salt, add the peas and let them boil in for about 10-15 minutes. If you think they are soft enough for you, then drain them and put them under cold water. (This way they will keep their green colour and won't get brown) Put them on a plate then in another cup, mix lemmon juice out of the lemmon and olive oil and pour it to the plate with peas and grate the garlic on top. There you go!! Done..

Enjoy :))

An Appetizer with Red Bell Peppers

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:50:00 +0000

A very delicious and a healthy appetizer..
You can use as much red bell peppers as you like, steam cook them or put them in the oven and cook until they get soft. Then peal the thin skin and cut them into pieces from length. Cut some garlic on top of them. (All these quantities are upto your request/likes and dislikes) Put some olive oil and a bit of vinegar or lemmon. Very quick and healty and delicious appetizer is ready for your stomach journey :)

STRING BEAN

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:34:00 +0000

Today, as it is summer here in Turkey, and a hot one actually, I would like to give a very light dish recepie. And it is quite the season. Here is how to do it:

Ingredients:

1 chopped onion
2 tomatoes (Pealed and chopped)
1 kg. string bean (cleared and sorted)
salt, a bit of sugar

How to cook:

Put some olive oil and let it heat than add the onions and let them go pink a bit. add the bean and tomatoes on it, a bit of salt and if you want a bit (very little) of sugar and let it cook for about 30-40 min. in low heat.

Let it cool down and serve. You will not need to heat it up again, it is eaten cold.

RICE PUDDING

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:14:00 +0000

A perfect desert having lots of milk in it. If you have children, like my 3rd year old, it is a very good snack for them. And a very healthy one too.

Ingredients:

* Two liters of milk

* A cup of rice (let it stay in hot water for about half an hour before you start making the pudding

* 1,5 Liters of water

* A cup of sugar (You may add or reduce sugar as you wish)

* A bit of mastic for flavour

How to Cook:

Put milk, water and rice together in the pot and let it boil by stiring it once in a while. When it starts to thicken add the sugar and the mastic in and stir well and let it boil a bit more.

Now turn off the cooker and put the pudding into little cups that you'll serve with. Let them stay out for a bit to cool down then put them in the fridge.

If you'd like, you may serve it with icecream on top.

WHEAT SALAD

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:34:00 +0000

Since you have already wet the wheat, if you have any left overs from the recepie below, you may go ahead and make some salad with it.
Here is how to do it:
1 soup cup of boiled wheat
2 fresh onions
1 grated tomatoes
1 cluster of parsley
1 tbl spoon of sour pomegranate juice (if you cannot find it, vinegar would be ok)
4 leaves of lettuce
Olive Oil
Salt

It is really easy to do this. Basicly you mix them up all togther. But;
First put the wheat than grade the tomatoes on it, carve the the onions and parsley, add the pomegranate juice, olive oil and salt and mix them all up. Carve the lettuce very thin, mix them all up.. That is it!! Quick and easy and above all very very healthy...

COLD AYRAN FOOD SOUP

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:51:00 +0000

I know it has been such a long time since I have updated my blog. You may never guess how hot it is here which basicly making me sooooo indolent. Well, I will give you a recepie that you can use to cool down actually. Nice cold soup would do very nice on a hot whether like this. don't you think?
Well, here is how to do COLD AYRAN FOOD SOUP:

You need 1 soup cup of boiled wheat
2 soup cups of youghurt
1 cluster of dill
Water and salt

You'll need put the wheat in water the day before you make this soup. After washing the wheat with a lot of water, boil it longer than as usual. While the wheat is boiling, the water will thicken. On an other place, mix the youghurt with little water which will be a thick Ayran. (Soft and smooth) After the ayran is ready, take the wheat from the burner and mix it with ayran, then put it on the burner again. Let is cook there a bit, then cook it a bit more, before it boils, take it off the burner and add the dill. Then put it in the fridge and serve cold.

CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE WITH ICE CREAM

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Tue, 27 May 2008 21:26:00 +0000

Ingredients:
1 pack of plain sweet busuits
1 pack of soft cream cheese
1 glass sugar
3 eggs
2 tblsp cocao
2 tblsp butter (melted)
1 pack vanilla
1 glass cream filling
160gr bitter chocolate

For toppic:
Mint flavored icecream

How to Cook:

Grade the buscuits and add cocao and melted butter in it and mix. After mixing it well enough, but it on the bottom of the cooking pot of which is covered with cooking paper. Let the mixture stay in the freezer for about half an hour.
Mix the vanilla, cream cheese, cream filling, eggs and sugar together. In the mean time, melt the chocolate either in microwave or in a pot. Put some of the cheese mixture in the choclate and put the rest of the mixture on the buscuit mixture that was stayin in the fridge. On the very top, put the melted chocolate mixture. You may draw stuff with a help of fork if you'd like.
Now you may put your cake to the preheated (160 degrees celcius) oven for about 20-25 minutes.
Serving the cake with mint flavored icecream will give you extra freshness.
Afiyet Olsun!! (Bon Apetit)

AYRAN

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:19:00 +0000

Ayran is often drunk with meals. The consistency can be changed by adding more or less water.

Ingredients:
To serve 3-4 Pax:

500gr. Thick-set yoghurt
400ml. iced water
1tsp salt or to taste

How To Do:
Put the yoghurt in a bowl and whis for 1-2 minutes until smooth. Add the water and salt gradually and whisk again for 2 minutes. (You can also use blender too)

SALEP

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Thu, 08 May 2008 12:58:00 +0000

Salep is a hot drink made with the powdered root of the salep orchid. In the winter, people often have a cup of salep with a couple of simits before rushing off to work in the morning. It is sold from copper urns on street corners and at stattions throughout Turkey.

Ingredients:
To serve 2-3 pax
500ml milk
1/2 tsp salep
50gr. caster sugar
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

How To Cook:
Heat the milk and add the salep with 2 tbsp sugar. When it comes to the boil stir in the remaining sugar and simmer for 10 min. stirring frequently, until it thickens. Serve hot, sprinkled with ginger and cinnamon.

MY WOODENSPOON

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:49:00 +0000

I have come accross a website having wonderful recepies and other than that, giving away prices. I have put a link on my side bar for the contest that is going on right now. If you'd like to join the contest, which is absuletly free, you should go ahead and see how to do it from this site the prize is a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer!!!

Well, it is for me to let you now, and upto you to decide whether to join the contest or not!
Good luck you all!!

CHERRY JAM

noreply@blogger.com (Seb) — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:59:00 +0000

Ingredients:
800g granulated sugar
400ml water
1/4 tsp lemon salt (optional)
500g stoned morello cherries (weight after stoning)

How To Cook:
Make a syrup with sugar, water and lemon salt. When it is in the boiling point, reuce the heat and 2 minutes later add the cherries.
Bring back to the boil, remove from the heat and leave to stand for 30 minutes to allow the fruit to absorb the sugar. Then return to the heat and boil for 25-30 minutes or longer, carefully watching the con-sistency. Test for setting and remove any scum from the surface. Cool and pot in warm jars. Cover when cold.
PS: Cornelian cherry jam is made the same way, but the cherry is not stoned in this one.