Tin and Zeytin

London Coffee Festival

2012-04-29T18:39:00.001+01:00

As a coffee lover I was very excited for the London Coffee Festival event. I learned about it last year, on my way to school, back then i used to walk to school, I stopped by in pavilion coffee shop to get a good cup of coffee. London Coffee Festival had an add on the coffee cups and i deiced i would go this event. I couldn't make it last year, and this year i booked my ticket and went there wandered two and a half hours in old truman brewery. Unfortunately it turned out to be not what i expected. I was expecting to enter a space with full of coffee smell and loads of free coffee samples after all there is 800 different kinds of coffee flavors in the world now.

There was a queue in front of the festival entrance at 10:30 am and we waited around 10 mins to go in which was very unpleasant since it was raining and very cold. Then i was a bit disappointed since there was Thai food stands in the downstairs (the festival turned out to be in upstairs) so you can imagine the smell it was nothing like the coffee smell that i expected. And the second very upsetting thing was the people on the stands are usually way to cool to speak with or just way to mean to offer a free sample from their products. So i am not going back to London coffee festival next year if i will be in London because it is way too expensive for what it offers. The single standard ticket costs £9.50 and plus £1.25 booking fee then if you buy it on the door it is more expensive around £12. And one more annoying thing about the ticketing is you can not really go there whenever you want so there is a time slot that you can go in and you can not go back in again. So it is very annoying in that sense. I think it wouldn't worth to pay more than £5 for this event and i am very dissatisfied with it. Thankfully i managed to get something out from the workshops and i stopped by at the make decent coffee lounge where they showed how to make a filtered coffee.

Certainly in an event on coffee you get to see loads of equipment used for making coffee both filters, espresso machines, coffee cups, french presses. I didn't take loads of pictures it was crowded in front of the stands. The first workshop i attended was on tea, apparently tea tastes different depending on the altitude that it grows in. And the size of the tea is very important, just like in coffee, if the tea is very fine dust like that means it is going to infuse to water very quickly. So the instant tea that is on the most of the English pocket teas are dust like that is why it gives color very quickly. The smell of the tea also significant when choosing. The tea that has grown in low altitude doesn't have an intense flavor and the flavor fades away very quickly. If it has a high percentage blend of high altitude grown tea the strength of the flavor is intense and then again fades away quickly. if it is composed of mid altitude grown tea than the flavor is intense and it lasts long time this type of tea is coming probably to England from Rwanda. We had some tea with milk since it was a sensory lab but didn't tastes much different. Personally my favorite is large cut teas, i do not like the dust like teas i think they usually don't have much flavor into them probably low altitude ones that is been sold on the supermarket shelves.

My next stop was the make decent coffee lounge, where i learned the art of filter coffee making, they actually have a video on youtube on how to make filtered coffee at home (above). There was a hario V60 coffee maker also featured in the video above, also chemex coffee maker, and a french press. For Chemex and hario V60 you need a paper filter. You have to place the paper filter into the upper part and wet the paper to not to let the taste of the paper affect the taste of the coffee. Then you have to grind the coffee beans , i had a very strong Tanzanian blend in the lounge, and pour 15 grams for each cup into the wet cone. Then pour the boiled water into the hario v60 coffee drip buono kettle and fist pour some on the coffee and wait a while this will allow the CO2 to be released from the coffee. Then add the remaining water and wait for it to be filtered. The v60 kettle has a long thin and curved opening which will allow the water cool down while pouring on to the grinned coffee. It is pretty straightforward but unfortunately a chemex coffee maker costs $38, a v60 coffee maker costs $31, and the hario kettle costs $56. So the equipment is quite expensive. But i think it is worth if you are a coffee lover. I will continue on writing on the sessions in the next blog post, hope you had some useful information on coffee. Tune in for the rest of the post.

Summer Tabooleh

2012-04-28T00:12:00.003+01:00

Tobooleh comes in all sorts of forms and one can certainly modify the ingredients. I am big fan of fresh herbs and tabooleh is one of my favorite salad. During winter i used to make it with pomegranate the recipe i have got from the famous food blog evcini. And my friend told me she added some walnuts into her recipe. I added walnuts to this recipe but i am not very satisfies with the walnuts because i think walnuts should be combined with more wheat than greens. The intensity of green herbs made the walnuts almost invisible. So i think if you are planning to use walnuts then the tabooleh should be made with loads of pomegranate and wheat and minimal amount of fresh herbs loads of walnuts.

Ingredients:

1 big bundled bunch of flat leaf parsley
1 big bundled bunch of dill
1/2 bundled bunch of fresh mint
1 cup of thin bulgur
1 3/4 cups of hot water
1/4 cup of pomegranate syrup
1/4 cup 1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsb salt
1 lemon's juice;
1/3 cup of chopped walnuts (optional)

Recipe:

combine the hot water and bulgur (cooked wheat/bulghur)
wait until it cools down and while waiting wash the greens well add salt and make them wait in the salty water if necessary
then finely chop the greens
combine the cooked wheat/bulgur, pomegranate syrup and mix it well.
mix the greeans and wheat and add the walnuts mix it well.
add the salt and olive oil and serve.

Fudgy Brownies: coffee flavoured

2012-04-06T12:29:00.001+01:00

These are great brownies they dont taste like butter or biscuit when you eat and my friends would ask me does this have coffee in it. My intention by adding coffee was to bring out the chocolate flavour not to make the end user feel the coffee. But it turned out great the taste contrast between coffee and chocolate works quite well. And make sure you line your tin before pouring the mixture and leave some extra baking paper on the sides this will help you to pull out the brownies after baking. Also you can spray your tin with oil before lining that will help the baking paper to stick on the inner surface of the tin.

Ingredients:

1 egg
100 grams of bittersweet chocolate (I used 85%)
100 grams of milk chocolate
200 grams of chocolate is when chopped in small chunks 1 1/3 cup chocolate
4 tbsp very strong coffee
1 Cup of Granulated Sugar
6 tbsp butter
4 tbsp coconut oil
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp cocoa powder
3/4 cups flour
¼ tsp of Salt
10 grams of vanilla powder (you can use vanilla extract)

Line your brownie tin with a baking sheet to make the sheet stick to the tin spray your tin with oil before lining.
Set your oven to 180 CC/360 F.
Melt the chocolate in a bowl by placing the bowl on top of a pot with boiling water.
Mix the room temperature butter, coconut oil and olive oil and sugar with a whisk until sugar and butter are incorporated do not use an electric mixer you don't want to end up with a foamy texture brownies should be dense.
Add the egg to the mixture and keep beating with the whisk
Add the coffee and vanilla powder keep beating
Add the flour and cocoa powder whisk until everything is incorporated
Add the melted chocolate in to the mixture keep mixing
Pour the mixture to the previously lined tin and bake it for 25-30 mins
The Brownie will be cooked when there is a cracked thin surface on top

Rasberry and Lemon Muffins

2012-03-26T11:11:00.003+01:00

These are probably the best looking muffins I have ever made. The juice of the raspberries made them very moist and my friend doesn't really like to have muffins very sweet. So I baked them with less amount of sugar than I normally would, this way you can have loads of it and still wouldn't feel tired of eating them. I mean you can have dozens of it and it wouldn't be too sweet. The flavour of lemon is intense in this muffins, highly recommended if you are a citrus lover. Scroll down for the recipe.

Ingredients: (yields 12-14 muffins)

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granular white sugar (you can use 1/2 cups if you want it to taste more sweet)
1/4 cup lemon juice
Zest of 5 lemons approximately 1/3 cup zest
1/4 cup yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1 3/4 cup self raising flour
1 tbsp baking powder
130 grams of frozen raspberries
1 egg
5 grams of vanillia powder (you can use vanillia extract)
1/2 cups of unsalted butter melted

Icing:

105 grams of frozen or fresh raspberries
4 tbsp icing (powdered) sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice

Recipe:

Place the zest of lemons, brown sugar, granular sugar in a bowl or in a mortar
Pestle until everything is incorporated this process will help to extract the essential oils
Line or grease your muffin tin and set your oven 180 C/ 360 F
Add the egg and whisk it with sugar
add the lemon juice '
vanillia powder whisk it and add the milk and yogurt keep whisking until everything is incorporated
Add the melted butter and whisk until everything is incorporated
In another bowl mix lightly the flour and baking powder
Add the frozen berries to the bowl and coat it with flour
Add the liquid to the dry mixture mix it with a spatula until flour disappear
Spoon the mixture to muffin tin
Bake it for 20-30 (mins mine took 20)
After baking let the muffins set for 10 minutes
In a bowl mix and pestle the icing ingredients and spoon them on top op the muffins and serve it.

Pasta with Mushrooms, Asparagus, and Fresh Herbs

2012-03-21T11:11:00.001+00:00

I have been cooking pasta for about ten years now. I font even remember how it used to taste like but I probably can not even eat the first pasta I ever cooked. After all we are not all born gifted. Although, pasta is a simple dish to cook in my opinion it is tricky to male one. I manage to get some clues from the itallian fair on how to cook the dry pasta. Apparently for all those years I have been over cooking the pasta and it turns if it is cooked al dente pasta would be more delicious and al dente is also good for your digestive system. You want to have a big pan preferably tall one especially if you are making spaghetti with loads of water to cook the pasta. The pasta should be able to move freely in the pot. You don't want to put oil into the pasta water but you want to add some salt into the water. Also another common mistake is not waiting for the water to boil perfectly. You want the cook the pasta in a boiling  water not hot or warm water. Now I don't want to mislead with saying that I boil my pasta for 5 - 8 mins because there is so many different pasta varieties out there and I don't think I am an authority to make a generalisation on that but I would say make sure it is al dente check the instructions on the pasta package if necessary and taste your pasta to check whether it is done.

Tips for cooking the dry pasta:

use a big pot
add good amount of water check the packaging of the pasta for instructions
do not add oil to the boiling water
add salt before adding dry pasta
cook the pasta al dente

Pasta

I was searching on the web for a good mushroom sauce. Most of them are using bacon in the sauce so i decided to add a meaty flavor which in my opinion can be added with using asparagus. And this recipe turned out to be very chili i don't think Italians would appreciate spicy pasta:) The Crème fraiche was very sour so to mask its taste i had to add a strong flavor. I would use double cream instead as a sauce.

Pasta with Mushrooms and Asparagus

Ingredients : (2 serving )

Dry spagetti for two (from the instructions on the package split the pasta)
4 button mushrooms
5 chestnut mushrooms
8 asparagus tips
1 spanish onion
3 garlic cloves
3 tbsp olive oil<\li>
125 ml crème fraiche (i would use single or double cream instead crème fraiche was very sour)
1/2 tsp black pepper (optional)
1 bird eye chili (optional)
salt for taste
15 grams of fresh dill for garnish
15 grams of fresh flat leaf parsley for garnish

Reci. pe:

put 1 LT water to a large Pam and bring it to boil
chop the mushrooms and dice the onions
wash and finely chop the dill and parsley and set aside
add the olive oil and onions to a nonstick pot, stir and cook until they are brown
add the mushrooms and let it cook until the mushrooms loose their juice
when the water started the boil add some salt and the dry pasta with the help of a fork twist the pasta into the water
let it cook for 5-8 mins and check it to see if it is done you want it to be cooked al dente
drain the pasta and set aside
add the cremè fraiche or double cream to the mushrooms and let it boil for 3-5 minutes
add black peppers and chili to the sauce
add the pasta into the mushroom sauce and mix let it boil with the sauce for 15 -30 seconds
boil or steam asparagus until tender, i boiled them for 2-3 mins
serve the pasta in mushroom sauce and place asparagus on top and sprinkle some dill and parsley

Ingredients chestnut mushrooms, button mushrooms, asparagus, crème fraiche, onion, garlic, dill, flat leaf parsley

La Dolce Vita : Itallian Fair for Londoners

2012-03-20T12:03:00.001+00:00

Every year in Islington The Business Center becomes a host for an event called "La Dolce Vita" meaning sweet life. The event as it's name suggests is an italian fair displaying, promoting, selling the Italian products mainly food and wine products. This year thanks to my lovely Italian friends I went to the fair and had loads of good food. The displayers are either companies/small business owner's based on Italy or london based Italian product providers. Italy is amazingly rich in terms of food and wine culture and La Dolce Vita event is a good option to taste and learn about the food culture in Italy. Now I can not really start conversations and talk about food with strangers and if you are like me i would recommend go to the fair with your Italian friends. My friends were really kind and they explained whatever i asked about the products in the fair so now it is my turn to write about what i learned from the fair and from my friends.

Buffalo Mozzarella

Our first stop was a stall serving mainly bufalo mozzarella that has been brought from Naples. The products were not on sale rather the stall was a promotion for a restaurant called "Fratelli La Bufala" that is going to be opened in Piccadilly circus on 27th of March. The Buffalo's milk almost miraculous it is richer in protein, calcium, and fat than cow's milk. People suffering from intestine problems or eczema find it hard to consume diary products made with cow's milk and when they switch to buffalo milk they start to feel an improvement in their conditions. Lactose intolerance is another common problem, where as buffalo milk is easier to digest. I have never came across to a Buffalo milk in my local grocerry store so I can't tell you what the Buffalo milk tastes like but the mozzarella we tasted was different in terms of smell and taste from the regular cheese that has been sold in our local grocery stores in UK which is not suppose to be called mozzarella rather it turns out it should have been called fior di latte. Because the mozzarella can only be made from Buffalo milk. The mozzarella we tasted wasn't smelling like milk, that was the first thing I noticed since I am a bit sensitive when it comes to smell of any food (and anything really). In terms of taste it had a spesific sweetness that is in my opinion comming from the milk itself. When I was in States we used to buy this milk called horizon organic and i think the sweetness of the mozzarella reminded me of horizon's taste. The texture was soft felt very natural. Back to the restaurant, they were advertising that they will be bringing the mozzarella from Naples. So i made a small research it turns out in Naples there is water buffalo or Mediterranean buffalo farms which is originated from Mainly sub Indian continent. There is regulations in Italy to protect the buffalo cheese from Campania. If a restaurant claiming that they are serving a real Neapolitan pizza, it is against the law in Itally not to use buffalo cheese in the pizza.

Sicilian Pesto Stall

Our next stop was a stall from scilly with pestos for sale. I have bought a broccoli pesto with sun flower seeds, sun-dried tomatoes, olive oil, and raisins in it, when i first tasted it i thought it was a familiar taste.I have also bought an interesting sauce with bird eye chillies and sweet marmelade together in one small glass container. Later on my Italian friend told me that they usually eat this sauce with meat. I think the sauce reminded me of Thai food, maybe stir fried noodles with tofu and peanuts on top which taste sweet and spicy at the same time. My friends bought almond and artichoke pesto. Actually i think i will try to make the brocoli pesto later on, and will try the pesto my friends bought as well, with the extra virgin olive oil i bought again produced in Sicily but from the next stall.

Olive Oil Brought from Different Regions of Italy

Olive Oil Stall

Olive Oil with Gold Flakes

When we came across the olive oil stall i asked my friend if he can tell the difference between two olive oils and he answered me back yes. When I tasted the olive oils one after another i was surprised by the richness of the taste. I think that was a turning point in my life in terms of olive oil, at that point i was amazed to realize that an olive oil can come up with so many different flavours. All the olive oils was extra virgin olive oil. Back than I thought there was only two types of olive oil mild and strong and when it is mild that means it is not extra virgin if it is strong that means it is extra virgin and the bitter it is the better extra virgin olive oil. But it turns out this is not the case olive oil can be extra virgin and mild can be fruity and nutty. I think this is just amazing, it is hard to put it in words. The extra virgin olive oil again can be bitter and you can feel the bitternes first or you might not feel the the bitterness until you swallow it as if it is leaving a bitter trace in your mouth. It is just absolute pleasure i highly recommend you to buy different olive oils ay the same time and maybe make a tasting on your own to experience what i just described. You wont regret it. Oh by the way my fiance tells me there is this restaurants in Europe where there is no lighting and you go in and try dishes. If you cant see anything your sense of taste is going to improve. I am planning to make a blind olive oil tasting on my own to tell the difference.

Pistachio Cream an Amazing Alternative to Nutella

The region called Emilio Romagna is one of the most developed regions in Italy. The region is also known as the inventor of one of the most known Italian desert tiramisu. Although there is a debate about it other regions such as Venetia is also claiming to be the inventor of the famous tiramisu desert. Also Parmagiano Reggiano the famous parmesan cheese is coming from this region. The region is also known with meat products. Also in this stall they were selling the balsamic vinegars up to 8 years old which was amazing and expensive:)

Italy is famous with many dishes and products. When i asked my dearest Italian friends what would they like to add to this list their response was chocolate and coffee. Although Italy is not as famous as Switzerland in terms of chocolate production, Italy is a major player in the history of chocolate in Europe. For example Tuscany based chocolate brand is the official supplier of Royal Family in UK. Turin region is famous with the hazelnut chocolates called gianduia. An the Sicilia region was the first producer of chocolate bars in Europe. The chocolate bars produced in Sicilia was made of cocoa paste instead of cocoa butter and the sugar crystals were visible. On the other hand coffee is very common in Italy. In Italy every bar suppose to serve coffee; however, Italians have bars dedicated to coffee only, which is not the sense of coffee shop rather you stop by for an espresso and sip it in the bar. And Italian coffee is an absolute joy. I would like to thank my lovely Italian friends for tirelessly telling me about Italian culture and language.

Finally, if you want to visit the Italian fair next year keep your tickets and go there both Saturday and Sunday. On Sundays you might get some discounts since the producers wants to get rid of the remaining products. But some products runs out quickly so it is not guarantied that you will get to see or try every product on Sunday so go there both Saturday and Sunday.

Emilia Romagna Region

Parmesan Cheese

Balsamic Vinegar

Ricotta Cheese I bought From Gastronomica stall

Gastronomica Stall Cheese with Grapes

Pistachio Gellato and Choclate Chuncks Gellato

Gellato Stall

Spotted Celebrities

Gino D'Acampo

Alessio

Khaleda

Oscar

Paolo

chocolate muffins with white chocolate chunks and St. Patric's day decorations

2012-03-17T13:37:00.001+00:00

It is a rainy cold day here in London but i think the weather conditions is not going to stop the Britons to celebrate the St. Patric's day. Some weeks ago there was a post in this blog on the pancake day. Let me remind you what pancake day is: during the transition from winter to spring according to the Christianity consumption of some foods such as butter, eggs are restricted for purifying purposes. This time of the year is called lent. However at the St. Patric's day the constraints of the lent is lifted and at the beginning of the 17th century it became a festive day so it has become another excuse for celebrations.

Muffin with white chocolate chunks

Originally St. Patric's day is representing the arrival of Christianity to Ireland however this St. Patric's day is evolved into a celebration of Irish culture especially in commonwealth countries and USA. Nowadays during the celebrations wearing green, drinking Guinness beer , and using shamrock as a clothing item became a custom. According to the wikipedia St. Patric arrived to Ireland with a three leaf shamrock representing the trinity. Hence shamrock is the symbol of the St. Patric's day.

Dry ingredients, muffin tin, muffins with St. Patric's day decorations

I was going to bake cupcakes but the feedback i received from friends made me bake muffins instead. My friends think that the cake of cupcakes are less tastier. But when you are placing the frosting there is a disadvantage associated with muffins since they rise uniformly so you end up with a rough surface. So the icing doesn't look perfect. But the taste is worth it!

Ingredients (yields 10 - 12 muffins)

1 cup chopped white chocolate chunks
1 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 cups of butter unsalted
2 tbsp granular sugar
1/4 cups of soft brown sugar
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp baking powder
5 grams of vanilla powder (you can alternate this with 1 tsp vanilla extract)
1 3/4 cups self raising flour

Recipe

Set the oven to 180 C/ 360 F and line or grease your muffin tin
In a bowl mix the granular sugar, cocoa powder, flour, baking powder
Add the chocolate chunks to the mixture mix lightly with a spoon
Crack the egg to another bowl add the vanilla powder and beat it heavily
Add the butter an sugar to the bowl and beat it with an electric mixer
Add the milk to the mixture and keep beating in medium speed
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix it lightly with a spatula or spoon until the flour disappears
Spoon the mixture to the muffin tin
Bake it for 15-30 mins (mine took 20 mins)

Icing:

200 grams of white chocolate
3 tbsp light cream cheese
1 tbsp icing sugar
1 tbsp green food colouring

Melt the chocolate in a bowl by placing the bowl in a hot water
Dip the top surface of the cooled muffins into the melted white chocolate
Wait for the chocolate to solidify you can put them into the fridge for 5-10 mins to speed the process
Mix the food colouring , cream cheese, and icing sugar and draw

Decorated hearth shaped muffins

Creamy Mushroom Soup

2012-03-16T09:37:00.002+00:00

It is a grey and gloomy day here in London, so are the pictures in this post. Mushrooms are a big part of my diet especially chestnut and portobello mushrooms are the ones that I use probably the most. But shitake mushrooms are my favorite in terms of taste and texture. I used to make this soup with shitake mushrooms back in States as they were available in local grocery store all year long. But they are harder to find in London at least in my local grocery store. So I used button and oyster mushrooms instead. It is a very tasty soup and I highly recommend you to try this recipe if you are a mushroom fan like myself. I have been making this soup since 2008 and the recipe is originated from the blog called Ev cini.

Oyster mushrooms, button mushroom, Spanish onion

Chopped onions and mushrooms sizzling with olive oil

Mushroom soup with toasted bread

Ingredients (4 serving):

10 button mushrooms
12 oyster mushrooms
500 grams of warm/room temperature milk
500 grams of warm water
4 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp flour (i used self raising)
1 medium size spanish onion
1/2 tsp freshly grounded black pepper

Recipe

Finely chop the onions
Chop the mushrooms in small sizes
In a non-stick pan/pot caramelise the onions with 2 tbsp olive oil
Add the chopped mushrooms to the pan
Let them cook until the mushroom juice is evaporated (at this point mushrooms should be more brownish and much smaller in size)
Take the cooked mixture out of the pan
To an empty pan (i recommend non-stick again) add 2 tbsp olive oil and 4 tbsp flour
Cook it in low by stirring until the flour looks tanned
Add the cooked mushroom and onion mixture to the pan with flour
Add the black pepper and keep stirring
Add the milk slowly to the pan and stir heavily, bring the stove to boil
Add the warm water
When the soup is boiled serve it to the bowls and add some chopped parsley on top

Ricotta Cheese and Three Fresh Herb Muffin

2012-03-15T09:56:00.006+00:00

In this post i decided to let the picture speak about the food. The savory muffins were delicious and i used the ricotta cheese i bought from La Dolce Vita Italian Fair. I will write more about it soon in another post. Now enjoy the pictures and scroll down for the recipe.

Cooked savory muffins

Step by Step Muffin Dough: thyme leaves, sun flower seeds, muffin dough.

Dry ingredients with three herbs

Savory muffins at the silicone hearth shaped muffin tin

Savory ricotta and three fresh herbs muffins

Ingredients: (yields 8 - 12 muffins)

2 cups self raising flour
1 cup yogurt
100 grams of ricotta cheese (about 1/3cups)
1/3 cup sun flower seeds
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp apple cider
1/2 1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
6 branches of fresh basil (finely chopped )
6 branches of dill
12 branches of fresh wild thyme

Recipe:

Wash and chop the fresh herbs (for thyme tear the leaves and throw away the rest) and set them aside for drying or towel dry them
Toast the sun flower seeds with 1/2 tsp salt
Set your oven to 360 F/180 C and grease or line your muffin tin
Leave the salt at the pan and take the toasted sun flower seed out to a bowl
Add the flour, baking powder, salt to the bowl mix it lightly
Add the finely chopped basil, fresh thyme, and finely chopped dill to the dry mixture and lightly mix it
Crack the egg to another bowl and add the apple cider beat it with a whisk
Add the yogurt and keep whisking
Add ricotta cheese to the liquid mixture and keep whisking
Add the liquid mixture to dry mixture just mix it with a spatula until the flour disappears (do not over mix it) and spoon it to the muffin tins (this mixture still will be more dense than your regular fluffy muffin dough)
bake it for 15-30 mins mine took 20 mins

Stuffed Peppers: Turkish Style

2012-03-14T09:23:00.000+00:00

Stuffed vegetables are one of the main and probably the most consumed and loved dish in Turkish households. It can be stuffed in many different ways, as you wonder through the country, trying stuffed vegetables from different regions you can see many variations. Two main difference everywhere in the country is either stuffing them with ground meat filling or just with vegetarian filling. The meat filling can have different spices and also rice in it. My favorite is the one without meat so called "zeytin yagli". Another main distinction in this dish is stuffing either dried vegetables or fresh ones. In my opinion, if you are stuffing fresh vegetables i think you should make it vegetarian and for dried vegetables using a meat filling is a better option. Make sure you put loads of fresh dill when you are using meat in the filling. Vegetarian filling can be just rice and spices or in addition to that it can have pine nuts, sugar, and small sized dried grapes.

Uncooked stuffed peppers

In Turkey the most common stuffed vegetable is pepper, unlike Europe or US Turkey has smaller, crunchier, and of course better tasting peppers. So the size of the stuffed vegetable is much smaller sometimes it can even be a bite size. The second most popular vegetable is zucchini (courgette), and i think the third would be the dried eggplant (aubergine). Usually my mum throws couple of stuffed tomatoes into whatever stuffed vegetable she is cooking. But if you are planning to do so as well i would advise you to use the oven. I will come to that in how to cook the stuffed vegetables. After stuffing the vegetable we usually close the top of the vegetable with a piece of tomato this will help you keep the stuffing inside the vegetable and the sour tomato will leave a beautiful flavor.

Another way of making stuffed vegetables is using grape leaves it is very common even in England you can find stuffed grape leaves but it is never as good as your mum's stuffed grape leaves if you are Turkish, Middle-eastern, or Greek . My parents usually stuff the grape leaves with vegetarian filling and it can be eaten cold or warm. When my grandmother or my mum is using meat filling they stuff the cabbage leaves. In the western part of the country around Aegean sea coast it is popular to stuff the pumpkin/zucchini flowers.

Cooked stuffed pepper

The cooking is both straight forward and tricky. I usually boil them some people cook them in the oven which make sense if you are especially using tomatoes. You don't want to overcook them the rice should be still in good shape. I haven't manage to cook them perfectly yet but i will let you know when i do so. I will give you one i learned from my mother, if you are using fresh grape leaves and you want them to look green after cooking you want to slice lemons when you are boiling them.

Recipe test with Behice Unal: Lemon & Popyseed Muffins

2012-03-13T09:50:00.000+00:00

Behice shares her experience with us on baking the Lemon & Popyseed (L&P) muffins. Behice described her love for baking and shared the beautifully taken pictures of the delicious L&P muffins she baked. I would like to thank her for sparing the time on taking pics and writing her opinion on baking and L&P muffins. Also special thanks for trusting the recipes on this blog. Here is what Behice says:

Hey guys! :)

well... I dont have a blog but do follow blogs including Tuba's :) and the lovely recipes she posts with the pictures

I enjoy coooking as well...actually i prefer baking instead...well lets say a bit of both shall we? :)....I am a muffin person...sorry :| that didnt make sense did it? well... erm i like baking muffins :) and have tried a lot from my hummingbird book. spinach and cheese and blueberry muffins are my fave i have to say ;)....

Skimming through tuba's blog: I've found the lemon and poppyseed one...as I'm a lemon lover tooo!! i had to try it out!...

I've used the exact ingridients, well i didnt have coconut oil so i used a bit of butter...and 3/4 of golden caster sugar instead. And used 3 lemons instead of six but i will try 6 lemons next time.

Plus: i never knew we can add yogurt into muffins!... :))

results: well... i had visitors at home and offered them some of the muffins: (compliments to the chef :D ) they loved it! not only the visitors but also my BUDGIE! who kept flying to the muffins and trying to have a taste (ofcourse i didnt let him! his not allowed sugary stuff) :)) well although they were not too sugary or fatty :)

but yeh.... thanks Tuba for sharing ur yummylicious 'try this at home!' recipes :)) I'm sure i will be trying other recipes she has posted

ooooh...and i do recommend u try out he spinach and cheese from hummingbird bakery...i'm sure they will have it online....

Behice used the silicone liners to bake her muffins

Glazed Vegetables Revisited

2012-03-12T11:47:00.001+00:00

Baby potatoes, bugs-bunny carrots, bird eye chili, lime, and lemon

Pinterest is a great website to roam around and get some ideas on how to make and be creative with cooking/baking. When i was checking the pins added by the people i followed on pintesrest i came across to a beautifully taken picture of glazed carrots. They glazed the carrots with olive oil, cumin, and lime. It was so beautiful so i decided to make my glazed vegetables with lime juice as well.

Glazed vegetables with olive oil lime juice and bird eye chili

When i was on my everyday grocery shopping i saw the carrots as my friends calls the bugs bunny carrots and i picked them up to make glazed vegetables. i cleaned them get rid of the green part and boiled them and boiled baby potatoes with skin on. once the carrots are boiled then it is easy to peel the skin of the carrots. I peeled it because it is more shiny and the color is more vibrant on the inside. Then i lined my tin with baking paper, added some bird eye chili (it is extremely hot use it with caution), olive oil, sea salt and left them at 350 F /180 C in the oven. And for potatoes i used the same procedure but left the skins on and cut them in half. After 15 mins i took both of the vegetables out and added lime juice and finely chopped parsley on top of the veggies. It was looking good and tasting good as well :) Highly recommended.

Glazed baby potatoes with bird eye chili, parsley, and lime juice

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2012-03-09T12:44:00.004+00:00

Choclate Chip Cookie Dough Chilled in the Fridge for 24 Hours

I would like to start by expressing my graditude to Esma for making the beautifully taken pictures possible.

We all have a love relationship with chocolate from early ages. I can't recall the first time i met chocolate but i remember the big box of chocolates with hazelnuts that my parents used to keep in somewhere i can not reach. As years go by, i started to fell apart with chocolate and still unless it is not orange flavoured i don't really have much affection for it. I am now trying to re-establish my relation with chocolate by following the path led by artisan bakers. Although the chocolate chip cookie sound like a not so serious step for my ambitions on chocolate, I believe that on anything in life you have got to get the fundamentals right to move forward. So if you can do the fundamentals perfectly, then you can add on it.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Truffles

According to the NYT article the chocolate chip cookie is coming from a local baker living near Boston, Mass and since then it has been the regular item on bakeries and your local coffee shop. Even the packaged versions are sold in the selves of the supermarkets probably packed with loads of preservatives. In the NYT article they interviewed with several bakeries and try to understand the best technique used to make the perfect cookie. According to the article the secret is chilling the dough!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I used the recipe given in Cafe Fernando because it was using the least amount of eggs that I could find on the internet. I used a mixture of chocolates to make the cookies including the leftovers from the strawberry tuxedo recipe so there was white chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate. Later on, when I was eating the cookies, I would say I like the taste of the white chocolates probably the most. So next time i am baking cookies, I will try to use the cocoa in the dough and use only white chocolate chuncks. The cookies turned out pretty good crunchy on the outside and inside is moist and chewy. I think I kept them in the oven a bit long. I think it would be more chevy if I took the tray out when the cookies were melted and still looking white and fluffy.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients (makes 20 cookies):

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/2 tsp. baking soda (you can use less, loads of it makes the cookies bitter)
1 tsp. salt
1 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp of vanilla powder
1 1/4 cups chocolate chunks

Put the butter in a bowl and add the sugars and beat it with an electric mixer in high.
Add the eggs mix until you get a creamy textured mixture.
In another bowl mix the dry ingredients.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet while beating with the electric mixer
Add the chocolate chunks and fold them into the dough with the help of a spatula.
Refrigerate the dough 24 to 36 hours or more.
After 36 hours set the oven to 360 F /180 C, line your baking tray and take the dough out and make truffles out of it.
Leave generous amount of space between truffles and bake 10-15 mins.
The cookie should be still fluffy, soft, and tanned a little or white when you take out of the oven.

Strawberry Tuxedos and Strawberry Selection

2012-03-07T11:10:00.001+00:00

Lately I have been trying to make cookies, cakes, frozen bananas involving or covered with chocolate. After this experience I would say I am not the biggest fan of chocolate. I am a fruit fan, veggie fan, naked food fan but chocolate is not in that list. However I like to combine chocolate with berries and I like using chocolate in cakes. When doing so I think it is important to use the best chocolate I can find. I used green black organics for this particular recipe but you can alternate it with some other favorite brand of yours. I have to make an exception for divine orange flavored milk chocolate i would say it is my favorite. I have strong feelings for the orange flavored milk chocolate, I must admit.

Source: thesisterscafe.com via Tuba on Pinterest

On the weekend my friend and I went to church street and whole foods happened to have the Spanish strawberries (250 grams for 99p). The strawberries were massive so we didn't want to buy it in the first place but the smell and the free tasters tricked us so we ended up buying some. I wasn't planning to try anything new with them but roaming around pinterest I saw this (shown left) gorgeous strawberries covered with white chocolate and dipped into blue crystal sugar, they looked absolutely amazing. Then I ended up in a grocery store picking up chocolates but couldn't find beautifully colored sugar crystals. By the way it just down on me that this strawberry features the colors of French flag. Oh well...

There are plenty of blog posts/videos available on the web showing how to cover strawberries with chocolate and many of other things such as coconut flakes, different sugar crystals but I think the chocolate itself looks very elegant and you can be creative with it. I have found a nice video on YouTube showing how to make strawberry tuxedos. This gentleman explains very well how to melt chocolate in a microwave, how to make a disposable paper cone from baking sheet and how to dress Mr. strawberries with tuxedos. All of them are recorded in three different YouTube videos i am giving the links since the embedding of the videos are disabled.

For paper cone:

http://youtu.be/-nTfBV_jHho?t=1m3s

For dressing the berries:

http://youtu.be/Zk0aMP_gNNI

Recipe: (makes 5 tuxedos, 7 selection berries)

100 grams of white choclate
100 grams of 50% dark choclate
11 good sized strawberries (take 3-4 strawberries extra incase you can not get the hang of it in first place )

Wash the strawberries and lay them on a paper towel and leave them on for 15-20 mins make sure the strawberries are dry before you start working on them.
Chop the chocolates and put them in two different bowls.
Melt chocolates in microwave at 50% power by stopping the microwave and stirring every 30 seconds. You do not want to burn the chocolate so it is very important to check every 15-30 seconds making sure it is melting without getting burned.
For tuxedos dip one side of the strawberry to white chocolate then set it in a tray covered with baking sheet.
Once you are done dipping to white chocolate refrigerate the tray for about 2-3 minutes.
When the white chocolate is nice and firm take them out of the fridge and dip both sides to dark chocolate then with the help of a cocktail stick draw the buttons and the bow-tie.
For the selection dip them into the chocolate, let them rest in the fridge and fill the paper cone with melted chocolate of your choice.
Squeeze the paper cone from back like a toothpaste tube and draw lines with the chocolate as it pours from the tip of the cone.
Try to eat them in the same day otherwise keep them in the fridge the strawberries get spoiled easily.

Pasta Salad with Halloumi and Mushroom

2012-02-29T19:45:00.002+00:00

Let me mention Mark Bittman again, I might look like i am obsessed with Bittman but really i think his approach is admirable that is why in this blog i always mention his recipes and his food philosophy. Bittman says he prefer more sauce and less pasta and i would say i am at the same wagon with him. However, there is an exception on this rule, if we are talking about the quality, freshly made pasta then the equation changes. In this recipe i am making a pasta with loads of veggies and i would like to call it a salad, or a veggie dish rather than a pasta. Because essentially it is a veggie dish rather than pasta. I don't want to give the exact reipe for this since i want you to mix the ingredients on your taste.

I used pasta shells on this dish, around 250 grams. 2 big and 12 small mushrooms, 2 courgettes, 150 grams of hallomi cheese, half a bunch of parsley and some coriander, you need to have chilies in this dish and even garlic would be very nice i didn't put any but do add them if you are willing to try it.

I chopped the mushrooms and courgettes and drizzled extra virgin olive oil seasoned with sea salt. I left them in preheated oven for about 25-30 mins at 370 F/ 180 C. Hallomi cheese i baked in oven 8-10 mins at 370 F/ 180 C but you can grill it if you like. Then i cooked the pasta shells for about 6-7 mins until al dente and mix all of the ingredients. Finally add the finely chopped parsley and coriander, you can use basil instead of coriander and you can also add some freshly grounded black pepper. If i had chilies i would add them at this point too. Again it is up to you play with the amount of the ingredients you can use shiitake or chestnut mushrooms instead of button ones and you can add different herbs. If you want more cheese or different cheese types you can go for feta cheese. You can even change the cheese with yogurt or sour cream. I really like this light pasta salad and te best thing about this recipe is you don't fry anything once you are done with the chopping everything is pretty easy an straightforward.

An Experiment Fails: Frozen Chocolate Covered Banana Bites

2012-02-28T10:55:00.000+00:00

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT TRY IT AT HOME!

Seriously Don't! :)

During my typical journey to school I take London overground and i can check the pictures at pinterest on this part of the journey. The other day i was roaming around pinterest and I was also looking for some easy snack recipe ideas. Then I saw a gorgeous picture of chocolate covered frozen banana bites and clicked for the recipe. The recipe was using pure peanut butter and bitter chocolate to cover the bananas. I don't have any allergies and the picture was amazing so i thought i would give it a try. On my way to home I stopped by in the grocery store picked up the purest peanut butter i could find which was unsweetened peanut butter with palm oil and sea-salt. Oh well it is sea-salt it can not be that bad. Then i picked up bananas and 70% chocolate. When i came home i chopped the chocolate measured 1/3 cups, 1/3 cups peanut butter and microwaved those two for about a minute. I chopped the bananas and dipped them into this mixture and lied them into a baking paper covered tin. I sprinkled unsweetened coconut flakes on top and froze it overnight. According to the recipe it was suppose to taste like vanilla ice cream. Although they looked very pretty the taste was quite horrific. So if you are going to dip fruits in chocolate don't use peanut butter, if you are going to then use just 1 tbsp for 1/3 cups chocolate. I think that is enough to give flavor. The taste was quite bad but i think i have got some nice pics and a lesson out of it so it was worth to try.

Feta Cheese and Curled Parsley Muffin

2012-02-26T12:37:00.001+00:00

Last night after I met up with an old friend I stopped by in John Lewis, although i am not big fan of department stores and especially not a fan of chains, I love to look at the kitchen utensils at oxford street BHS, John Lewis. There are tons of beautiful utensils such as marble mortars, wood grinders, measuring cups, french presses,cutting boars all of them amazes me. So beautiful and inspiring. While i was there I saw hearth shaped silicone muffin tins probably remained from the valentines day. It was a bit expensive but i got them anyway and dreamed about making lemon and raspberry muffins. But i ended up with savory muffins, it is perfect for breakfast/brunch and most importantly they are hearth shaped. The recipe is inspired from the Cafe Fernando's ricotta basil recipe. I used feta cheese and added pumpkin seed, fresh curled parsley. It turned out pretty amazing. And I would like to give all photo credits to my housemate Rumeysa. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients: (yields 9 muffins)

2 cups self raising flour
1 cup milk
1 cup diced feta cheese
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp apple cider
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried wild thyme
1 egg
30 grams of curled parsley (finely chopped )

Set the oven to 360 F/180 C and grease or line your muffin tin
Toast the pumpkin seeds with salt
Leave the salt at the pan and take the toasted pumpkin seed out to a bowl
Add the flour, baking powder, salt and wild thyme to the bowl mix it lightly
Crack the egg to another bowl and add the apple cider beat it with a whisk
Add the milk and keep whisking
Add the finely chopped parsley and diced feta cheese to the liquid mixture mix it with a spoon
Add the liquid mixture to dry mixture and spoon it to the muffin tins
bake it for 15-30 mins mine took 20 mins

Pancake Madness Party

2012-02-23T14:51:00.004+00:00

In the previous English Pancake post I mentioned my friend letting me know about the Shorve Tuesday and she wanted have a pancake party and we organized it through twitter! Oh how i love the power of online social media platforms. So when I came back from work to home i found out another friend of us was at home too, which was a really nice surprise. We had arguably the most amazing pancake party, and later on we realized the role of food is so important, it brings people together. Take the example of BBQ parties, why people enjoy the BBQ parties the most? Because you get to engage in activities like cooking at the outdoors, eating outside, and you might even play some games... So there is something primeval about it but it really satisfies the soul and the following day you are ready to go to work, plus you will be more efficient on what you are doing. Also cooking and eating together is so much fun, as a member of small family, I grew up with no siblings, I can not describe the joy i have when we have big eating parties.

Last night two of my friends took these pictures Emine and Esma I would like to thank them for this beautiful pictures and also special thanks for cooking the English pancakes for us. Last night I wanted to try something different so i decided to go for North American style pancakes. However instead of using eggs i used ripe and finely mashed bananas. The smell and taste was heavenly but we had some problems during the cooking process. I tried to cook them in high heat and messed up couple of them but then i managed to cook fairly properly couple of them. Next time i will cook them in low heat. I won't give you the recipes in this post but will sneak out some lovely food pictures. We really enjoyed our pancake party, have you ever had a pancake party before? If so what kind of pancakes/toppings did you use? Comment below or send us some pictures to publish in Your Experience section.

English Pancakes

Egg - free North American style pancakes with banana, strawberry, and cream-cookie

ice-cream toppping

Orange and Chocolate Muffin

2012-02-22T12:06:00.001+00:00

I promised my colleagues that I will bake for them. So i decided to bake them the lemon and popyseed muffin but then, although it would be a bit risky, I decided to try something new. I have been thinking about muffin variations and since I am a big fun of both citrus and chocolate I wanted to put together this two ingredients in muffin. I picked orange and googled for recipes on orange and choclate muffins. I will tell you how I search for recipes, I type my key words in Google image search and look at the pictures. If there is an artisan picture of the food I check the web site. So it is a trick I use to spot the artisan baking websites/recipes. However i couldn't manage to find one with loads of orange and minimum eggs, so i made up my own recipe.

Here is a bit information on the different types of muffins. Muffin originally refer to bread the muffin recipes given in this blog are usually american style muffins and they are yeast free. The English muffins are usually made with yeast and they tend to be thinner but wider usually disk shaped. The English muffins are spitted into two and served toasted they tend to resemble light bread. The American style muffins are more like a cake and it comes in all different forms in sweet and savory.

Finally some fun-facts about muffins from wikipedia: The corn muffin is the official state muffin of Massachusetts. The blueberry muffin is the official state muffin of Minnesota. The apple muffin is the official state muffin of New York.

Here is the new member of our muffin family:

Ingredients: (yields 16-20 muffins)

4 cups of flour
2 eggs
1/2 cups orange zest
1/4 cups orange juice
3/4 cups +1 tbsp soft brown sugar
1/4 cups granulated white sugar
1 cup +1/3 cups chocolate (i used 100 grams dark chocolate (70%) and 100 grams orange flavored chocolate)
1+1/2 cups Greek yogurt
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cups light olive oil
1/2 cups coconut oil

Recipe:

Grade the skins of 6 small oranges finely (1/2 cups)
Chop the chocolates in small cubic pieces
Grease or line your muffin tin and set the oven to 180 C/ 375 F
Crack the eggs in a bowl and beat heavily then add the orange zest keep beating add the brown sugar and keep beating then add the granulated sugar and whisk heavily (at this point you can use an electric mixer that would make things a lot easier and quick)
Add the yogurt and keep whisking then add the oil to the liquid mixture.
In another bowl mix the dry ingredients flour, chocolate, baking powder mix lightly.
Add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture mix lightly until the flour disappears.
Spoon the mixture into the muffin tin and bake 15-30 mins depending on your oven.

English Pancakes for Pancake Day

2012-02-21T16:41:00.001+00:00

This morning my friend tweeted me about the pancake day and i wasn't aware of it until she explained what pancake day is. So to the best of my knowledge, today is the Shrove Tuesday, also called in French Mardi Gras meaning fat Tuesday. According to Catholic belief (or tradition i am not very knowledgeable in this matter) tomorrow is the first day of Lent, where forty days of cleaning begins. I assume it is the month of fasting, restraining from some things so the eve of lent is somewhat the last chance for some to eat flour, sugar, eggs, and butter since those foods are restricted during Lent.

In this post we are going to present English Pancakes which differ from North American ones and looks more like the French crepes. The North American ones are puffier and this is done by using baking powder/soda and just like in muffins lightly mixing the liquid and dry ingredients until the flour disappears. English Pancakes are thin and before it is cooked the mixture is very well mixed and more liquid.

I have one problem with pancakes/crepes the fact that they smell like eggs, otherwise they are fun and easy to make and the toppings are to die for. Therefore, I always try to prevent this egg smell i try to use best quality eggs, and i always add citrus zest to to the eggs and beat it heavily. If you have any other recommendations for preventing the egg smell on pancakes/cakes please comment below, i would love your suggestions:)

Today i was talking about the pancake day with my British colleague and it turns out it is popular here in UK to have them with lemon and sugar topping where as in North America Maple syrup is more popular. Personally I try to be more creative about it, i tried nutella, lemon curd, cheese, and several different types of jams before. It is up to you savory or sweet be creative with the topping.

Ingredients:

2 cups milk/yogurt
Zest of 2 lemons
2 cups of flour
1/2 tbs salt
2 tbsp butter
2 eggs

Zest 2 lemons in a bowl and add the eggs keep beating
Add the butter and milk
Combine the salt and flour in another bowl and add the liquid mixture while whisking at this point you might want to use an electric mixer since you don't want and lumps in your mixture, then put the mixture to the fridge and eave it there for 1-2 hours.
Heat the non-stick pan and start pouring liquid in thin layers and flip it one the other side is cooked.
Then use your favorite toppings and enjoy your pancakes/crepes.

Easy Veggie Sushi Rolls

2012-02-20T22:52:00.000+00:00

There are many kinds of sushi out there but in this post we are going to be covering rolled sushi so called makizushi. According to some sources sushi means seasoned rice, this makes the rice one of the most important ingredient in sushi. This means you need to know how to cook and season the rice , it is not rocket science but as easy as it seems cooking rice is one of the hardest thing to do in the kitchen. I think for any type of rice you are making you need to know the secret ingredient or that secret step, which is going to get you the perfect rice. However if you are aiming to make sashimi, it doesn't have rice in it so it is another story. The other important criterion is fresh ingredients, obviously. To me the garnish is important as well i would like my sushi to be served with loads of wasabi, soy-sauce, and ginger pickles. Another important thing which effects the taste and smell of the sushi is the nori, I think the nori should be toasted otherwise the sushi smells a bit weird which is not good. So don't forget to toast your nori before starting rolling up your sushi.

I have made this rolls a while ago so i won't give the exact recipe over here but i can give you another link which will take you to design*sponge where i have got this recipe in the first place. It explains pretty well how to roll the sushi and exact amount of ingredients is given as well. So click here if you want to take a look into the original recipe. The original recipe uses sliced carrots but i grated my carrots because i wanted consistency in the texture since avocado and cucumber are not as crunch as carrots are.

For those of you who are living in London i am sure you can find the required ingredients from anywhere but if you dont want to look around i have bought nori, soy sauce, wasabi powder, pickled gingers, and sushi rice from church street whole foods market. I bought the sushi rolling mat from well street Tesco and it was only 1 pound but saved my life you are going to need it badly when you are rolling.

Finally i want to share an inspiring video from guardian on sushi making. The way they obtain the wasabi is so impressive, enjoy:)

Banana and Coffee Flavored Whole Wheat Muffins

2012-02-18T13:22:00.016+00:00

Most of the blogs i have visited doesn't have a multiple versions of one dish, so i want this blog have variety of options on muffins. I personally find easy to make muffins and in my opinion muffins are delicious treats. I would like the visitor have variety of options in this blog so it will save them searching on the internet or the cookbooks for recipes. I am planning to add sweet and savory muffin recipes to the blog and hopefully we will have a database of muffin recipes in a month or so.

The other day i was going through the recipes at the Minimalist column in NYT. If you read my previous posts you would guess i am a big fan of this column and i usually try the recipes given in minimalist column. I like how the videos are simple and short and i also like the way it has been presented by Mr. Bittman; I mean he is so natural and he is not trying to sell the recipe. When i was roaming around the videos i found the whole wheat muffin recipe and i decided to try it. It turned beteer than i thought here is the recipe:

Ingredients (yields 8 muffins)

2 1/2 cups & 4 tbsp whole wheat self raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup soft brown sugar
1 cup mashed banana
3 tbsp very strong coffee
1/2 cup greek yogurt

Grease your muffin tin and set the oven 180 C/ 375 F
Beat the egg in a bowl then add the brown and white sugar keep beating.
Add the mashed bananas & yogurt to the mixture.
Slowly add strong coffee to your mixture.
Melt the coconut butter in microwave or in a sauce pan and while mixing slowly add it to your the liquid mixture
In another bowl mix the dry ingredients whole wheat flour, salt, and baking powder.
Slowly add the liquid mixture to dry ingredients and dont mix it heavily. mix it with the help of a spoon until the dry ingredients disappear.
Split the mixture to the muffin tin and put it in to the preheated oven mine baked in 15 mins but it depends on your oven.

Wheat Salad with Feta Cheese and Basil

2012-02-16T11:11:00.008+00:00

Bulghur is a widely used grain made from drum wheat. I will explain how bulghur have been made traditionally and still in the small villages farmers use the same technique to make bulgur from their home grown corps. First they boil the drum wheat and sun-dry it. Then the drum wheat can be broken into pieces with a very primitive machine featuring a heavy cylinder shaped stone rolling over the wheat. Or more labor intensive way could be using an old style mortar the wheat can be broken into pieces by using little water and repetitively crushing it in the mortar. The grade of the bulghur depends on how long you beat or rolled over the wheat. This process is now industrialised but still small farmers use the old fashion way of producing bulghur.

So here is what wikipedia says about the nutrition facts of 1 cup bulghur;

Energy: 2003 kJ (479 kcal)
Dietary fiber: 25.6 g
Protein: 17.21 g
Carbohydrate: 69 g whereof 0.8 g sugars
Fat: 1.86 g whereof 0.2 g saturated fat
Potassium: 574 mg
Iron: 3.44 mg

Glycemic Index: 46

In Turkey we have two different grades of bulghur. The one with smaller size called 'ince bulgur' it doesn't need to be properly cooked and it has been used with many different dishes. The regular sized bulghur have been used in pilav which is rice made with bulghur instead of rice (i dont know if it makes any sense but a well made bulghur pilav is very tasty). The regular sized bulghur has also been used in cold soups, even in stuffed vegetables or stuffed grape leaves. We currently have excessive amount of bulghur at home and we never really use it. So i decided to search for a nice recipe to make use of bulghur and found the bulghur salad with herbs recipe from BBC's recipes. Here is how i did it,

Ingredients:

1 Cup Bulghur Wheat
2 Cups Water
2 Branches Fresh Rosemary
4 Branches Fresh Basil
9 branches Fresh Mint
300 gr Cherry-tomatoes
200 gr Feta Cheese
1/2 Tsp Salt
2 Tbsp Olive Oil

Put the bulghur wheat, rosemarries, salt, and water in one pot and bring the stove to boil.
Wash and towel dry the basil and mint then finely chop the two herbs.
Dice the feta cheese
When the bulghur is drained the whole water in the pot fish out the rosemary.
Combine the herbs, cherry tomatoes, feta chesee, bulghur, and olive oil in a bowl.
When serving you can use some reserved feta and basil to make it look pretty.

Glazed Vegetables

2012-02-15T22:03:00.003+00:00

Glazed vegetables are my favorite simple food, i love them so much and most of the time consume it as a main course. First I boil them then i glaze them with olive oil and put them in to the oven for 5-10 minutes (don't put the soft vegetables like broccoli, spinach etc. into the oven just drizzle some extra-virgin olive oil and serve). Dead simple, very tasty. You can either eat it with the main course or you can eat them by themselves. Highly recommended!

You dont really process the vegetables, so it boils down to the dipping sauce. You can use whatever suits your taste as a dipping sauce. Here is what i use,

1 Cup Greek Yogurt
1 Tbsp Red Pepper
1 Tbsp Zahter (A Palestinian Spice )
Salt for taste.

Sometimes Breakfast: YooBerries

2012-02-14T19:21:00.001+00:00

Sometimes a breakfast can be as simple as strawberries and yogurt. In this modern world most of us trying to be fit and fast. But most of the time the cereal breakfast is just daunting and again in the weekdays we don't really have time for a tasty start to the day. It takes 1 minute to put cereal in a bowl and pour the milk in it, and it takes 1.5 minutes to put strawberries and honey to the bowl and process it with the hand blender, put the yogurt on top. Here you go the perfect breakfast you add some healthy cereal or muesli on top if you like which will up to 2 minutes but i promise it would be much tastier than regular cereal breakfast. I used Greek yogurt in this recipe you can either buy one or make your own Greek yogurt as thick as you would like. Mark Bittman beautifully explains (in the video below) how we make Greek yogurt in my family. Actually, our Greek yogurt is called "suzme yogurt", the literal meaning is drained yogurt. In Turkey "suzme yogurt" is very popular and it is rather sour, salty. It makes really good the Turkish yogurt drink so called "ayran". I will put up some delicious ayran recipes soon although most of the foreigners doesnt really enjoy the traditional one which i looveee. Anyways back to the breakfast: you can make your own greek yogurt without using salt and you can use it in this recipe. In that way, at least you can make sure that haven't use excessive amount of thickeners.

Ingredients (makes 1 portion):

1/3 cups of fresh strawberries

1 cup of greek yogurt

2 tbsp honey

1. Put the strawberries in a bowl and add 2 tbsp honey and roughly chop it with a hand blender.

2. Add the yogurt and mix with the spoon.

3. top it with 1 or 2 strawberries.