Borek -serve warm for best results.
Recently I posted a traditional Turkish Börek recipe. Börek is one of my favorite dishes, and I like to make a pan of it and eat it for lunch for a few days. So I’ve developed my own version, a bastardized version to be sure, but it’s pretty yummy.
In Turkey, most börek is only made with one type of filling. You will have cheese or meat, but not both. For my recipe, I have combined cheese with spinach.
This recipe is one I developed years ago to fit an American palette. It [...]
Continue reading Turkish Food – Börek with an American Twist
Borek – ready to eat!
Börek is found all over Turkey, and, in fact, many places that the Ottoman Empire used to be. Each place within or outside of Turkey puts their own twist on it, but basically its a dough-filled pastry. Most often the pastry filling is savory and will usually be cheese, ground beef, or spinach. Sometimes you can find potato or other vegetables or even sausage fillings.
Yufka for Borek
Turkish börek is made out of a very thin dough called yufka. It used to be that you had to go to the yufka-maker’s to buy [...]
Continue reading Turkish Food – Three Variations of Börek Recipe
I stayed with a host family while I was in Kaunas, Lithuania and Nijole was a fantastic cook. One of her favorite things was the little garden plot the family owned a little outside of the city. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see it, but it sounded lovely. While we were there, Nijole served us all manner of apple products that she had made from the apples in her garden. In fact, she had at least three apple trees, planted and named after her three children. The apples that we were enjoying came from her first daughter, Victoria. They were [...]
Continue reading Lithuanian Recipe Apple Cake
A delicious Turkish dish that can easily be converted to vegetarian, fasulye is a staple in Turkish households. Follow this recipe with any white bean, White Northern beans might be the closest to Turkish beans in the States.
Fasulye served with pilav and bulgur.
Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons oil (sunflower, if possible)
1 Tablespoon butter
1 small onion – diced
4 medium cloves garlic – diced
1/2 can crushed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
2 Tablespoons of red pepper paste
beans, already moistened or use canned as well
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
[...]
Continue reading Turkish Food – Fasulye – White Beans Recipe
Found all over India, this was our favorite drink. Made with fresh lemons or lime, all the vendors did was mix the squeezed citrus juice with some carbonated water. For those of us with a sweet tooth, it was often served with liquidized sugar. After a few weeks, I found it really didn’t need much sugar. It was delicious and we found it everywhere.
Patlican Biber Kizartmasi or Fried Eggplant and Peppers with Yogurt and Tomato Sauce
On a lazy afternoon, thinking about food, of course. This picture and the memory of the taste comes unbidden to mind. Luckily, I got this recipe from my good friend, Fusun. I discovered this dish at one of my favorite restaurants in Ankara. I just love it!
4 Asian eggplants, the long skinny ones salt 2 spicy green peppers, like a 2 jalapeno peppers 1 large can of crushed tomatoes 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon vinegar 1 teaspoon sugar salt and pepper to [...]
Continue reading Recipe – Fried Eggplant and Peppers with Sauces
Pictured here is one of the foods most Turks eat on a daily basis. They eat simit for breakfast or lunch, and maybe even a snack during the day.
Pilav or rice is a traditional Turkish side dish. Unfortunately, in the restaurants, it has largely been replaced by bulgur or bread, since rice is so much more expensive.
The Turks take great pride in their rice. I have to agree, it’s buttery and often contains small pasta, like orzo and sometime pine nuts.
Here is a recipe for Turkish Pilav:
Soak 1 cup of rice in enough salted water to cover it for 30 minutes prior to cooking. Take a skillet and melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the rinsed rice and stir in hot pan [...]
Continue reading Turkish Food – Pilav Recipe
Metropolitan Cathedral, Chisinau
Moldova. Where exactly is that? That was the response I got when I told people where I was going for a long weekend. A small country sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, not too many people have heard of Moldova. Even looking it up on the internet, I found very little. I only spent three days there, but here are a few observations I’ve made. I hope that they are accurate. If not, please comment and let me know if you have had other experiences.
Thanks to the Schengen Treaty, Americans and Europeans are allowed to enter [...]
Continue reading Moldova? Where’s that?
Bulgar is man’s oldest recorded use of wheat. Bulgur is made by soaking and cooking the whole wheat kernel, drying it and then removing part of the bran and cracking the remaining kernel into small pieces. Its uses are numerous from salads to soup, from breads to desserts. It is a nutritious extender and thickener for meat dishes and soups. Bulgur will absorb twice its volume in water and can be used in place of rice in any recipe. Bulgur is convenient since it can be either soaked in water or cooked to be edible. It has the same nutritive value [...]
Continue reading Bulgar for Breakfast and Beyond!
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