Patatesli Gozleme/Turkish Potato & Cheese Gozleme

Gozleme is a popular Turkish stuffed flatbread and its quite a comforting food whoever loves stuffed flatbreads. My today's post is potato and cheese loaded flatbread which is quite a filling meal for anyone. Gozleme comes from the Turkish world 'GOZ'' which is refers to the Little eyes or brown circles that form on the dough while its gets cooked. Am postng Turkish potato and cheese gozleme for this week's blogging marathon as am running with Stuffed flatbread from different countries. My kids love potato and cheese in anything,and this Gozleme is our recent favourite. Quite a filling one and definitely a comforting food if you are craving for something cheesy for your brunch,lunch or dinner.

Vegan Lahmacun/Vegan Turkish Pizza

Lahmacun, this oval shaped Turkish pizza is traditionally baked with spicy lamb or minced beef topping. However Vegan and vegetarian versions do exists.As i told in my previous post, i baked three different and definitely delicious pizzas for this week's blogging marathon. My kids are ardent fan of pizzas, and obviously my kids went crazy once these homemade pizzas came out of the oven. Lahmacun, am trying my hands with this Turkish pizza for the first time and its completely vegan. You may wonder how can we bake this Turkish pizza as vegan version, yes we can. Actually, in this vegan pizza, those spicy lamb or minced beef topping is replaced with a mushroom and walnut topping.

Un Kurabiyesi/Turkish Shortbread Cookies

Un Kurabiyesi, extremely delicious melt in mouth Shortbread cookies from Turkey. These cookies tastes absolutely fabulous obviously you cant just stop munching these butter loaded cookies. These Deliciously light shortbread cookies are definitely an incredible treat at tea time. These cookies are seriously very easy and quick to make as this cookies calls for simple and basic ingredients. No egg is needed, butter, flour and sugar when combined together and flavored with vanilla extract makes this extremely addictive cookies. Some recipes of Un Kurabiyesi calls for baking powder and some may not, obviously i baked mine without baking powder. Traditionally this cookies are rolled as round shaped cookies or else rolled as long ropes which is later sliced as small sized cookies. Since i dont want to break my head with shaping, i just went with the round shaped ones. Dont get surprised if you are able to see Un Kurabiyesi in different shapes.

Imam Bayildi/Turkish Stuffed Eggplants

Imam Bayildi is a Turkish dish  calls for whole eggplants, which is later stuffed with a mixture of onions, garlic and tomatoes simmered in olive oil. Its is one of the most known and popular Turkish olive oil based dishes, you can serve this dish either at room temperature or warm. Imam Bayildi literally means The Imam Fainted, a funny name rite. Actually many tales do exists to tell us the reason behind this funny name. Wikipedia says that this name is derived from a tale of a Turkish imam who fainted once he heard the cost of the ingredients or the amount of olive oil used to cook the dish. An another folk relates that an imam married the daughter of an olive merchant and her dowry consists of twelve jars of finest olive oil.. Everday she prepared an eggplant dish with tomatoes and onions, on the thirteenth day, there was no eggplant dish at the table. When the imam heard that there was no olive oil, the imam fainted. Seriously these both tales made me laugh.

Poğaça - Turkish Breakfast Rolls

Poğaça (poe-ah-CHA) is a buttery breakfast rolls from Turkish cuisine. This soft breakfast rolls have a tender and biscuit like texture coz of the baking powder added while kneading the dough. Mostly stuffed with delectable fillings like black olives paste, feta, spiced ground beef, or else with Turkish pastrami, a stuffing prepared with Turkish sausage and mashed potato, this breakfast rolls are quite popular in Turkey. Bakeries all over the Turkey prepare this Poğaça daily for breakfast eaters who want to finish their breakfast on the go. However many home makers have their own recipe to serve this breakfast rolls during a family get together, for family breakfasts or else for an afternoon tea gatherings.

Zeytinyagli Taze Fasulye - Turkish Green Beans With Olive Oil

Traditional Turkish cuisine have many delicious dishes with vegetables, as most of the time meats are not easy to buy. Most of the Turkish families enjoy their food once a week with meats that too with chicken, obviously their cuisine have many tremendous vegetarian dishes which are quite easy to prepare quickly. We have few Turkish neighbours in our appartment and needless to say their cooking skills are seriously very interesting. Last year, during summer we had an appartment reunion, each and every family came with their home made foods. That was first time i tasted their Green beans stew which tastes simply fabulous with our basmati rice. Both works awesome together, with mild garlicky flavor and mild tanginess, this stewed green beans when served cold makes an excellent lunch. Immediately, i asked my Turkish neighbour to share her green beans recipe,without any hesitation she shared her mom's recipe of this popular Turkish green beans aka Zeytinyagli Taze Fasulye.

Acma - Soft Turkish Bagel

After a month of French cuisine, i couldnt stop myself showcasing an another European cuisine for this month of blogging marathon. We are back to the routine, yes from this month onwards we will be doing three days of blogging marathon. Obviously we have themes to pick for each week and i picked European cuisine as theme for this week's blogging marathon. Since i want to clear few of my bookmarks i picked Turkish cuisine and finally i baked some ultimate Turkish bagel aka Acma. This Turkish style soft bagels are very easy to bake and you doesnt need to prepare the water bath usually most of the bagel recipes calls for. This makes the difference, and this Turkish bagel is definitely very easy to give a try if you want to stick with an easy version of Bagel.

Bazlama - Turkish Bread

As per wiki, Bazlama is a popular flatbread made from wheat flour, water, table salt, and yeast. After mixing and two to three hours fermentation, the dough are divided, rounded, shaped to  desired thickness and cooked on a hot plate. During cooking, the bread is turned over to get cook the other side. After baking, it is generally consumed fresh. Shelf life of bazlama varies from several hours to a few days, depending on storage conditions. This is a Turkish flatbread which can be consumed with different side dishes.

Vegan Ramadan Pita/Turkish Ramadan Pita

Ramadan festival is so special to Muslims all over the world, this festival helps to bring together family and friends. During this occasion , the food that the Muslims eat will be light, nutritious as their meals have loads of fresh fruits , vegetables and halal meats. Many types of food can be prepared specially for this festival. The Ramadan Pita Bread is one such food which is quite famous in all Muslim houses during this special holy season in Turkey.Ramadan pita is a special kind of  flat bread that can be found in pastry stores only during Ramadan month. It can be baked with or without egg. However this bread is easy to make and tastes so delicious. This traditional Turkish bread is widely popular all around Turkey.

Mercimekli Pilav - Turkish Rice N Lentils Pilaf

Our long date Turkish friend prepared this rice and lentils pilaf when she invited us quite a long back to her home..I loved this simple, delicious pilaf when she served along with their style of lamb meat stew...As most of us know that am in full swing to try and taste Turkish cuisine, i prepared this pilaf as per my friend's instructions, yeah i called her before preparing this pilaf to make sure myself that this pilaf doesnt go of any special spices or herbs..This pilaf goes simply for either green lentils or brown lentils (horsegram) sauteed with chopped onions in olive oil and cooked along with white rice,pepper powder and salt..Very quick pilaf to enjoy anytime with any sort of side dish..Sending this pilaf to AWED-Turkey guest hosted by Janet, event by DK..



2cups Rice
3/4cup Brown lentils
1no Onion (chopped finely)
3tbsp Olive oil
4cups Water
Salt
Pepper powder

Cook the lentils with enough water and salt until they get cooked...dont overcook them and keep aside...Heat the olive oil in a large vessel, saute the chopped onions until they turns transculent, now add the rice and saute for few minutes..add the water,pepper powder and salt to the rice..bring everything to boil and cook in simmer until the rice get cooked, now add the cooked lentils to the cooking rice, cook for few minutes..Put off the stove...Close the vessel with a lid and let the rice sit for atleast 10minutes before serving..

Serve warm with any stew..

Kuskulu Mercimel Çorbası - Turkish Red Lentil Soup With Couscous

U may think am in cooking up Turkish foods almost everyday, u rnt wrong yep even our sterday's dinner was this Turkish red lentil soup cooked along with couscous, i couldnt stop myself to cook up some beautiful dishes from Turkish cuisine, this soup with red lentils and couscous was really filling, nourishing and very tasty soup when served along with toasted bread slices.

We loved having this warm red lentil soup with couscous for our dinner and we enjoyed having this filling soup along with toasted cream cheese sandwich, both together turned out our dinner prefectly..I found this delicious and hearty soup here and the click itself tempts me a lot to try out,



1/2cup Red lentils
1/2cup Couscous
1no Carrot (diced)
1tsp Paprika powder
2tbsp Butter
Salt
6cups Vegetable Stock water
1/4tsp Pepper  powder
Salt

Heat the vegetable stock in a pressure cooker, once it starts boiling add the red lentils and diced carrots and cook until the veggies and lentils get well cooked..add the couscous and cook for another 10minutes, put off the stove and add salt..

Heat the butter in a pan, add the paprika and let it sizzle for few seconds..While serving the soup in bowls,pour the butter and paprika on the top of the soup and serve immediately...

Elma Cayi - Turkish Apple Tea

Turkish Apple tea was introduced to the local markets especially for tourists few years ago, this tea have nothing when compared to the traditional Turkish Black tea, this tea is caffeine free, slightly sweetened with mild apple flavour..I found this apple tea here and Binnur, the author of Turkish Cook Book says that Apple tea speeds up metabolism increases the amount of urine, as this tea is prepared by boiling apples and oranges with its skins, the orange skins have citric acid and this citric acid helps for losing weight and the mineral salts found in this apple tea acts as urine remover and blood cleaner..Apple tea also strengthens both the heart and stomach, this apple tea get ready easily and this tea goes for simple ingredients..Sending this apple tea to AWED-Turkey guest hosted by Saveur, event by DK..



2nos Red apples
1no Orange
1no Cinnamon stick
2nos Whole cloves
4cups Water
Honey as per need

Dont peel the apples and dont remove the seeds, just slice them as 4pieces, dont peel the orange and slice them as 4pieces..Take the sliced fruits, cinnamon stick, cloves and water in a saucepan, bring everything to boil, put the flame in simmer and cook until the fruits get cooked..Strain the cooked water in a bowl by pushing gently the cooked fruits with a back of spoon to remove the liquid completely..

Pour in tea glasses and add honey as per ur need..Enjoy the warm apple tea..

Badmeli Muhallebi - Turkish Almond Milk Pudding

Turkish cuisine is one of the familiar cuisine for me coz Turkish peoples took an important place here in Paris, each and every corner of the street will absolutely have Turkish fast food shops and their famous kebabs are our all time favourite...I wanted to share this delicious chilled milk pudding prepared very often among Turkish people with many variations, some will prepare just with rice flour and corn starch perfumed with rose water or orange flower water, or else with nuts like almonds or with rice..I prepared my version of muhallebi with blanched and pureed almonds perfumed with almond extract..This pudding tastes awesome when they are served chilled along with chopped nuts or with a scoop of vanilla icecream..




5cups Milk
1/2cup Almonds (blanched)
1/2tsp Almond extract
3/4cup Sugar
2tbsp Riceflour
2tbsp Corn starch
Few pistachios (powdered)

Grind the blanched almond with a cup of milk as fine paste..Whisk the rice flour, corn starch in a bowl with a cup of milk..Now add the sugar and 3cups of milk in a large pot along with almond extract and bring them to boil, slowly add the almond-milk mixture in it..Stir well and finally add the flour mixture in it and stir continously..When its get thicker, put off the stove..

Pour this mixture in a bowl or ramequins and let them cool.. Arrange them in refrigerator and let them sit for two hours..Serve with icecreams or topped with powdered pistachios..