Tomato Salad with Olive Oil

Probably one of the most classical summer salad at Turkish homes is the Çoban Salad (Pronounced as Choban and means Shepherd’s Salad). There are lots of varieties in the US, under many different names: Mediterranean Salad, Greek Salad etc. The main idea is the same though, this is a refreshing summer salad that you can serve almost with anything.

The recipe is basically mixture of summer fruits. Ok, I won’t go into the detail of a famous debate, whether tomatoes and cucumbers are fruit. Because they are technically fruits! There, end of the debate.

If you don’t care about the taxonomy, you can enjoy this with grilled meats, as an appetizer or even as a main course. Feel free to play around with the recipe, and customize. Any kind of tomatoes as long as they are flavorful would work. Choose your chillies according to your spice endurance, they can be mild or hot, its up to you.  Another crucial ingredient is a good quality olive oil, do not substitute it with any other oil and try to use a cold pressed extra virgin olive oil if possible.

If you really really want to eat this in the Mediterranean style, then serve it with sliced artisan bread and make sure you dunk the bread to the bowl and let it absorbe the wonderful flavor of olives and tomatoes….

This is a vegan recipe as long as you don’t add feta cheese shown in parenthesis below.

Ingredients:

• 2 large heirloom tomatoes or 1 lbs baby heirlooms
• 1 small red onion
• 4-5 chili peppers (choose spiciness depending on your taste)
• 1/2 cucumber
• (feta cheese)
• (sliced olives)
• parsley
• (mint)
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 lemon
• salt

• Cut tomatoes in 1/2 inch cubes. If you are using baby heirlooms ( what I used in the picture) you can slice them half or four, depending on their size. You can also peel tomatoes if the outer layer is too thick.
• Thinly slice onions.
• Thinly slice cucumbers.
• Chop parsley.
• Mix tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and parsley in a bowl, add salt to taste. Add the juice of a 1/2 lemon.
• Drizzle with olive oil generously. Mix all ingerdients well.
• Transfer to a serving bowl. (Decorate with feta crumbles or sliced olives if you want to.)

Enjoy!

Grilled Eggplant Salad

Eggplants are one of my favorite vegetables. Underneath their hard and purple exterior there is a white spongy flesh which goes well with many different flavors. They cook quickly and can be eaten with meat, as cold dishes or even salads.

A popular Turkish legend says there are more than 100 unique eggplant dishes. Even though I cannot verify that claim, I should say that eggplants are used in many different ways in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines. Some of those dishes are harder to cook – they involve carving, frying or stuffing the vegetable– but some are quite easy. This salad is one of the easiest and tastiest ones. I cook it quite often, it goes very well with grilled meats, or as a main dish. You can also spread it to baguettes to make some appetizers.

Traditionally, eggplants are cooked over charcoal fire for this dish.

Of course, in many homes it is not very practical to use outdoor grills on a daily basis, so generally moms would cook the eggplant over the gas stove, without using any pans. This process requires lots of attention, one has to babysit the vegetables and turn them often so they would not turn into charcoal. Although the flavor of the salad turns out to be very smoky with this process, it is quite messy and probably not so healthy. So I started to use the oven broiler. It cuts down the prep time enormously, doesn’t create a huge mess, and healthier.

Ingredients:

• 2 large globe eggplants ( or 4 Italian eggplant)
• 2 bell peppers, red or green
• (2-3 jalapenos)
• 1 small tomato
• 1 lemon
• 1/3-1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• parsley
• 1 clove of garlic
• salt

Once peppers are cooked, remove them from the tray, put in a glass bowl and cover with stretch film. ( This is a trick for peeling peppers easier. )

Enjoy!

Quinoa Salad w/ black beans & avocados

Quinoa is something new for me.

I kept seeing it in grocery stores, but was reluctant to use it.  Then, while I was doing an eating challenge for my public health and nutrition class last year,  I wanted to explore different kinds of whole grains and quinoa was one of the new discoveries. Quinoa grains look like tiny lentil grains, once cooked they have a crunchy texture and nutty flavor. They can be either eaten cold in salads or warm, just like pilafs.

The first time I cooked quinoawas with a broth as a side dish. which also came out pretty good. But as soon as I tasted the quinoa for the first time an array of Mexican flavors passed through my eyes, and the result is this recipe.

Be bold, quinoa goes well with almost anything, but if you are in a Mexican food mood, make sure you try this one.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 can black beans ( if you are not using canned beans. 1 cup cooked black beans.)
• 1 large tomato
• 4-5 kosher dill pickles
• 1 large avocado, diced
• (1/4 cup finely chopped red onion)
• 1 lime
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• chopped cilantro
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:

In small saucepan, combine 1 cup quinoa and 2 cups of water. Once it boils, lower the heat and cover, let it simmer for about 15 minutes until all the water is absorbed. Once quinoa grains are cooked you will be able to see transparent germinative layer around each grain. Take off the heat.

In a large bowl combine cooked quinoa,  black beans, diced tomatoes, onions, diced pickles, diced avocados, olive oil, cumin, chili powder, lime juice, salt and pepper. Mix well. Add chopped cilantro leaves.

Serve in bowls, decorated with cilantro.

This would also make a great side dish.

Enjoy!

Oh, and the photo credit for this one goes to my husband, Cuneyt Ozdas.

Baked Zucchini Patties

Just like other Mediterranean and Middle Eastern people, Turks also love stuffed vegetables. They try to fill every kind of vegetable you can think of with rice or rice-meat mixture. If the vegetable is not a leafy one, then it is hollowed out for stuffing. And zucchini patties are almost always a side dish to the stuffed zucchinis.  Every household would save the carved out tender zucchini flesh, and once the demanding stuffing procedure is done, remaining zucchini pieces are grated and turned into delicious patties.

I like very kind of zucchini dish, and this is also one of my favorites.  In it is original form, the batter is runnier and it is deep fried in olive oil. However, I follow a different, healthier interpretation. I saw this idea in another food blog (in Turkish) few years ago, and played around with the recipe a little bit.  As a result, this become one of my favorite recipes, being super easy and healthy at the same time.

It serves as a great appetizer, side dish or as a brunch.

Ingredients:

• 1 lbs zucchini
• 3-4 scallions
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1 cup flour ( whole wheat or regular)
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ½ cup chopped dill
• salt and pepper
• pine nuts for decoration

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400F.
• Grate zucchinis with a coarse grater; thinly slice scallions.
• In a large bowl, with the help of a fork, combine grated zucchini, scallions, dill, olive oil, feta cheese, flour and eggs.
• Coat each muffin cup in your muffin pan with vegetable oil spray.
• Use a spoon to distribute the zucchini mixture equally among the cups, filling the cups completely.
• Sprinkle with pine nuts, bake until golden brown, about 25-30 minutes.
• Serve warm or cold. It goes great with a dollop of Greek yogurt and fresh mint leaves )

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cheesecake

When I moved to the US, it was October and it was the harvest time.  I was amazed by the different kinds of winter squash in grocery stores and farmer’s markets. Out of those countless different shapes and colors, pumpkin is the most ( and probably only) familiar one to me.  Even though we have pumpkin in Turkey, its use is pretty limited.  Most households would only cook Pumpkin in Syrup, and roast the seeds as snack.  So it was the only pumpkin recipe I knew until recently.  After moving in to California, I started to experiment with pumpkin and other winter squashes, and tried different recipes, and realized that I really like the nutty creamy flavor of this vegetable.

So when our friends invited over us for The Thanksgiving dinner, I volunteered to make the desert.  Since Thanksgiving is an harvest celebration, pumpkin was a good fit for the menu, and most people would cook Pumpkin Pie.  But I wanted to make something different, so I baked a Pumpkin Cheesecake.

I used the recipe from Elise Bauer‘s food blog: Simply Recipes, and modified it slightly to my taste. ( Simply Recipes is an excellent food blog with very good recipes.  I tried most of her recipes and they ALWAYS work, so check them out.)

I have few other recipes for different kinds of cheesecakes, but I think this came out as one of the best: a rich and creamy cheesecake with a perfectly balanced pumpkin flavor and spices. Yum!

The only trick is the water-bath baking.  It scared me first, but let me assure you, it is easier than it looks on text. And water bathing definitely helps to prevent cracking.

One warning though, like all cheesecake recipes, it has lots of saturated fats in it, and obviously  not really healthy, so try to stop yourself from eating a second slice…. or a third one…. or fourth…..

Um, you will see this will turn out to be a challenge!

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup gingerbread cookies
• 1 cup pecans or walnuts
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1 egg yolk

Filling:

• 4  packages of cream cheese ( the regular kind, do not buy the soft kind)
• 2 cups  brown sugar
• 5 large eggs
• 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground  cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups of strained pumpkin puree  ( one large can or two small cans)
• 2 tablespoons bourbon

Directions:

You need to strain and get the excess water out off the pumpkin puree as the first thing.  So start with setting up a straining process for the pumpkin.  I used cheesecloth and worked very well.  Pour 30 ounces of canned pumpkin puree on clean cheesecloth, and hang it over the sink.  Let the excess liquid strained while you work on the crust.  From time to time, give a gently squeeze to let the water out of the cheesecloth.

You don’t need to have a cheesecloth, a very fine strainer or anything similar would work.  Remember you want exactly two cups of tightly packed pumpkin puree, as dry as possible.  Be innovative.

Grind dry ingredients for the crust in a food processor.  Add melted butter and egg yolks, mix well. Tightly press the mixture into the pan. ( I recommend you to use a 9-inch springform pan, because it works best with any kind of cheesecake.) Bake at 375° F for 10 minutes. Let it cool.

Once you got the liquid out, measure two cups of the strained puree, and put it in a bowl. Add  flour, cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg, and clove, salt, pumpkin puree, vanilla, and bourbon. Beat in the eggs. Mix well.

In a seperate bowl, combine the cream cheese and the brown sugar, mix very well.  In this step it helps to have the cream cheese at room temperature.  You need to have a very creamy and homogenous texture. If you have a mixer, use it, if not as for some help from the other household.

Once cheese and sugar is fully incorporated add the pumpkin mixture, mix well.

Meanwhile, boil some water and preheat oven to 325°F.

Now the tricky part. Wrap the bottom of the springform pan with aluminum foil, use overlapping two layers at the bottom so there would be no water leakage.  Place the aluminum wrapped springform pan in a large roasting pan, pour in the filling.  Put the roasting pan into the oven, pour boiling water  around the springform pan so it would fill halfway up the side of it. See the video in here.

Bake for 1 1/2 hours. Once the time is up, turn off the oven, but leave the cake in.  Do not open the door, let the oven and the cake cool.  Once they are both cool, take the cake out of the oven and chill overnight.

Serve with caramel sauce, candied pecans and whipped cream.

Run 5 miles….or more  ;)

Celery Roots in Olive Oil

They say greatest loves born out of greatest hates.  I had a love/hate relationship with celery roots ( or celeriacs as some people call them)  . These root vegetables have a very strong odor that would infuse all home while cooking, and I used to hate it as a child.  To make things worse, it was my mom’s favorite vegetable, and  was also probably one of the few vegetables that used to be around in winter time before the advent of greenhouse farming. (Yes, I know we can have eggplants in December now, but back then it was not the case! )

As  combined result of the convenience and my mom’s gustatory taste, we had celery roots almost every week: in olive oil, with lamb, with potatoes, salads….you name it. I hated it and declined to eat it in any form back then.  Even though picking food was not allowed in our house, celery roots was exempt from that and I have successfully avoided them for a very long time.

They say taste buds develop by age, that’s why children don’t like strong and special flavored foods. With experience and probably help of some physiologic development we learn to enjoy more complicated tastes as we age. For me, it took about 30 years to start enjoying celery roots.  And now I love them!

If your taste buds are still on strike regarding the celery roots, I recommend you to give this smelly vegetable another chance, maybe this time it is the right time for you!

Celery roots can be eaten raw, in a hot stew, as a soup or cold. My favorite is this cold dish. I think tangy orange juice and fresh flavor of dill complements the semi-crunchy celery pieces bathed in olive oil and lemon juice.  Carrots are optional, they add a nice color to the dish. Oh, and it is super easy to make!

Ingredients:

• 2 large celery roots
• (2 medium carrots)
• 1 small onion
• 1 orange
• 1 lemon
• fresh dill
• 1/3-1/2 cup olive oil
• salt to taste

Directions:

Peel and dice celery roots. They are quite firm, so be careful and do not hurt yourself. I recommend you to use a peeler, it is the easiest way. For black spots under the skin, you can use a paring knife. Dice should be about 1 inch size.

Thinly slice onion.

Scrub the carrots and thinly slice.

Cut the orange in half.  Squeeze the juice of one half.  Save the other half for decoration.

Cut the lemon in half, slice thinly only one half.  Squeeze the other, you only need 1-2 teaspoon of lemon juice.

Put celery, onion, olive oil, carrots, ½ orange juice, 2 tsp of lemon juice, lemon slices and salt into a cooking pan.  Add 1 cup of water.

Cook on low heat until the celery is softened and onions are melted. Celery breaks easily, so don’t stir it.  Try to use a large pan which will prevent layering so all vegetables would cook evenly. Add water if needed. It should not be watery, but it needs some sauce to prevent sticking.

Take off the heat, let it cool for a while. Sprinkle with chopped fresh dill and decorate with orange slices.  Let it sit in the fridge for few hours.  Serve cold.

Coleslaw w/ dried cranberries

Cabbage is a leafy vegetable in the cruciferous vegetables family. As with all the members in this smelly vegetables group, they release a very strong and unpleasant smell while cooking.  Some people like the taste and would not mind the smell but some people just plainly hate it.  As a result there are many cabbage haters, along with cabbage eaters.  But neverthless, cabbages are health foods, there are recent and promising studies that show their effect as anti-cancerogens.

In this recipe, the crunchiness of the cabbage is balanced with the creamy dressing.  Dried cranberries add a fruity kick, and of course a nice color.

And enjoy!

Keşkül, a traditional Ottoman Desert

When I was a child, there were no malls or giant shopping centers to hang around as a kid or a teenager, so only places we were allowed to hang around with friends were Pastanes, literally “house of sweets”.  Apart from traditional desert sellers who used to sell baklava and related deserts, Pastanes were filled with layered cakes, custards, rice puddings, profiteroles and variety of ice creams. Different colors of creamy desserts  used to line up behind the glass door of the cooler. As a child I used to indulge myself in soup anglaise ( a cholocate custard with little cake pieces in it) and I never understood why some people would prefer to eat something without chocolate.

Later, as I grew old I became an almond addict. I became obsessed  everything with almonds, from marzipan to roasted almonds, from amaretto to almond butter. And a friend of mine asked me if I like keşkül. I remember giving him a blank look: “I never really tried it, isn’t it just a plain custard with egg yolks?” My friend told me me that it is a pudding made with grounded almonds! Thus, my search for the perfect keşkül started.

After a quick research I found out that keşkül indeed has almonds!  It is not a plain custard as I though but it is a traditional Ottoman desert, made with ground almonds.  In the most traditional form fresh almonds are soaked with milk, after a day they are grounded and that milk-almond mixture is used to make the pudding.  The result: Creamy and light pudding with tiny bits of almond pieces that would tickle your taste buds.

If you happen to be in Istanbul, and want to try this traditional taste, you might get disappointed. Since almonds are quite expensive in Turkey, most places now omit the almond, the primary ingredient of this wonderful desert, and they serve fake keşküls: indeed plain custards with some food coloring.  But there are still few places you might experience this wonderful desert in its original taste,; go to Haci Abdullah or Asitane, I promise you won’t get disappointed.

Or make your own keşkül, really easy and delicious!

The original Ottoman recipe has egg yolks and bitter  almonds in it.  Bitter almonds have more flavour, but it is quite hard to find them.  So I substituted bitter almonds with some almond flavouring and omitted the egg yolks to make it lighter.

Do not use non-fat milk, because the pudding will not be creamy. I try to use the most wholesome milk available.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 gallon (2 lt) whole milk
• 1 1/2 cup ground almonds ( you can buy almond meal or ground unsalted almonds at home)
• 2 tbsp shredded coconut
• 8 tbsp rice flour
• 8-10 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp almond extract ( I use Morton Basset’s pure almond extract, it works great.)
• file almonds and finally chopped pistachios to garnish

Directions:

If you are not using ground almonds, grind almonds finely in a food processor and soak them in some milk.

Bring milk to the boil. Mix with a wooden spoon to prevent it from burning.  Once it starts to boil add almonds and coconut, after it starts to boil cook for about 15 minutes until almonds and coconuts are softened.

In a small bowl, mix rice flour with few tablespoon cold water, make sure there are no lumps.  Slowly add this mixture to the milk-almond mixture. Cook over low heat and keep mixing with the wooden spoon, always in the same direction.  After the mixture starts to thicken keep cooking for about 15 minutes.

Add sugar, continue to cook until it is dissolved.  At this point, you can taste the mixture and add more sugar if you like it more sweet.

Take the mixture off the heat.  Stir in the almond extract.

Pour into individual bowls, let it cool. After they cool down, chill them in the fridge.

Decorate with file almonds and ground pistachios.  Enjoy!

Oh, and if you are feeling over-indulgent, you can also serve keşkül’s topped with vanilla ice cream. Yum!

Khaman Dhokla: prepare to be surprised

Dhokla…

It is probably the most surprising and addictive food I ever eaten. It looks like a sweet cake, yet it is savory.  Besides being savory it is light, fluffy, moist and spicy. After I tried it for the first time it has been one of my favorite foods, and I always asked for it in every Indian restaurant.

However, it is not found in most of the restaurants.  It is a chaat, meaning a snack,  a street food from India, an appetizer sold mostly by street vendors. So if you want to try it you should find an Indian restaurant that serves chaat specialties, like Vic’s Chaat Corner in Berkeley.

After I tasted it for the first time I asked for its recipe, but was very disappointed when I learned that it needs a special steamer to cook, and it is hard to find other ingredients as well.  So I gave up and accepted the fact that it is a food I can get only on weekends, because that’s the only time they sell it at Vic’s.

Then I participated to an eating challenge at my master’s degree program which involved eating plant based unprocessed foods for six weeks.  And It suddenly dawned on me that Dhokla is a perfect food for this challenge!  I thought of the steamer issue, but decided to be adventurous.  I searched the internet and found out that some people cook it in microwave and it turns out OK.  So I gathered my courage and my ingredients, and tried it.

Result: Almost perfect!

I know, cooking a Dhokla in a microwave is an insult to the dish, but it is better than nothing, right?

Also, I have to mention that I recently got a steamer, and steamed Dhokla is much much better, so if you have a steamer use it!

If not, try the microwave version for now.  Once you hook up to this taste you will get a steamer soon anyway.

Apparently, you can make Dhokla from various different flours, or even semolina.  But Khaman Dhokla is made from chickpea flour.  You can find it in Indian grocery stores.  It is sold under the name gram flour or besan.  If you cannot find it  you can also by dhokla flour which is a mixture of chickpea, rice and other grain flours.  Most of the other ingredients require you to pay a visit to your local Indian store.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup besan/ chickpea/ gram flour
• 1/2 cup low fat yogurt
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp oil for batter, 1-2 tbsp oil for tempering ( see below)
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1-2 tsp green chilli paste -or to taste ( this is spicy! use cautiously)
• (2 tsp ginger paste)
• 1 tsp lemon juice or 1/4 tsp citric acid
• 1 1/2 tsp Eno fruit salt + some more to sprinkle on top
• 2 tsp mustard seeds
• 2-3 tbsp ground coconut
• 3-4 curry leaves
• 3-4 green chillies, thinly sliced
• Fresh cilantro/coriander, finely chopped
• 1 tsp sugar
• salt to taste
• 1/2 cup warm water

Directions:

For Batter:

Mix besan, yogurt, 1/2 cup water well. The batter should be runny, almost like a pancake batter.  If needed add more water.
Add baking soda, mix well.  Set aside and let it rest about 25-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, if you are using steamer prepare your steamer.  if using microwave, go read an article.

Before cooking:

At the end of 30 minutes, add oil, turmeric, green chilli paste, ginger paste, lemon juice, sugar and salt. Mix well. Add Eno (fruit salt) right before cooking, do not let it stand around after you add Eno, otherwise it won’t be fluffy!

Right after adding Eno, pour it into a glass dish ( I use a pyrex pie plate and it fits perfect).  Sprinkle some more Eno on top, and start cooking immediately.

Microwave cooking:

Microwave ovens differ greatly, so you have to babysit your dhokla, but don;t worry it is only 7-8 minute in total.

Set microwave to 4 mins, and 80 Watts.  Start cooking. At the end of 4 minutes check it.  If it is overdone there will be orange spots on it, if you see any orange spots and if the dhokla is cooked take it out. If it is still runny lower the heat.   Cook 3-5 minutes more depending on your microwave power. Check doneness from center by sticking a wooden toothpick, just as you would do in a cake.  If the toothpick comes clean, it is done.  If not, cook more, but do not set the microwave more than 2 minutes, because as a rule all food burn when you are not looking!

Steamer:

Much easier, you don’t have to babysit and the result is definitely better: more moisty and fluffy.

Put the dhokla tray in a steamer.  Cook for 8-10 mins depending on your steamer’s strength. Check doneness with a toothpick.  Take it out when it is cooked.

Tempering:

Now, all you have to do is season your Dhokla.

Heat 1-2 tbsp oil in a small pan.  Once it is hot, add mustard seeds. Once they start to pop add thinly sliced green chillies and curry leaves.  Stir fry for a minute or so, take it off the heat.  Add warm water, sugar and salt. Stir well.

Spread this water-oil-spice mixture over dhokla. Let it cool.

Cut it into diamond or square pieces. Sprinkle w/ coconut and chopped coriander.  Serve warm or cold.

Enjoy!

PS> It is good on its own, but also very good with coriander chutney. You can buy the chutney from the grocery store, or you can make your own by following this recipe.

Artichoke hearts filled w/ fava puree

Artichokes always remind me of spring.  In my hometown, Izmir they come out in the middle of spring and disappear in few weeks.  So the fresh artichoke is a delicacy that can be enjoyed for a short period of time. They are cooked in many different ways, and this is the most Aegean way I think.  :)

Cutting up an artichoke is a pain. The edible heart of the artichoke hides under layer after layer of leaves and inedible purple ‘choke’. It is very oxidative, and turns to brown immediately and dyes the hands in a terrible way. Since the preparation is such a pain, it is a common sight in Turkey to see a people selling prepared artichokes swimming in the bucket of lemon juice on the streets.

For this dish you can either prepare the artichokes yourself or you can buy canned artichoke hearts. If you decide to do it the hard way, make sure you wear gloves and put the artichokes in lemon juice-water mixture after you cut them up until you are ready to use them.

The recipe is for four large artichokes, but it is possible to use smaller artichokes and serve them as a party dish.

Ingredients:

• 4 large artichoke hearts
• Olive oil
• Lemon juice
• Fresh prepared fava
• Fresh dill and lemon slices for decoration

Preparation:

If you have raw artichokes, place the artichoke hearts on a non-stick covered skilled.  Sprinkle w/ salt, lemon juice, 1 cup of water.  Put it over medium heat and cook until the artichokes are softened.

Prepare fava as directed here.

Fill cooked or canned artichokes with the warm fava. Fava sets as it cools so make sure it is still slightly warm and takes shape while you fill.  You can use a cake decorator, but no need to get so fancy, spooning also works fine.

Drizzle some olive oil, sprinkle with fresh dill, and decorate with lemon slices.  Serve cold.