It is official holiday now in Turkey because of our religious festival. So I came to my hometown to visit my family. It is a little bit boring since I am accustomed to get up early and study all day. So I am trying to keep myself amused by spending time in the kitchen.

I have seen this zebra cake recipe in Farida’s web site and I liked it so much. For long time I was thinking of trying it so yesterday I and my sisters cooked this delicious cake. Although it was our first zebra cake, everybody liked it very much. What’s more my father ate 3 big pieces of this wonderful cake. You can find the ingredients and directions for zebra cake from Farida’s Web Page. Lastly, thank you Farida for sharing this recipe with us.

Ingredients:

1 lt milk
1 lt water
1/2 cup rice
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Directions:

Boil milk and water, add rice and wait until the rice is very soft or mushy. Add sugar and cook five minutes more. Divide into individual serving dishes and cool in the refrigerator. Garnish with cinnamon just before serving. You may add some vanilla while cooking so that you have a better taste.

Kısır is a well known salad in Turkey and also a variation of this salad is called tabooley in other eastern countries. This photo is from http://yemek.wordpress.com/category/kisir/ I will share my own photo as soon as I make my own salad. Here is a short description of how to make tabooley very easily.

Ingredients:

1 cup fine bulgur
1/2 cup tomato paste
10 green onions cut into small pieces
1 cup chopped parsley
1 cup hot water
1 cucumber
1 large tomato
1 large chopped bell pepper
2 teaspoons hot red pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup vinegar
2 teaspoons salt

Directions:

Place the bulgur in a large bowl and sprinkle with hot water. Cover and let stand for 30 minutes. Take cover off and add tomato paste, vinegar, oil, salt and pepper. Mix well and add chopped tomato, cucumber, parsley,peppers and green onions. Mix again and serve with boston lettuce leaves preferably.

Ingredients:

2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup yoghurt
2 cups flour
125 gr margarine
a pack of baking powder

Cream Filling:

500 ml milk
3 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon margarine
a pack of vanilla

Directions:

I have learnt this recipe from my sister, I ate it 2 days ago and wanted to share this recipe with you. I ensure you will like it. First of all you need to prepare the cake.In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs and sugar. Using a hand-held electric mixer or wire whisk beat until the mixture is creamy and light in color.Add all other ingredients for cake and continue beating until well blended.Lightly grease the pan with oil and pour the mixture into the pan. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile you can prepare the cream filling for the cake. In a large saucepan mix all the ingredients for the cream and cook stirring until it boils. Divide the cake into two equal parts gently and pour the cream on the bottom part. Then place the other part on the cream filling. Garnish your cake with caster sugar or coconuts. I recommend you to serve this cake with a cup of black tea.

Ingredients:

4 medium zucchinis
1 cup feta cheese
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup chopped dill, fresh ( 1 tablespoon dry dill weed)
1 tablespoon black pepper
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup regular flour
1 cup vegetable oil
salt

Directions:

Peal and grate the zucchinis into deep bowl, add feta cheese crumbled by hand and add all other ingredients except vegetable oil and mix well with a fork. Place oil in a frying pan and heat, drop the zucchini mixture with a tablespoon and fry both sides until golden. Serve hot but it also delicious if eaten cold.

This mixture can also be baked in a pyrex dish for 30 minutes and cut into squares and served hot.

In Turkish language we use the word “baklava” to mean the diamond shape, as the dessert baklava is cut in diamond shape. Anyway, baklava is one of the most famous Turkish desserts. I am going to try to give a simple recipe of making baklava .Here you can find more information about this wonderful recipe : Wikipedia

Ingredients:

3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup sunflower oil
1 pack of baking powder
1/2 tablepoon vinegar
a pinch of salt
flour
crushed hazel nuts
200 gram butter
starch

Syrup:

4 cups sugar
5 cups water
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:

To prepare baklava dough, place milk, sunflower oil, vinegar, baking powder, eggs in a large bowl. Adding enough flour make baklava dough which is not too soft nor too stiff. Knead well and divide the dough into 30 equal parts (photo 1). Make sure all the pieces are same. Then, roll out all the pieces by using a rolling pin. The diameter of all pieces should be approximately 20 cm. Don’t forget to sprinkle with starch between two layers of dough (photos2 and 3). After 10 pieces are ready and placed in layers, roll out all the layers together using a rolling pin (photo 4). The size of the sheets should be the same as the size of the circular baking tin. Brush the inside of baking tin with butter. Then lay down these 10 sheets, Spread crushed hazel nuts. Repeat the same directions and finish second and third blocks of sheets. After you finish all these three layers, you can cut your baklava as you like. Finally melt butter and pour on baklava equally. Preheat the oven to 180 C and bake baklava until golden. Then take baklava out and wait until it is cold.
With a tablespoon pour hot syrup completely. Let it rest for a few hours before serving. Make sure all the syrup is absorbed.

Syrup: To prepare the Baklava syrup place the water and sugar in a medium sized pot. First bring to a boil and continue boiling for 5 minutes.Add lemon juice, simmer for 15 minutes and turn the heat off.

Note: Don’t forget to pour hot syrup on cold baklava!

250 gr butter
2 eggs
1 pack of baking powder
1 cup sugar
400 gr corn starch
all purpose flour
2 tablespoons cacao

Directions:

Before getting started I need to explain that mushroom cookies have nothing to do with fungus. They are called as mushroom cookies just because they look like mushrooms. After this little explanation let me talk about how to cook these yummy cookies.
First of all, mix butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat well. Add all other ingredients except cacao and mix well.Roll a piece of dough into a size of golf ball. Place all the balls on a baking tin as it is shown in the photo above. Find a glass bottle and press the bottle on cacao and then ball-shaped cookies. Bake for 15 minutes until they have tiny cracks (but not untill they are golden).

1 coffee cup water for each person
1 teaspoon Turkish style coffee
1 teaspoon sugar for each cup (it depends on you)

Directions:

Place water, sugar, and coffee in a saucepan over low heat. Cook stirring until coffee simmers. In the mean time, gather the froth on the surface and distribute between the cups. Pour coffee into small coffee cups. Serve immediately with a cup of water.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup rice
6 cups water
1 egg
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 tablespoon salt
2 cups yoghurt
2 tablespoons dried mint leaves (crushed)
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon pabrika

Directions:

Wash and drain the rice and put in a pot with 6 cups of water and boil until the rice is very tender and the water is thickened (stirring occasionally). Put two cups of yoghurt, egg, flour and 150 ml water in a bowl and beat with a fork until smooth and add to the boiled rice gradually as you stir the mixture. Set aside and melt the butter in a separate pan and add pabrika and dried mint. When it bubbles pour over the soup, serve hot.

Ingredients:

2 cups wheat
1/2 cup rice
1/3 cup navy beans
1/3 cup chick peas (garbanzo)
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon starch
1/2 cup sultana raisins
4 dried figs, cut into small pieces
4 dried apricots, cut into small pieces
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped hazel nuts

Directions:
Wash and place the wheat, rice and beans and garbanzos in a large pot and fill it up with water and let them soak overnight. Next day place the pot on medium heat and boil for one hour then reduce heat and boil until all the grains are very soft. Add sugar and boil another half hour or so. Finally add dried figs, sultana raisins, apricots, starch ( before you add starch into the mixture, mix it well in a cup of water) Stir for 10 minutes and pour into single serving bowls. Serve cold with walnuts and hazel nuts.
This dessert is well-known like baklava in Turkey. It is said that The Prophet Noah invented this pudding when he had only very few after the flood. It is believed that he put whatever he could find and cooked them very slowly for a long time.Thats why this dessert contains so much ingredients. some people add much more things, it is entirely up to you. My mother makes this dessert at a certain time in the year, because it is traditional to cook ashure and share a bowl of ashure with your neighbours. So during that week (generally everyone doesn’t make it on the same day) the door is knocked and a bowl of dessert is served to you.