It is almost Christmas...

Merhaba,

 I just cannot believe it is almost Christmas, then the New Year.
Where does the time go? It really flies; they say "if you are having fun,
time flies".  Honestly time flies no matter what, either you are

Shepherd's Salad

having fun or not.


   Anyways, since the last time I was keeping myself pretty busy.
We had a birthday party on last Thursday, we went out; and again Saturday we

had the part two at home. This holiday season I am also catering for a few
events. This catering business is actually keeping me real busy, planning the
proposal menus, having some changes on the menus, adding extras or deleting
some items. It is fun and exciting too. 

Roasted eggplants

  One of the proposed menus includes few appetizers, salads and the
main courses. I will be making humus, cacik, shepherd salad and Hunkar Begendi (sultan’s
delight).  Hunkar Begendi is another eggplant dish that I love. I roast
the eggplants and let them take a nice lemon-water bath... :) about an hour,
that keeps them turning their color darker and puree them, in
the mean time I prepare a béchamel sauce with butter, flour and milk, and in
the same pot I add the eggplant puree and whisk them together add the
gruyere cheese let them simmer together a few more minutes. In the mean time
I brown the onions, add the beef or lamb cubes and cook them together

Hunkar Begendi (Sultan's delight)

and add the crushed tomatoes keep cooking at least few hours with the Turkish
spices and herbs, adding time to time some beef broth and red wine. Finally I
serve the meat mixture over that eggplant puree with the side of basmati
rice pilaf. It is definitely for the Sultans, so delicious.

   I hope I will be able to add few more postings before the new years, if
not Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all...

From Manhattan with love... Merry Christmas...

 

Busy Holidays...

   OMG, it's been more than a week, I know I am being lazy. Actually I am being pretty busy with all the catering arrangements, and New Years parties. Seriously...? It shouldn't be this difficult, right? Noooo it sure is not effortless at all. Everybody is running somewhere, shopping for gifts, planning for the parties and all...    
   Beyond all that, last week my service was auctioned at a benefit thrown by a New Yorker socialite for the animal rescue. I was really honored to be asked for a charity like that. Being a part of that benefit made me really touched and happy. In the mean time, mom came to our place to stay with us few days, it was great, and we ate...!!! Really, just ate... cooked and ate, nonstop... :)  Since my mom came I gained 7 lbs, I know... It is horrible, but now I am back to my gym and my busy schedule.



Pogaca with feta cheese



Kiymali Borek ( borek with ground beef)

  So when she was here, she cooked for us "Dolma, Borek, and Pogaca". I am not even counting the other dishes that she made, but those three are the real gems of Turkish Cuisine... My favorite is definitely the Dolma, there are two kinds of Dolma, oh by the way Dolma means "stuffed". Well you can stuff the peppers, zucchinis, squash, cabbage leaves, or the best one is the grape leaves. As I said we stuff them either with the meat mixture (and is my beloved) which is eaten warm, or the rice mixture which is eaten cold as an appetizer or a meal...  So my mother made the one with the meat mixture. Basically it is made with ground beef 75% lean 25% fat,( although a lot of people uses ground lamb too, lamb was not really a staple ingredient in our household when I was growing up, so I'd rather go with beef) rice, crushed or chopped tomatoes, parsley, onions, salt and pepper. This time my mother brought the grape leaves from Turkey, actually my cousin gave them to mom, and she brought them here, so they were incredibly tender, just like the ones that we used to pick from our summer-house's backyard, memories memories... Anyways, so she stuffed those wonderful grape leaves with the meat mixture, and she cooked them with the beef broth and tomato paste mix. It was incredible, nothing left from a medium size pot full of them... We had a great time together, now she's back with my sister, and probably she will be back again to our home next week.
 



Dolma was amazing...



 I am not quite sure, if I am going to be able to post a lot in this holiday season, but I sure will try my best. I am wishing all of you my dear arkadaslar (friends) the best holiday season, and happy New Year...

Beyond Bosphorus...

Mamma's boy... :)

Merhaba...
     Yes I am a mamma's boy, and I am proud of it. Finally she's here with me, staying with us in our home. Over the weekend I was at my sister's place. Mom made one of my most favorite dishes of all times. "Imam Bayildi " ... I know, that sounds like a space ship or some kind of exotic animal, but it is not... It actually is an eggplant dish. They say that us, Turks know 1000 different ways of making eggplant. I seriously believe that. I love any kind of eggplant dishes, especially the ones that you can stuff them with all kinds of different ingredients. Cold dishes, hot ones, they all are amazingly delicious.
     The dish that my mother made was "Imam Bayildi" literally means "Imam fainted". Imams are the religious figures in Islam. Imam Bayildi is an eggplant cut down the middle and stuffed with lots of onions, garlic, tomatoes, green peppers and parsley and then simmered in olive oil about an hour. There are several mythical stories about the origins of the dish. The imam (Muslim prayer leader) fainted or swooned when he tasted how good it was; that the imam fainted when he saw how much expensive olive oil was used; that the imam was delighted when a shopkeeper's wife was required to quickly prepare a dish for the imam's unexpected visit.

Eggplants are already fainted along with the imam... :)

Mom is stuffing the eggplants...

      Anyways,  it was absolutely the best Imam Bayildi I ever had.  I don't know if the actual dish was so delicious, or I really missed my mom so much... Either ways it is a blessing having a mother at the age of 76, totally independent and an amazing cook... I love you mom...

Now it's my turn to faint... Yummmmmmyyyyy... :)

"Baby it's cold outside..."

Merhaba Friends...
     I love holiday season, I love the smell of it, I love the streets of New York, I love love love anything and everything about holidays... Especially after they turn the lights on the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center, New York turns into the "city of lights", sorry Paris... :)

Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center

     I mentioned before my mother came from Turkey a day before the thanksgiving. She is staying with my sister since then. This coming weekend I will be spending some time with my family at my sister's, then I am going to be bringing my mom to my place. She's going to stay with us -hopefully- for a week or two... Yayyyy... During the time that she is staying with us, I will definitely be posting some fabulous recipes of her.  She is a phenomenal cook, I learned all my kitchen basics and most of my cooking from her. Though she says that I am now a better cook than her, I know she just wants to hear that;  "No mom, you are absolutely a better cook".  Well, come on now, who does not wanna hear that they are the best...? So I guess I'll be posting again after the weekend about how we spent our weekend, and may be later mom and I cook together and I will post the pictures and the delicious recipes that she will be making for us...



Rockefeller Center




Wollman Rink, Central Park

Have a wonderful weekend...

Aftermath... :)

Merhaba my dear foodies,

   I know I didn't update my blog for almost a week. We were recovering after the thanksgiving. We had a blast. It was a very nice thanksgiving dinner. Actually the most exciting part was the day before thanksgiving my mother came from Turkey. I was so happy to see her after quiet some time. It was amazing. Although she was not with us for the thanksgiving, it was wonderful to pick her up from the airport. Anyways, after the airport mom went to my sister's house, and I came back to my place, and I made the cranberry sauce and the pumpkin pies. I made the sauce with fresh cranberries, an apple, fresh squeezed orange juice, the zest of one orange, nutmeg and about a cup of -my special touch- brandy.

     

   

     The next morning I made my portobello mushroom-green bean casserole and my special andouille-shrimp-cornbread-wild rice stuffing, it is sort of my take on Louisina- French style. The stuffing was incredible, everybody loved it, green, red peppers, onions, sage, thyme, chicken broth, came out wondefully. The turkey was very tender and delicious as for the mac and cheese, thanks to T.

   Well one holiday feast is over, now getting ready for the christmass and the new years... :)

Beyond...

The Bosphorus Bridge

Merhaba,

  I know I never told you my dear friends why is it "Beyond Bosphorus" ?  The Bosphorus :




 "The Bosphorus or Bosporus (Turkish: Boğaziçi, Greek: Βόσπορος, Bosporos, Bulgarian: Босфора, Босфора), also known as the Istanbul Strait (Turkish: İstanbul Boğazı), is a strait that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with the Dardanelles. The world's narrowest strait used for international navigation, it connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara (which is connected by the Dardanelles to the Aegean Sea, and thereby to the Mediterranean Sea)."  That how it explains "Wiki". I was born in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. I always had a big love for Istanbul, my dream was to live in Istanbul one day, and actually it did happen, after the college I moved to Istanbul finally.  I loved every single minute of living in Istanbul, I had an apartment in Tesvikiye, one of the nicest neighborhood in Istanbul, overlooking The Bosphorus. I loved living there, but I also never forgot my roots, Ankara... the beyond... Although I love Istanbul so much, I love my beautiful city, Ankara as much...

Ankara



  

So that one is clear, let's move on to what we are planning on Thanksgiving.  We actually invited few friends over for the Thanksgiving dinner, and I am not making the turkey, good... such a relief... Obviously we are still going to be cooking, I am going to make my infamous stuffing with andouille sausage,cornbread, crimini mushroom, and wild rice, green bean casserole with portobello mushrooms, brandy infused orange-cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie and my partner will be making his signature lemon-lime meringue pie, roasted root vegetables. What is that? Oh yes, I was just saying that I am not making the turkey, oh well, one of our friends will be making the turkey and the mac and cheese, thanks T... So we are going to celebrate, and be thankful for the bountiful harvest, because Thanksgiving is "traditionally, it has been a time to give thanks for a bountiful harvest." says Wiki... Happy Thanksgiving to all...

 

"Bountiful Harvest" :)











Rush Rush Rush...

  

   OMG, it was such a busy week, I was on TV twice this week my friends... Yayyyy... Yep, you heard me right, I was on TV, nope it is not my show unfortunately.... yet... :) May be one day... Anyways I was in the audience for the Nate Show, "Nate Berkus", that cute, decorator guy from the Oprah Show, yes... now he has his own show, so last Tuesday we went to see his show at the studio, it was fun, I actually won the dance contest, shaking my bootie... :))) and I got a t-shirt... Yayyyyy... and then the very same night we went to see a new Broadway show. It was great, we had so much fun.

    Yesterday was the only slow paced day, so I had some time for myself. It's been a while that I was planning on making a Turkish sausage, called "Sucuk". It usually is made with beef and lamb together, lots of cumin, black pepper, garlic, lots of... lots of garlic, and definitely unrefined sea salt. So I decided to bring it to the life that "Sucuk" making process.

     I live in a neighborhood that you can easily find the "casings" for the homemade sausages in the specialty food stores around. I am not talking about the casings usually used for making the regular sausages, because "Sucuk" requires a special kind, "lamb casings", not the "hog casings", anyways, so I got my lamb casings. I have an electric meat grinder, so I bought the beef and lamb chunks with around 30% fat, and I ground the meat together, about 4,5- 5lbs, added about 20 to 25 cloves of garlic (crushed in the mortar with salt), 2-3 tbsp cumin, 2-3tbsp unrefined sea salt, 1-2 tbsp black pepper, 2tbsp mixed hot and sweet paprika, 1tsp allspice, mixed them well, got down and dirty and kneaded that mixture about an hour, seriously an hour...  after all that kneading process I let that mixture sit in the room temperature about an hour, than covered it with plastic film and refrigerate overnight. The next day I soaked the casings in the warm water, while the casings were getting ready; I took the mixture from the fridge, and kneaded another 20 minutes. After the kneading was finished, I put together the sausage attachment to the meat grinder and started filling the casings with the meat mixture.

Resting...

You have to be really careful for not the make holes in the casings, because they usually are pretty thin, and they just burst. So I stuffed my casings with the mixture, and I tied the ends with the kitchen twine. I lined the sausages on a trey on the kitchen counter, and pressed them to get the air bubbles, and burst the bubbles with a very skinny needle. Don't forget, we are not trying to make holes, just a little poke to get the air out, once the bubbles are out the sausages were ready to hang to dry. I know it is a long procedure, but hey… it is homemade, and let me tell you, nothing is tastier and more nostalgic then anything homemade. It just reminds me home...

They are hanging around... :)))

    Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, the second time I was on TV, actually was this morning on Wendy Williams Show, it was so good and juicy with all that gossip and the cast from the Logo TV show A-List, fun fun fun..., as she says " How you doin?"
    Have a wonderful week my dear friends... :)

Goooooooood Morrnnninnngggg Foodies... :)



White Quinoa

Red Quinoa

  It's Saturday morning, woke up pretty early, did the dishes from last night. It's not like I cook lavish dinners or meals everyday you know my dear friends. Sometimes I just put some easy stuff together, just pan-sear the fish, make some salad and may be add another side dish to that, and voila the din din is ready. Last night was one of those nights. Our cable box died, so we cannot watch the TV in the living room till Tuesday, that's when our cable service provider gave us the appointment to exchange the DVR box, anyways, so I decided to make a movie night, and watching the "SATC2" movie for the 12th time... :)))

Crab Cakes

   We just had pan-seared, panko coated trout, the arugula salad. I also made the red and white quinoa with the vegetable melange, and the store bought crab cakes. I bought the crab cakes frozen, and they were fantastic. Quinoa " is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds" as the Wiki defines, and I love that grain-like crop :), it is very healthy, and a great source of fiber. I always keep it in my "pantry", it is very easy to cook too. I just add some grilled vegetables to that. The din din was fantastic, light and healthy and it went great with my girls, the girls from my favorite movie SATC2.

  I am so hoping that my cable will be fixed soon, though I love my movies I don't like to watch my reality shows in the bedroom... :)

  

It is time for me to go to the gym now... :)

 Have a wonderful Saturday my dear foodies...

Red & White Quinoa with vegetable melange



"Lentil Torpedoes"... :)

    Merhaba... Hello my dear friends, I started today's writing with a Turkish greeting, which means "hello". How is everyone doing? I am doing pretty good, lately I have a little more time than usual in my hands so I am creating more new dishes.
    Today actually I was thinking without going to the grocery store if I can make something good, delicious and healthy at the same time.You guys should see my pantry, I am always telling my friends, if anything happens, like aliens attack... :))), we, I and my partner, would definitely survive few more months than the other people. I also tell them ( my friends), if you don't have anything to eat just come to our home, we sure have more than enough food always for everyone. So clearing that part, my pantry is always packed with dry beans,white rice, brown rice, all kinds of grains, pastas, sauces, spices and herbs, canned goods, although I am not a  big fan of canned goods, I usually stock some tuna fish, salmon, anchovies.

"Lentil Torpedoes"

    Anyways, I opened my pantry and I saw packs of lentils, I mean all kinds of lentils, D and I, we love lentils, so we have all different kinds of lentils, the green ones, yellow ones, red ones, little ones, big ones... I just remembered, back home, in Turkey we used to make lentil balls " mercimek koftesi", traditionally it is made with red lentils, bulgur ( cracked wheat), onions, tomato paste and spices. I didn't have enough of red lentils, so I mixed the red lentils with yellow ones, and I boiled them in a large pot, and let them simmer about 30 to 45 minutes and turned it off, they were totally soft and a little watery, I add the bulgur and simmer another 10 minutes, than saute the onions in another small pan with couple of tablespoons of olive oil and add them to that mixture, cumin, tomato paste, cayenne pepper, some paprika and salt, pepper mix them all together, and form them into those torpedo shape lentil balls, and serve them with green onions and chopped parsley. They were good... :)

It actually is made by my partner, he's a great cook too... :)

OMG, is this a fabulous "Lemon-Lime Meringue Pie" or what...? :))

Here I am again...

I know it's been a while my dear foodies. It was pretty hectic, and busy last week. I managed to survive anyways, lol... :) Well, now since I am back with my cooking and discovering new adventures, I just created a new muffin that I call " Holiday Muffin". I am sure we all keep some frozen veggies in our freezers. I personally prefer the frozen vegetables or fruits to the canned ones. Those canned veggies or fruits have so much preservatives in them.

Anyways, I had a box of frozen squash sitting in my freezer for a while, and I was keep asking my self that what could I do with that?  I just didn't want to come up with a traditional squash puree with chicken or turkey. So I decided to cook the squash with some honey, butter, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, nutmeg and a little bit of cayenne pepper... I know... :) but just a little shake... Anyways, I cooked that for about 45 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally, and then I add some whole wheat flour to it, and about 2 cups of oatmeal, flax seeds, some nuts ( whatever is available, I used some pecans...) and about a tsp of arrowroot ( I mentioned the arrowroot in previous posts) a tsp of baking powder and some stevia leaves. I spooned the mixture to a muffin sheet and baked about 45 minutes... Voila... The result was quite amazing...

"Holiday Spiced Squash Muffin"

I love creating new things all the time, but I guess it is not as exciting for my partner as it is for me... :) He usually things that I am using him as a guinea pig...

LOL... :) Have a wonderful day my dear foodie friends... :)

TGIF

   Yes my dear fiends, it's Friday again, two days before the Halloween. I love most holidays in fall, but Halloween is definitely my favorite. I guess all those decorations, the costumes, and the colors of the fall, and the spirit of it. Since I did not grow up here, in the US, I really don't have the childhood Halloween memories, but after I came to this country it became one of my favorite times of all. The hues of oranges, different shades of yellows, and reds and greens, such a festival of colors. I love the smell of the cinnamon, cloves, apples and pumpkins. I love the joy of going for a pumpkin picking, makes me feel like a kid again...



Arrowroot





Eggs, wheat flour, arrowroot, nutmeg, salt and pepper



   So last few days I was actually reinventing my culinary skills. I am not a baker, I just love cooking different dishes, and trying all new adventures in cooking...  Yesterday first time ever I wanted to make a quiché, and actually it came out pretty good. The only thing, you shouldn't try to eat it while it still is hot, because when the cheese is still hot, the melting process is not complete yet. So you have to wait till it's cool and set, then cut it.   The basic ingredients are usually eggs, flour and/or starch, cheese, salt-pepper, and depending on your taste, you can add the veggies, and ham. I used "arrow-root" instead of a corn starch, (arrowroot is a great substitute for a starch, it thickens the sauces, gravies and yo can definitely use as a starch, it's all natural), whole wheat flour and grated nutmeg, soaked dried mushrooms, spinach, onions and cherry tomatoes, and the sharp cheddar cheese. I didn't use the shallow bakeware, so mine was like between a soufflé and a quiché, but it still came out pretty good. Well we enjoyed it... :)

Gorgeous veggies...

quiché-  soufflé

Have a wonderful Halloween... :)

Happy Tuesday...

   Hi there my dear friends, I woke up quite late this morning, I guess that's normal if you stay up late, trying to watch all Monday shows back to back. Anyways, I got really nice comments from my friends and some followers via Facebook and Twitter. Thanks so much, it really means lot to me. I even had some requests for the dishes that I made, say 10 years ago? That was awesome...



mixing all sunshine and goodies





a li'l nutmeg

 

<>

eat me eat me... :)





  I am also going to be posting the pictures of the omelettes that I made last Sunday, I thought they were ( I made two individual omelettes... ) pretty as pictures... :) I usually make the french omelette, the one that you usually put the ingredients after the eggs set well and browned underneath... 

Monday

   Hi there again, well, Saturday was a great success, I had to prepare dinner for four, we had company over for a dinner. I already wrote it before what I was going to be making. The manti was fantastic, it really was the star of the night, I got so many compliments for that. It really worth the time and the work that I put in.



Manti with browned butter and the "trio"



   I posted some pictures of the dessert that I was preparing, " candied butternut squash with Kahlua whipped cream". So I decided to make also the brittle to give a little more fun to that dessert. "Brittle" is basically caramelized sugar with some nuts or some seeds, in my case I used some pumpkin seeds, "pepitas". Well guess what? My brittle did not caramelized and came out some kind of softer version of it... :) I was devastated, but I still managed to use that sweet treat as the part of the dessert, I poured it over the squash pieces and covered it with the Kahlua whipped cream. It looked and tasted amazing. So what I am going to say is "be brave and creative, it works..."

  Anyways, after the Saturday dinner, Sunday was totally a relaxing, and a laid back day. I guess after all that "vino" that we consumed that was the expected consequence of it. :)



   Now it's another Monday, another workday... Have a wonderful week my dear friends...

   Talk to you soon... :)

Manti with browned butter

p.s. : if any of you wants any of these recipes, please feel free to ask me...



Stirring in the pumpkin seeds