Turkish Zucchini Fritters (Kabak Mücveri)

I have made mücver throughout the summer without following a recipe and each time making differently. This version, by far has been the tastiest one. Most of the time, I do not add white cheese and I think I will never make them again without it. The cheese adds such a wonderful flavor. I was already full when I made these, but I couldn’t resist so I ate two while making them. These are also great for little children who usually would not eat zucchinis. Enjoy!

3 zucchinis

1 medium onion

2 cloves garlic (optional)

½ cup chopped fresh parsley

½ cup crumbled Turkish white cheese (or feta)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp dried mint

1 tsp crushed red pepper

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp cumin

2 eggs

1 cup flour

1 cup olive oil

Peel the zucchinis in stripes and grate them along with the onion. Squeeze all the juice out from the zucchinis and the onion. Add the rest of the ingredients except the olive oil. Mix well.

Heat about ¼ cup of oil and place spoonful of the zucchini mixture. 

Cook several minutes on each side until both sides are golden brown. 

Remove and add another ¼ cup of olive oil for the next batch. Repeat this until all the olive oil and the zucchini mixture is used up.

Serve with yogurt garlic sauce (crushed garlic mixed with yogurt) at room temperature.

Eggplant with Green Lentils (Mualla/Yeşil Mercimekli Patlıcan)

Eggplant is one of my favorite summer vegetables. I don’t seem to be cooking with it as much now since my kids don’t love it. One day, I really craved eggplants so I decided to make something saucy with eggplants. This recipe is traditionally made in Hatay/Antakya (Antioch) region and it is just incredibly delicious. The pomegranate molasses gives it such a good kick. It is particularly delicious with flat bread, but I served it with rice, instead of bread.

2 large eggplants

3 large tomatoes (peeled and diced)

3-4 green peppers (cut in fourths and sliced)

1 large onion (cut in fourths and sliced)

4 cloves garlic (chopped)

1 cup green lentils

1 tbsp red pepper paste

2 tsp crushed red peppers

1 tsp dried mint

1 tsp sumac

2 tsp salt

¼ cup pomegranate molasses

½ tsp thyme

¾ cup olive oil

Peel the eggplants in stripes. Cut each eggplant in eights and slice diagonally. 

Fill a large pot with cold water and add salt. Place the sliced eggplants in salty water and let sit for an hour.

Wash the lentils and place in a small pot. Add two cups of water and boil for 35-40 minutes or until the lentils absorb all the water and are soft.

In a large bowl, combine the cooked lentils, green peppers, tomatoes, onions, garlic, sumac, mint, crushed red pepper, red pepper paste, thyme and pomegranate molasses. 

Drain the eggplants and set aside. In the bottom of a large pot place half the lentil mixture. 

Place the eggplant slices on top of the mixture and pour the rest of the lentil mixture on the top. Drizzle with olive oil.

 

Cook on stove top for 15 minutes on high heat and then turn down the heat and cook for 1 hour. Enjoy with rice.

Baked Pastry with Leeks and Chard (Fırında Pırasalı ve Pazılı Börek)

With winter comes, my favorite winter vegetables: chard and leeks. I started buying chard and leeks because of their nutritional value which I feed my little kids on a weekly basis. I grew up eating chard which I was not fond of but my mother only made it with a yogurt soup with grain which is eaten cold. I don’t recall eating it any other way. For böreks, my mother only used spinach and never chard. After I learned cooking many years later, I tried böreks with Swiss chard and regular chard and I was very happy with the results. This time I wanted to add leeks since I had them on hand and really it was so light and delicious!

I prepared the stuffing ahead of time and froze it as it is almost impossible for me to make everything the same day with two little kids and work.  I made the dough the same day I made the böreks and the stuffing tasted as if fresh. We all enjoyed them; especially my boys. They kept wanting more and more. Even though I was in a hurry when making them and didn’t take very good pictures, I think the pictures are acceptable and will explain the steps pretty well.

Caveat: You will most likely have leftover dough. I could have adjusted the proportions for the recipe, but I did not want to do that without really trying it. You can use the left over dough for any type of stuffing you like or even a small pizza.

Now it’s time for the recipe.

For the Dough:

6 ¼ cups white flour

2 ½ cups warm water

1½ tsp yeast (optional)

2 tsp salt

1 tbsp red pepper paste (optional or red pepper can be substituted)

1 tbsp olive oil

1/3 cup olive oil for brushing boreks

½ cup flour for rolling

For the Stuffing:

2 bunches of chard (around 10 chard leaves)

2 leeks

2 garlic cloves

1/3 cup olive oil

1 tsp cumin

1 ½ tsp red pepper flakes

¼ tsp black pepper

1 ½ tsp salt

Prepare the Dough:

Let yeast sit in warm water for 25-30 minutes until it bubbles.

Using a Stand Mixer: 

Attach the dough hook to the stand mixer. Add the flour, salt, red pepper paste and olive oil in the mixer bowl and run it on stir. Gradually add the yeasty water. Change the speed to 2 and let it knead the dough until it is soft. It should take less than five minutes. Cover with a damp cloth and let it sit for two hours.

Manually:

Add the flour, salt, red pepper paste, olive oil and half of the water and start kneading. Add the rest of the yeasty water gradually and continue to knead until soft dough is attained. It should take about 15-20 minutes. Cover with a damp cloth and let it sit for two hours.

Prepare the Stuffing:

Remove stems of chard from leaves.  

First steam stems of chard until soft as they will take longer to cook than the leaves. Remove and steam chard leaves until wilted. Chop both stems and leaves small.

Slit leeks in half and wash thoroughly several times to remove all the dirt between the layers. 

Chop finely. Heat olive oil in a pan. Sauté leeks first for 4-5 minutes. 

Add chopped chard, garlic, cumin, salt, pepper flakes and black pepper. Stir for a couple minutes and remove from heat and cool.

Prepare softball size dough balls and sit aside. 

Take about 2 tbsp of flour and place on the dough rolling surface. Take one of the balls and place it on top of the flour. Add another 2 tbsp of flour on top of the dough ball. 

Flatten with your fingers and start rolling. 

Make the pastry 9-10 inches in diameter, smaller if smaller pastries are desired. 

Add 3 tbsp of the stuffing in the middle of the rolled dough and fold the outer 1 inch from the left, right and the bottom to create a triangle. 

Place on a baking sheet and brush with olive oil. Repeat until all the dough and the stuffing are used up.

Heat up oven to 375º. Bake for 15-25 minutes or until the böreks take a golden color. 

Enjoy with hot tea or with cold yogurt or yogurt drink. 

Zucchinis with Lentils (Mercimekli Kabak)

Another favorite summer time vegetable: zucchini. Without planning, I end up buying zucchinis every week in the summer since they are in season. Almost every time, I cook them in tomato sauce either with ground beef, with lentils or just with carrots and tomatoes. They’re delicious in my opinion. Although, I used to almost hate them when I was little. When I find myself with little time to cook, I slice them and broil them and they still taste great. So this recipe is one of my favorite ones with zucchinis. A side of rice would go perfectly with this light recipe.

4 zucchinis

3 carrots (shredded)

4 tomatoes (peeled and diced)

3 cloves garlic (crushed)

3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1 small onion (shredded)

¾ cup brown lentils (soaked for 1 hour)

1/3 cup olive oil

2 tbsp tomato sauce

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp red pepper flakes

¼ tsp ground black pepper

1 ½ tsp salt

2 cups water

Cut each zucchini in half lengthwise. Then, cut each half in half again ending up in four pieces. Chop the quartered zucchini ending up in large dices.

Heat olive oil. Saute the onions for 3-4 minutes or until transparent. Add carrots and continue sautéing for 2-3 more minutes. Add garlic and lentils. Cook for 3 minutes while continuing to stir. Add tomatoes and cook for 15 minutes with lid covered. Add tomato sauce and water and cook for 5 more minutes. Add zucchini and stir well. Cover and cook for 45 minutes on medium to low heat. Add the parsley and stir just before removing from the stove.

Yogurt with Spinach (Ispanaklı Cacık)

One day while looking through my fridge and figuring out the inventory, I noticed that I had 2 bunches of fresh spinach that I had intended to make börek with but still were sitting there. I did not find the time to make an elaborate meal such as börek, so I decided to find a simpler use before they went bad. They still looked good and fresh but still, I prefer cooking vegetables very soon after they’re purchased. I had some store-bought organic plain yogurt on hand which I am not fond of using. I used to make yogurt weekly because I think it is the best. I have tried probably most of the organic yogurt brands on the market, but nothing beats the yogurt made at home. When things get busy it is not always convenient to make yogurt at home, so I had to go with what was available to me that day.  In any case, I decided to empty some of the yogurt containers on hand in a bowl and make a ‘cacık’ with spinach instead of the traditional ingredient of cucumber. It turned out very good actually. It’s so quick to make and it is very refreshing especially during the summer months. We enjoyed it and hope that you enjoy it too.

2 bunches fresh spinach (approximately 2 lbs)

6 cups plain yogurt
3-4 large cloves of garlic
1 tsp dried mint
1 tsp salt

Steam the spinach for a couple minutes until it is wilted. Remove from pot and run under cold water. Squeeze the excess water with both hands. Coarsely chop the spinach and place in a large bowl.

Crush the garlic with a garlic presser or chop very finely. Add to the spinach. Add yogurt, mint and salt and mix until all ingredients become slightly runny.

Enjoy cool with your favorite meal or as an afternoon snack.

Cabbage in Tomato Sauce (Kapuska)

Growing up cabbage was one of the vegetables I disliked the most next to cauliflower. Never did I enjoy any type of meal that contained cabbage. Forgetting my dislike for cabbage after many years, I started cooking with cabbage and now it is actually one of my favorite vegetables. Besides stuffed cabbage, this is one of my favorite cabbage recipes. Very simple to prepare, yet it is delicious. After having this plain with rice for dinner, the next day I boiled pasta and added it to this cabbage meal. It became pasta with cabbage sauce. It worked perfectly! Many people add rice or meat to this recipe. I will post a meat version of it at another time.

1 green medium cabbage
¼ cup chopped onion
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper

Cut cabbage in half. Slice each half and set aside. Heat olive oil. Saute the onions until translucent. Add tomato paste and stir. Add cabbage, salt and pepper and sauté for 5 minutes. Cook covered for 5 minutes on medium heat. Remove cover, stir and cook for another 5 minutes. Enjoy warm with pasta or rice.

Eggplant with Lentils (Mercimekli Patlıcan)

Summer time is a great time for the rich selection of fresh vegetables. My refrigerator is always stocked with eggplants, green peppers and tomatoes during the summer months when they are in season since these three vegetables are frequently used in Turkish cooking. Of the three vegetables, the eggplant is a star vegetable as the main ingredient in Turkey since it produces so many different varieties of delicious recipes. And the tomato and pepper just go perfectly with it.

I have already shared a few eggplant recipes on my blog and here is another one. Different people in Turkey make this recipe differently but they all taste good at the end. Many slice the eggplant and stew it with the rest of the ingredients. My approach is similar to ‘imam bayıldı’ recipe where the eggplant is still attached at the top but cut into fourths in the bottom. My mother makes it both ways so I tried this version first.

If you’re looking for a nutritious and succulent meal, this works perfectly. With pilaf and yogurt on the side, it tastes even better.


6 medium eggplants
4 medium tomatoes (chopped)
1 green pepper (chopped)
½ cup brown lentils (soaked overnight)
2 cloves garlic (chopped)
¼ medium onion or small shallot (chopped)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 tbsp red pepper paste
1 tbsp tomato paste
¼ tsp ground black pepper
1 cup water

Wash the eggplants, cut the stems and peel them in stripes (about 1 inch stripes). They will have one purple stripe and one yellowish (the peeled part) stripe. Slit the eggplant lengthwise in 4 pieces without detaching the top portion. The eggplant should have four long pieces that are attached at the stem. Fry the eggplants partially in the olive oil (less than 2 minutes). Remove and set aside.

Add onion and garlic to the pot and sauté until translucent. Add the soaked lentils, chopped tomatoes, green pepper, salt, black pepper, red pepper paste, tomato paste and stir. Simmer covered for 15 minutes on low heat until the lentils are slightly soft.

Add the partially fried eggplants back to the pot along with the water. Stir well to make sure the ingredients are incorporated into the eggplant. Cook for 30-40 minutes on low heat. Serve with rice pilaf and plain yogurt.

Spinach and Feta Borek (Ispanaklı ve Beyaz Peynirli Börek)

Two years ago, I made a spinach and feta börek and prepared the recipe and all the pictures step by step and never got around to publishing it. Just recently, I made this börek and documented it again. This time, I made a few changes in the recipe and I decided to publish this version instead of the previous one. The taste of this one surpassed the previous one, so I decided to publish this version.

Note: The Phyllo dough sheets can be found in the frozen section of most markets. If the Pyhllo sheets are too big for the tray or Pyrex dish you are using, the phyllo sheets can be folded to reach the size of the baking dish.

1 package Phyllo sheets
½ cup yogurt
½ cup olive oil
1 egg


For the Filling:

2 bunches fresh spinach (approximately 2 lb)
2 cloves of garlic (chopped fine)
2 shallots (chopped fine)
1 cup feta cheese (crumbled)
¼ cup olive oil
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp salt (if the feta cheese is not too salty)
Pinch of black sesame seeds

Preparation of Filling:

Wash the spinach thoroughly. In a large pot, boil water and add the spinach in the boiled water for 2 minutes. Do not keep them in the boiled water long as their texture will become mushy. Immediately run the spinach under cold water in order to stop the cooking process. Create small balls from the spinach and give them a nice squeeze to remove the excess water in the spinach. Chop each spinach ball coarsely and with your hands, separate the spinach leaves from each other as sticking together will hinder the salt and spices to get inside the spinach.

Heat olive oil in a large pan. Add onions and garlic and sauté for 2-4 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Add the spinach to the onions and garlic. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the cheese for the filling and sauté for 5-6 minutes. Make sure the salt, cumin, black and cayenne peppers are distributed evenly in the spinach.

Remove the spinach filling from heat and let it cool. When the filling cools down, add the crumbled feta cheese. If the feta is very salty, no salt is needed for the filling as feta cheese may compensate for the salt.


Putting All Ingredients Together:

In a deep bowl, add the yogurt, olive oil and egg. Mix vigorously until all three ingredients are mixed well.

Using a brush, spread a small amount of the yogurt-olive oil-egg mixture in a large Pyrex dish. This is to prevent the Phyllo sheets from sticking to the Pyrex dish.

Open the Phyllo dough package. Place a damp cloth on top so that the Phyllo sheets do not dry out. These are the same dough sheets that are used for baklava.

Place one sheet of the Phyllo dough in the Pyrex dish. Dip the brush in the yogurt-olive oil-egg mixture and brush the Phyllo sheet. Do this one by one until half of the Phyllo sheets are used up. After half of the phyllo sheets are layered, spread the spinach filling on top. Add another sheet of the phyllo sheet on top of the filling and brush with the yogurt-olive oil-egg mixture. Continue the process of brushing each Phyllo sheet and placing them on top of each other until all the Phyllo sheets are used up. If you have any of the yogurt-olive oil-egg mixture left over, pour it on top and spread it evenly with a brush. The result will be a spinach filling in the middle of the layered phyllo sheets. Half of the phyllo sheets will be in the bottom of the filling and the other half will be on top of the filling.Sprinkle black sesame seeds on top.

Bake at 350º F in the middle rack of the oven for 40 minutes or until golden brown. Let it cool before cutting, otherwise the bottom part of the börek may get soggy.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Dandelion Salad (Hindiba Salatası)

The taste of dandelions my mother picked selectively from the weeds from our garden many years ago has been active in my palate since childhood. After developing a curiosity for cooking, the name of this wild weed that tasted superb was a question in my head. I had guessed that it may have been dandelions, but to me dandelions were bitter weeds that are not very tasty. I purchased them every once in a while just because they were extremely healthy. One day, it was confirmed that the unforgotten weed with a delicious taste reminiscent from my childhood was indeed dandelion and I was not cooking it properly. The good taste of this green weed wasn’t being maximized. The secret was the way it was prepared. I remember every single ingredient in that dandelion salad my mother made when I was still a kid so, I decided to recreate it to acquire the same exact taste.

Most of the dandelions that were available to me at grocery stores and the farmer’s market were more mature and hence chewy. Luckily, recently I found young, whole dandelions not separated by the leaves at my favorite grocery store. The dandelions in my memory were cooked as a whole with all the leaves attached since they were young and tender. The salad in this recipe turned out to be almost free of the bitter taste and very appetizing.

2 bunches dandelions (approx. 2 lb)
3 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp red pepper flakes
½ tsp paprika
¼ cup olive oil
2 ½ tbsp pomegranate molasses

Wash dandelions thoroughly and cut off the roots. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Boil the dandelions for 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and run cold water over the cooked greens to stop the cooking process. Cool and drain. Gently squeeze the dandelions to remove excess water and place in a bowl. Add the garlic, olive oil, salt, red pepper flakes, paprika and the pomegranate molasses. Toss and serve at room temperature.

Note: If the leaves are tough, they should be discarded as they will be chewy. Young dandelions should be picked.

Green Olives Salad (Yeşil Zeytin Salatası)

One of the indispensible food items for breakfast in Turkey is olives. Whether green or black, plain or with sauce, olives must exist on every Turkish person’s breakfast table. In order to break away the bitterness, green olives are cracked but still served as a whole with the pit. In smaller towns, families purchase large quantities of fresh olives once a year which they crack and cure for the year’s supply. Black olives are not pitted or cracked and cured in such away that there is no trace of the bitterness.

I personally find much more flavor in cracked green olives that are not commercially pitted. If using for salad, I usually pit them myself. Pitted olives rarely enter my house as I think that most of the flavor is diminished when the pit is removed commercially. We purchase some very good quality olives here in the States that are not cracked (can’t find cracked ones) and not pitted and I find them a little bitter. Therefore each time I visit Turkey, I bring cracked green olives with me. The following olive salad is made with olives I brought with me during my recent visit to my hometown in Turkey. Our favorite time to eat olives is breakfast/brunch, but olive salad can be eaten as appetizer or side dish during lunch or dinner. Preferably use fresh thyme for this salad. I did not have any fresh thyme on hand so I used home dried thyme that my mother brought with her last year during her visit.

2 cups green olives (pitted)
1 ½ tbsp pomegranate molasses or lemon juice
½ tbsp red pepper paste
1 tbsp olive oil
1 ½ tbsp thyme leaves (fresh preferable)

Wash and drain olives. Add pomegranate molasses, red pepper paste and olive oil. If using dried thyme, crumble with hands over olives. If using fresh thyme add whole leaves. Toss together and serve.

Baked Pasta (Fırında Peynirli Makarna)

Here is a comforting recipe...

For the Sauce:

3 cups grated kaseri (similar to keskeval cheese)
2 ¼ cups milk
3 cloves of garlic (chopped finely)
3 tbsp flour
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp dried parsley
½ tsp red pepper flakes
¼ tsp ground black pepper
½ tbsp salt


For Boiling the Pasta:

1 box Penne Rigate pasta (the pasta that is shaped like a cylinder and cut diagonally)
1 tsp oil
1 tsp salt


In a large pot, boil water. Add pasta to boiling water and follow cooking directions. Usually this kind of pasta requires about 12-13 minutes. Add a little of oil and a pinch of salt so that the pasta does not stick together while cooking.

In the mean time, heat olive oil on medium heat, in a deep pan. Add garlic and sauté for about 2 minutes. Add the milk, parsley, salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes prior to adding flour. Stir the ingredients for a minute and add flour. Stir constantly so that the flour does not produce lumps. Keep stirring until the sauce thickens slightly.

Preheat oven to 350º F. Once the pasta is cooked, drain and spread in a Pyrex dish. Pour the white sauce over the pasta and mix. Sprinkle the cheese on top and place on the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 20 minutes or until the top of the pasta starts to take a brownish color.

Green Bean with Olive Oil (Zeytinyağlı Taze Fasülye)

In my opinion, cooking vegetables in season makes a big difference in the taste of a dish. I try to purchase vegetables and fruits in season because I believe they are fresher and taste better. One of those vegetables that I prefer in season is green beans. There are already a few other green bean recipes posted on Turkish Food Passion and here is one more! It’s light, delicious and healthy green which is usually eaten cold or at room temperature. It can be served as a salad, appetizer or a side dish.

1 lb green beans
2 large ripe tomatoes (peeled and sliced)
2 shallots (sliced)
2 cloves garlic (chopped)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp salt
¼ cup water
¼ tsp ground black pepper

Remove the ends of the beans and cut in thirds. Heat olive oil in a large pan. Sauté garlic and shallots until shallots are transparent. Add beans to the pan and mix. Cook for 5 minutes stirring a few times. Add salt, black pepper, vinegar and water. Arrange the tomatoes on top of the beans and cook for 30 minutes on medium heat. Lower heat and cook another 30 minutes. Let it cool and serve cold.

Eggplant Salad (Patlıcan Salatası)

Today, I almost published a delightful, new cake recipe that I came up with last week. However, the pictures of the cake could have turned out a little better, so I will have to make this cake again sometime soon since there is no more cake now to photograph again. Instead, I will leave you with a common Turkish appetizer; eggplant salad. Since the summer has started to show its signs in most places, the markets are now full of seasonal vegetables, such as eggplant which is widely employed in Turkish cooking.

This salad is mainly served as an appetizer, but I don’t always follow rules, so eat it as you wish. You may eat it as an appetizer, as a side dish or even as a main meal.

4 medium eggplants
2 Anaheim peppers
3 small tomatoes
1 shallot (chopped)
2 garlic cloves (chopped)
¼ cup parsley (chopped)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 ¼ tsp salt
½ tsp paprika
½ tsp red pepper flakes
¼ tsp ground black pepper

Puncture the eggplants and peppers with a knife. Place in a baking tray along with the tomatoes and broil until both sides of each vegetable are soft.
Remove and cool. Peel eggplant, tomatoes and peppers and dice after removing the seeds from the peppers.
Heat olive oil in a medium pot. Add the shallots and garlic until onions are transparent. Add the diced eggplants, green peppers and tomatoes. Stir and add salt, red pepper flakes and ground black pepper and cook on low for about 30 minutes. Just before removing from heat, add the chopped parsley and stir. Cool and refrigerate for at least five hours before serving. Enjoy with a warm piece of bread as an appetizer, salad or side dish.