Ramadan or Ramazan as we say in Turkish is a special time of the year, it is a test of will, self confidience and most of all being grateful for what one has in their lives.  Fasting – is to abstain oneself from food or eat very little or to not certain types of food.  When we do this, we truly understand the need of food in our bodies.

Table Sampler of Mejdool Dates, Pastirma, Black Olives, Meroli Olives, Feta Cheese 

Food is what empowers us and gives us energy, that is why for Iftar (breaking of the the fast) we cook several different types of foods.  These are the foods that we will share with our families, friends and neighbors. As the meaning and feasting of Ramadan has evolved, we tend prepare and cook traditional to non-traditional recipes.  Whats most important is understand is we must share, learn and be grateful.

Ramadan Around the World

Iftar Menu was specially prepared for Saudia Arabia TV KSA2

Red Lentil Soup - my first & favorite choice – Recipe Here
    

Salad - a nice green leaf salad with carrots & red onions - Recipe Here

Purslane Salad – Recipe Here

Lamb Shoulder Vegetable Stew – Recipe Here

Spiced Basmati Rice with Chicken – Recipe Here
 

Lemony Bulgur Pilaf – Recipe Here
 

Desserts – Recipe Here
Kataif 
 

Vanilla Pudding

 

This is not a simple chicken and rice dish, it is actually very flavourful and very filling. It is very simple to put together and serves very well.  Any sort of Indian rice works, it can be substituted with Jasmine rice or what ever sort of rice you prefer to use.  Just make sure to use the correct amount of water for the rice, other wise it will end up being soggy and mushy.

BASMATI RICE with CHICKEN, SAFFRON & SPICES

Ingredients
         For the Rice

• 2 cups of Basmati rice
• 4 tablespoons of canola oil
• 4 pods of cardamom – broken exposing the seeds
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 cups of chicken stock + 2 tablespoons of boiling water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3/4 teaspoon crumbled saffron threads
• 1 cup slivered almonds – toasted

         For the Chicken

• 1 5lb large chicken or 2 small 2-3lb chicken
• 5 cloves
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 8-10 cups of water

Preparation

Chicken
Place chicken in large cooking pot, add in water, cloves, cinnamon sticks and bring to a boil until chicken tender and easily comes of the bone. Cook for about 1.5 hours.

Remove cooked chicken from pot leave a side and let cool, making it easy for deboning. Strain 4 cups of the chicken water through a sieve – will be used in making the rice. Debone the chicken meat from the chicken bones breaking it into small pieces and set aside.

Basmati Rice
Soften saffron in hot water (2 tablespoons) in a small bowl.

In larger cooking pot over medium-high heat up the oil, add rice saute, stirring, until fragrant, about 2 minutes.

Add water 4, saffron mixture, cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low and cook, covered, until water is absorbed and rice is tender, 18 to 20 minutes. Let rice stand, covered, off heat 5 minutes.

Remove cinnamon sticks and cardamom pods.  Fluff rice with a fork and mix in the toasted almonds, add in the deboned chicken meat and mix gently. 

Plate & Serve warm.

Another Ramadan in the year 2010 is upon us.  I have several Ramadan recipes posted and hope to post several more before we leave for Turkey in September to celebrate Bayram, our joyous holiday with our families in Turkey.  

Wishing you all a safe, wordelful and prosperous start to Ramadan.  Wishing a peaceful, spiritual and food filled tables.

For all your Ramadan needs please visit us at A&D Turkish Meat Market.  We carry a large variety of foods that are essential during this time and hope that you find everything else that you may be looking for.

2010 NEW YORK IMSAKIYE – CLICK HERE                           2010 U.S.A. IMSAKIYE -  CLICK HERE

Eat, Pray, Eat

I’m having a celebration in my mouth with these mouth watering Turkish style paninis.  That melt in your mouth kashkaval with slices sucuk or the piles of avocados, tomatoes and tulum cheese.  It reminds me of those summer night on Istiklal Caddesi, in the Taksim Square of Beyoglu, Istanbul.  The nights are long and toast lines are even longer.

Last year when in Turkey, I was 4 months pregnant and every night and every morning, all I wanted was Turkish panini with Kashkaval cheese.  I honestly could not have enough of it. I don’t know if it was the bread or cheese or air or the water.  I just wanted it, with an ice cold  glass of Ayran, cold yogurt drink or few slices of watermelon.  I can sit here and taste it in my mouth.

Info:

Kashkaval Cheese:  is a specific type of white or yellow mainly sheeps milk cheese. Can also be found to be made from cows milk, but with a different texture.  It resembles an Italian provolone-style cheese. .

Tulum Cheese: is different from kashkaval cheese. It has a crumbly texture, often found in a pale yellow or white color.  Depending on where it is made, it can be from sheeps and goats milk.  It sort of resembles feta but it is more pungent in taste.

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 Turkish Style Paninis
             with Kaskhaval & Sucuk
             with Tomato, Tulum Cheese & Avocado
Ingredients for Kaskhava & Sucuk: 
             makes 2 sandwiches

• 4 slices of bread – any kind you wish*
• 8 slices of Kaskhaval thinly sliced – the thinner the better cooks easily
• 8 slices of sucuk thinly sliced

Preparation:

1. Heat a panini grill.
2. Top one side of the bread with about 4 slices of Kaskhaval and 4 slices of sucuk.  Close the sandwich. Finish making the rest of the sandwiches.
3. Place it on the panini grill, grill until the cheese melts. About 4 to 5 minutes.
4. Remove from grill, let cool for several minutes.
5. Cut in half and serve.

Ingredients for Tulum, Avocado & Tomato:
              makes 2 sandwiches

• 4 slices of bread – any kind you wish*
• 1/2 an avocado thinly sliced
• 1 tomato thinly slices
• 4 thin slices of Tulum Cheese

Preparation:

1. Heat a panini grill.
2. Top one side of the bread with arrange the cheese on bottom, tomatoes and lately the avocados. Close the sandwich. Finish making the rest of the sandwiches.
3. Place it on the panini grill, grill until the cheese melts. About 4 to 5 minutes.
4. Remove from grill, let cool for several minutes.
5. Cut in half and serve.

**The bread can be buttered on both sides if you wish. Make sure to use salted butter.

This is the simplest & quickest recipe ever! Chop, saute and let cook! Cooks in less then 20 minutes and it tasted incredibly delicious.  It can be considered a quick pantry dish – now thats an idea.  I originally did not intend on making a meat dish for the breakfast.  See, I had a box of  mushroom in the fridge that needed to be used and I just quickly threw this together.  It would go great with a side of pasta or pilav, serve for lunch or dinner.

CHOPPED MEAT, POTATO & MUSHROOM DISH

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion chopped finely
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 box of mushroom – sliced thin or cut in quarters
• 2 potatoes – peeled and chopped into thin slices
• less then a 1lb. of ground chopped meat (beef or lamb – mix is fine)
• salt
• blackpepper
• 1 teaspoon of oregano – oregano compliments any meat dish very well.
• 1 teaspoon of sweet smoked paprika (optional)

Preparation:

1. In a medium skillet (with a cover) over medium heat, saute the chopped onion with the olive oil.  about 2-3 minutes
2. Add in the thinly sliced potatoes, mix and continue to saute. about 3-5 minutes.
3. Add in the chop meat – mix and continue to cook.  Breaking down the chop meat with your wooden spoon so you have small pieces of chopped meat. Not Chunks!
4. Once the chopped meat is half way cooked, add in your sliced mushroom and give it a nice stir.
5. Add in your salt, black pepper, oregano and paprika.  Mix well and cover the skilled let cook until the mushrooms and potatoes are soft. 

This morning as I was preparing this delightful Mother’s Day breakfast, I received tons of text messages from my friends wishing me a happy mothers day. Since it is my FIRST mother’s day it brought tears to my eyes, a sense of joy an unexplainable feeling.  Being a mother is an explainable feeling , it touches all aspects of your life.

On to the breakfast, I wanted to make it a special mother’s day BK, with the whole family and them some unexpected company.  It turned out to be an awesome.  Between the food, our conversations and Aleyna I did not want breakfast to be over.  Wishing you all a wonderful Mother’s Day.  I will post a recipe one day at a time – starting tomorrow with Potato au Gratin.

MY MOTHER’S DAY MENU

Before we get to the food – this a quick snap of the mother’s day gifts – Aleyna & I gave to our favorite mothers.

VEGETABLE QUICHE
        info: left the potato in the oven a bit long  wanting to serve it warm - the top crisped up more then it should have.

CUCUMBER & CHERRY HEIRLOOM TOMATO & RADISH SALAD

CHOPPED MEAT, POTATOE & MUSHROOM DISH

POTATO au GRATIN
       info: left the potato in the oven a bit long  wanting to serve it warm - the top crisped up more then it should have.

Along with Turkish style breakfast condiments – feta cheese, kasari, string cheeese, black olives, turkish brown olives (can’t recall the name), as well as our famous Turkish Tea & home made Baklava.

Excuse my absence please, between work, my cutie pie and home I’ve ignored this blog my mine.  Looking back I’ve been doing this for sometime, I apologize, but I really am busy.  Especially the last seven months I’ve been sleep deprived which makes me very unproductive at home.  Since the weather has been changing and since I’ve being shopping at this tiny farmer market on 52nd street, between 8th and 9th ave in New York City. A lot of changes have been happening - I’m cooking for us and my daughter. 

Last Wednesday morning before work, I popped in and purchased a large bag of small Italian eggplants and small stuffing green peppers.  Oh how delightful they looked, made me want to skip work and head home and start cooking.  I knew I wanted to cook them during the weekend, so Friday night after work, I stopped by the Three Guys from Brooklyn and picked up these delicious tomatoes.  I wish I could do all my shopping at Stiles, but I can only carry so much on public transportation.

I’ve made this dish once before but I forget, so opened by copy of  The Sultan’s Kitchen - A Turkish Cookbook by Ozcan Ozan, my only English written, Turkish cookbook.  I love this cook book – the cover is bent, the pages are stained – I need a new copy but I can’t let this one go, that’s how much I love it.

TURKISH STYLE STUFFED EGGPLANT ~ PATLICAN KARNIYARIK
                  adapted from The Sultan’s Kitchen – A Turkish Cookbook by Ozcan Ozan

Ingredients:
        Note: Recipe used 6 eggplants & 1lb of chopped meat – I used 10 eggplants and 2.5 lb of chopped meat.
                      Increased other ingredients amounts as well.

• 6 small Italian eggplants ( 6-7 inches long) about 2 1/2 – 3 lb.)
• 1/2 cup of olive oil or vegetable oil
• 3 small Italian green peppers of frying peppers
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil (instead of butter)
• 1 medium onion – grated 3/4 cup
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
• 4 medium tomatoes – 2 peeled & chopped – 2 cut into quarters
                      (I used a can of Contadina - diced tomatoes 14.5 oz)
• 1.5 pound ground lean lamb or beef 
                      (I had my father make it a light marble ground for flavor)
• 1/2 cup of finely chopped fresh Italian parsley - 
                       (I used 1 tbsp of dry parsley & 1 tbsp of dry oregano)
• 1/2 cup of finely chopped dill* – I opted the dill out.
• 1 cup of lamb stock – water is fine
• salt & pepper as per your taste

Preparation:
Note:

1. 1. Peel the eggplants lengthwise – I peeled them to look like PJs with stripes. Peel around the stems and leaving them intact.
2. Make a deep incision along the length of each eggplant, making sure not to cut all the way through it or the the ends.
3. Place the eggplants in a large bowl of generously salted water and set a side for 20 minutes.
4. Slice the green peppers length wise – as they will be used for garnish.
5. Slice the tomatoes in to quarter  – as they will be used for garnish.

Meat & Stuffing:

1. In a large sauce pan, heat up the olive oil over a medium heat, add the onion and garlic and cook gently for about 2 minutes or until soft – not brown.
2. Add the tomato paste and 1/2 of of chopped tomatoes and continue to cooking and stirring for 1 more minute.
3. Add in the ground meat, parsley, oregano or dill and stock or water.  Season well with salt and black peppers. Stir well, cover the saucepan and simmer for 15 min.
4. Once cooked, set the stuffing aside to cool.
5. Rinse and drain the eggplants, then gently squeeze out the excess water and pat them dry with a kitchen towel.
6. Heat the oil in a deep skillet over high heat and fry the eggplants until they’re lightly brown all over, about 2 min. (use more frying oil if not enough – eggplants love oil)
7. Remove the eggplants from the skillet and let them drain on paper towels.
8. Mr. Ozan fries the green peppers – I do not – I cut them length wise and use them as garnish and let them cook in the oven. (see instructions below)
9. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
10. Assembly:  In to a baking dish – I used my large Pyrex – lay the eggplants side by side, the cut side up.  Season with salt.
11. Using a tablespoon stuff them with the meat mixture until the cut opening are filled.  Fill each of the eggplants.
12. Arrange the quartered tomatoes on top and arrange the cut peppers either on top of the tomato or next to it.
13. Pour over the remaining cooking liquid from the stuffing.
14. Pour the remainder of the chopped tomatoes over the top and sides of the dish (this is optional)
15. Cover with wet parchment paper or with foil paper – as I did.
16. Bake for 40 minutes, until the eggplants are tender – you can make using fork to lightly poke or pull the eggplant from the center.
17. Serve warm with the pan juices spooned on top.

Afiyet olsun!