Night of the Henna ~ Kina Gecesi

Dating back to the beginnig of the Ottoman Empires, “The Night of the Henna” is traditionally the night before the wedding.  Friends, family and neighbors of the brige get together and dance (bellydance), sing and paint henna on first the brides hands then is it past on to each guest.

Because of time constraints the amount of work that is involved in preparing for the wedding in the states, we had the Kina Gece a week before the actual wedding.  

This “night of the henna” was a suprise for my cousin, Duriye and my aunt Melek, it really was a huGe suprise to them.  My aunt Havva and I started prepare a week in advance, it was actually very hard to keep it a suprise!  It was held at my aunt Havva’s house, the menu was huge as you shall see.  Our biggest concern was the weather, we had planned to have it in the backyard but the weather was very hot and humid, we prepared the food inside the house.  By late evening the weather had cooled and with a little bit of rain “meaning prosperity and wealth” when it rains on such events, we were able to paint the ”henna.”   

full dinner table over 20 different selection ~ all very healty

Dishes made by my mother. 

1. plain basmati rice with sauted halal chicken breast & pine nuts
2. saffron basmati rice with sauted halal chicken breast & carrots

1 n 2. meat stuffed grape leaves made by mother, aunt Melek & Duriye
(my mother tricked them into making the grape leaves!)

Dishes by my aunt Havva

1. Red Kidney Beans in Olive Oil
2. Fresh Flat Green Beans in Olive Oil

3. Charcoal Green Italian Pepper with tomatoe sauce
4. Rice Stuffed Eggplants ( Eggplants were Dry)

5. Rice stuffed colorful Small Holland Peppers
6. Charcoaled eggplant, red and yellow pepper salad

Dishes by me

1. Turkish tabouli ~ kisir - recipe can be found here.
2. Baby Spinach sauted in olive oil topped with pine nuts & yogurt

3. Red Lentil & Fine Cracked Whole Wheat Kofte (Mercimekli Kofte)
This was my first time making this dish, I obtained the recipe from a DURU cookbook I have.  DURU is a Turkish Food Product company.  All DURU products can be found at A&D Turkish Halal Meat & Grocery Market

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of red lentil
• 4 cups of water
• 2 cups of fine cracked whole wheat
• 2 yellow onions
• 1 tablespoon of tomatoe paste
• 1 tablespoon of red pepper paste
• 1 tablespoon of mild ajvar
• 1/2 cup of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of spanish red paprika
• 2 tablespoons of chilli pepper flakes (i used maras peppers)
• 1/2 cup of freshly chopped mint (can use 2 teaspoons of dry mint)
• 1/2 cup of freshly shopped parsley 
• 5 heads of fresh green onion (will need both white and green ends)
• 2 teaspoons of salt (can add more depending on your taste buds)

Preparation:

1. Wash the 1 cups of red lentils in a thin strainer and place in a deep cooking pot add the 4 cups of water and set to cook at a medium heat, until the lentils have absorbed most of the water. The lentils should look runny not completely dried out.

2. In a seperate dish, place the 2 cups of fine cracked whole wheat and salt.  Into this mixture, add in the cooked and runny red lentils and mix well.  Cover top with clear plastic wrap and set a side for 30 minutes.

3. Dice the yellow onions finely and saute with the half cup of olive oil, until the onions are translucent.  Add in the 1 tablespoons of the tomatoe paste, red pepper paste, and ajvar as well as the red paprika and chilli pepper flakes mix well.

4. After 30 minutes, add the onion mixture into your lentil mixture and mix well with your hands about 5 minutes until all the ingredients are absorbed.  (if the mixture feel hard, add in a 1/4 cups of hot boiling water and mix again, if the mixture is to runny add in a 1/4 cups of cracked whole wheat)

5. Dice the washed and cleaned fresh green onions, mint and pasley and add into your lentil mixture and mix well.

6. With your hands, form oval shaped koftes a bit larger then a walnut size.  Place on a red leaf lettuced platter and serve. 

4. Lebanese style tabouli
This was one of the simplest and quickest recipes of them all, I chopped all the parsley with my little cuisinart helper.
Note: I knew I would be using a lot of parsley, lettuce, mint and dill – I prewashed all my vegetables a head of time, before I started cooking.  Placed all of the vegetable on top of toweled dish and set a side till I knew I need use them.  This is a huge time saver and you avoid the excess moisture.

Tabouli ~ Lebanese Style

Ingredients:

• 3 bunches of washed and dried parsley = 5 cups
• 1/3 cup of fine cracked whole wheat (bulgut)
• 1/3 cup of boiling hot water
• 1/4 cups of fresh mint
• 5 heads of fresh green onions (both white and green ends)
• 2 medium size tomatoes
• 1 teaspoons of salt
• 1 teaspoons of all spice powder
• 1/3 cup of fresh lemon juice
• 1/3 cup of olive oil

Preparation:

1. Place the bulgur in a small bowl and 1/3 cup of boiling water and set a side

2. Chop all the parsley and mint (all stems removed) very finely (i used my little chopper for this~too much parsley ).  Place all the parsley in a deep mixing bowl, add in the bulgur and mix.

3. Chop the green onions and tomatoes very finely and add it into your parsley mixture and mix well.

4. Add the salt, all spice powder, lemon juice and olive oil and mixture well.  Place in a nice serving bowl and serve.

5. Top Favorite of the Night ~ labane & dill stuffed picked pepporcini’s
6. my favorite lettuce ~ red leaf (for turkish tabouli & red lentil patties)

From Sedef Bakery

Cheese, meat & spinach filled pies (aka boreks) were a special order from Sedef Bakery.  Sedef Bakery delivers to A&D Food Market every Saturday and Sunday, is available for sale along with SiMiT. 

On occasions like this, we prefer to order all sort of dough and pastry foods, it is convenient and delicious.