Ingredients:

• 3 medium yellow zucchini, cut into small quarters
• 3 medium green zucchini, cut into small quarters
• 2 large eggplants, cut into small quarters
• 3/4 cup of olive oil or vegetable oil
• salt for seasoning

Preparation:

1. Preheat to 450° – Position 1 rack in bottom third and 1 rack in top third of oven.
2. Wash and cut yellow zucchini in small quarters and place in large bowl.  Add 1/4 cup of oil and season with salt toss well to coat.
3. Arrange on to your baking sheet.
4. Wash and cut green zucchini in small quarters and place in large bowl.  Add 1/4 cup of oil and season with salt toss well to coat.
5. Arrange on to your baking sheet.
6. Wash and peel the every other skin of the eggplant, cut into small quarters and place in large bowl.  Add 1/4 cup of oil and season with salt toss well to coat.
7. Arrange on to your baking sheets.
8. Arrange baking sheets in the oven. Bake all vegetables until tender and slightly charred, stirring occasionally, about 25 – 35 minutes longer.  For the last 5 minutes, turn on your oven broiler and leave the vegetables to char lightly on top.
9. Arrange vegetables on large platter. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Sauce:

• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 cups of yogurt
• salt
• mint

1. Dice the garlic into tiny pieces or press through a garlic presser. Place in a mixing bowl.
2. Add in the yogurt and a little bit of salt and mix well.
3. Lightly drizzle mint on top and serve.

A New Year and new hopes, dreams, ideas, invites and cooking adventures.  To start of the New Year right, I invited my aunt Havva’s family along with my parents to host a traditional Turkish sit down dinner.  Since my aunts father in law is visiting and he visits so rarely I took upon this opportunity to host a graceful dinner.  In rare occasions like this,  I love our Turkish hospitality.  When great friends and/or immediate families are visiting we take the opportunity to invite them to our homes and show our respects.  If anyone of you have visited Turkey, I am sure you have experienced this first hand.  It is such a warm, humble and welcoming feeling.  For me this dinner was a special one because Grandfather Haci Muzaffer, resembles my own late grandfather in more then one way.  As he sat, chatted and played with daughter I thought about my own grandfather and how delighted I would have been to have him here with us.

Since it the New Year and we are all weight and health continuous, I opted to keep the menu light and yet still delicious. The above picture is Meat Dolma made by mom.

Middle Eastern aka Gray Squash – Stuffed with chopped meat, onions, pine nuts

Oven Roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes with Rosemary 

Brussels sprouts with onions & carrots

Oven roasted, Yellow & Green Zucchinis and Oven roasted Eggplant

Not Pictured but served along with:

Turkish Peasant Soup
Turkish Style Lamb Chops
Jasmine Rice cooked Turkish Style
Which recipes would you like first? Please leave a comment below.

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!

This post is long over due, way too many things are going I just don’t know where to catch up from.  At least for now I have sometime, in the coming months I am guessing I will be all over the place.

Last night I was watching the Food Network, a new show called Extreme Cuisine: Jeff Corwin and for this episode the host Jeff was in Morocco.  It was beautiful to see the different regions of Morocco and the different regional foods they were able to catch, prepare, cook and eat with their hands.  Aside from the sight seeing and food cooking, I must say he is one brave man, at one point in the program he drank camels milk, straight from the camel.  It was one of those way too awesome moments, for Jeff and “Jacqueline the camel”.  Honestly his enthusiam motivated me to get up and post this recipe.  Sometimes we all need that bit of motivation.

FRESH LAMB LOIN CHOPS – 1 inch thick – from the butcher at A&D Food Market

MOROCCAN COUSCOUS

Ingredients:

• 8 pieces of lamb loin chops
• 2 white Spanish onions
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 jalapeno peppers
• 2 cans of chick peas (garbanzo beans)
• 4 large carrots
• 6 Mediterranean squash (regular green squash – zucchini works great as well)
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon of pepper paste
• 1/3 cup of olive oil
• 5 - 6 cups of water or vegetable broth

Spice Mixture:

• 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon of cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of all spice
• 1 teaspoon of paprika
• 1 teaspoon of oregano
• pinch of Saffron
• 3 bay leaves dry
• salt (as per your taste)

Preparation:

1. In a deep cooking pot, heat up the olive oil and slowly add in the lamb chops, covering the bottom of the pan completely.  Letting one side cook for about 3-5 minutes. Using a pair of thongs, lift up the lamb chop, it should lift up easily and have formed a nice golden brown crust.  Turn the lamb chop on to the other side and let it continue to cook for 3-5 minutes.  This side should also form a nice golden crust. 
   Cook the lamb chops in batches, do not over load the bottom of your pan at once. Once the first batch is cooked, add in the second batch.
   Place each cooked piece of lamb chop on a separate dish and set a side.
2. In the mean time, begin dicing your onions, garlic and jalapenos.  Completely remove the seeds of the jalapeno.
   To remove the seeds of the jalapenos without burning yourself, either wear gloves or completely cover your hands with cooking oil.  Once you have done this, you can easily remove the hot seeds.  Once done, wash your hands thoroughly with soap.
3. Once all the pieces of the lamb chops are braised, add in the chopped onions into the pot, letting the onions saute until they become nice and translucent.
4. Then add in your diced jalapeno peppers and garlic and saute for a couple of minutes.  Then add in your tomato and red pepper paste and continue to saute until everything is nicely blended.
5. In the mean time, in a small bowl, mix in all the spices and set aside.
6. Once the onions and jalapenos have become translucent, add in the braised lamb chops that you had set aside, into the bottom of the pan. (see pic below)
7. Add in the first 5 cups of your water, along with the spice mixture and give the pot a nice stir.  Let this begin to cook and in the mean time start to prepare your vegetables.
   The meat will take longer to cook then the fresh vegetables, this means we will let the meat cook first. I cooked the meat for about 1.5 to 2 hours at a medium to high heat.  Once the meat cooks through completely, we will add in the rest of the ingredients.
8. Wash and peel the carrots and cut into 3 even sizes.  Wash and cut the heads of the Mediterranean squash only, leaving them in one whole piece.  Drain the cans of chick peas and set everything side. 
9. An hour in the cooking add in the carrots, because carrots need to tenderize and will take longer to cook then the rest of the ingredients.
10. An 1.5 to 2 hours into cooking, poke the lamb chops with a fork and if the meat is soft and tender and should be easily falling of the bone, this means the meat is cooked and we can add in the remaining ingredients.
11. Add in the drained chick peas and the squash and stir everything well and let this cook for another half hour. (Taste the water to see if the needs a bit more salt.  If the water is low, add in the extra cup of water)
12. To double check everything is cooked through, using a fork, poke into the meat, the squash and carrots the fork should insert easily in and out.  The chick peas do not take long to cook, as they are precooked.
13. Serve hot and enjoy!

Couscous Recipe 
                     Simple and quick

Ingredients

1. 2 cups of fine couscous – I used Tria brand
2. 2 cups of water
3. salt
4. 1/4 teaspoon of unsalted butter

Preparation

1. Bring the 2 cups of water to a boil, add in the salt and butter.
2. Once the water has begun boiling add in the couscous. Close the pot with its cover and remove from heat.  Let the couscous absorb all the water and let it sit for approx 5 minutes.
3. Once the couscous has absorbed all the water, using a fork fluff and mix the couscous.

Plating:
        If you wish to plate everything all at once, choose to use a wide and large dish.  Plate the cooked couscous on the bottom first creating a whole in the center.  Then start to plate around the meat and vegetables and chick peas around the couscous and in the center as well.  Using ladle the water from the pot, all around the dish. Serve hot and enjoy! 

BRAISE THE LAMB CHOPS IN YOUR BIG COOKING POT

BRAISED LAMB CHOPS TAKING OUT OF THE POT

SAUTEE THE WHITE ONIONS UNTIL TRANSLUCENT

ADD IN THE DICED JALAPONE WITH THE TOMATO & PEPPER PASTE

ADD BACK IN THE BRAISED LAMB CHOPS

LAMB LOIN CHOPS IN WATER WITH SPICE MIXTURE

COOKING LAMB CHOPS WITH VEGETABLES