This year for mother’s day, we had plans to go out to one of favorite Turkish cafe’s called Istanbul Borek in Cliffside, New Jersey.  At the last minute my mother and my aunts had a change of heart.  At 10:00 pm Saturday night, I said okay we are having a grand breakfast at my house!  So, Saturday night I stayed up past my bed time to put a simple and relaxed breakfast table together.  I love last minute get togethers and I love the adrenaline rush that come with it.  So, late Sunday morning I set the table and early Sunday morning I started cooking.  By the end of it all, I was beat but my mom, my aunts along with my daughter, brother and cousins were incredibly delighted.  Especially my daughter, ask her how she spend her mother’s day and she will name everyone that came over.

Platter of goodies include: Pastirma, Turkish Fresh Kasari, Halal Mortadella with Pistacio, Bulgarian Feta & Marinated Mushrooms.  

For breakfast: Turkish Rolls, Frittata With Peppers and Peas , Halal Smoked Turkey Sausage Saute 

 
Turkish Borek with Spinach & Feta Cheese Filling - Recipe from Feride’s Azcookbook

The biggest hit of them all: Can Erik or Sour Plums

Can Erik is not from Turkey, rather from California.  It can be found in many of the vegetable & Middle Eastern stores in Bay Ridge & Coney Island, Brooklyn.  As well as many of the grocery and vegetable stores in New Jersey.  I do not know where in Manhattan it can be found, if any one comes across them please leave a comment below.

During the week night, I hunt for easy and quick recipes to make, for essence of time and for simple clean up.  I think it’s the clean up process that consumes most my time after cooking.  How can one person go through so many pots and pans and utensil while cooking.  Well, I can assure you, I am way better then before! I think so, but my mother tells me otherwise! That’s why dishwasher were invented right? 

This is a simple dish to make and the clean up is even simpler ’cause everything is cooked in a single pot.  A side from its simplicity, this recipe contains something from all food groups and the ingredients could not be any healthier.  The dish can be a great vegetarian recipe minus the chopped meat.

Home Made Yogurt Recipe

Zucchini with Chopped Meat

Ingredients:

• 2 medium size onions – diced
• 2 cloves of garlic – minced
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 250 grams, 1 cup or .75 lb of chopped meat – beef or lamb
• 4 medium size green zucchini – diced into quarters
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
• 1/4 cup of white rice – rinsed
• salt
• yogurt for dressing & dry mint for seasoning

Preparation:

1. In a deep cook pot over a medium flame, heat up the olive oil.  Add in the diced onions and saute for several minutes.  Add garlic and let saute for a couple of more minutes.
2. Add in your chopped meat and break into tiny pieces with your wooden spoon.  Flavoer with a small pinch of salt and mix well with the onions and let cook until the chopped meat is cooked through.
3. Once the meat has cooked, add in the tablespoon of tomato paste and stir into the meat mixture.
4. Add in your quartered zucchinis along with the rinsed white rice, add salt (as per taste) and give the pot a nice stir.
5. Cook till the zucchini is soft and turns to a lighter greenish brown color, about 30-40 minutes, stiring occasionally.  *No need to add water, the excess water released from the zucchini will cook the rice.
6. Once cooked, let cool for several minutes, ladle into a serving dish, top with a couple spoons of yogurt & sprinkle with dry mint.

Afiyet Olsun! Enjoy!

Sometime things in life require more time then one actually thinks it is necessary.  I for one can really vouch for this.  I really did not  intended to take a break from blogging because I made a great promise to myself that I would blog and write more recipes this year then the years before.  I truly am hoping to stick to this routine or get myself into a routine, I’ve yet to figure it out.  I’m coming along, hopefully this will show through.

While I was not blogging, I really was busy in real-life working on this big project, as well on twitter and instagram, check me out and follow me!  Lately work has been crazy busy, my daughters list of things to do are growing everyday and in the coming weeks my husbands off to Turkey again.  Today I was telling him, maybe I should come with you too!  Seriously speaking I can not right now and he knows that, just the idea of it seems so nice.  I can dream about it right, yet Istanbul, Yalova, and Samsun  Turkey really feel far away for me this year.  Never the less, I am grateful for the wonderful things I have in my life!

Any who, I am busy but that does not mean I’ve stopped cooking, well I sort have in a good way though, I’m baking and I am baking with Joy the Baker Cookbook! Which is totally an awesome and simple bakers cookbook!  I’ve baked a few of the variety of cakes and so far this seems to be big hit in my house hold, even my daughter ate a slice and that is totally so rare. So thanks Joy for an awesome recipe.

Chocolate Bundt Cake with Chocolate Sour Cream Glaze
adapted from Joy the Baker Cookbook by Joy Wilson

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

• 1 + 1/4 cups hot prepared coffee** I used instant coffee & worked great!
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 + 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1+  1/4 teaspoon salt (fine or kosher)
• 2 + 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 + 1/4 cups sour cream
• 1 cups plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (1 cup was suffice for me)

For the Glaze:

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
• 1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate
• 4 tablespoons hot prepared coffee
• 1/3 cup sour cream @ room temperature

Preparation:

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan and set aside.

For the cake: in a small bowl, whisk together coffee and cocoa powder until smooth and no lumps remain. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside.

In a medium bow, whisk together sugar and eggs until thick and pale.  Add sour cream and oil, and carefully whisk until well incorporated.  Add the egg mixture, all at once, to the flour mixture.  Whisk carefully to incorporate.  Once no flour bits remain, add the coffee mixture and gently whisk to incorporate.  The batter will be loose and smooth.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 20 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.  Cake should be completely cool before frosting.

To make the glaze: place 2 inches of water in a medium pan and bring to a simmer.  Place butter and chocolate in a heat proof bowl.  Place the bowl over, but not touching, the simmering water. Stir until chocolate has melted.  Remove from the heat and let cool just a bit.  Stir in 2 tablespoons of hot coffee, followed by the sour cream.  Add the remaining 2 tablespoons coffee and stir until glossy.

*My note: Place glaze into fridge for several hours to cool.  Once cooled, use a butter knife to spread glaze onto cooled cake.   Cake will last, well wrapped, in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Going on a  little hiatus, hope to return soon.  Feel free to keep in touch, email info is above..

The Federation of  Turkish American Association in collaboration with German PR is proud to announce the screening of, FETIH 1453 in the New York – New Jersey tri state area.  Screenings will be held at the following locations with limited showings – starting Friday April 06, 2012. Please show your support!

FETIH 1453

- AMC Empire 25, 234 West 42nd Street  New York, NY 10036
- AMC Loews Roosevelt 8, 630 Old Country Road Garden City, NY 11530
- AMC Loews Ridgefield 12, 75 Challenger Road Ridgefield Park, NJ 07660
- AMC Loews Rockaway 16, 363 Mount Hope Ave Rockaway, NJ 07866

As one gets older birthdays seem to only show and mean a number. Yesterday was my birthday and I turned a year younger!  As I told my husband, every year that our daughter grows an age in return I turn a year younger.  He looked at me and laughed, then smiled and then said, I’m not arguing with your there.

This year we celebrated my birthday over the weekend with a french breakfast and carousel rides under the Brooklyn Bridge!  Last night we ate a few Magnolia Bakery Mini Cakes and my daughter sang “Happy Birthday to youuu! Anne!”