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.

**Error with Picture upload**

 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.

Saturday started early for me, especially when my cheesecake batter decided to go sour on me late Friday evening.  I never imagined I would be up till 1:30 am on a Saturday morning waiting for the cheesecake to set.  What is worth it, let me tell you it really was worth the wait.  Especially when my husband looked at early morning, his eyes sparking and a big “Thank you, Honey.”

Aside from the cheesecake, the patoto salad pictured above is a recipe from Cenk’s Cafe Fernando and it was a HUGE hit at the breakfast table!  My cousin Duriye said it very well, this is “intoxicating.”  She text-ed me later in the day, asking me when I was going to post the recipe, and that she wanted more.  So, Cenk thank you for a wonderful recipe, it turned out awesome. 

Crispy Pastirma Potato Salad
              Recipe adapted from Cenk’s Cafe Fernando

Serves 4 – 6

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs of potatoes
• 1/4 of pastirma ( 20 thin slices)
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic (he used 3 cloves for me thats a bit to strong) 
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons of Labne cheese (or yogurt) 
• 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons of grape vinegar (I used balsamic vinegar since that’s what I had)
• 2 tablespoon full of chopped parsley
• 1 teaspoon of kosher salt (regular salt is okay)
• 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper

Preparation:

1. Wash the potatoes, into a large cooking pot of water add the potatoes and bring to a boil.  Make sure not to over cook the potatoes, using a knife insert into a potato and if the knife inserts in easily, this means the potatoes are cooked and done.  Cooking time approx 40 minutes.
2. While the potatoes are cooking, start the broiler of your oven. A line a baking sheet pan with parchment paper and line the slices of pastirma on top of the parchment paper.  Place the sheet pan into the oven and cook for 2-3 minutes. Until the slices of pastirma are cooked, this happens very quickly so be careful.  I burned my first batch because I did not think they would cook so quickly.
   Cenk - pan fried the pastirmas with a tablespoon of olive oil, this is another option as well.    
3. Once the pastirmas are cooked set a side and let them cool.  They will harden making them crispy.
4. Into a medium sized mixing bowl, grate the clove of garlic and using the thinnest side of a grater. Since I used only one I grated just one, use as many cloves as you wish. 
5. Into the same bowl, add in your salt, Dijon mustard, vinegar and mix until the mustard is completely dissolved.  Continue to add in the rest of the ingredients, the mayonnaise, labne cheese and olive oil and black pepper and mix well. 
6. Dice the cooled pastirmas using a knife or if you can break them into pieces with your hands.
7. By this time, the potatoes should have cooked. Drain the access water and wash under cold water or place them into a cold iced bath.  Once the potatoes have cooled, peal off the skin. 
8. Dice the potatoes into large bite size pieces and place the diced potatoes into a large mixing bowl.  At this point add in your prepared sauce, along with the chopped parsley and half of the diced pastirma (other half will be used as garnish on top) and toss well.  Making sure the potatoes are coated nicely and evenly.
9. Transfer into a serving bowl, coat the top with the remaining of the pastirma.
10. Serve warm or cold.  Served warm tastes much better.  Enjoy!!!

Note: I boiled the potatoes the night before and drained the water left to cool down on the counter top. This allowed me the serve the dish at room temperature. 

A traditional Turkish breakfast is not complete without an egg dish, at least that’s what my mom used to say and always prepared something with egg for our weekend breakfasts.  I still follow her teaching in my kitchen every Saturday & Sunday morning. 

Two of the most well known and often prepared breakfast dishes are eggs with pastirma & eggs with sucuk.  If you missed my posting about PASTIRMA, click to read.

Here is simple and quick recipe for a perfect weekend breakfast.

Scrambled eggs with Pastirma

Ingredients

• 4 large eggs
• 7 slices of pastirma (less if you prefer)
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• salt for taste

Preparation

1. Into a mixing bowl crack the eggs and whisk.
2. Stack the pastirma on top of each other and cut into 3 sections. (3×7=21 small pieces) This makes for small pieces.
3. Add in the pastirma into whisked eggs – as picture above. Add in salt and mix.
4. Over a medium heat up your cooking pan (teflon works best) - heat up the olive oil and pour in your mixture.
5. With a wooden spoon stir the mixture in the pan, as if you are making scrambled eggs. Cook for a couple of minutes about 2 min until eggs are cooked and the pastirma will cook with the heat of the pan and eggs.
   Note: You can fully cook the eggs all the way through OR leave it a bit runny
6. Serve with toasted bread & enjoy!

Lately during the week – I’m tired from work to cook.  I usually cook twice or three times during the week for dinner.  Which is works out great,  but lately working a lot and doing to many other things.  I’ve been skipping on cooking a meal and instead just prepare a simple breakfast meal for myself.  At the times when I get home late and do not want to eat anything heavy and often I will have a bowl of cereal for dinner.  Which work out great because I eat something light and nothing to heave to digest.

The last two weeks, I’ve been making a simple breakfast things for dinner.  Like a panini with plain whole wheat bread with some pastirma and some mozzarella and monster cheese.

Another great breakfast for dinner is some traditional Turkish breakfast items, such as olives, feta cheese, pastirma, eggs, tomatoes and some dried fruit for some sweetness.  I drink my coffee and tea without sugar so many times my sugar substitutes are dried fruits and some jams/preserves.