Chicken paprika

1 chicken, cut up.
1 large onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves of garlic, squashed and chopped
2 tomatoes, quartered
3 carrots, scraped and cut into rough lengths
2 potatoes, peeled and cut up
1 tablepoon paprika
2 teaspoons sumac (or half a lemon's juice)
2 bay leaves
3 long sprigs or 2 teaspoons dried summer savoury
3 sprigs thyme
3 teaspoons hot red pepper flakes
salt and pepper
Water
Sour cream or Greek yoghurt

In a deep pot with lid, saute onions till translucent. Add paprika, stir and toast lightly. Add chicken, garlic, carrot, herbs and spices and cover with water. Bring to a simmer and cook till chicken is falling-apart tender. About one and half hours. Another school of thought says to cook till just done. Yet another version could be cooked in the oven - more browning and caramelization that way-, then, add potatoes about half an hour before it is ready. Take the lid off half way to reduce a little. Taste every now and then for seasoning.

Serve with buttered rice and sour cream or yoghurt. Or just as is.

Red Lentil Soup (a turk recipe)

You can sieve the soup or use a mixer like I did. Slice some lemon, cut a loaf of bread, sprinkle with sumac and salt to taste. Afiyet olsun!

Red Lentil Soup
4 cups water
chicken or beef bouillon
3/4 cups red lentils
1/2 cup
1 egg yolk
teaspoon flour
1 small onion

salt, black pepper to taste

To see the whole  preparation go to

mercimek çorbasi 

Candy Apple Pie

Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
1 cup chopped pecans
Apple Filling:
5 Granny Smith apples (peeled, cored, sliced very thin)
5 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Cream Cheese Topping:
8 oz. cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
Topping:
3/4 cup heavy cream, whipped
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup caramel ice cream topping
1/4 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the crumbs, sugar, cinnamon and melted butter. Mix well and press into a 10-inch pie plate and up the sides. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes until golden in color. Remove pie shell from oven and cool completely. Pour caramel into pie shell and sprinkle with 1 cup of chopped pecans. Refrigerate pie shell while making apple filling.
3. In a large (12-inch) skilet over medium heat, melt butter and add brown sugar, salt and cinnamon. Stir with a wooden spoon. Add apples and stir. Cook over medium to medium-high heat for 15 to 20 minutes until apples are softened and tender. Let cool for 10 minutes and pour into pie shell. Reduce oven to 350 degrees F.
4. In a medium bowl, using a hand-held mixer on low speed, combine cream cheese and sugar for about 1 minute until smooth. Add egg, lemon juice and vanilla and beat for 1 minute or until fully blended. Pour over apple filling in pie shell. Bake for 30 minutes until an inserted knife comes out clean. Remove pie from oven and let cool. Refrigerate for 4 hours. Let stand outside the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
5. Top with whipped cream, caramel and pecans, and swirl with a knife. Slice and serve.

SOURCE

ketupat

Ketupat Recipe (Compressed Rice Cakes)
These firm rice cakes are usually cooked in individual baskets of woven coconut leaves so that the rice swells until it fills the basket and becomes firmly compressed. Here is a simple and more practical way of producing similar results in Western kitchens. Ingredients : Serves 6
500 g 4 cups	Short or medium grain rice Water Banana leaf or aluminium foil
Method : Bring the water and rice to the boil. Cover tightly with lid. Turn heat very low and cook for 35-40 minutes until all water is absorbed. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon. Then press rice into a cake tin or pie plate to a depth of about 2.5 cm (1 inch). Use a piece of washed and greased banana leaf or greased aluminum foil to cover the surface of the rice and put another plate on top. Press down very firmly the plate. Put a weight on top and leave at room temperature for a few hours, until very firm. Remove weight, plate and banana leaf and use a wet knife to cut rice into 5 cm squares. Serve with spicy peanut sauce.

Shepher's Pie

Ingredients:
.800 g potatoes
.1/2 cup low-fat milk
.20 g mono-unsaturated, margarine
.1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
.1 tablespoon olive oil1 celery stick, finely chopped
.1 zucchini, finely chopped
.1 brown onion, finely chopped
.1 garlic clove, finely chopped250 g premium trim beef or lamb mince
.1/2 cup reduced-salt tomato sauce
.2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Stock cube dissolved in 3/4 cup boiling waterMethod:
1. Preheat oven to 200C. Peel potatoes and chop into small cubes. Cook in a saucepan of boiling water until tender.
2. Mash potatoes with milk and margarine and set aside.
3. Chop the carrot, celery, zucchini, onion and garlic.
4. Heat oil, cook carrot, celery, zucchini, onion and garlic for 10 minutes. Add mince, sauces and stock and cook, stirring until boiling. Simmer for 3 minutes.
5. Spoon into a pie dish, top with mashed potato. Rake the surface with a fork to even out topping. Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes and serve with a garden salad.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Serves 8- 10 persons
- 1 butternut squash (3 lb)
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp cardamom
- 1 tsp allspice
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- 3 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
- 2 cups apple cider
- ½ cinnamon stick
- 1 cup Half and half
- Salt, pepper
- Toasted almonds flakes

Preheat your oven to 425F. Peel, seed and cut your butternut squash in cubes. Place on a sheet tray and drizzle with some olive oil. Season it with salt and pepper and cook until tender, about 20 minutes.
In a heavy saucepan, reduce the apple cider on high heat, uncovered until you have 1 cup.
In a heavy large pot or a Dutch oven, sauté the onion in 1 tbsp of butter and ½ tsp vegetable oil until caramelized. Add ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, all spice and cayenne pepper. Cook for 1 minute or two until fragrant.
Add squash cubes, chicken or vegetable stock and the reduced apple cider and simmer for 25 minutes.
Discard the cinnamon stick and puree the soup using a stand blender until very smooth.
Add the half and half and cook until it thickens and reaches a velvety consistency.
Season with salt and pepper if needed and serve sprinkled with some toasted flaked almonds.

homemade granola

Here's the granola recipe --it really is the best.
Make it, you'll see.

3-4 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds

1/2 cup chopped raw almonds (I use walnuts & cashews too)

1/4 cup sesame seeds

1/4 cup flax seeds

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I like using sunflower oil)

1 tsp cinnamon (a little bit of nutmeg & clove are good too)

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt (i usually add a pinch more)

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1 cup dried fruit (my favorite is cranberries & apples. you can use dates & raisins also)

Preheat oven to 350. in a large bowl, mix up oats, seeds, & nuts. in a medium bowl whisk together the oil, sugar, salt, spice, & coconut. Add wet mixture to dry and combine well. Spread mixture onto a flat cookie sheet. bake for 12-15 minutes, until the top is slightly brown. remove from oven and flip with a spatula. bake for another 8-10 minutes until golden brown throughout. mixture will be moist fresh out of the oven, but dries as it cools. while it's still hot, mix in dried fruit and let cool. to prevent clumping, stir every 10 minutes as it cools.

Delicious for breakfast or by the handful.

Happy baking,
Leya

beriwats

BERIWATS

1. Ingredients

• 500 g of minced calf meat
• 100 g of lamb fat
• 1 tea spoonful of salt
• 1 tea spoonful of cumin
• 1 tea spoonful of red pepper
• 1 cup of minced parsley
• 1 cup of coriander
• 1 minced thin onion
• 100 g of butter
• 4 churned eggs
• 2 tea spoonful of cinamon
• 1 kg of pastille
• Oil for frying
• Chilly sugar & cinamon in saucers

2. Preparation

Mix the minced meat and grease with parsley, corriander, red pepper, cumin, onion and salt. Then cook the mix in butter, while crushing with a spoon to separate the grease. Allow the mixture to simmer till the liquid is nearly all evaporated.

Add cinamon while mixing on a little fire , incorporate progressively the eggs(keep some to glue the briouates), mix and remove from fire.

The briouates' Folding:
Cut the leaves of pastille in two pieces, take1/2 of one leaf in its length, bring down the sides to the center to have a rectangular border.

Put one soup spoonful of the mixture in one corner, then fold up again or roll to form a triangle, rectangular or a cylinder, make sure to close the forcemeat. Glue the extremity with eggs, to serve the briouats, fry them in a very hot oil, remove them with a skimmer when they have a golden color, drain and put them on an absorbing paper.

They can be served hot ,crown _shaped within a plate, with a saucer of chilly sugar and cinamon.