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Entries Tagged as 'Turkish'

Daring Bakers: Turkish Sigara Borek (with Strudel dough!)

May 27th, 2009 · 5 Comments · Baking, Cheese, Daring Bakers, Turkish

fried-sigara-borek

The technical details: The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers. And many thanks of course to Lisa of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice.

The assignment: Strudel dough, filling of our choice. I knew I didn’t want apple filling, because, well, it just feels wrong to be eating apples in May, even though I now live in California, and I suppose I could get a nice, ripe, seasonally grown local apple if I looked hard enough.

So what did I choose? The Sigara Borek – a Turkish favorite of my childhood.

These things are crispy, fried, filled with white cheese and parsley, perfect for breakfast, an afternoon tea with guests, or to snack on while watching sports.

Mine are a bit of a bastardized version that ended up looking like dark fried wontons -  because I had to use whole wheat bread flour instead of white, and then didn’t roll the stuff out as thin as I should have. The phyllo, or Yufka (Turkish phyllo) versions look a lot more golden. If you are going to make home made dough, it has to be done well in advance – the dough takes at least 90 minutes to sit.

borek-with-filling

The best part is that they can be made in advance, and then frozen – so you can pop them out and fry them in a little oil whenever you need them fresh.

But what if I’m looking after my health? Well, I also, in the spirit of Daring Bakers, tried a baked version, and another version which involves baking in water. Were they good you ask? As you can tell, neither of them are posted. So, that’s the beauty of freezing these guys, you can make three at a time, and not feel terrible about eating them all.

borek-on-the-pan

Sigara Borek
(makes a whole bunch, easily freezable)

Ingredients:

- a package of phyllo dough (or the Streudel Dough recipe below if you are up for a challenge)
- about 3/4 lb of white cheese (I use Bulgarian feta, or Valbreso the closest equivalents here in the states)
- a cup or more of freshly chopped parsley
- a little bit of water, for sealing the rolls
- vegetable oil, for panfrying

Method:

This works best as an assembly line:

1. Prepare the dough, by laying a flat sheet and cutting it into triangles (or if, you are rolling your own dough, roll it into a round shape, and cut out triangles like pizza slices).

2. Prepare filling: super easy! just mix the cheese and your really big handful of parsley together.

3. Spoon filling (about a heaping tablespoon) onto the wide end of the triangle (see my picture above), and then fold in the two sides, and roll up the end, using a little bit of water as glue to stick the end together. It’s easiest if you spoon the filling on a bunch of triangles and then roll them up one after another.

4. About here you can freeze the ones you aren’t going to be eating right away – freeze individually on a baking pan to keep them from sticking, and then once frozen, you can put them in a big ziplock together.

To eat: just fry for a few minutes in some vegetable oil, about a 1/4 inch deep on medium high heat, turning until all sides are golden brown (about 2-4 minutes). Note, if you use phyllo dough, they won’t have quite the bubble wonton look that mine do.

Home made dough:

from “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers

1 1/3 cups (200 g) unbleached flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons (105 ml) water, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar

1. Combine the flour and salt in a stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix the water, oil and vinegar in a measuring cup. Add the water/oil mixture to the flour with the mixer on low speed. You will get a soft dough. Make sure it is not too dry, add a little more water if necessary. Take the dough out of the mixer. Change to the dough hook. Put the dough ball back in the mixer. Let the dough knead on medium until you get a soft dough ball with a somewhat rough surface.

2. Take the dough out of the mixer and continue kneading by hand on an unfloured work surface. Knead for about 2 minutes. Pick up the dough and throw it down hard onto your working surface occasionally. Shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to a plate. Oil the top of the dough ball lightly. Cover the ball tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to stand for 30-90 minutes (longer is better).

3. It would be best if you have a work area that you can walk around on all sides like a 36 inch (90 cm) round table or a work surface of 23 x 38 inches (60 x 100 cm). Cover your working area with table cloth, dust it with flour and rub it into the fabric. Put your dough ball in the middle and roll it out as much as you can. Pick the dough up by holding it by an edge. This way the weight of the dough and gravity can help stretching it as it hangs. Using the back of your hands to gently stretch and pull the dough. You can use your forearms to support it.

4. The dough will become too large to hold. Put it on your work surface. Leave the thicker edge of the dough to hang over the edge of the table. Place your hands underneath the dough and stretch and pull the dough thinner using the backs of your hands. Stretch and pull the dough until it’s about 2 feet (60 cm) wide and 3 feet (90 cm) long, it will be tissue-thin by this time. Cut away the thick dough around the edges with scissors. The dough is now ready to be filled.


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Summer Stuffed Peppers

April 8th, 2009 · 8 Comments · Farmers Market, Turkish

stuffed-peppers-in-a-bowlGrowing up, one of my favorite foods from my mother’s kitchen was the Dolma. Dolma in Turkish really refers to pretty much anything stuffed, rather than just the stuffed grape leaves it has become synonymous with in the States.

Some of my favorite dolma were her stuffed tomatoes, peppers and zucchini: vegetables from our garden ubiquitous in the summer time, that truly sang with a little bit of added filling.  At home, my mother would make them with a traditional Turkish style filling of ground meat, rice, onion, chopped tomato, mint, dill, parsley, and toasted pine nuts.

After finding some spectacular peppers, and some Kokuho Rose brown rice this week at Alemany farmer’s market, I set about gathering ingredients for my dolma. I already had some left over cooked ground turkey that I had sauteed for a frittata filling that needed to be used up, and stuffed peppers seemed to be a natural receptacle for using up my leftovers. While these stuffed peppers don’t follow the traditional recipe, they are still incredibly delicious, and bring back so many good memories of home and excitement for the summer to come.

The best part about these stuffed peppers is that you can make them well in advance, and they taste equally good, if not better, the next day for lunch. And, they are the perfect size to pop two into a bento and have a filling lunch at work. Finally, in the spirit of adding as many vegetables to my diet as possible, I decided to add some roasted cherry tomatoes to the filling, and pop in a few extra scored tomatoes into the final dish to roast alongside my peppers. If you have any extra vegetables that need some cooking, this isn’t a bad dish to pop them in alongside.

roasting-tomatoesRoasted Tomato and Brown Rice Stuffed Peppers
serves two, with extra for lunch

2 cups cooked brown rice
1 cup cooked ground turkey (seasoned well with cumin, salt, pepper, chile powder)
1/2 onion
olive oil
2 cups cherry tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
a few tablespoons of freshly torn basil
salt and pepper
4 red bell peppers
A good glug of balsamic vinegar
a few teaspoons of fresh thyme and oregano
olive oil
plain yogurt (optional)

Method:
Making the filling:

1. While brown rice is cooking, pop a few handfuls of cherry tomatoes in a pan with some olive oil, garlic cloves, salt, pepper, and freshly torn basil. Cook at about 300 degrees F, until the rice is done, about 40 minutes. They should get all jammy and delicious.

2. Right after popping the tomatoes in the oven, start the ground turkey, first sauteeing a half an onion in a little bit of olive oil for about 15 minutes until soft, and then adding the ground turkey, and cooking until well browned. Season with salt, pepper, cumin, and chili powder to taste. (I usually use about a teaspoon each of cumin and chile powder, but I like these with a little kick.

3. When the rice, tomatoes, and turkey are done, stir together in a bowl, and add a good glug of balsamic vinegar, and a few teaspoons of fresh thyme and oregano.

Assembling the peppers:

4. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a deep baking tray or roasting tray with foil, and grease lightly.

5. Cut the peppers lengthwise, leaving the stem in place, but scooping out any seeds and excess white bits. For smaller peppers, feel free to lop off the top instead of cutting lengthwise. My mother bakes her peppers with the tops on, but I personally enjoy how the filling gets crisp on top when left uncovered. In a large baking pan lined with foil, place the peppers, season with a little salt, and pour on a little bit of olive oil.

6. Stuff the peppers with the mixture, place in the pan, and cover with foil, cook for 45 minutes at 400 F, uncover and cook for about 10 more minutes, or until top has lightly browned. Serve immediately, with a lemony herb salad. If you like, top with some plain yogurt – a very traditional Turkish accompaniment to this dish. I just spoon it over the top, it’s not fancy, it looks a little odd, but it tastes delicious. (It’s like the middle eastern equivalent to sour cream or mexican crema.)

stuffed-peppers-with-yogurt

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Sugar High Friday #52: Cezerye

February 24th, 2009 · 3 Comments · Candy, Challenge, Turkish

cezerye-1Sugar High Friday is a monthly food blogging event created by Jennifer, The Domestic Goddess and is hosted each month on a different food blog. This month’s host for the event is Palachinka, and the theme is “Copycat”, where you copy one of your favorite store bought candies.

I spent a good couple of weeks thinking of the best candy I could copy. Would it be Snickers, my favorite bar candy? Pecan Divinity? Nutella? (I was seriously considering Nutella, until I realized that it would completely ruin any semblance of a healthy diet if I made it and then ate the entire concoction in two days.)

Finally I turned to Turkish candies, because Turkey happens to have some of the best confections: Lokum (Turkish Delight), Dragees (chocolate covered nuts and orange peels), Pişmaniye (a type of wispy candy floss that I can’t describe with any justice). My mother happens to be in Turkey this week, and now that I live across the country from her, I know that I’m going to be depressed when she returns and I get calls of what wonderful things she has brought home. Maybe she will send me a care package (hint).

And so, after thinking of all the candies that I wouldn’t be getting, I decided – why not create one of my favorites here at home? I finally settled on cezerye, a Turkish candy made of carrots!   Now, although they have a lot of vitamin A and B from the carrots, they also have enough sugar to fully sweeten your blood, so I wouldn’t exactly qualify them as health food, but they certainly are delicious.

Home-Made Cezerye
makes about twenty five candies

Ingredients
2 cups grated carrots
3/4 cups loosely packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
about 1/2 cup water
1/2 cup ground walnuts
1/2 cup ground petit beurre biscuits
1/2 cup shredded dried (unsweetened) coconut

Method
1. Grate a few medium carrots and put into a medium saucepan with the sugar. I simply took my cup measure, loosely packed it three quarters of the way with brown sugar, topped it with the white sugar, and added water to wet the sugar (as much fit in the cup).

2. Simmer on low heat for a half hour or more, covered. Add the ground nuts and petit beurre cookies, and continue to cook uncovered for a few minutes. Take off the stove, and let cool enough to handle the mixture.

3. To make the carrot balls, roll the dough balls in some shredded coconut, as you would if you were making truffles. Place in the fridge for at least an hour, and eat!

These come out a little bit moist, but they should dry as they sit.

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