TARHANA SOUP:

Tarhana is a dried food which consists of flour, yoghurt, tomato paste, tomato juice and red pepper. Traditionally, family elders like grandmothers, aunties and mums make tarhana and it is shared amongst family. The drying process of tarhana dough takes approximately 15 days. But you can find it in the supermarkets as well.

Tarhana is one of the most well known Turkish soups and it is really tasty. It is preferred especially in winter days. Tarhana soup is common in Central Asia and Balkans as well.

Since ancient times, Turks has always kept their food by drying them. So they find a way to keep yoghurt by making tarhana. The preparation of tarhana may vary from place to place.

TOMATO SOUP:

Ingredients:

5 pieces Tomato,
1 scoop of oil,
1 scoop Tomato paste,
8 cups of meat broth (or chicken broth),
2 scoops of flour

Meal Description :

Remove the shells of tomatoes and grate. Melt the oil in a saucepan, add flour and oil in oil. Add tomato paste and tomatoes and kill thoroughly. Slowly add the broth, add the salt.

EZOGELIN SOUP

Ingredients:

Ezogelin Soup Meal Description:

LENTIL SOUP

Ingredients:

100 g red lentils
4 chopped and peeled carrots
1 chopped and peeled onion
1 cleaned and sliced leeks
2 lt of hot water
Salt and pepper
Beef stock cube

Method:

We are going to need a pressure cooker to cook the lentil soup. Firstly, we are adding the stock cube into a glass of hot water and let it melt. After that, we are adding all ingredients to the pressure cooker and stir it while the cooker is turned on. After that, we set the pressure cooker to 40 minutes. After 40 minutes if it is not cooked enough, you can carry on cooking it for more 15 minutes.

YOGHURT SOUP

Ingredıents:

2 tbsp flour
1 egg
½ cup rice, washed and drained
1 ½ cup yogurt
5 cups cold water + 1 chicken bouillon
1 cup hot water
3+2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp dried mint
1 tsp salt to taste

Yoghurt Soup Meal Description:

Cook the rice in 1 cup hot water and set aside.
Melt 3 tbsp of butter in a pot and stir in flour. Cook stirring continuously over medium heat till the mixture gets yellow. Meanwhile whisk egg and yogurt in a bowl.
Add the cold water and bouillon into the pot and stir continuously to dissolve the flour mixture. Then, stir in the yogurt egg mixture and continue stirring over medium heat. Once it starts boiling, reduce heat add salt and cooked rice. Simmer for 3-5 minutes with the lid half closed.
In a small frying pan melt 2 tbsp of butter and once it starts spitting stir in dried mint and turn the heat off.
Ladle the Plateau Soup into the serving bowls and drizzle some butter-mint mixture over. Serve warm.

LEAF ROLLS

Ingredients:

2 cup rice,

1 medium onion,

2 large tomatos,

1 bunch of fresh parsley,

2 tbsp (table spoon) olive oil,

Salt and black pepper,

Fresh grape leaves

Preperation:

> Chop the onion, peeled tomato and parsley
in small pieces. Put the onion in a saucepan with olive oil and move them around it.

> After a while add tomato and parsley.
Continue adding rice, salt and black pepper. After
15-20 minutes remove the saucepan from heat.

> The mixture should wrapped in grape leaves
one by one. Then saucepan placed under leaves with water to cook 30 minutes.

PASTY

How to prepare Pasty;

The first step is to prepare the dough from flour and water. Then cutting dough into small squares pieces. We will fill this pieces with minced meat which we should prepare before by chopping the onions on small pieces, adding black pepper, salt and minced meat all together.

After putting this mixture we should close the dough and the meat must be covered. We should put mantı into hot water and boil it about fifteen minutes.

For serving we will put boiled mantı on the plate and add white yoghurt, red pepper and melted butter on it.

İçli Köfte is a famous Turkish delicacy. Below are the ingredient you will need.

For the dough: 400 g fine bulgur, 100 g farina, 100 g flour, 1 egg, 600 mL water, 1 tbs pepper/tomato paste, spices (salt, black pepper, and pepper flakes to taste).

For the filling: 250 g ground beef, 2 medium size onions, 100 g finely crushed walnuts, 50 g vegetable oil, parsley to taste, spices (cumin, black pepper, salt, pepper flakes to taste).

To fry: Vegetable oil.

Start off with the filling. Stir fry onions for a couple of minutes, then add the ground beef and mix them well. When the meat is more or less cooked, add the remaining ingrediends, and mix it well. Set it aside to cool off.

Put bulgur and farina in a deep bowl, add boiling water and cover it with a lid or plastic wrap. After about ten minues, stir in flour, egg, paste and spices. Knead the dough well.

Take large pieces off the dough and place them (one by one) on a plastic wrap. Largen it, and cut a lirge circle using a bowl or something of the sort. Put some of the filling inside, make it into a D-shape, and roll. Do the same for the remaining ingredients.

When you are done with preparations, fry them in a deep pan.

ADANA KEBAB

Ingredients:

500 g ground lamb, 100 g tail fat, 1 onion, salt, pepper, paprika, pepper flakes.

Directions:

Use a food processor and process the tail fat. Shave the onion, but remove extra juice. Add in the ground beef. Mix everything evenly, and let it sit in the fridge for an hour.

Moisturize a large metal skewer with water, and put around it pieces from the meat-fat-onion mixture. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius, and cook until crispy brown. Do not forget to put a tray under it so that you will not have to clean excess fat from your oven. If you desire, you can put some veggies to roast along — they are extremely delicious!

Note: This is a relatively simpler recipe. You can combine different types of beef for better texture. You can serve with such garnishes as bulgur, pickled veggies, salad; or you can serve it as a burrito. They are all delicious.

RICE

Ingredients

* 1 cup rice
* 1/2 packet green peas (frozen)
* 2 level tablespoons butter
* 6 green onions
* 1 1/2 cups boiling water
* salt and pepper

Directions

Melt butter in a small pot and add finely cut green onions for five minutes then add rice, salt and pepper and the frozen peas and boiling water and cover. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes then on very low heat for another 10 minutes. Place two-fold paper towel between pot and lid and let it rest for 20 minutes before serving. Spoon the cooked rice mixture very gently into a serving dish so as not to have the peas smashed.

POTATO SALAD

Ingredients:

3 potatoes, boiled and peeled
2 green onions/ 1 small onion, chopped (optional)
2-3 leaves of lettuce, chopped finely
½ cup fresh dill/parsley, chopped
1 tsp salt to taste
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tsp lemon juice (optional)
Red pepper flakes (optional)
Small radish slices for garnish

SHEPHERDS SALAD:

 Shepherds Salad is very easy and healthy food. First step is choose your favourite vegetable. Usually basic ingredience is lettuce. Then you can add another vegetable as a tomatoes, peppers, corn, carrot etc.

When you choose vegetable so first you should all of them clean understand the cold water. Prepare bowl where you will mix all of the vegetable and start to cut it on small pieces.

Everything put into the bowl and mix it together. If you like add there salt and few drops of lemon juice. You can use also any kind of dressing as a yoghurt, garlic dressing etc. Now is your salad done.

You can eat salad as a side dish or as a main dish.

AYRAN

Ayran is a delicious drink not only at the summer times but also in winter. The ingredients and the method are below.

Ingredients

4 glasses of water
6 tablespoons of yoghurt
3 teaspoons of salt
A glass bottle with lid

Method

Put water, salt and yoghurt into the glass bottle and cover the lid. Shake the bottle for a few minutes and you have Ayran. Pour the mixture, Ayran, into the glasses. It is that easy.

Turkish coffee:

For every cup of coffee; Put a cup of water, 2 teaspoons of coffee and sugar.
Mix well, place the pot on a low fire and slowly bring to boiling.
The coffee is cooked on low heat so it’s so much flavor.
Once it starts to boil, distribute the foam on the top to the cups, boil again and distribute the rest to the cups.
Coffee is served in its own Turkish coffee cup while serving.

Sahlep

Ingredients:

4 cups milk
1 cup sugar
1 Teaspoon sahlep powder (also sold in supermarkets)

Preparation:

Mix sugar and sahlep powder (dried powdered roots of a mountain orchid – Orchis Latifolia or Orchis Anatolica in Latin) in a pan. Add the cold milk and some sugar stirring constantly. Heat the mixture until it boils again stirring constantly.Let it boil for 2-3 minutes and remove from heat. Serve it warm and garnished with powdered cinnamon.

 TURKISH TEA:   

First of all, we have to have some ingredients for making a Turkish tea. The first one should be the kettle and the second one if you prefer should be organic tea, if you don’t prefer organic one it doesn’t have to be organic, but I do. Putting the water from a kettle should be the first thing we do. Then, the water has to reach 100 degrees, so it’s boiled. We need to add that water in a teapot, so we have to add the tea from the top of the teapot. That’s how we make tea. I hope you’ll like it.

LEMONADE

Ingredients: 

1 Lemon
A glass of sugar
2 Liters of water

Recipe:

Firstly, slice the lemon in half. After that, squeeze it with squeezer. Then, extract the particles with a spoon. Pour the water and sugar in it. Finally, mix it and pour it into glasses. Enjoy your drink!

REVANİ

Ingredıents:

3 eggs.

1 tea cup with powdered sugar.

1 tea cup sunflower oil

1 cup grits.

1.5 cup flour.

1 cup yogurt.

1 pack of vanillin.

Baked Soft Pastry Dipped in Thick Syrup

Ingredients:

(4 servings)
5 cups sugar
½ lemon’s juice
500 g flour
250 g butter
150 g ice sugar
100 g semolina
2 eggs
1 pack vanilla
1 pack baking powder
100 g hazelnut

Preparation:

Boil sugar for 10 minutes with 4 cups water. Add lemon juice before taking off the burner. Continue boiling for 2 minutes and set aside to cool.

Mix flour and butter that has previously melted at room temperature. Add ice sugar, semolina, eggs, vanilla and baking powder and make a soft dough while kneading. Refrigerate for 20 minutes to rest.

Heat oven at 180 C.

Make balls of a walnut size. Lay on an oven tray and place a roasted hazelnut on top of each ball. Bake for 30 minutes.

Take out of oven and set aside for 5 minutes.

Pour cooled syrup and cover with a tissue until serving.

BAKLAVA

Ingredients:

2 eggs
200 ml milk
100 ml yoghurt
200 ml vegetable oil
1 tbs vinegar
A pinch of salt
1/2 packet of baking powder
1 kg flour

250 g butter

1 L water
800 g refined sugar
4-5 drops of lemon water

Preparation:

Mix the first 8 items except for the flour. Then stir in the flour bit by bit, still whisking carefully. When the dough is ready, cut it into 3 pieces. Then cut every one of those into another 15 pieces (you should have 45 pieces in total).

Roll each piece with some starch only as big as your tray. Place them in your baking tray with some crushed walnuts, almonds and/or hazelnuts in between. When you have placed them all, melt the butter and spread it evenly on top of your dough. Bake it in a pre-heated over until it’s crispy. The heat should be around 175-180°C.  When it’s done, take it out so that it can cool down to room temparature.

For the sweet sauce, put 1 L of water and 800 g of refined sugar in a pan and wait until it boils. Turn down the heat and boil it for another 20 minutes. Add lemon juice, and let it boil for another 5 to 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, and let the sweet sauce cool for about 5 minutes. When it is cool enough, add it into your already baked baklava. Your dessert is ready!