Life 'n' Such

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You want to amaze people? Then make gul tatlisi (rose dessert), your guests are going to be impressed with your cooking skills!

This really looks like roses, and it is very very easy to make! Surprised huh? Well, why dont you give it a try and see for yourself?

This recipe is also by Fadime, she has the cutest little baby Orhan and two other older boys, Omar and Ahmet. They are all very well behaved boys. Fadime is from Turkey too. She says, she makes practical recipes, easy, fast and ofcourse great! Its hard to believe that, she makes amazing stuff all the time. But yesterday after I saw how she made this dessert, I have gained confidence. I can make this too!!

Ingredients: (makes almost 3- 9×13 inch trays)
1/2 cup margarine, (the cups we use for coffee, use the same cup for all the measurements)
1/2 cup oil,
1 cup yoghurt,
1 egg,
1 1/2 tbsp baking powder,
1 packet vanillin (1 tsp)
1 cup turkish semolina (irmik( its a little bit thicker than regular semolina) in turkish, and rava/suji in indian languages)
Flour (approx 3 cups)
walnut halves

Sugar Syrup:
4 cups sugar,
4 1/2 cups water,
lemon juice

First mix all the ingredients listed in the dough part, except the flour. After its mixed well, start adding the flour gradually to get a soft dough. Try pinching out a little piece and rolling it out. If its sticky, then add some more flour.

Start making the sugar syrup now, keep it for boiling on high about 15 mins, and then add 1 lemon juice and then keep it on medium for another 15 mins. After its done, keep it aside for cooling.

Now make about 4-5 parts of the dough, and then roll out one at a time. Sprinkle some flour on the rolling board. It should be pretty thin. Now use a cookie cutter or a glass with a thin rim, to cut out circles, about 2 1/2 -3 inches diameter as shown in the picture.

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Now finally, follow the steps shown in the picture below to make your roses.

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Bend the ends to make petals of the roses with your fingers.

Thats it, dont they look pretty?

Now arrange them in a tray and bake at 350 deg F. till golden red. You will get the aroma in your kitchen when its almost done.

Turn it off. Pull out the trays and let them cool a bit. Basically, either both syrup and roses should be warm or one cold and other hot (not boiling). So the syrup gets soaked in by the roses. Atleast wait for 6 hours before serving.

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2 Comments | In: Dessert, Food, Recipes, Turkish | | #

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We decided to call this pizza from Fadime’s Hut ( it’s as good as Pizza Hut, hence the name).

She used a bread maker to make the dough for the pizza base. But if you dont have one, like me, we can mix it with hand, or maybe use a food processor with the dough blade. The idea is that is gets mixed for a long time. The more its mixed, the softer it gets.

Ingredients: (for 2 Large Pizzas)
1 big cup milk,
1/2 cup oil,
1 tbsp yeast,
1 tbsp sugar,
1 tbsp salt
approx 2 1/2 cups flour.

Topping Sauce:
2 tbsp tomato paste (need to add water) or 2 cans tomato sauce + 3- 4 little tomatoes chopped + salt +black pepper +oregano

Topping options:
Mozarella cheese, peppers all colors, mushrooms, olives, cooked chicken, onions, tomato slices etc

Put all the ingredients listed above for making the dough in the bread machine. Follow the setting as per the manual to make pizza dough.

Preheat the oven to 500 deg F. (The oven should be very hot, before we put the pizzas in)

Take 2 trays, put some oil on the bottom, and divide the dough approx in two equal parts, and spread/stretch it on the tray with your hands.

Pour the sauce on the two trays. You might need to stretch the dough back in place.

Start by sprinkling cheese on the pizza. This is a cheese pizza.

To make vegetable pizza, add the vegetables on top of the cheese.

Now pop the trays in the oven. Bake at 500 deg F for about 10 mins, then reduce the heat to about 350-375 deg F depending on your oven. Bake another say 20 mins till the cheese is golden brown and you see the dough is puffed everywhere. The edges should be reddish brown to get a nice crispy crust.

Done!

Cut into pieces and serve. Its great anytime of the day!

No Comments | In: Appetizer/Snack, Food, Other, Recipes, Turkish | | #