Life 'n' Such

Let me correct myself, “Good Morning, would you like lot of breakfast??” Now its more accurate. I am not exaggerating. The last month, I wish I was a monster, how many lunches, dinners, breakfasts we had!

Ulfet was on a roll. These pictures are taken at her house when she invited us for breakfast. I got smart, I waited till she laid out everything on the table, pulled out a chair, and stood on it and took one picture of the entire breakfast menu.

The following is the menu:

Spinach (spring roll) berek, fried potatoes + peppers + zucchini with tomato sauce, olives, tomatoes and cucumbers, egg salad, cake, fried mushrooms, Turkish cheese, pogaca and mini pizzas, Turkish tea, green beans in egg (a very interesting egg preparation)

Then we had some Turkish coffee

Ajaktum (means hungry) anyone? I am!

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Now I am getting hungry uploading these pictures

I wish I had eaten some more at the dinner/breakfasts

Well, take a look at what Nurhan made for dinner.

Let me just list the menu in order:

Lentil Soup, potato salad, vegetable salad, green beans in tomato sauce, spinach berek, chicken with mushrooms, cauliflower with cheese, rolla pasta (chocolate) and finally fruit salad.

Phew!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Breakfast at Tiffanys is one of my Favorite movies starring Audrey Hepburn. Well this post is not about the movie, but its about Breakfast at Ayse Guls!

Ayse Gul is going to have a baby brother for Sueda soon, Congratulations!!!!!!

Hacer and Nurhan helped her with the breakfast. It was less of a breakfast and more like lunch.

Look at the pictures if you dont believe me!

Crepes are made by Nurhan, she stuffed some with mushrooms and some with chicken and mushrooms

Cheese berek (I forgot the turkish name)

Potato cake made by Hacer (i have recipe for this)

Potato fries made by Hacer

Spinach cake by Ayse Gul

And another view of the breakfast

isn’t this a fantastic menu for a grand breakfast?

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I have Guvec recipe in the previous post, other recipes to follow soon.

There was soup for starters (I dont have pictures of that), then we had Guvec (picture below). At that point, my dad thought dinner is over. But……………

Then followed pilaf with the salmon, spinach crepes and the stuffed grape leaves (called saarma in turkish). She also had side dish of salad and green beans in tomato sauce.

Spinach crepes up close:

And for dessert there was sweet potatoes (I loved it, first time I ate it and liked it), pudding, and cake(I think it was apples and nuts)

Didnt I say 5 course dinner?

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This is Del-ici-ous!!!!!!!!!! We had this at Ulfets dinner party. Was it a four or a five course dinner, with endless dessert!! I am not kidding!

She made three types, because me and Yasir, and my mom and dad have different preferences. So she made vegetable only for my mom, chicken and veggies for me, and for the rest, it was meat and veggies.

Now what is Guvec (pronounced as “Guvech”)? It is basically, vegetables and or meat with spices, cooked together in a earthern pot called Guvec (see picture) and cooked till done. Sounds good, trust me, it tastes even better!!!

Ingredients:

For veggie lovers: use this recipe.
(For 1 person)
1/2 potato chopped,
1/4 (medium size) eggplant chopped,
3-4 mushrooms sliced,
1/2 tomato chopped,
2-3 green beans chopped,
1/3 onion chopped,

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For chicken lovers (like moi): use this recipe. (SHOWN IN PICTURE)
(For one person)
boneless breast chicken chopped,
3-4 mushrooms sliced,
1/2 tomato chopped,
1/2 green bell pepper chopped

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For meat lovers: use this one
(For one person)
3-4 mushrooms sliced,
1/2 tomato chopped,
1/2 green bell pepper chopped
1/3 onion chopped,
few pieces of chopped eggplant,
2-3 green beans chopped

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And with all the above options Use: in a cup, mix together, 1/2 turkish teacup hot water, 1 turkish tsp tomato paste, red pepper, black pepper, salt and 1 pinch garlic crushed/ grated/paste) and 1 tbsp oil per serving

Method:

Mix all the above listed ingredients in a Guvec cup/ use the foil method suggested at the end of this post for individual serving. Cover it completely and tightly with foil. And bake this at 400 deg F for about 30 minutes (you should judge the time, based on the smell in your kitchen ) Good tip?

Notes:
For more people:
Since most of us, will not have Guvec cups, Ulfet said, you can use one big tray, put all the ingredients in it. Cover it tightly with foil (IMPORTANT for cooking) and bake it. Ofcourse this way, you will not have much flexibility over individual preferences.

Foil Method for individual cooking:
To do individual cooking, use a big piece of heavy duty aluminium foil, then make like a pouch, then put the ingredients from one end, and then seal it by folding it tightly. Bake this inside a tray.

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This is the perfect cake recipe, this ones from Ulfet, I think Nurhan’s is almost the same. I still cannot get it exactly the way she does it, but I wont give up .
She uses a bundt cake pan for this cake, just fyi.

Ingredients:

1 cup milk,
2/3 cup oil,
less than half cup water,
1 1/2 tsp baking powder,
2 eggs,
1 1/4 cup sugar,
Flour as much as needed.
fruits and nuts optional

Method:

Nurhan starts with the eggs and the sugar, using a handblender to mix them. Ulfet puts all the ingredients except flour, mixes them and then starts adding the flour. Also, Nurhan suggested to put the baking powder over the flour when mixing.

Using Ulfets idea, add the flour little by little. I think the batter should be thick enough, but smooth. Also with a fork spread the batter away from the center, this will help getting a flat base for the cake, when you flip it out.
Now grease the pan, and bake at 350 deg F. Use a toothpick to see if the cake is done.

Wait some time, and flip it on a decorative tray.

Note: Nurhan puts some chopped fruits (orange, banana, apples etc) and Ulfet puts chopped walnuts, raisins inside the batter.

Another variation that Ulfet normally does, is she leaves out some batter while pouring into the tray, then she adds a tablespoon of cocoa powder, then again adds the batter to the cake, from the inner side of the pan, slowly.

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