Life 'n' Such

Potatoes, soooooo good, they are like soul music; comforting. Prepared in any form, its all good, when its done with potatoes. People all over the world enjoy potatoes! It is not even a pretty vegetable or something, funny huh? One of the most popular food, enjoyed by billions

Here is a very simple recipe, which me and Yasir love!! Fatime made it at Ayse Gul’s baby shower. All turkish women make it. I think they all follow this recipe. Some like to boil, some like to broil! End result is the same, its all good!

Here is Fatime’s version.

Ingredients:

potatoes, washed, and boiled or broiled (medium to large size)
mayonnaise,
canned chopped carrots,
canned sweet (small look cute) peas,
mozzarella cheese (grated)
optional: pickled cucumber (Chopped), Hacer adds this I think.

Method:

When the potatoes, are baked or boiled, from the center on one side, scoop out few chunks of potato, after peeling the skin away a little bit.

Collect the potato chunks in a bowl, mash it up a little bit. Mix mayo, canned peas and carrots (and pickles, if you like) to this. No salt is required, as mayo has salt in it.

With a spoon, put this filling back into the potatoes.

Sprinkle mozzarella cheese generously on the top. Broil for a couple minutes, or till the cheese melts, and serve; HOT!

This is so good, as an appetizer, or even a snack; great at tea parties.

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

I took this recipe from Hacer, but she couldnt give me the english names for a couple ingredients, so basically I ended up on this website, where not only did I get the names for the ingredients, but I also found this little story behind this pudding. It is interesting. I think if you have the time, you must try these recipes. It is a original and typical turkish recipe, which practically all my Turkish friends (from different parts of Turkey) follow.

Ingredients:

1 cup chick peas, soaked in water overnite
1 cup white kidney beans,
2 cups barley (if you are buying from Arabic/Turkish store, look for a packet which says Wheat for Asure, Noah’s Pudding)
1 cup apricot,
2 cup figs (anjeer),
1 cup raisins, preferably green
3 cups sugar (as much or as less, your choice of sweetness)
Method:

Soak all the ingredients except sugar in water, overnite. Next morning, dispose all the water from the soaked ingredients. Now using different bowls, add the ingredients with fresh water and boil separately till done. The cooking times for different ingredients will differ, ex for figs, you might need 5 minutes etc.

Now after all the ingredients are cooked, except the barley water, drain off the excess water from all other ingredients. Mix them in with the barley in a big cooking pot. Add some warm water to this, and boil another 20-30 minutes, stirring sometimes.

It will get thicker in consistency. At this point, add your sugar in it, mix well. And now its done

I know, there are too many steps involved, but I have a feeling, you cannot go wrong with this recipe. As my dad says, if you use all good ingredients, the end product has to taste good.

Serve chilled.

Note: While serving, you may garnish/decorate with crushed walnuts, or sprinkle cinnamon powder. Yummm

4 Comments | In: Appetizer/Snack, Dessert, Food, Recipes, Turkish | | #