Green Lentil Soup with Rice (Pirinçli Yeşil Mercimek Çorbası)

Fall is here and I'm as excited about the turning leaves as I am about making soups again. As most of the Turkish green lentil soups, Green Lentil Soup with Rice is also a Central/Eastern Anatolia specialty. It is very simple, yet really delicious one, particularly with a crusty bread.


























1 cup green lentils
1/4 cup rice
1 onion, finely chopped
6 cups of beef or vegetable stock
2 tbsp red pepper or tomato paste
2 tbsp olive oil
salt
black pepper
dill

-Boil 1 cup lentils with 3 cups of water until cooked but firm. Rinse.
-Saute onion in a pot with olive oil until soft.
-Add pepper or tomato paste and stir for another minute. (If you cannot find red pepper paste at Middle Eastern stores, you can spice up your soup by adding 1 tsp of spicy Thai roasted pepper or any Asian pepper paste to tomato paste)
-Add vegetable or beef stock, green lentils, rice, pepper, and salt, and cook on medium to low until rice is cooked.
-Sprinkle dill before you serve.

Baked Zucchini Mousakka (Fırında Kabak Musakka)

There is something about mousakka recipes; they always turn delicious, even at the sloppiest restaurant. One of the best eggplant zucchini dishes I've ever had was at my boarding school's cafeteria where even a boiled egg could be a disaster. The reason why mousakka dishes are tastier out at a restaurant is the amount of oil used. Usually it's tastier when it's greasier. Although I love to eat greasy mousakkas out, I prefer healthier ones at home. For this recipe, in stead of deep frying zucchini rounds, I baked them. If you want a vegetarian mousakka, replace ground meat with TVP or try mousakka with garbanzo beans.


























2 lb zucchini, cut in 1/3 inch rounds
1/2 lb ground meat
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 banana peppers or 1 bell pepper, chopped
1 can of diced tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tomatoes, sliced in rounds
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup fresh dill, chopped
salt and black pepper


























-Bake zucchini rounds in a preheated oven at 400F for ~30 minutes.
-Heat olive oil in a frying pan. Add onion and green pepper, and cook until soft.
-Add ground meat. It will release some water. Cook until meat soaks the water.
-Add tomato paste. Stir for a minute.
-Add diced tomato and cook for 5 minutes.
-Turn it off and add salt, pepper, pepper flakes if you wish, and fresh dill.
-Layer half of the zucchini rounds in an oven safe dish. Cover with half of the ground meat sauce. Make the second layer of zucchini rounds and pour over the rest of sauce.
-Add 1/3 cup hot water.
-Place tomato slices on top.
-Bake at preheated 375F for half an hour.

Red Lentil Soup with Couscous (Kuskuslu Mercimek Çorbası)

Is there anyone who does not like red lentil soup? I haven't met that person yet. Here is one more red lentil soup from central Anatolia. The original recipe requires couscous. Turkish couscous is just like pearl couscous and is prepared like pasta as opposed to North African couscous. However, for this recipe, I used regular, north African small couscous.

1/2 cup red lentil
1/3 cup couscous
1 carrot, peeled and petite diced
1 tsp paprika
2 tbsp butter
salt
6 cups of chicken or vegetable stock

optional
black pepper or
crushed pepper flakes or
green chili powder

-Heat the stock in a pot.
-Once it starts boiling add red lentils and carrot. Cook until lentils are cooked--approximately 20 minutes.
-Add couscous and cook for another 10 minutes.
-Turn it off and add salt.
-In a small frying pan heat butter. Add paprika and let it sizzle for 10-15 seconds.
-Serve the soup in bowls and pour the butter+paprika on top of each.

Milky Semolina Dessert with Cocoa Powder (Sütlü Kakaolu İrmik Tatlısı)

Although the traditional milky semolina dessert is on the heavy side with butter and eggs, the contemporary take on the traditional recipe is much lighter, excluding both butter and eggs. The recipe for the milky semolina dessert remains almost the same, yet the dessert is served in different ways (in casserole dishes, bowls, or glasses), with various sauces (chocolate, raspberry, strawberry, caramel, etc.).

8 small wine glasses
5 cups of milk (whole, 2%, or fat free)
1 cup semolina
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
shredded coconut, ground or crushed walnuts, pistachios, orhazelnuts

-Put milk, semolina, sugar, and vanilla extract in a pot and start cooking on medium until it thickens. Taste it at this point, and if it is not sweet enough for you add more sugar and mix well.
-Pour half of it into glasses or bowls half way through.
-Add cocoa powder to the remaining mix in the pot and stir well.
-Add the cocoa semolina on top of glasses and bowls.
-Sprinkle coconut, walnut, pistachio, or hazelnut on top.
-Let them cool down at room temperature and then refrigerate.
-Serve them cold, with a scoop of ice cream on top if you wish.

Leeks in Olive Oil (Zeytinyağlı Pırasa)

Pırasa is one of those vegetables that you either love it or hate it. The existence of both positive and negative references to leeks in Turkish culture proves how divided we are on the topic of pırasa as well as many other issues. My favorite saying related to leeks comes from Albanian Turks. When they are very full and cannot eat more, they say "I wouldn't eat, even if it is pırasa." It seems like the divide between the pro- and anti- leek people inspired Baba Zula, a popular Turkish band, to compose a song called pırasa. The lyrics of pırasa goes: "There are two different kinds of people in this world: those who love leek, and those who don't."



























4 leeks, washed well and chopped in 1/3 inch rounds
1 big onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, chopped in rounds or half moons
1/4 cup rice
1/3 cup olive oil
Juice of half lemon
2/3 - 1 cup hot water
1 tsp sugar
Salt


-Heat olive oil in a pot and add onions, stir for 4 minutes
-Add carrots and stir for 4 more minutes
-Add leeks and stir for a couple of minutes
-Add water, sugar, and salt (black pepper and crushed pepper)
-when the water boils add rice and lemon juice
-Cover and cook on low heat until rice is cooked

Pırasa is best when it’s served cold with a little lemon juice on top.

Sultan's Delight (Hünkar Beğendi)

I have heard two different stories surrounding the name of this dish, Hünkar Beğendi, which literately translates as "the Sultan liked it." The first one is that the dish was created for Sultan Murad IV (1612-1640) and obviously he liked it. Where the dish was created--in the palace kitchens or in the kitchen of a moderate house that Murad IV spent a night on his way back from a hunting trip--is not clear. The second rumor is that the same dish was served for Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, in Sultan Abdülaziz's Beylerbeyi Palace in 1869, and she liked it so much that Abdülaziz promised her to ask his chef to give Eugenie's cook the recipe. And the rumor goes that Abdülaziz's chef was reluctant to share his recipe. I salute whoever shared the recipe later on.

Hünkar Beğendi is lamb stew served on a bed of creamy roasted eggplant puree. However, "begendi," in time, started to be used for eggplant puree. Now you can also find 'chicken beğendi' or 'meatball beğendi.'



























for the stew
1 lb stew lamb (preferably from leg)
1 onion, finely chopped
2 green chilies or bell pepper, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, petite diced
2 tbsp tomato paste
2-3 tbsp butter
salt and pepper
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
1-1 1/2 cup hot water

for the eggplant puree
2 lb eggplant
1/4 cup white flour
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup grated Turkish hard mature cheese OR kashkaval cheese OR parmesan
1-1 1/2 milk
juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper

-Heat butter in a pot and sautee the onions for a coupe of minutes. Then add the meat. When browned on all sides, add green pepper. Stir for a couple of minutes.
-Add tomato paste and stir for another couple of minutes.
-Add tomaoes and cook for 5 minutes.
-At this point add the hot water and let simmer until meat is tender, approximately an hour. Add more water if need be.
-Meanwhile, wash and prick the eggplants with a fork on at least two sides.
-Place eggplants oon gas burner or under broiler turning them frequently until eggplant is collapsed and skin is charred. You can also bake them until flesh is soft, but charred tastes better.
-Let cool and then peel eggplants and discard stems.
-Mash eggplant with the back of a fork in a bowl and mix with lemon juice.
-Heat butther in a pot. Add flour and stir constantly to make a roux on low heat.
-Warm the milk and add slowly. Whisk to make the mixture smooth. simmer for 4-5 minutes.
-Add eggplant puree and mix well.
-Add salt and black pepper, and cheese. Mix well. Simmer for another 2-3 minutes.
-Make a bed on a plate with eggplant puree and place meat on top of eggplant puree. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Bulgur Kofte (Çılbak Köftesi)

Bulgur Kofte is a different version of another traditionally Turkish recipe, garlicy bulgur buttons, from southeastern Turkey. Koftes are usually made with ground meat but this one requires only bulgur, which explains the name: Çılbak Köfte. "Çılbak" means "naked" and "poor," so we can translate the name for this dish as "The Poor Man's Kofte."

These koftes are easy to make and delicious. You can have them with the garlicy yogurt, as well as with different sauces from the garlicy bulgur buttons recipe.



























for 4 people
makes approximately 45 koftes

for koftes
1 cup fine bulgur
1 cup hot water
1 cup white flour
1 egg
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp red pepper paste
1 tsp salt

for the sauce
2 cups yogurt
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2-3 tbsp butter or olive oil
1 tsp paprika



























-Put bulgur in a big bowl. Add hot water, cover and let it soak for 10 minutes.
-Wet your hands with cold water and knead bulgur for 5 minutes.
-Add egg, salt, tomato and pepper red paste, and mix well with your hands.
-Start adding flour slowly and knead the bulgur dough for 10-15 minutes, until everything is well mixed.
-Take one generous table spoon of the mix and roll between your palms to form a ball, wetting your hands with cold water now and then. Then, squeeze it in one hand to form the fingerprints on an almost oval shape.
-Fill a big pot with water half way through and bring to a boil. Add bulgur koftes, let it boil again, and cook for 15 minutes. Remove koftes with a slotted spoon.
-Beat yogurt with minced garlic with a fork until smooth in a bowl.
-In a small saucepan melt heat butter or olive oil. When it is hot, add paprika and let sizzle for 10-15 seconds. paprika easily burns, so watch out.
-Serve koftes in a deep plate. First pour garlicy yogurt and then sizzling paprika on top.
Simply delicious!

The recipe is from Lezzet Dergisi January 2008 pg 40.