Pilaf/Rice with green bean (Fasulye Dible)

All the areas in Turkey has different kinda food culture. In north east of Turkey which is Black Sea Region ,they cook almost all geens' "Dible". Dible is rice with veg. And Fasulye(green bean) Dible is one of them. Black Sea Regions is the most green areas in Turkey, so they cook a lot with green,vegs and so on..
Rize/Turkey

Normally i dont like to add recipes which i didnt cook in my blog. But after i started blogging thing and my mum saw that i got comments and Top 9 bla bla bla, she started cook better , unusual foods than normal times. I think she thinks that she has been cooking from 30 years and nobody appriciated in proper way:) and now she has a kinda chance with me to show her foods more people and got claps:) She is really great cook, best that i knew. Honestly she didnt want me to go in kitchen too much because she was afraid from the mess after i cooked.. But she couldnt do anything about it:) After she cook , always ask me to add the foods in my blog but i reject, but this time i thought i can make privilege for one time:) i liked the fasulye dible too much (normally she wasnt used to cook it, i think she cooked for you:) ) The taste is so good.. It is fillig,tasty and easy to cook. What you can ask more from a food? :))

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Is your job what you have dreamed??

If you ask to a kid "what you want to be when you grow up", they will probably reply you to be a teacher ,doctor,pilot,astronaut.. How many people working in their dreamed jobs? or i am not sure if there is such a lucky person. I studied economics, had master in financial markets and currently work for a bank. Am i happy? is this what i wanna be? i really dont know nowadays. I query myself too much recently, about my life, what i wanna be.. I am 26 but i am still not sure.. everyday i wake up at 6.30 am.,take 3 busses and going work in 1,5 hour and is it worth?? what if i quit? what i am gonna do?i dont know .. do i enjoy with my job as much as cooking, or if i was a chef/cook, would i be happy that time?? This kinda questions in mind.. I dont know everybody ask this questions to theirself time to time.. If you lived same feelings, share with me please..

Stuffed Eggplants with Mince (Karniyarik) Recipe

That is the one basic recipe of Turkish&Ottoman Kitchen and this is my favourite dish that can be cooked with Eggplant. I really like it, and i reccomend if you cook it , you should cook rice also, they are very good friends i guess:)

This dish is normally served warm , but for vegetarians we have another version ,it is filled with onion,garlic&parsley. This dish is served cold and we call it "imambayıldı"(imam:prayer leader,bayıldı:to be fainted). I know it is so funny name. There are a lot of rumours about this name; someone tell a lady cooked this dish for her imam husband and he got fainted because of the delisious taste, some others tell imam fainted because of the cost of the dish and so on :)) this kinda funny stories about foods. But i like both ways of eggplant dishes. As you can understand from the stories ,it is very well known , old and important dish for Ottoman&Turkish kitchen..

Enjoy!!

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Dates&Cinnamon Cake

There are some free courses which is supported by Municipality. Yesterday evening after work i went one of them to get web designing course. You know i am not so good with PC ,coding, web etc and sometimes i wanna do smth about my blog , but i cant do it because i am not familar about it, and for that i need to find an IT guy and ask and wait for respond and bla bla bla which make me nervous, so i thought i can get one of these course and make smth better. But when i went there , i saw there are too much people i guess who are thiking same with me, there were more than 100 people but they just get 20 people, so i got an exam and if i can success ,i will start a web designing course.. please wish me luck, i will learn the result after 1 week.. anyway lets talk about food abit:)
you know i am not so fan of sweet,dessert.. if you bring me a cake and pasta and ask me to choose i would never choose cake:) so that is why i guess i am more conservative about cooking sweet,desserts, cakes etc.
But there is one sweet called "mamul" which has date inside. We dont have it here, i order from arab countries, i am not sure if it is available any other place.
And when i was checking last day other people is blog , i saw a recipe Date Bread , the blog adress http://treatntrick.blogspot.com/ ; i really liked it and thought to cook it. but i cooked it a bit different.. and the result was really good , the taste is amazing... and one thing, i didnt add any sugar in this cake:)) but date and cinnamon enough sweet. it is as i like no so so sweet.. but great taste..
I should confess the above the cake a bit burned but it s because of my stupid oven:) but result is really good, i reccomend you to try..

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Homemade Pickle (Tursu)

I am not sure if the pickle is right word for this, because when i write pickle in internet it just give me the one is cucumber pickle but when we make pickle at home normally it includes a lot like;cucumber,cabbage, tomato, gherkin,red cabbace,green pepper,beet,unripe melon and so on..we call it in Turkey "Tursu". My mum make pickle in big cans , after they been, we eat them with our dinner mostly. I like the salty taste of it. Also the water' s flavor in pickle is amazing, in Turkey there are some stores which sell pickle, and also the water of it.

If you never drunk that water ,at least once give a try if possible.. you will not regret.

Our can was for 5 lt. And the amounts we put in can is for that..

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Falafel & Tarator Sauce

Here is another delicious dish that i have tasted in Lubenon. It was soo good, they serve it in the bread with tomato, radish, lettuce and tarator sauce. One of best thing also i have just paid less than 2 usd:) it was so cheap and great taste. It is famous food in Middle East. Good food also for vegeterians.

One of my Egyptian friend told it is called as food for poor people.. but i dont care, i like it:))

maybe i should open a place to sell falafel , i am sure i d make good business:) in Egypt, Mc Donald sell a special called Mc Falafel:)))

I went a place in Beirut which is famous with falafel called BARBAR.. and they are open 24 hours i guess , you cant guess how much it is full. You never find it empty.... always someone wait to get falafel:)

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Assaha Hotel&Restaurant-Beirut

Assaha is the maybe nicest hotel i have ever seen, it has unique design, it looks like a castle, very authentic, fully stone . I felt so great there. I had chance to see the rooms as well..

All the rooms has different country concept; Morocco , Egypt, Lubenon,Africa, America and more ... and all were perfect, and i can say also prices are so reasonable.

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Hummus

Here is the another tasty Lebanese dish.. We have it in Turkey as well with same name "Humus", it is an appetizer, we call this kinda dishes as "Meze".. Hummus mean in arabic "chick peas ". Mostly famous in arab countries but also in Turkey, Greece,Syria serve it as traditional food. While you are preparing it, the taste is detarmined by how to order the ingredients. For example; if you add garlic while you are mashing the chick peas , you will taste garlic more light..

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Waraq Enab (Yaprak dolma)

This is one of my favourite food.. maybe i can say my favourite!! :) in Turkey we call it yaprak dolma(yaprak: grape leaf, dolma:being filled up) and in Lubenon they call it Waraq Enab, it is one of best mediterianne dish i suppose, you can cook it as olive oil as cold (zeytinyagli) or if you desire, it can be cooked with meat and serve hot..

But i like the cold version more .. in Lebanon they cook it more sour than we do here ,but it is tasty , it is up to you how much lemon you wanna add ..

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Mutabbal (Lebanese Eggplant Salad)

I would never think the tahin (crushed sesame seeds) would suit into eggplant with yoghurt and garlic. But it does.. really.. Mutabbal was also one of my favourite dish in Lebanon. I am thinking , after i started this blog, i cooked a lot of variations of the eggplant! it is really good vegetable that you can cook in different and tasty ways. And mutabbal is one of them..

Enjoy!

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Tabouleh (Lebanese Salad)

It is the most tasty salad till i ever ate , i really loved it, i liked the sour taste with it, i think the sour make it more tasty, if you like try to add more lemon , Eksi (pomegranate molasses )
Tabouleh is a salad but also one of main dish in Lebanon.
If you like you can add more bulghur and make it "Kısır" as a Turkish variation. but i loved the way i ate in Lebanon..
You can start adding little lemon and eksi , and after you taste decide how much you wanna add..

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Lebanon...

Dear friends,
I finished my short Lebanon trip and back to home . Lebanon is a small country full of history, nature, great people and amazing dishes. You can drive in 3 hours the country from north to south. It is a place that you should mark for your holiday destination.

Also i liked the feeling to be a tourist in this lovely country, people are so helpful and nice. Once, one lady wanted to take my photo with her kids, i felt like a superstar:)
Jeitta grotto is amazing ,it is a gift from GOD..
I had chance to visit Beirut, Jbail, Baalbeck, Jounieh.. all of them i loved, met a lot of nice lubenese people..
And sure i tasted a lot of nice lubenese foods:)) Beydan, waraq enab,fettush,mutebbel,tabbuleh,falafel and more.. all were sooo delicious.. in most of restaurants before the food they serve Beydan(almond), pickle etc, and after meal , they serve you a lot of type of fruits or somewhere even desserts and sure arabic coffee.. and all free:)
Will share with you some recipes and more information about Lebanon..


Just follow me;)

Tavuk Guvec (Chicken Casserole)

I got the food taste which made with casserole ,
i have cooked it with lamb so this time i tried with chicken and eggplant. The thing with casserole; it should cook on the low heat ,and long time, like 1-2 hours. I love the smell when it is cooking , reult is amazing , the meat or chicken or the vegs just delectable. And the favourite food to serve with guvec is rice which is cooked with butter and chicken broth; how can i say no these foods:))


Enjoy..

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iyi bayramlar..

Yesterday Eid ul fitr started, we call it "bayram" ,"Şeker bayrami(Bayram of Sweets)" , it is the celebration day after Ramadan, conclusion of fasting. Honestly i dont like bayrams as before. When i was a kid,it was more meaningful, people were more friendly with eachother, human relations was everything, now everything changed. Nowadays, Bayram means holiday for people, to chance to run away from work,city or people.. When i was a kid, it was rituel. The men of the street where i live were going to mosque for pra. When they came back ,we been made ready the breakfast table, the table was perfect, after we ate, people were greeting to eachother. "iyi bayramlar"-have good bayrams.. visiting relatives, friends.. When we are going to someone s home ,we are getting mostly chocolate or candy as gift.. i am a kinda traditional girl who like to keep alive this kinda good traditions.. Although my family got a bit angry with me , i still woke up early ,went market, prepared breakfast and woke my family up and pushed them to go out. Still had nice bayram day with all relative visits..

İyi bayramlar to all...

Turkish Coffee

Turkish coffee is more than coffee, it is a culture. I think we are the only nation which charge this much meaning on the coffee:)

We have even songs about coffee , "Coffee comes from Yemen" very old song ; it is true, Istanbul was introduced to coffee in 1543 during the reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent by Özdemir Pasha, the Ottoman Governor of Yemen, who had grown to love the drink while stationed in that country.

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Guvec/Tajin (Lamb and Veggie Casserole)

One of my morrocon friend Rachid give me a gift called Tajin . Actually in Morocco it is the traditional way of cooking, they cook meats, chicken,fish etc. in that pots. The traditional tagine pot is formed entirely of a heavy clay, which is sometimes painted or glazed.
in Turkey we call this type of foods "guvec", it is a kinda similar . And the taste is i think similar.





I served it in the tajin which is given by my friend. If you cant find this much attractive plate to serve, you can serve with your regular plates , the taste is same and everybody will love it:)

I cooked rice with this, they are good friends i believe..

Enjoy..

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Chicken Burger (Tavuk koftesi)

Today when i checking some recipes, i saw one fish burger recipe in one of supermarket website, me and my family is not fan of fish so i decided to try this with chicken and you cant guess how much i made a good decision. while i was cooking it, all family came to kitchen to check what is been cooking:)) the smell was good and the taste hmmmmm.... really amazing..

Hope you try and like it too.. i highly reccomend this recipe..

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Rice with Tomato Recipe (Domatesli pilav)

I think because of Ramadan and i stay long hours hunger , everyday i want different foods badly. And today i came home earlier, after i got some rest , i went market and shopped for my foods.


Oh by the way, i have been staying with one of my friend from 15 days and today i came back home and i have missed them , thats why i wanted to cook something, i thought they may miss my foods:)) hopefully i cooked well..


Tomato with rice is my favourite pilaf, hope you like it too..

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Ramadan iftar table

In ramadan, the meal after sunset called "iftar".
During Ramadan i am away my home, i stay with one friend who lives close to my work, so it is easy for me to fast,i can go work comfortable and short time.
Today we invited our friends for iftar,here is the menu ;

-lentil soup
-paçanga pastry(with pastrami and cheese)
-Burger and potato with tomato sauce in oven
-Manti (Turkish ravioli)
-Rice
-Salad
-chicken breast pudding (tavuk göğsü)
everbody went back home happy , yuppi:)))
we ate , had nice chat and was amazing evening as it should be in Ramadan.

have a good Ramadan....

Potato in oven with cream recipe

Dear my followers,
after long time i am back to write:) i was a kinda busy ,even if i cooked i couldnt share with you.
Also holy month Ramadan started which muslims fast, it is really holy month which i enjoy, during the Ramadan ,people help eachother, the big tents settled outside that give foods to people, after sunset people can eat and drink. everybody goes to eachother for iftar (meal after sunset), we used to go to friends,relatives,and also invite people.. it is really amazing... i really enjoy with this month...
This recipe from my friend Turkay, recently at 5th of Aug i celebrated my birthday , and woow i m 26:)) she has cooked and i loved it ,easy and tasty food, i dont know if i have wrote before i am fall in love with potato:))
Enjoy with it..

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