Turkish meatballs wrapped in eggplant (aubergine) slices – Patlican Dilimli Uskup Kofte

Posted by Ozlem on Oct 20, 2011 in Casseroles and Stews, Uncategorized | 4 comments

How wonderful it is to be able to post recipes again; my laptop was broken and I couldn’t post for quite a while, sincere apologies for that. So lovely to share food and recipes again!

This is a very special dish that I make when I have a little extra time; it is very delicious and looks lovely, so it’s worth every effort. You can bake ahead of time and the leftovers can be frozen successfully. The succulent slices of eggplant around the meatballs are just heavenly. Served with plain rice and cucumber&yoghurt; dip, it makes a very special dinner to share.

Patlican, (eggplant or aubergine) is our national vegetable – it is actually fruit, as it has seeds- and one can argue we Turks have over 200 recipes featuring the beloved eggplant! They have high water content (and very low in fat), so the trick is to generously salt the eggplant slices and drain all the bitter juices before cooking, otherwise the eggplant gets soggy.

I hope you give this special dish a try sometime and could share with family and friends.

Serves 4-6
Preparation time: 50 minutes Cooking time: 40-45 minutes

For the meatballs:
450gr/1lb lean ground beef, lamb or mixture
1 medium onion, grated
1 bunch of flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 medium eggs
3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
5ml/1teaspoon ground cumin
Salt and ground black pepper to taste

3-4 medium eggplants
1 medium potato, skinned and sliced
Green or red pointy (or bell) peppers, coarsely sliced
1 onion, coarsely chopped
400gr/14oz can of chopped tomatoes
5m/1 teaspoon Turkish red pepper flakes (or chili flakes)
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
8fl oz/1 cup water

Preheat the oven to 180C/350 F

Sunflower or canola oil for shallow frying of eggplants

In order to make the meatballs, combine all the items in a large bowl and knead with your hands until all combined well. Grease a baking tray with a little olive oil (or sunflower oil). Take a walnut size of the meatball mixture and roll like an oval shape, carry on with making the meatballs until all the mixture is finished, and place them on the greased tray. Bake the meatballs for about 15-20 minutes, until they are partially cooked and firm enough to be wrapped with the eggplant slices.

Using a vegetable peeler, peel the eggplants (aubergines) lengthways in stripes like a zebra. Slice the eggplants lengthways, about ½ inch thick. Sprinkle some salt over them and leave for about 15 minutes. Squeeze out their moisture with paper towel. Then shallow fry them in the canola oil for 2-3 minutes until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on the paper towel to absorb the excess oil.

On a board, put an eggplant slice and place one meatball the middle and roll like a cigar. Repeat with the rest of the eggplant slices. Place the eggplant&meatball; roll seamide down, in a baking tray.

Place the sliced potatoes, onions and peppers amongst the eggplant rolls in the tray. Add the canned tomatoes and water, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle the red pepper flakes. Bake the dish in the oven for about 35-40 minutes. Please check towards the end if more water is needed and add some to the baking tray.

Serve the eggplant &meatball; rolls and the vegetables hot with plain rice by the side. Cucumber, garlic and yoghurt (Cacik, under Mezes and Appetizers in this blog) meze also would complement this delicious dish well.

Afiyet Olsun!

Tender chunks of chicken breast wrapped in eggplant (aubergine) slices -Patlıcanlı İslim kebabı

Posted by Ozlem on Apr 20, 2011 in Casseroles and Stews, Uncategorized | 7 comments

This elegant Ottoman dish is a wonderful melt-in-your-mouth experience of soft eggplant slices, tender chicken pieces and a sturdy tomato sauce, featuring Turks’ beloved eggplant (aubergine), patlican. Traditionally chunks of lamb or beef are used, and I made this version with chicken breast. Marinating the chicken as below really makes the meat tenderer and add a lot of flavor.
Wrapping the chicken in strips of lightly fried eggplant may take a little time to prepare but it is absolutely worth it and the result is impressive and very tasty. You can also bake this dish a day in advance and keep in the fridge, which makes it a great entertaining feast. Any leftovers can also be kept in the freezer.
For us Turks, cooking for family and friends have been an important way of showing that we care for them, and I do think, this is one of the nicest ways of showing your affection. The pleasure of having friends and family gathered around the table sharing your food and savoring the moment, is for me one of life’s greatest pleasures. This special dish I am sure would fit the bill perfectly and I do hope it would bring you all a lot of pleasure.

Serves 4-6
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes (+20 minutes for the eggplants)

3 long aubergine/eggplants (dark purple Holland eggplants)
Canola oil for shallow frying
1 medium tomato, halved and sliced
1 green bell pepper, halved and sliced lengthways
30ml/2 tablespoons olive oil to saute the chicken breasts

For marinating the chicken:
385gr/13 1/2oz chicken breast, cut in small chunks
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
30ml/2 tablespoon natural plain yoghurt
15ml/1 tablespoon olive oil
10ml/2 teaspoon tomato paste
5-10ml/1-2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

For the tomato sauce:
1 medium carrot, coarsely chopped
1 onion, coarsley chopped
Left over green bell pepper, coarsely chopped
15ml/1 tablespoon tomato paste
8fl oz/1 cup water
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 180C/350 F

First marinate the chicken. In a large bowl, combine the chicken pieces with the marination ingredients listed above and mix well. Cover and keep in the fridge at least for 30 minutes. This marination adds a wonderful flavor to the chicken and make the chicken breast tenderer. You can also prepare this marination a day in advance and keep in the fridge, covered.

Using a vegetable peeler, peel the eggplants (aubergines) lengthways in stripes like a zebra. Slice the eggplants lengthways, about ½ inch thick. Sprinkle some salt over them and leave for about 15 minutes. Squeeze out their moisture with paper towel. Then shallow fry them in the canola oil for 2-3 minutes until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on the paper towel to absorb the excess oil.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the marinated chicken breast. Sauté for about 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and black pepper and take out the meat to cool off.

On a board or a plate, place one eggplant slice horizontally and the other slice vertically on top of each other and place the meat mixture in the middle. Fold over the slices to wrap the meat mixture and place eggplant package seamside down, in a greased baking tray. Lay a small slice of tomato on top and then the green pepper and fasten the structure with a cocktail stick. Repeat with the rest of the eggplant slices. (If an eggplant slice is not long enough to do the duo wrap, you can place chicken pieces in the middle of one slice and roll like a cigar.)

Place the sliced carrots, onions and left over green peppers amongst the eggplant packages in the tray. Mix the tomato paste with water, season with salt and pepper. Pour this sauce around the eggplant packages and bake them in the oven for about 35 minutes. Please check towards the end if more water is needed and add some to the baking tray.

Serve the eggplant packages and the vegetables hot with plain rice by the side. Cucumber, garlic and yoghurt (Cacik, under Mezes and Appetizers in this blog) meze also would complement this delicious dish well.

Afiyet Olsun!

The Base Meat & Vegetable Sauce turned to Chilli

Posted by Ozlem on Jan 26, 2011 in Casseroles and Stews, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Once you have this meat and vegetable base sauce in hand, you can try different variations. For instance, you can add some red kidney beans to the sauce, and perhaps a little more cumin and red pepper flakes, and turn in to delicious and wholesome chilli sauce. Served over plain rice with plain yoghurt by the side, it makes a complete meal, delicious, easy and ready within minutes.

Serves 4
Preparation and cooking time: 15-20 minutes

14fl oz/2 cups of the base meat and vegetable sauce
400gr/14oz canned red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
5ml/1 teaspoon ground cumin
5ml1 teaspoon (or more!) red pepper flakes
Salt and ground pepper to taste

To serve:
Plain rice and a bowl of plain yoghurt or green salad by the side.

If you are using some of your frozen meat and vegetable sauce, I suggest to defrost the sauce in the fridge a night before (or alternatively you can defrost in the microwave, following the guidelines). Put the sauce in a pan and gently reheat. Once it starts simmering, add the spices and the red kidney beans, mix well. Check the seasoning and add more salt or pepper if needed.

This sauce is wonderful served with plain rice and a dollop of plain yoghurt or green salad by the side.

Afiyet Olsun!

My ground meat and vegetables base sauce – Etli, Sebzeli Sos

Posted by Ozlem on Jan 26, 2011 in Casseroles and Stews, Uncategorized | 0 comments

I love cooking and try to cook from scratch for most of the days. But there are times that I am on the go and have limited time. To be used during these hectic times, I like to cook this sauce in bulk, and put as portions into the freezer. And whenever I am in need, they magically appear and turn into different courses, using a variety of vegetables and beans. This way, I feed the family with wholesome, home cooked meals with minimum of stress. Steamed/cooked courgettes (zucchini), french/runner beans, cauliflower, broccoli, potato, peas all go really well with this sauce. And add some red kidney beans (and more red pepper flakes!) to turn into a chilli sauce. This base sauce is also wonderful served over pasta. It’s no rocket science, simple and wholesome and we all enjoy it, hope you do too.

If you would like to omit the meat, you can use different kinds of mushrooms instead; their meaty texture and wonderful flavor would go really well in the sauce.

Serves 6-8
Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 40 minutes

1kg/2 1/4lb ground meat (of your choice)
5-6 medium onions, finely chopped (or grated for picky eaters!)
1 bulb garlic, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, finely chopped
1 bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
2x400gr/14oz canned chopped tomatoes
15ml/1tablespoon tomato paste (or red pepper paste, if available)
10ml/2teaspoon ground cumin
10ml2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (add more if you’d like it spicier)
30-45ml/2-3 tablespoon olive oil
8fl oz/1 cup water
Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy pan. Stir in the garlic and onion and cook until golden. Add the ground meat and cook for 2-3 minutes to brown them lightly. Stir in the carrots, tomato or red pepper paste, chopped tomatoes and the water, mix well. Season with salt and ground black pepper and add the cumin and red pepper flakes. Stir well, cover and cook over low heat for about 35 minutes. Towards the end of the cooking, add the parsley and stir well, turn the heat off. Check the seasoning and add more salt or pepper if needed.

Once cooled down, you can put the sauce in containers, if you would like to freeze some. You can use some of the sauce (for instance 14fl oz/ 2 cups of cooked sauce would be more than enough for a family of 4) to serve with steamed broccoli or cauliflower. The sauce is also wonderful served over the pasta. We like to have a dollop of plain yoghurt and some plain rice by the side.

Afiyet Olsun!

Cabbage Leaves Stuffed with Ground Meat and Rice – Lahana Sarmasi (Dolmasi)

Posted by Ozlem on Jan 12, 2011 in Casseroles and Stews, Uncategorized | 1 comment

Stuffed cabbage leaves are popular in winter time at Turkish homes. This wonderful, healthy and comforting dish is one of my childhood favorites; always brings lots of pleasant memories. I remember us all sitting around the kitchen table preparing the cabbage leaves ready to be stuffed, eagerly waiting for them to be cooked. Once it is cooked, we children all used to camp around the pot, offering (and sometimes helping ourselves) to “quality check” if the stuffed leaves cooked well. We loved eating these treats dipping into plain yoghurt, happy days

I hope you have a go at making these fantastic dolmas; it is really not as hard as you would imagine and will certainly impress your guests. The sharpness of lemon brings extra zing and goes very well with cabbage.

Serves 4
Preparation time : 35 minutes Cooking time : 35-40 minutes

1 medium white cabbage – brings out about 25 leaves
250gr/9oz/generous 1 cup lean ground (minced) lamb or beef
115gr/4oz/1/2 cup long grain rice, rinsed and drained
1 medium onion, finely chopped
6 cloves of garlic (optional)
1 bunch of flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
15ml/1tablespoon tomato paste
2 teaspoons red pepper flakes (optional)
2 teaspoon dried mint
60ml/4 tablespoons olive oil
8fl oz/1 cup hot water
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and ground pepper to taste

1 small bowl of natural (plain) yoghurt
1 lemon, cut into wedges

Cut the cabbage in half vertically and cut out the hearts. Plunge into a pot of salted boiling water and cook for about 5-8 minutes. The leaves should be tender but not over cooked. Rinse under cold running water and carefully remove the outer leaves. Cut away the hard central vein, resulting in about 25 pieces of cabbage leaves, about the size of your hand.

For the filling; put the ground meat in a bowl and stir in the onions, parsley, dried mint, red pepper flakes, 2 tablespoons olive oil and the tomato paste. Season with salt and pepper and knead, until they all combined well. Add the rice and mix well with a spoon, taking care not to break the rice grains.

Take one of the cabbage leaves on a flat surface and spoon a walnut size of the filling at the base of each leaf. Fold the edges over the filling and roll up to form a chunky finger sized dolma. Repeat with the remaining leaves and filling.

Pour the remaining olive oil in a deep, wide pan. Arrange the dolmas in the pan seam side down and side by side. If you like, scatter the garlic cloves amongst the dolmas – once they are cooked the cloves will be moist and juicy, and will add a wonderful flavor. Mix the lemon juice, hot water and a pinch of salt, then pour over the dolmas. The liquid should come at least halfway up the top layer, so you may need to add extra liquid. Place a heavy plate over the leaves to stop them from unraveling, followed by a lid or foil.

Cook over low heat for about 35-40 minutes, until the dolmas are tender. Remove from the heat and let the dolmas rest for about 10 minutes. That will help the dolmas to come out without breaking and make the flavor even better.

Serve hot, with yoghurt by the side and lemon wedges to squeeze over.

Note: You can also use grapevine leaves for dolma (recipe under Appetizers and Mezes in the blog), with either using the vegetarian aromatic rice stuffing or meat and rice stuffing.

Afiyet Olsun!

Eggplant (aubergine) Pot Stew and Beautiful Winter Frost at Wisley Gardens – Patlicanli Tencere Kebabi

Posted by Ozlem on Dec 10, 2010 in Casseroles and Stews, Uncategorized | 0 comments

This is one of my favourite stews – or as we call in Turkish, Pot Kebabs, “Tencere Kebabi”. The marriage of sweet, meaty aubergines with the delicately flavoured shallots (and lots of it) is divine; you hardy need the meat to add extra flavour (You may try excluding the meat for a delicious vegetarian course). I love dipping the crusty bread to its juice. Also the lentil/bulgur patties (recipe is under the section of mezes in the blog) goes very well to dip into the yummy juice of the stew.

Christmas Eve dinner is traditionally Turkish dinner in our home, as our international (extended) family loves Turkish cooking, especially the aubergines. So this will be my main course this year. You can cook this delicious stew ahead of time and any left overs can be frozen successfully. You can enjoy entertaining stress-free:)

And a little photo from the wonderful Wisley Gardens; the frost on the plants make the gardens look absolutely magical.

Serves 4-6
Preparation time: 35 minutes Cooking time: 55 minutes

3 small to medium eggplants (aubergines), quartered and sliced
450gr/1lb shallots, peeled and cut in half
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut in cubes
1 carrot, cut in cubes
500gr/ 1 ¼ lb beef or lamb in chestnut sized pieces
90 ml/ 6 tablespoon olive oil
400gr/ 14 oz can of chopped tomatoes
15ml/1 tablespoon Turkish red pepper paste (optional)
8fl oz/ 1 cup water
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt and ground black pepper

Spread the eggplant slices in a tray and sprinkle salt over them, leave for 15-20 minutes. Salt will help to take the moisture out of the eggplants. Drain the juices, as they are bitter, and squeeze dry the eggplants with paper or tea towel.

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy pan. Stir in the eggplants and shallots and sauté until they start to turn golden brow (my mother actually would shake the pan too, so that the aubergines don’t get bruised:) Season with salt and pepper. Add the meat to brown a little. Toss in the carrots and potatoes and cook for a few minutes, stir well. Season with salt and black pepper generously. Add the chopped tomatoes, red pepper paste (if used) and water, mix well. Check the seasoning and add the red pepper flakes. Cover and cook on a medium to low heat for about 40 minutes, until the sauce starts to thicken.

Serve hot with some nice crusty bread or plain rice by the side. The bulgur&lentil; patties in the blog (under Meze section) would go really well to dip in the delicious juice of the stew too.

Afiyet Olsun!