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Seasonal, organic produce, delivered by your door & Chard recipe

By Ozlem Warren on May 24, 2011 in A Slice of England, Uncategorised 2

I got a leaflet thru my door the other week, a company, Abel&Cole;, offering organic fruit and veg delivered to my door. I did hear about this though haven’t had a chance to try before, so decided to give it a go. As much as I would love to make it to the Farmer’s Market every week, I can’t always do that, so thought, this is great; Farmer’s Market comes to me. It is a great value and feels good that it is a fair deal to the farmers too.

Last Thursday, our first box of organic fruit and vegetables arrived and it was a happy sight! Wonderful, seasonal organic produce; Swiss chards, portobello mushrooms, bananas, lovely carrots and bell pepper, apple, onions, potatoes and more. I liked the fact that you are delivered whatever fruit and veg seasonal at the moment, and there is a surprise element to it. I can get the same or similar veg over and over again when shopping, and this has been a welcoming change – take chards, never really got into them before, but now that it was in my box, I was excited to try a new thing.

For the chards; I simply sautéed some garlic with olive oil, chopped the chard coarsely and added to the pan. I sautéed the chard for about 4-5 minutes, until wilted but still has had a bite to it. Seasoned with salt and pepper and squeezed half a lemon over it. Finally, I added a few sprinkles of red pepper flakes and served as a side dish. It was utterly delicious and I am won over 🙂

I am already looking forward to my next box!

Happy Cooking and Afiyet Olsun,

Penne with Olives, Garlic, Tomatoes and Dill – Domatesli, Zeytinli Penne Makarna

By Ozlem Warren on May 17, 2011 in Pasta – Makarna, Uncategorised 4

As much as we love cooking, there is a challenge for all of us to produce healthy, delicious, and easy to prepare supper at the end of the day. This is even more challenging at weekdays, as we juggle the school run, work, daily chores. At times like these, I try to make the most of what I have in my fridge and kitchen and come out with something, hopefully a delicious bite to eat. At one of days like this, I opened my fridge and found some good olives (and we do eat a lot of olives), cherry tomatoes on the vine, garlic and dill. My family loves pasta and the combination of these made a wonderful, delicious pasta sauce, that you can prepare in no time (and even ahead of time), mediterranean way.

The ingredients might change depending on what I have at the moment – courgettes (zucchini), mushrooms, onions, some good pecorino cheese .. all would make a wonderful sauce and can save that weekday supper.

Serves 2-3
Preparation time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 15 minutes

350gr/12oz penne pasta
4 cloves of garlic, crushed and finely chopped
10-12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
3oml/2tablespoons of fresh dill, coarsely chopped
90gr/3oz Turkish or Kalamata black and green olives, pitted and halved
30ml/2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Sprigs of fresh dill to serve
Grated parmesan or pecorino romano to serve

Heat the olive oil in a heavy pan and sauté the garlic for a minute or two. Add the cherry tomatoes and olives, give them a good mix and cook for a further two minutes. Check the seasoning (olives can be quite salty) and season with salt, if needed, and black pepper

In the meantime, place the pasta in a saucepan of boiling water, add a little salt and a dash of olive oil. Stir occasionally and boil for about 10 minutes, until “al dente”. Towards the end of the cooking, take 2 tablespoons of the pasta’s cooking liquid and add to the pasta sauce, along with the dill. Mix well. Once pasta is cooked, drain the water and mix the pasta with the sauce.

Serve hot immediately, with sprigs of dill over the pasta and some grated pecorino or parmesan over the pasta, if you like.

Afiyet Olsun!

Sofra Restaurant, Covent Garden, London

By Ozlem Warren on May 9, 2011 in A Slice of England, Uncategorised 12

My parents were visiting us last week and we had a day out in London. Covent Garden is one of my favorite spots and decided to take my parents there. While walking around Covent Garden, we spotted the wonderful Turkish restaurant, Sofra (I had been to the Sofra Restaurant in Mayfair before but not in Covent Garden). What a pleasant surprise it was and for my parents, it was like seeing an oasis; my dad’s face lit up big time with a great smile, and he dived into the restaurant, so did we! The smells and looks of his favorite and familiar Turkish food made him happy beyond words 🙂

Huseyin Ozer’s Sofra Restaurant deserves all these praise and many more; healthy, delicious Turkish food, served with genuine Turkish hospitality. Friendly staff greets with wonderful wheat pide bread (not only healthy, but this version of pide (pita) bread was so delicious, we must have had a few extra servings of them) and home made hummus with wonderful Turkish olives over it. We enjoyed a delightful Turkish breakfast with eggs of your choice, wonderful olives, white (feta) cheese, cheddar cheese, succulent slices of tomatoes, rose petal jam, honey, wonderful fresh orange juice and of course Turkish cay (tea) served at tulip shaped glasses. I had my fix of eggs with Turkish sausages (sucuk), it was wonderful. If I had closed my eyes for a moment, I would have certainly transferred myself to Istanbul by the Bosphorus, enjoying this feast. Sofra is indeed a wonderful oasis for us all who enjoy Turkish food. Please visit www.sofra.co.uk for various branches in London, for a real treat of Turkish cuisine.