Casseroles and Stews

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

By Ozlem Warren on January 26, 2011 in Casseroles and Stews, Uncategorised 0

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

By Ozlem Warren on January 12, 2011 in Appetizers and Mezes, Casseroles and Stews 10

Stuffed cabbage leaves, lahana sarmasi, delicious with dollop of yoghurt aside

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, yaprak sarmasi with either using the vegetarian aromatic rice stuffing or meat and rice stuffing.

Afiyet Olsun,

Ozlem

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

By Ozlem Warren on December 10, 2010 in Casseroles and Stews, Uncategorised 1

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!