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Cevizli Kurabiye – Cookies with Walnuts

By Ozlem Warren on September 10, 2010 in Cakes and Desserts, Uncategorised 0

My friend Tina baked some wonderful cookies with pecans – she is from Louisiana, and that was her mother’s recipe. As soon as I tasted, these wonderful cookies took me back to my childhood, as my mother used to bake a very similar version using walnuts. It is amazing to see the similarities we share wherever we are in the world, a very nice feeling, and makes the world feel smaller!

These cookies are very easy make, get ready in no time and they melt in the mouth. It is the end of Ramadan at the moment and we celebrate this special feast period with lots of sweets shared with friends and family. I hope you enjoy this little treat, Iyi Bayramlar to you all!

Serves 6 – 8
Preparation time : 15 minutes Cooking time: 15 – 20 minutes

460 gr/ 16 oz/2 cups self raising flour (whole meal or plain)
230 gr/8 oz/generous 1 cup sugar
230 gr/8 oz unsalted butter, melted
200 gr/7oz walnut (or pecan) pieces
Pinch of salt (labout 1/2 teaspoon)

Powered (icing) sugar to coat the cookies

Preheat oven to 150 C/300 F/ Gas Mark 2

Combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. With using your hands, mix them well. Take large egg sized portions and roll into balls with your hands and then slightly flatten into oval shapes. Place them on the greased baking tray.

Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, and check if they start turning golden / light brown color. If not bake for another 5 minutes.

Once cooked, cool the cookies and when they are slightly warm, coat them with icing sugar. You can serve them with tea, coffee or cold refreshments.

Afiyet Olsun!

Kalkan – A Gem in Southwest coast of Turkey

By Ozlem Warren on August 26, 2010 in Fascinating Turkey, Uncategorised 3

It is raining in London (well, in Surrey to be more correct) and remembering Kalkan brought sunshine to my day, hope it helps to yours too! My husband and I sneaked off to Kalkan, one of our favorite beaches in southwest coast of Turkey (thanks to my sister, family, and mum and dad for all the help!). It used to be a quite, quaint fisherman’s village about 20 years ago or so. Now, though still quaint, it is packed with tourists, which, nice to see, appreciate and look after Kalkan. We love staying at the EaglesNest Apartments (now smartly refurbished, they are on offer for sale too)on the hill and use chic Villa Mahal’s beach. Mahal’s staff wears a T-shirt which says “181 steps to heaven” and that’s true! Go down 181 steps amongst gorgeous olive trees, pine trees over looking turquise Med, you feel like you are in Heaven!

Here are some photos; The Times selected Kalkan as the world’s one of the 10 must see spots, I believe that.

Villa Mahal’s baker makes amazing pides with different fillings which we always looked forward to for our lunch, happy days!

The Kalkan village turns into a shoppers and foodie paradise in the evening, beautiful potteries, handmade ornaments and many more 🙂

Best wishes for exciting travels to you all!
Ozlem

Fascinating Istanbul & Surroundings

By Ozlem Warren on August 22, 2010 in Fascinating Istanbul, Fascinating Turkey, Uncategorised 2

Merhaba!

After a couple of weeks in Turkey, we are back! Apologies as I couldn’t write earlier, there was limited time and access to the internet, I suppose not a bad thing. It was a wonderful trip, packed with lots of special memories, I will share the photos from now on, as well as some recipes (like stuffed vine leaves coming up) we did with my mother, a very special experience.

I lived in Istanbul for over 15 years and the city still surprises me with its magic, and many faces. With all the joy, drama, happiness, chaos, excitement and sort of sadness (“huzun”, as the Turkish author Orhan Pamuk describes in his book, Memoirs of Istanbul), warmness and unconditional hospitality it provides, Istanbul is the city where east meets west, by all means. Little oriental, little western, a city hosted many civilizations – from the Eastern Romans to Ottomans and now the Turkish Republic. Istanbul is the city that I love, that calls me all the time and the place where my heart beats – Fast. I hope you have a chance to make it there one day and experience this magical city; just have a little stroll in Old Istanbul or by the Bosphorus water way, you will feel alive, feel like you are a part of the many civilizations that the City hosted for thousands of years.

Now a couple of photos; here we have the quaint Ortakoy Mosque by the Bosphorus (you may remember from the Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies); little Turkish pizzas with ground lamb and veg topping (I have this recipe under Savory Pastries in the blog,a real treat); the Bosphorus Bridge and boats passing by – the life vein of the city; the wooden boat/house construction at the edge of Blacksea, which transported us to our resort on the other side of the river- a primitive but fun way of transportation, the children loved it so did we!

There are so many to share from home; colorful markets, delicious recipes we tried and enjoyed, the wonderful southcoast of Turkey, Kalkan, where we were mesmerised by the turquise sea; all to come soon!

Wishing you all happy travels and feasts shared with friends and family 🙂

Ozlem