Tag Archives | lemon

Celeriac with winter vegetables, cooked in olive oil – Zeytinyagli Kereviz

By Ozlem Warren on November 14, 2011 in Appetizers and Mezes, Vegetables Cooked in Olive Oil 6

Celeriac is a knobbly root closely related to celery, and has a wonderful flavor; a mix of aniseed, celery and parsley, and perhaps with the meaty bite of mushrooms. In Turkey, we like to poach the chunks of celeriac in olive oil & lemon sauce, with carrots, potatoes, onions and peas. This kind of cooking, called “Vegetables cooked in olive oil” or “Zeytinyaglis”, are very healthy and delicious.

I love this easy style of cooking and that you can prepare ahead of time. This lovely dish can accompany to fish, meat or and other vegetable courses, also it can be a wonderful starter. The lemon & olive oil sauce adds a wonderful, refreshing taste to celeriac. You can enjoy this course cold, at room temperature or slightly warm.

Celeriac. carrots and peas cooked in olive oil, with lemon and dill; Zeytinyagli Kereviz

Serves 2-4
Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 35 minutes

2-3 small celeriacs, peeled and cut into small chunks
30ml/2 tablespoons peas, fresh or frozen
1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
1 small potato, peeled and diced
5 small shallots, peeled or 1 small onion, chopped
120ml/4 tablespoons olive oil
8 fl oz/1 cup water
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and sugar to taste
Fresh dill to garnish

To prevent discoloration during the preparation, keep the raw celeriac in a bowl of water with a squeeze of lemon juice. Cut each one into small chunks.

Cook the peas separately until tender and put to one side.

Drain the celeriac chunks and place in a heavy pan together with the other prepared vegetables. Add the olive oil, water, a little sugar (perhaps 1/2 teaspoon), season with salt. Give them all a good stir, cover and cook on a low to medium heat for about 25 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Add the cooked peas and the juice of lemon, combine well. Check the seasoning and add more salt if needed.

Finally, add a little chopped dill, heat through and then remove from heat. Set aside to cool.

Serve the celeriac with vegetables warm at room temperature, with a little garnish of dill over and a wedge of lemon by the side.

Afiyet Olsun,

Ozlem

Antakya’s Savory Kaytaz Pastry with ground meat & onion in fillo sheets – Yufkali Kaytaz Boregi

By Ozlem Warren on June 27, 2011 in Savory Pastries 8

My parents were with us in late April, and as always, it was a joy to cook together with my mother. This time, 3 generations – my mother, my daughter and myself- made Antakya’s famous kaytaz borek – savory pastry filled with ground meat and onion -, with using fillo pastry sheets. Traditionally we would prepare the dough for this borek, put the filling on top and take it to the local bakery to bake – heavenly. This time, mum showed us how to recreate this treat using fillo pastry sheets and it worked wonderfully. The crunchy texture of the fillo sheets work so well with the juicy filling; and once you squeeze lemon juice over it, I am in heaven, so as the children – and I hope you would be too. It is a great party food, starter or a wonderful snack for all the family to indulge.

It is very special to be able to cook and share food together, bind generations, family and friends in different levels. I am sure that sweet cooking experience will be sealed in our memories forever.

Antakya’s kaytaz borek, savory pastry with ground meat, onions and tomato paste; a very delicious snack.

Serves 8-10
Preparation time: 25 minutes Cooking time: 30 minutes

For the filling:
225gr/8oz lean ground beef
1 onion, finely grated
15ml/1tablespoon tomato paste
5ml/1teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Salt to taste

24 sheets of fillo pastry (24cmx25cm/about 9″x10″), thawed or yufka sheets
Small bowl of cold water
15ml/1 tablespoon olive oil
A little more olive oil to brush the pastry

Lemon wedges to serve

Preheat the oven to 180 C / 350 F/ Gas Mark 4

For best results, thaw the frozen fillo pastry sheets in the fridge overnight and bring it to the room temperature 2 hours before using. That enables the fillo thaw completely. If it is sold fresh as in the UK, you only need to bring the fillo to the room temperature 30 minutes before using.

In a bowl, mix the grated onion, ground beef, tomato paste, season with salt and ground black pepper. Really knead well with your hands, until all the ingredients combined.

Add the olive oil to a small bowl of water and mix well. Set by the side of the fillo pastry sheets. Take one fillo pastry sheet out (and cover the rest with damp towel so that they won’t dry out). Fold the pastry sheet lengthwise and cut them as 5cmx8cm (about 2″x3 1/2″) strips.

Put a spoonful of meat mixture in the middle of each 5cmx8cm pastry sheet (some filo sheets are thinner than others; you can put two filo sheets on top each other if it’s too thin. If you are using yufka, just one sheet should be sufficient). Wet your fingers from the bowl of olive oil & water mixture. Seal both ends of the pastry with your wet fingers. You should now have a shape of a small boat with the mixture in the middle. Repeat this for the rest of the mixture and pastry sheets.

Grease the baking tray with olive oil and place the stuffed pastries on it. Brush the pastries with a little olive oil and bake for about 30 minutes or until the pastry turns to golden color.

Serve hot with wedges of lemon to squeeze over. You can serve these wonderful treats for lunch with a green salad by the side, or just enjoy them as a snack/starter.

Antakya’s kaytaz borek with filo sheets, ground meat and onion; a deliciosu treat with a squeeze of lemon over.

Original kaytaz boregi, with its traditional dough made from scratch is at my cookery book, Ozlem’s Turkish Table, if you like to have a go. Signed copies available here

Afiyet Olsun,

Ozlem

Pistachio Cake with Lemon Glaze – Fistikli, limonlu kek

By Ozlem Warren on May 8, 2011 in Cakes and Desserts 9

Pistachio & almond cake with a lemon glaze

This delicious cake is originally from the River Cafe cookbook, and the authors run the wonderful Italian restaurant, River Cafe in London. The cake combines my favorite ingredients; pistachio, lemon, vanilla bean and almonds, which are commonly used in Turkish cooking too. It is a wonderfully rich cake, a real treat with tea or coffee.

prep time: 25 minutes bake time: 50 minutes

100 gr/2 sticks unsalted butter, plus additional for greasing pan, at room temperature
1 lemon, preferably Meyer lemon
1 vanilla bean
6 1/2oz/1 cup sugar
60gr/2oz slivered almonds
90gr/3oz shelled unsalted pistachios
4 large eggs, at room temperature
60gr/2oz all-purpose flour
Glaze
50gr/1 3/4oz shelled unsalted pistachios
45gr/1 1/2oz sugar
Juice of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F

Grease bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan with some butter and line bottom with a circle of parchment paper.

With a zester, grate the lemon peel (reserve lemon). With the tip of a sharp paring knife, split the vanilla bean down the center and scrape out the seeds. In a food processor, pulse the sugar with the peel and vanilla bean. Transfer to a bowl. In the same processor bowl, pulse the almonds and pistachios until finely ground, but do not let go to paste.

With an electric mixer, beat the butter and lemon-vanilla sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides the bowl between each addition. Beat in the lemon-vanilla sugar, then with a spatula fold in the flour and the nuts. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and shake to even it, but do not worry about smoothing the top. Bake until a skewer comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Set on a rack to cool for 10 minutes, then loosen edges of cake with a kitchen knife and remove sides of pan. Invert cake and remove bottom of pan and peel off parchment paper, then invert right side up on a serving plate.

For glaze, squeeze juice from reserved lemon. Roughly chop pistachios by hand. In a very small pot, bring the lemon juice to a boil with the sugar and cook until syrupy. Stir in the pistachios and pour over the cake. Cut into wedges to serve.

Afiyet Olsun,

Ozlem