Turkish filled vine leaves/swiss chard "Sarma" recipe

 

What can I say, my husbands sister teaches me all these Turkish yummy food! Sarma is a very special type of food with a very exotic taste. Especiallt with the peppermint + leaves it is kind of sweet-fresh-bitter taste expreience. They can be eaten warm or cold. I prefer cold togheter with a salad buffet and grilled food.

Ingredients

½ yellow onion

1 oblong green bell pepper (strong is optional)

2 pcs of pressed garlic

2 pinches of salt

2 large tomatoes

pinch of pepper mint spice

2 1 mil mesuring spoon of Saltca (red bell pepper paste, Sera)

1 lemon

Olive oil

2 dl of Parsley

1 package of vine leaves or swiss chards

rice

Wash, chop and peel neatly onion, bell pepper, parsley and add garlic + salt in a bowl. Split the tomatoes in halves and rive them with a shredder, leave out the tomatoe skin. Wash rice properly with a sieve and put in the bowl. Add spices, a little oil and add ½  of the lemon. Mix everything togheter. 

Wash and cut the stem off the leaves. pour boiling water over them so they soften a bit, careful not to ruin them. Fold out the leaves flat on a flat surface, the underside of the leaves should be up and the "smooth" side down. Add a little rice mixture to each leave. The filling should be in the middle with the sides free.

Roll the leave 1,5 rotation so you have folded over the rice filling. Fold in the right and left side then continue rolling and then your roll is ready. This way it prevents them from opening. Put all the leave rolls in the bottom of your pot. Press the rest of the ½ of the lemon. 

Put an upside down plate over the rolls, and put a bowl on top of the plate filled with water. Cover the rolls with water. Boil on low heat with lid for 20-30 min. 

  

Turkish tzatsiki & Turkish rice "Pilav/pirinç/pirinc"

 

This is also a recipe from my husbands sister, in Turkey it is very common not to do plain rice instead they do with many diffrent flavours such as vegetables for example. It is an easy way to add a little more veggies to your diet.

Ingredients pilav

3 dl basmati rice

5-5,5 dl water

carrot

green peas

bullion dice

oil

wash the rice properly in a sieve and let flow off. peel and chop the potatoes and carrot, add green peas. let everything fry with oil for a bit including the rice and bullion dice, then add water. let boil on low heat with lid until water has dissapeared from the rice. check the bottom of pot with a wooden skimmer or similar. if there is no water in the bottom the rice is ready. never add too much or little water to the rice or it will be ruined. follow the rice instructions on the package if you are unsertain.

Ingredients Tzatsiki

1 cucumber or 3 small ones

Turkish yoghurt

2 pcs of garlic

pinch of spearmint (optional)

cold water and ice (optional for summer)

rive the cucumber with an shredder. press down garlic. mix with yoghurt. add a little water, crushed ice and spearmint spice for an extra cool finish for keeping it cold once served in a hot summer day.

Yeters Turkish potatoes "patates yapmak" recipe

This is a recipe from my husbands sister that she tought me in Turkey, she makes the best traditional turkish food! This is very nice as an extra dish for chicken or use as a base for stew.

1/2 yellow onion

2-3 large potatoes

1 pcs of garlic

1 big tomato

2 teaspoons of red bell pepper paste by Sera (or salça)

1 oblong green bell pepper

1 oblong red bell pepper

fry the yellow onion in oil, press down the garlic, peel and roughly chop the potatoes in half approximatley 1-2 cm thick pcs. Peel the tomatoe, chop in half and then make smaller clefts. Add the bell pepper paste/salça. Slice the red bell peppers neatly, then slice the green bell pepper in 4 pcs. boil on low heat with lid until the potatoes are ready.

My Turkish filled Bread

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I made this recipe up today for lunch, wanted to try the taste with a bread that is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside instead of the other recipe I have when the dough becomes very hard after baking in the oven. The filling is kind of the same as the previous one since we love it so much. This is a dish perfect for lunch or to take with you as beach snack or when you are going to the park.

Ingredients

Oven 250 C for 15-17 min

Dough

4 dl whey flour

2 1 ml mesuring spoon salt

50 g melted sugar

2 dl of almond drink or milk

1/2 a package of yeast (I used the one in bags with long durability)

Add salt and flour in a bowl. Melt the butter, add the liquid. The temperature should be warm enough (37 C for regular yeast and 40 C for long durability yeast) for you to dissolve the yeast. Check temperature before just in case. Mix liquid and dry ingredients togheter, work the dough and add a little flour. Let the dough prove under a baking cloth while you prepare the filling.

Tips! Make two regular breads just for a tasty bite, knead them and make them pretty and round. Once they are finished from the oven eat them warm with full cream-cheese and honey. Too delicious!

Potato filling

3 large potatoes peeled and chopped thinly

2 1 ml mesuring spoon salt

pinch of pul biber

rape seed oil

2 teaspoons of red bell pepper paste by Sera (or use salça)

Peel and cut the potato thinly. Fry the potatoes in a pan with rape seed oil and add the spices. it is ready when it is golden brown.

Minced meat filling

250 g of minced meat

2 1 ml mesuring spoon salt

2 pcs of pressed garlic

1/2 red small chilli

2 caber pcs of neatly chopped scallion

pinch of köfte spice

Fry the minced meat until almost ready, then add the garlic and rest of the spices until the onions softens but don't get burned and the meat is golden brown.

When your filling is ready the dough have proved long enough. divide the dough in around 15 pcs. Knead them a little, add flour so they do not stick and flatten them with a baking roller. Add filling to the middle, fold in towards the middle from right and left side. Fold towards the middle from bottom and top. This will make the bread look like small packages. You can use any filling you like. Shove in to the oven until golden brown, then they are ready! Remeber to use oven paper to prevent bread from sticking to the baking-plate.

Turkish Çörek/Cörek filled bread recipe

This is a recipe that my mother in law teached me when I was in Turkey wich I have modified a bit regarding the fillings but the priciple is the same. The turks makes these very thin and round, a skilled woman as my mother in law is, she can tuck four peices of bread at the same time with a small rolling pin without them getting stuck togheter. The image above shows them a bit light since I tried to bake them in the stone oven at the same time as we did "mjukkaka" right after my parents had done pizza so the oven was too hot and it was the end of the day so no one had the patients to wait for the oven to cool down a bit. It is better to fry them in a pan or shove them in your oven until they are golden brown and crispy.

Imagesource

Ingredients

250 C 15-20 min until golden brown

4 dl of whey flour

2 1 ml mesuring spoon salt

3 table spoons oil

1 dl kefir

1 dl warm water

  Filling

250 g of minced meat (cow or moose)

2 pcs of garlic

2 pinches of pul biber (can be replaced with a little chili flakes)

2 pinches of köfte spice

1 pinch of salt

4 large potatoes

2 teaspoons of strong red bell pepper paste

1 package of Feta cheese laid in oil

Parsley

Tips! - in Turkish red bell pepper paste is called Salça. A good option is hot pepper paste by Sera, you can usually find it in the foreign section of the store. Otherwise visit your closest oriental supermarket.

Filling

Peel and cook the potatoes in boiling water for 10-20 min. If you chop them roughly they will be ready faster. Remove the water, squash the potato once they are soft. Wash and cop parsley, add it to the mashed potatoe while it is still hot. 

Fry minced meat in a pan with oil until almost golden. Add 2 pcs of pressed garlic, 1 pinch of salt, 2 small spoons of red bell pepper paste, 2 pinches of pul biber and 2 pinches of köfte spice. Add more spices if you want to until reached desired taste.

Make your own feta cheese oil mix to keep in the fridge. Use feta cheese, thyme, garlic, french herbs, oregano and basil togheter with olive oil. Or purchase one from the store. 

Mix the spicy meat, the potatoes and a little feta cheese mixture and your filling is done. You can of course use the fillings separatly if you want many diffrent flavourings like the Turks do or just use one of them. I personally like to mix everything togheter.

Dough

Mix the dry ingredients then add kefir and warm water. The dough is now very loose. Add whey flour to your liking, do not use to much in to the dough since you will use much more flour when you tuck them to prevent them from sticking to the table. The dough should be quite loose but firm. Flatten the bread with a rolling pin. If you are in a hurry make 4-5 flat breads, if you have time to make them thin and many you can make 15 peices out of the same amount of dough. Add the filling, close it and use a fork to seal the edges in a neat way. 

You can always change the filling. The bread will be crisp and should be in the oven 250C for around 15-20 min. They are ready when they are golden brown.

Please let me know what you think if you tried it!