Sweet Baby Jesus, KFC and 13 Desserts

I’ve been remiss in my continued Christmas posting, but I have three new Christmas food traditions to tell you about so I can make up for it.

 

Cougnou, Belgium

You know that nursery rhyme about blackbirds being baked in a pie? I always though that was a bit gross (notwithstanding the fact that at the time I ate chicken pie very happily).

For some reason that’s the first thing I thought of when I came across this Christmas tradition from Belgium. Yup, bread shaped like baby Jesus. I suppose it makes perfect sense, really- break this bread, its my body and all that – but I just keep balking at the idea of eating a baby. Personally, I don’t really see the resemblance, so if I came across a vegan version I just might tuck in.

13 Dessert, Provence

I was pretty darn thrilled when I heard that there was a legitimate Christmas tradition of eating 13 desserts. Of course, this fabulous food tradition is from France.

The desserts include dried and fresh fruit, nuts, bread, cake, biscuits and nougat.  Some desserts have specific reasons for their inclusion. Light and dark nougats represent good and evil, dates are included to represent the journey from the middle east, dried fruits and nuts represent four monastic orders, a bread to break (not to be cut), and a famous Provencial dessert, Calissons d’Aix.

I am considering doing something like this, because, hello, 13 desserts! If I could do it in Australia I would have:

1. Dates stuffed with marzipan
2. Almonds
3. Raisins
4. Figs
5. Hazelnuts
6. Vegan Christmas log (a log made out of rum ball mixture, instead of yule log, because I’m just not a fan of sponge)
7. Sweet Olive Oil Bread (already vegan)
8. Mango (the French use oranges, but I don’t like them much)
9. Cherries (because why use winter apples when there are cherries in season?)
10. Chocolate fudge (non-traditional, my addition)
11. Mini vegan cheesecake (non traditional, my addition)
12. Gingerbread (not traditional, my addition)
13. Vegan Calissons, because they look fantastic.

If I do it here in Tbilisi, I will have to come up with something to sub for the cheesecake, hazelnuts and Calissons, and I would use the traditional winter fruits (apples, pears, citrus). I wouldn’t be using light and dark nougat to symbolise good and evil, because food is never evil and neither are dark colours.

 

Fried chicken with your honey, Japan

It turns out the Christmas is becoming a widely celebrated event in Japan. The celebrations are generally secular (most Japanese not being Christian), and is generally celebrated on Christmas eve, with a partner or lover. They have a special Christmas cake, a white sponge with cream an strawberries, and like to eat KFC fried chicken for Christmas eve dinner. Yup, you read right.

Apparently KFC may have become popular as a Christmas meal due to an ad some decades ago. It seems to have worked, as people are known to place their order weeks in advance, and line up around the block to pick up their bucket.

If I had anything here that was worth battering and frying I would totally get into this tradition, because I love the “Southern Fried” flavour. Sadly, I am without any tofu, tempeh, seitan, or any other mock, so I think I will make do with nut roast.

(I can see this Christmas food traditions research could turn our meal into a truly decadent event – 13 desserts, deep fried something, bread-babies – its all sounding pretty good.)

A little shout out to the lonely Christmas vegan

Hi there,

I noticed you found my blog, at least three times now, by googling “vegan alone at Christmas” and “vegan–xmas alone”.

I don’t know how you feel about being alone at Christmas, but I guess you’re searching for recipes for one, or things to do? If you want to be less lonely, leave me a comment, and we’ll totally skype you from our own, semi-lonely, Christmas for two.

Well, in case you are looking for inspiration, here’s what I would do, if I were alone this Christmas:

Presents: I would get myself a present, even if it were something free, like a book I already have but haven’t read, or cheap, like a once-off face mask or bubble bath or food I liked. If you save it up, you have something to look forward to.

Contact: If you’re in contact with family, or have friends, I would try to call or Skype them at some point during Christmas day. Just be sure to have something fun planned for afterwards, because sometimes contact people at a party when you’re alone can leave you a little bummed afterwards. If you’re working, why not take something special to work, to share with whoever you meet? If you’re not working, you might also be able to volunteer somewhere at Christmas, and get your social contact that way.

Food: If it was just me for Christmas, I would still focus on good food. If I were in a cold climate, with access to fake bacon, I would make myself some creamy, facon-y pasta, some green beans and brocoli with oil and garlic, and a hot chocolate or mulled wine, and I would buy a Christmas pudding from the shops and microwave it, to have with vegan ice cream. If I didn’t have access to vegan stuff (like here in Tbilisi), I’d chop one carrot, one potato and roast them with herbs and garlic, and make myself a mini stuffing. There are some good recipes here. I’d still have the hot chocolate, and I might dip some chocolate into my hot chocolate, for good measure.

If I was in a warm climate (hello, down there!), I would make myself some panzanella. Its easy and yummy – fry some chopped bread in oil, and set aside. Chop a tomato, a bit of parsely, a clove of garlic, and any salad veg you like. Toss together in a bowl with some chickpeas and walnuts, olive oil, add the bread, add some salt, pepper and herbs and you’re all set. Awesome. I’d also have some cherries or mango, and some favourite ice cream. Instead of hot chocolate, I’d have some sweet, sparkly wine or some apple cider.

Entertainment: I would have a bath, then set myself up on the couch with a good book (maybe a christmas present book), some hand cream (for self-given foot rubs), a blanket (in cold weather), liquids (preferably hot chocolate), and some cherries or strawberries, and a nice, big pile of movies.

When I’m alone, I love me some romantic comedies – a little weepy, but happy in the end- a buddy movie, or something no one will watch with me. Some Christmas favourites of mine are The Holiday, Love Actually, and the Family Stone. TV shows are good, too. I don’t know about you, but the other thing I do when I’m alone is sing along to everything and anything I can find in my music collection.

Tips at Random

My totally subjective tips for being alone on special occasions (and I’ve had some practice with many a birthday or Easter spent on my own):

• Act like it was a choice – whether or not it is, acting like you want to be alone, and focusing on doing what you like, totally helps.
• Celebrate – for me, at least, ignoring it doesn’t work. Bring on the Christmas music and a little tinsel.
• Pick a few things you love, and do them.
• Do stuff your friends/family/partner don’t like doing. This could be eating food you love but they hate, watching something they wouldn’t sit through, going out to to something that bores them, what have you. It helps make it special.
• Cake, but not alcohol. I have found that some “special” food like a really nicely decorated cake, or boxed chocolates, or what have you, makes it feel like a celebration. A little wine also feels celebratory, but a bottle of wine leads you to drunkenly calling everyone you ever liked and sobbing about your aloneness.
• Ditto on the staying up late. If you’re not usually a night owl, go to bed on time. Watching movies at 3am seems to have a similar affect as the whole bottle of wine.
• Light some candles. If you’re like me, and live somewhere with shitty fluro lighting, this helps. Its means you don’t have to choose between being in the dark and being in the harash, glaring light of up-too-late-watching-bad-movies.

Good luck, Vegan Alone At Christmas, and don’t forget to leave me a comment if you want a solidarity skype session.

xoxo

Sweet Vegan Centerpiece for the White Christmas Challenge

I have never participated in a blog challenge before, not even Vegan MoFo. But there’s a first for everything and this year I have decided to enter the Very Good Recipes’ White Christmas Challenge.

The challenge is quite simple: create a new recipe on the theme of “white christmas”.

I knew immediately what I wanted to do. For a few Christmases now I have been thinking of making a sweet, Christmas table centerpiece out of rum balls. I make rum balls every year, but I always cop out of the presentation part (presentation really isn’t my strong suit), so the challenge was the perfect motivation to finally get around to it.

One of the rules of the challenge is to make sure its a new recipe. Well, there are rum ball recipes everywhere, even vegan rum ball recipes, but I have added my own touch and created four new rum ball-style recipes; Chocolate Balls, Lamington Bites, Ginger Bread and Marzipan Balls, and Coconut White Chocolate Balls.

In keeping with this blog’s theme, I made Lamington Bites, based on the popular Aussie dessert, and the Gingerbread and Marzipan balls were German-inspried.

For the “white” part of the theme, I used coconut, white chocolate, and powdered sugar to give a (hopefully) snowy impression.

So here it is, my four-part, vegan, Christmas centerpiece recipe for the sweet tooth in any family.

Vegan Christmas Centrepiece

Vegan Christmas Centerpiece

I have given amounts based on the number of balls I used, however my tree is a little squat, so if your skill surpasses mine, go ahead and use all the balls. I had about 12 balls left over for pre-Christmas enjoyment.

• 1/2 recipe of Chocolate Balls
• 2/3 recipe of Coconut White Chocolate Balls
• Whole recipe Ginger and Marzipan Balls
• Whole Recipe Lamington Bites
• 1 Tbs vegetable shortening
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar or icing mixture
• about 2 tsp marzipan for decorations (you could use any lolly here)
• 2 tsp soy milk
• Large, decorative plate
• 10-20 toothpicks

1. On a pastry board, roll out a small piece of marzipan to about 7mm thickness, and cut into a star shape. Carefully slide a toothpick vertically through the star, so that about 1/2 the toothpick remains visible, and set aside.
2. In a small saucepan, melt the vegetable shortening.
3. Remove from heat and add the sugar, stirring until all lumps are removed and the two are combined.
4. Add soy milk, and stir to combine well.
5. Pour the mixture in a dollop onto the middle of your plate. Encourage the mixture to spread into a circle, taking up about two thirds of the surface of the plate.
6. Arrange your bottom layer of balls so that they cover the icing mixture. Allow to set.
7. Carefully, place a second layer of balls above the first layer, use toothpicks to secure. Make this second layer in a slightly smaller circle than the first.
8. Repeat until you have one single ball as a pinnacle.
9. Top with the marzipan star, by sliding the remaining end of the toothpick into the top ball

You could decorate with sifted powdered sugar, and/or Christmas themed or sparkly lollies. I didn’t as I cant find vegan lollies, and powdered sugar only comes at a premium (and I ran out of my stock). I think it would look great with some sparkly sprinkles, but I don’t have access to them in Tbilisi.

I make so-called “rum balls”, in various incarnations, every Christmas. When I was a (non-vegan) kid, they had sweetened condensed milk and Marie biscuits. In Melbourne I make my own condensed milk from powdered soy milk, and prefer gluten free biscuits. Mostly I leave out the rum, having half a family populated by children, non-drinkers, and rum-haters. That said, for the other side I the family, I have been known to make them with a shot of any spirit that comes to hand, including vodka, schnapps, and one time, tequila.

Here in Tbilisi I have to cook without vegan candy, food colouring, vanilla, flavourings, margarine, rum or anything resembling soy condensed milk or soy milk powder. This makes these versions extra special, but maybe a little more fiddly than usual.

The bottom layer, on top of the icing

During construction

Chocolate Balls

makes about 20

•    150 g plain biscuits (any kind – tea biscuits, digestive, animals, whatever)
•    1/4 cup coconut milk
•    2 tbs brown sugar
•    1 tbs vegetable shortening
•    1/4 cup cocoa
•    1/3 cup powdered sugar
•    3tbs sultanas
•    about 30g dessicated coconut, for rolling

1. Crush the biscuits, either with a food processor, or in a bowl with the bottom of a cup.
2. Add cocoa and powdered sugar, and combine well. Set aside in a clean mixing bowl.
3. In a small saucepan heat the coconut milk and brown sugar, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
4. Remove from heat, add the vegetable shortening, and stir until melted.
5. Pour the wet ingredients onto the dry, and mix well with a wooden spoon. Add the sultanas and stir through.
6. Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls with your hands, and then roll them through a small bowl of dessicated coconut, to coat.
7. Set on a plate and refrigerate until ready to use (at least 20 minutes).

Chocolate Balls

Lamington Bites

Makes about 10

• 120g biscuits with a good flavour. I used Louts this time, but tea biscuits work well.
• 1/4 cup jam (you could use any, but here I used cornell jam)
• 2 tbsp soy milk
• about 30g dessicated coconut
• 1 tbs cocoa powder

1. In a small bowl, combine cocoa and coconut and set aside.
2. Crush biscuits very finely, using a food processor, or smooshing them with the bottom of a cup.
3. Add jam and milk to the crumbs, and work into a dough with your hands.
4. Roll the mixture into around 10 balls
5. Roll each ball in the cocoa and coconut mixture to coat, and refrigerate until ready to use.
   

   Lamington Bites

Coconut and White Chocolate Balls

makes about 15

•    80ml coconut mik
•    1/4 cup white sugar
•    1 tbs vanilla sugar
•    3 tbs vegetable shortening
•    70g white chocolate
•    40g dessicated coconut
•    1 1/2 cup crushed plain biscuits (I use animal biscuits)
•    30g coconut, for dusting

1. Crush the biscuits in a food processor, or with the bottom of a cup, and set aside.
2. In a small saucepan heat the coconut milk, white sugar and vanilla sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves.
3. Remove from heat and add the shortening and chocolate, stirring until melted and combined.
4. Add coconut and biscuit crumbs, stir to combine. Spread mixture on a plate and refrigerate until cool, about 30 minutes.
5. Roll tablespoon sized balls, coat in more coconut, and refrigerate until ready to use.

Coconut-White Chocolate Balls

Gingerbread and Marzipan Balls

Makes 10.

•    1 1/2 tbs brown sugar
•    3 tbs soy milk
•    2tbs vegetable shortening
•    100g lotus biscuits
•    2 tsp ginger powder
•    1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
•    dash clove powder
•    dash grated nutmeg
•    10 marzipan spuds (if you can’t by them, roll small balls of marzipan)
•    1/3 cup powdered sugar, for coating

1. In a small saucepan heat the milk and sugar, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Remove from heat and add the shortening, stirring until melted.
3. In a clean, dry bowl, crush the biscuits finely, and combine with spices.
4. Mix the wet and dry ingredients, then spread on a plate and refrigerate until cool (20 minutes).
5. Divide the mixture into 10 and wrap carefully around the marzipan spuds.
6. Roll in powdered sugar until well coated, and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Gingerbread and marzipan balls

I think these ones turned out a little ugly, but you could always roll them in coconut or cocoa instead. I was going for a German christmas cookie look, but I don’t think I got it .

Last but not least, and on a bit of a tangent… The answers for the Christmas Traditions Quiz!

1. Norway
2. Catalonia (so found in Spain, parts of France, Andorra)
3. USA
4. Italy
5. UK
6. Ukraine
7. Georgia
8. Wales

Next up on AroundTheWorlVegan, what do people eat at Christmas around the world?

Merry Bloggy Christmas!

Merry Bloggy Christmas!

Roast meats, ham, potatoes, roasted vegetables, gravy, cake and pudding – we all know what the North Americans and the British eat at Christmas. But what about everyone else?

Because I have time now, and because I keep getting search terms like “What do they eat in Australia for Christmas” on my stats, I’ve decided to set my own little 9 days of Vegan Christmas Blog Theme going (not 12, because I am too late, and I won’t have reliable internet after the 26th).

To have it in keeping with this blog’s theme, I intend to look at some interesting (to me) traditional Christmas foods from a round the world. I clearly don’t have time to cover everyone, but maybe if I miss your country (or a tradition that interests you) I’ll get to it another year.

To start off with, let’s test your Christmas traditions knowledge.

Which country would you hail from if you:

1)    Hide Brooms on Christmas Eve
2)    Have small figurines of people defecating in your nativity scene.
3)    Watch a roaring fire on TV (for 24 hours) instead of having a real one.
4)    Have a witch delivering the presents instead of/as well as an old dude (albeit not at Christmas).
5)    Made a wish when it was your turn to stir the Christmas pudding.
6)    Hang a (plastic) spider web on the Christmas tree.
7)    Join a big march made up mostly of children wearing white on Christmas day.
8)    Carry a horse’s skull on a pole around your town.

I’ll pop the answers up tomorrow, but leave yours in the comments if you want.

Sadly there is no reward for right answers unless you count self satisfaction

So, what are your Christmas traditions? If you’re not religious, do you celebrate Christmas at all?

I recognise that the majority of people in the world do not celebrate Christmas, and that groups celebrate other things at this time of year, such as Hanukha, Kwanzaa, and the New Year, and if you do, I’d love to hear about it.  My focus is on Christmas mainly because its what I know, and I’m interested in the different ways it is celebrated, especially as many people celebrate it even though they have no Christian beliefs.

My little family (Mr and I) are devout atheists, and in my big family there is a little more atheism, a lot of agnosticism, spiritualism and such, but only a little actual Christianity, and yet we still do presents and food and family. Some habits die hard, especially habits involving delicious cake.

The last Turkish supper

Sadlly the supermarket has run out of lentils AND chickpeas, and I am doomed to two weeks of kidney beans. This also means that I can’t make the last dish on my Turkey list, cabbage and lentil salad. Sigh.

I did, however, come up with the ingredients for the other final Turkish dish: raw kofte.

Cig Kofte, or raw kofte, used to be what it sounds like: raw meat balls. Apparently the health authorities in Istanbul outlawed it due to the health risks of eating raw meat, and vendors adapted, coming up with a vegan, low risk version using bulgur instead of minced cow. Works for me.

At home, and potentially in restaurants outside of Turkey, this dish is still made with meat – so beware – but there are plenty of recipes approximating the Istanbul street-vendor version.

The recipe calls for fine bulgur, which of course I don’t have, so I tried to pound some ordinary bulgur with a rolling pin. No luck there, unfortunately. I also added some pounded walnuts, added tomato sauce for colour, added some chopped capsicum… and basically changed the recipe so much that it only resembles the original.

It tasted pretty darn good, and I quite like the idea of it as a wrap-filling for work lunches (when I finally get home and get a job again). It was a nice alternative to the deep fried felafel, also.

If you want an authentic version, check out the link above, but here’s what I ended up with. You might want to cook the bulgur and potato the day before, or fudge it like I did by sticking it the freezer (actually I put it on the balcony, but its -3 here, so its almost as cold as the freezer).

Cig Kofte, salad and some beetroot relish

Vegan Raw Kofte

Makes about 15 balls

• 1 medium potato, peeled and diced
• 1 cup bulgur, and water to cook it with
• small handful of walnuts, crushed
• 3 tbs minced parsley
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 spring onions, minced
• 1/2 a red capsicum, chopped finely until it looks smooshed (important technical term, that)
• 2 tsp chilli paste – I used ajika
• 3 tbs tomato sauce (tomato paste would be better, or you can use all chilli paste – I can’t because I get gastritis)

1. Boil the potato until tender. Allow to cool completely.
2. Cook the bulgur following the packet instuctions (if you have some). I just boiled it in a little water, adding water as needed, until it was mushy-looking, and it took me about 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
3. Make sure all the other ingredients are very finely chopped, then mix all them together to make a grainy paste.
4. Add the cold potato and bulgur and mush with your hands until all big lumps are removed and the ingredients are well combined.
5. Taste check here. As per usual, add salt if you want, or lemon juice (I didn’t have any, but I think it would have made a nice addition).
6. Roll large spoonfuls of the mixture into balls, and smoosh a little with your hands, to leave finger marks.
7. Serve with salad and some flat bread.

 

I served mine up with some salad, some potato chips made with the skin of the potato in the kofte recipe, and some beetroot relish. I invented the relish today, because I hate beetroot and have been looking for ways to use up the 2 kilos Mr bought (practicing his Russian) that don’t suck. It turns out I like it cooked this way, so I figured I share.

Bonus, non-Turkish recipe, Beetroot and Cabbage Relish

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 2 medium onions, large dice
• 2 medium beetroots, peeled and chopped into sticks (juliene, half length)
• 1 cup shredded cabbage
• 3 tbs brown sugar
• 2 tbs white wine vinegar
• dash salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp dried thyme

1. Fry the onion in a non-stick pan until the onion is well and truly translucent. This will take at least 10 minutes – don’t skimp.
2. Add the cabbage and beetroot and fry, over a medium heat, until the cabbage is tender.
3. Add about 1/3 cup water, the brown sugar, salt, pepper and thyme. Cook witht he lid on until the water has evaporated.
4. Check the beetroot – if it is tender continue to the next step. If not, add more water and repeat. I did this three times, using about 1 cup of water all up.
5. Once the beetroot is cooked through, remove the id and continue to fry, stirring occasionally, for another 10 minutes. Any remaining water should evaporate off, and you should have what looks like a mixture of sauted veg with some jam.
6. Serve hot or cold with anything you like. I think it would go well with a faux meat dish and some mustard.

 

Red Lentil Soup

One of the things I enjoy most about writing this blog is that I am always learning new things about what the world eats. I had no idea at all that red lentil soup, a winter staple at my place, was so popular in Turkey. I (silly, privileged Aussie) just thought it was something that vegans made up after eating a lot of dahl.

I was wrong, and it seems the soup I’ve been making every winter is actually Turkish, right down to the dash of red pepper.

I have read many recipes for this soup, all slightly different- some use carrot, some add tomatoes, some add a little cream, etc. My recipe is pretty basic, though I add a little tomato paste for colour and flavour. If you give it a try, play around with it and add whatever you like.

Vegan Red Lentil Soup

Red Lentil Soup

serves 4

• 1 medium onion, dices
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup red lentils
• 1 potato, peeled and diced (I usually don’t bother peeling, and just deal with the skin bits, because I am lazy the skin is nutritious).
• 1 litre of stock. I like to use strong (but not salty), home made stock, but use what you like.
• 1 tbs tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• salt to taste

1. In a soup pot, fry the onion until translucent.
2. Add the garlic and fry for a further 5 minutes.
3. Add the lentils, stock, potato, tomato paste and pepper and bring to the boil.
4. Return to a simmer and pop the lid on loosely. Allow to cook for 40 minutes, until the lentils are cooked.
5. Remove from heat and carefully blend (trying not to burn yourself – ouch!).
6. Taste and add salt if needed.
7. Serve with a little coriander on top.

Unfortunately I have no access to blending equipment at the moment, but I decided to make the soup anyway. I had hoped I could cook it until it all fell apart and blended of its own accord, but I was wrong. So, I tried pushing it through my colander, with minimal success.

Smooshing action shot

Eventually I resorted to serving it up with the solids artfully heaped in the bottom of the bowl, and the liquid poured on top. It worked, kinda, and it tasted good regardless.

Heaped solids - now tell me that phrase doesn't make you hungry!

 

 

Mezze Hooray!

No recipes today because I followed all the directions exactly. Feel free to click the links if you like what you see

 

The Imam Fainted

Eggplant stuffed with onion, garlic and tomato. There is a lot of hype about this dish, and the story goes that one Imam loved the dish so much that he fainted, either because he liked it so much, or because he heard they had run out of the oil to make it. I liked it, but I’m not sure I’d say it was swoon-worthy. It was good, just not amazing. Looking forward to trying a local version soon, to see if its just my cooking that’s disappointing!

The Imam Fainted - stuffed eggplant

Fried Cauliflower and Stuffed Mushrooms

This cauliflower dish is easy as: steam the cauliflower florets, coat in a basic flour+water batter, and fry. They are supposed to be served up with yoghurt sauce, but I just used salt and some chilli. The recipe had eggs, I just left them out.

 

Maybe not a particularly Turkish dish, but I love me a good stuffed mushroom, so I turned the last three in our fridge into yummy, lemony, morsels.

Stuffed Mushrooms and Fried Cauliflower

Dolma

Red capsicums stuffed with rice. This was very similar to the stuffed cabbage dish, although this time I roasted them. I flavoured the rice with dried mint and other herbs.

Dolma - stuffed peppers

For the recipes, check out these yummy links:

http://www.turkishfoodandrecipes.com/2009/02/fried-cauliflower-karnibahar-kizartmasi.html

http://www.turkishfoodandrecipes.com/2009/04/imam-fainted-turkish-ratatouille-imam.html

http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/recipes/display/recipe_id/830/

http://almostturkish.blogspot.com/2007/07/vegetarian-stuffed-peppers-zeytinyal.html

More Pilaf, Cabbage and a Salad

Pilaf with home made stock

I have now real and followed so many pilaf recipes, that I’m actually getting pretty good at making my own. Success seems to lie in the stock. In Australia, I usually just use easy-peasy Massel stock powder, but I can’t get anything approximating vegan stock here in Tbilisi, so I make my own, and it works out well.

In my stock I use a handful of chopped mushroom stalks, the outer cabbage leaves and any left over cabbage stalk, parsley stalks, carrots, a tomato, brown and red onion skins and ends, and all the little tiny garlic cloves I can find (I use the ones from the middle because I have chopping them later, and using them in stock means I don’t have to feel guilty for being lazy). I add a tiny bit of salt, and sometimes a little sugar. I generally make about 1.5 litre at a time.

Pretty Pilaf

Keira’s Pilaf Recipe

serves 3

• 2 tablespoon olive oil
  
• 1 cup white rice (long grain)
• 1 medium brown onion, diced
• 1 small red onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• any vegetables you want, small dice
• 2 cups strong stock
• water as needed
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• salt and pepper, to taste
• sultanas or raisins, if desired.
• dash of chosen spices – I use cinnamon, clove, coriander seed and some curry, depending on what I feel like.

1. In a large, non-stick frying pan, heat the oil, and add the rice. Fry on medium heat for about 5 minutes.
2. Add the onion and fry until translucent, stirring frequently.
3. Add the garlic and any vegetables or fruits you will be using, such as capsicum or zucchini, and fry for a furhter 5 minutes.
4. Add one or two squeezes of lemon juice now, to help break up the rice.
5. Add the stock. Leave until all of the liquid has been absorbed. This took me about 15 minutes.
6. Test – you may need more water, depending on what type of rice you used.
7. Remove from heat when the rice is cooked. Taste, add rest of lemon juice, salt, pepper, and spices. Fluff with a fork and serve with other dishes.

Note: If we’re having pilaf at lunch I like to add a little nooch at the end. Don’t do this at dinner tough, because the B6 in the nooch tends to stop people from sleeping.

 

Cabbage with Tomatoes

I Have no photo of the cabbage and tomatoes dish, because it wasn’t actually until after I made it that I found out it was Turkish.One of the only green vegetables we can get here is cabbage, so I had planned to fry some up with onion and garlic as per usual. I added a chopped tomato, a little stock, a little tomato paste and some cayenne pepper, on a whim.

Turns out what I made closely approximates this dish, so there you go – I’m a food psychic, or something, because I didn’t see this site until long after we ate the meal.

 

Chickpea Salad

The salad wasn’t so much Turkish as Turkish-inspired. I just threw together some onion, garlic, parsley, coriander, chickpeas and red capsicum, to add some protein and crunch to the meal.

Chickpea Salad

 

Turkish Feast in Tbilisi

The first meal of Turkish origin I tired was actually a week or so ago, when a friend came around for dinner. I decided to put on a bit of a feast (I have a lot of time at the moment), and served up a spread including chickpeas in tomato sauce, eggplant mezze, stuffed cabbage, pilaf and shepherd’s salad. I also served up what was supposed to be brownies but turned into very dry biscotti due to my difficult oven and inappropriate ingredient substitutes – but that’s not Turkish, and I don’t have a photo, so lets forget it happened.

Sadly, I got wrapped up in conversation and forgot to take pictures until everyone had started eating, so most of the photos are of semi-destroyed dishes.

Eggplant in olive oil and tomato sauce, with Cabbage roll in the background

Everything was good, but the eggplant mezze dish was the definite winner. It was well cooked and oily in a good way,  and the tomato sauce was a perfect match. A recipe for this is at the end of the post.

The cabbage rolls were a little beyond my dexterity and fell apart when lifted. They tasted pretty good though, with some heavy handedness on the dried mint and sultanas.

 

Shepherd's Salad and Pilaf

Shepherd’s Salad is a Turkish take on an internationally popular combination: cucumber, onion and tomatoes with herbs. This one has garlic, coriander and parsley, with a little lemon juice and vinegar as dressing.

I went with a mixed pilaf with sultanas, a little orange capsicum, onion, garlic, herbs, and some left over chickpeas. This is probably very un-Turkish, but it is what I had. I added a little clove, cinnamon, salt and pepper to flavour it. I’m not personally a big fan of sweet dinner food or non-citrus fruit in savoury dishes, but this was okay. I used a combination of recipes from the land of the internet, but they all involved cooking the rice in some olive oil, then added the onion, then vegetables, then stock and fruit, and cooking the liquid off.

Chickpeas with tomato

The chickpea dish was based on a recipe from the book, Contemporary Turkish Cooking, by Filiz Zorly (2007). I changed it due to ingredient availability, as I can’t get dry chickpeas, cumin or good tomatoes. It turned out really nicely, a little spicy but not too hot, and quite flavoursome. I’ll post my recipe below, but do check out the original if you have access to dry chickpeas, because I imagine that would be even better.

The recipe for the stuffed cabbage rolls also came from Contemporary Turkish Cooking, which I perused at a public library in Vienna, on a cold, too-tired-to-tourist day.

Chickpeas with Tomatoes

Serves 4

• olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-2 good tomatoes, diced
• 2 cups drained and rinsed, tinned chickpeas
• 2 tbs tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp corriander powder
• dash cinnamon
• dash tsp cayenne pepper (use as little or as much chilli as you want. I and my friend both have stomach problems that mean no more hot foods without risk of ulcers and stomach cancer, so not much chilli for us )
• Juice on half a lemon
• salt and pepper to taste
• I would have added a little cumin, if I had access to it.

1. In a little olive oil, sweat the onions until translucent.
2. Add the garlic and fry until fragrant (about 3 minutes).
3. Add the tomato, chickpeas, tomato paste, spices and 1/3 cup water. Bring to the boil then return to simmer until the tomatoes are falling apart. Add more water if necessary. This took me about 15 minutes, with occasional stirring.
4. Add the lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Let sit until, and reheat before serving. I let mine sit for about an hour, and it became much more flavousome with the time.

The recipe for the eggplant mezze dish was originally found somewhere on the internet, but I can’t find it now, of course. I’ll attribute when I figure it out, but this is what I did.

Eggplant in Olive oil with Tomato Sauce

Serves 2

• 1 large, long eggplant (or two smaller eggplants)
• Salt
• Olive oil (the amount is up to you, but at least 3 tablespoons)
• 1 medium brown onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 large tomatoes, chopped
• 2 tbs tomato paste
• 1-2 tsp sugar (if your tomato paste isn’t sweet)
• salt and pepper
• 1/3 – 2/3 cup water

1. Peel strips of the eggplant, lengthways, so that it looks a little like a circus tent. Slice the eggplant into rounds, salt, and let sit for 30 minutes.
2. Wash and dry the eggplant slices. Heat a little olive oil in a non-stick pan, and fry the pieces, turning once, in batches until they are all cooked through and lightly browned. I used about 1 tbs of olive oil here, but there are versions of the recipe that use up to 1/3 cup, so do what you please.
3. Arrange the cooked slices on a serving dish, and drizzle with remaining olive oil (I used about 1 tbs here).
4. In a small saucepan, cook the onion in a little more olive oil, for about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a further 5 minutes, though don’t let the garlic burn.
5. Add the diced tomatoes, and cook, stirring occasionally, until they fall apart.
6. Add the tomato paste here, and then taste test – if it tastes sour add some sugar. I add salt and pepper here.
7. Add 1/3 cup of the water and continue to cook the sauce, stirring occasionally over low heat, for another 25 minutes. It should cook down, and all the tomato pieces should be pulp by now. Add extra water if it becomes dry before this point.
8. If you are a careful sort, pull out the floating bits of tomato skin (or remove them before hand, as shown in my post on ratatouille). I decided not to bother this time.
9. Pour the sauce over the eggplant slices, and refrigerate. Serve cold or at room temperature.

 

Introducing Turkey!

This is a (potentially brief) return to the ordinary format of this blog, so you ca expect recipes from Turkey this week, rather my pictures and reviews about visiting Turkey, which I do in about three weeks time.

Where is it?

Turkey, which straddles Europe and Asia, lies between the Black Sea, the Agean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It has borders with Bulgaria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Georgia (that’s where I am atm!).

Facts and Figures

• Population: 78,785,548
• Ethinic groups: Turkish 70-75%, Kurdish 18%, other minorities 7-12%
• Religions: Muslim 99.8% (mostly Sunni), other 0.2% (mostly Christians and Jews)
• Languages: Turkish, Kurdish, others
• Median Age: 28.5 years (That’s a lot younger than Australia, at 37, but a lot older than Afganistan, at 18)
  
• Births per woman: 2.15
• Life expectancy at Birth: 72.5
• Gini Index (Fairness of wealth distributon): 39.7, which means it is less fair than Japan and India, but fairer than the USA or Venezuela
  
• Unemployments: 12% total, 25% for youth
• GDP per capita: $12, 300
• Government: Parliamentary representative democracy.

Did you know?

The capital, Istanbul, is the only city in the world to span two continents.

Istanbul was at times the capital of the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Byzantine Empire and the Latin Empire, but it isn’t the capital of Turkey.

In the Noah myth, the ark landed at Mount Ararat, which is in Turkey.

The train line Orient Express terminated in Constantinople (now Istanbul).

Menu

While I have been told that eating out in Turkey is centered around meat and bread, home cooking seems to have quite a significant number of vegetable, rice and bean dishes, which I am keen to try. Among the dishes I want to have a crack at this week are:

Mezze (usually eaten with alcohol)

• Stuffed Peppers
• Stuffed cabbage leaves
• The Imam Fainted (and eggplant dish)
• Eggplant in olive oil

Soup

• Red Lentil soup

I’m not making any others due to my lack of blending apparatus and dairy substitues.

Salads

• Shepherd’s salad
• White Bean Salad
• Lentil and cabbage salad

Rice, grains

• Various rice pilafs

Vegetable and Bean dishes

• Raw Kofte

• Chickpeas in tomato

I might try vegetable kofte, or a bean version of a meat kofte. I sadly can’t do any borek, baklava, or breads, as I can’t find yeast or pastry in Tbilisi.

Wish me luck!