Pırasa Köftesi

Küçüklüğümden beri en sevdiğim yemek köfte patates olmuştur. Bu nedenle de bizim evde oldukça sık pişirilir. İnsan aynı şeyi yüzlerce kere yedikten sonra her ne kadar çok sevse de bir değişiklik isteniyor. İşte bu nedenle de pırasa köftesi tam da bu gibi durumlar için harika bir tarif. 

Pırasa sevmeyen arkadaşlarıma gelecek olursak da...
Pırasayı çok seven bir insan değildim. Ama tadı gerçekten bu köftenin içerisinde soğan gibi oluyor. Dışı çıtır çıtır, içi yumuşacık bu köfte hem sağlıklı hem de çok lezzetli. O nedenle de önyargılı olmamanız ve buna bir şans vermeniz gerektiğini belirtmek isterim. Tadı gerçekten o kadar iyi ki bu tarifle birlikte pırasayı seveceğinizi düşünüyorum. 

Yanına basit bir yeşil salatayla ya da benim yaptığım gibi patates kızartması ve patlıcanla servis edebilirsiniz. Şimdiden afiyet olsun...

Anneannemin Köfte Patatesi

Küçükken yemek yemeyi hiç sevmezdim. Hatta kreşteyken saklambaç saatinde mutfağa saklanır yemeklerimizi pişiren Kadriye Abla'dan yemekte ne olduğunu öğrenip ona göre kaçma planları yapardım. Ama bir tavuklu pilav bir de köfte patates olduğu günlerde benden mutlusu olmazdı. 

Tekirdağ köftesi olsun, İnegöl köftesi olsun İzmir köfte olsun içlerinde en çok sevdiğim anneannemin bol kimyonlu sarımsaklı köftesi. Hani yılbaşında özel olsun diye hindiler bütün tavuklar pişirilir ya bizde akşam yemeğinde Nevra Sultan'ın köftesinden şaşılmaz. Dışı nar gibi kızarmış içi yumuşacık köfte ve yanında da çıtır çıtır patates kızartmasını hiç sıkılmadan ömrümün sonuna kadar yiyebilirim. 

Bu köfte tarifinde biraz tembellik yaptım. Ellerimle yoğurmak istemediğim için ayaklı mikserimle karıştırdım. Siz istiyorsanız ellerinizle de yoğurabilirsiniz ama eğer benim gib kaytarmak isterseniz tüm malzemeleri karıştırma haznesine koyup en az 15 dk kadar orta-yavaş hızda karıştırarak aynı sonucu da elde edebilirsiniz. Köfteleri kasaptan gelince hazırlayıp şekillendirip bir buzdolabı poşetine  üst üste olmayacak şekilde dizip dondurabilirsiniz. Böylece yorgun olduğunuzda sadece buzluktan çıkartıp tavada alt üst pişirmeniz de yeterli olacaktır.  

Şimdiden hepinize afiyet olsun....

Super Easy 15 Minute Zoodles (Vegan)

Spring is finally here! Birds singing and the sun pouring down through our shades do not only mean that the trees will blossom and the tulips will color the streets. But it also informs that summer is on the way and if you are a foodie like me, the following two months will be the hardest for us. Summer and bikini season on the way signals you to start cutting off those high-calorie carbs and to include more veggies, more exercise and more water through out the day, which is definitely not easy. However, this is also the best time of the year with the freshest produce and vegetables. Thus no excuses for not being able to work with healthy ingredients. 

So, if you are like me and you want to cut down some of those cookies, pastas, chocolate etc, this  zucchini noodle (zoodle) recipe will be your to go meal. It does not only take 4 ingredients to prepare but also results in a very easy and an even more healthier dish. Plus, this recipe is perfect for my vegan friends out there :)

Spiralizers are very popular nowadays and if you are planning on investing on one, you can buy this from Crate and Barrell. But today I am going to use a different slicer, a mandarin to be more specific by a brand called Gefu. I bought it to make chips etc. but with attachable plates, you can cut fries and very thin strips. So I am going to use the strip plate to make my zoodles. There are of course other ways to prepare zoodles, such as a vegetable peeler for fettuchini shaped zoodles or a julienne peeler for spaghetti zoodles. I have also seen a blogger (Top with Cinnamon) use a box grater placed sideways to cut the zucchini into spaghetti. 

As you might have noticed, there are multiple ways to make zucchini noodles. You can also try other vegetables like carrots or eggplants with the same recipe. So, here is the recipe for Super Easy and Super Healthy Vegan 15 Minute Zoodles: 

Super-Easy Lemon Salmon with Fluffy Quinoa and Steamed Broccoli

Salmon is probably one of the easiest fish to work with. I buy mine from IKEA, frozen and filleted. This way I do not need to clean the fish

or debone it. When I was a kid, my grandfather and I used to go to IKEA and we would always order Salmon with its authentic lemon sauce. At the time, salmon was very hard to find in Turkey. We always had hamsi or seabass at home and salmon at IKEA for me was a restaurant quality dish. 

My father is not very fond of salmon therefore whenever we go to a fish market, we always end up buying hamsi. Therefore, when my parents are away, I always pop some salmon out from the freezer and prepare myself a tiny feast. 

I cannot emphasise how easy it is to cook salmon. I know that aluminium foil is not the healthiest equipment however it is very easy to clean afterwards. We always have those lazy days that we don't even want to think about the dishes that we have to clean afterwards. Plus, if you don't use aluminium foil every single day, it is okay to be lazy sometimes. 

So, here is the Super Easy Salmon in Foil Recipe with Fluffy Quinoa recipe: 

Garlic Butter Shrimp

Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year everyone!
I hope you are enjoying The Most Wonderful Time of the year. Late December is for sure my favorite time of the year. I love seeing the Christmas lights and the trees everywhere. Even though many people here do not celebrate Christmas, we still decorate the tree for the New Years Eve. 

I decorated our tree a little bit late this year. With projects, exams and many other stuff, I was able to put up our tree in mid December, which is pretty late because I usually have the tree ready and decorated in the first week of December. However late is better than never.

This year here in Istanbul, the weather is extremely unusual, it is warm and therefore no snow :( It seems like we won't have a white New Year's Eve this year. But still, I am looking forward to our annual family dinner. 

Gnocchi with Basil

I am a person who loves to cook and especially with fresh ingredients. But I am going to be honest. Not everyone has the time to make a dough, roll it then cut it, let it rest and then finally boil the pasta. I know that the taste of homemade pasta is much more delicious than the store-bought version. But who am I kidding. Sometimes you just have to prepare a dinner in 10 minutes. 

So, that is how I had my first gnocchi, it was store bought. 

Normally when I go to an Italian restaurant, I either order pizza or risotto. And if I like what I had, I try more interesting things when I go there the second time. But I've never had gnocchi in a restaurant. To be honest, I was not sure what it was. When I learned that gnocchi was a potato dumpling, it was unusual for me. I found potatoes and pasta dough a little bit odd because why add more carbs if you have enough in a bowl of pasta? 

But after a while I decided to cook myself some gnocchi. I was extremely curious. Even though the gnocchi was from a supermarket, they were amazing. When I took a bite, I was sure that it wasn't just a dumpling. The gnocchi was fluffy, smooth, creamy and delicious. And now gnocchi is one of my favorite Italian food. So, I decided to cook the homemade version for you. Hope you'll enjoy :)

Eggplant Parmesan

When I think of summer I think of the warm sunshine, the clear sea and new friendships. Italian cuisine seems to be my new best friend. Maybe because the cuisine is similar to ours or maybe because I just enjoy cooking and eating Italian dishes. I just like everything that is Mediterranean and fresh during summer. I have been cooking risottos, pastas and many others but Eggplant Parmesan seems to be one of my favorites so far. It is also a great vegetarian recipe that both carnivores and your vegetarian friends will enjoy. 

I will be going to Çanakkale which is in the region of Turkey close to the Mediterranean. It is actually in the Aegean region, where lots and lots of vegetables and olive oil is consumed. Çanakkale is where our summer house is and where my grandparent are spending their summer. When I visit there we will probably have some barbecues as a family tradition. But what I am looking forward the most is learning new family recipes from my grandmother. She is the best cook I know. I mean this lady can cook everything delicious. And she has tiny handy secrets when things go wrong in the kitchen. So I will be sharing my "cooking vacation experiences" when I go there. I think it is also the time for you to get to know "mantı" which is my favourite dish in this planet. Not because I have been to other planets but because it is soooo delicious. More details on that later. 

So, if we come to Eggplant Parmesan, You know that I absolutely love eggplant, in every form. And one day I saw this  dish on the menu of an Italian restaurant. However it wasn't like I expected. The eggplants were dry and cold plus the tomato sauce was very greasy. So I said, why not try this at home. Here is the recipe for a delicious Eggplant Parmesan: 

Asparagus Risotto

Asparagus is probably my favorite vegetable. If it is not my favorite it is probably sharing the first place with eggplant. Eggplant is pretty awesome as well but all of the flash lights are facing towards asparagus today. I just love the creamy and the fibrous texture of a vivid and fresh asparagus. The only sad thing is that you can only eat them in April or May. I am not talking about the canned version here. You know, the ones that swim in salty water, the ones that probably look like asparagus but is completely different as taste from the fresh asparagus. 

The first time I had asparagus was when my mom cooked it after she came from a trip to Germany in spring. I didn't know that it was very popular in Germany. I also didn't know that kind of a vegetable existed. She just boiled them and then gave it a toss with butter and some lemon juice in a pan. It was yummy. So you can also cook the asparagus this way. 

Weird fact: In Turkish asparagus literally means "birds don't land". It means that birds do not land on this vegetable. Maybe it is too spiky for birds to land on. Or maybe because of something that we have no idea about. 

I always cook the asparagus like my mom does. But I was bored and bored of the same style and I was craving for a creamy risotto. So I thought why not? I had absolutely no idea about the outcome of the dish but it turned out to be pretty amazing. So here is the recipe for a creamy asparagus risotto. 

Beer-Battered Fish and Chips

Hello everybody! (insert British Accent here). 

Today I am going to share one of my favourite fish dish. Guess what? It is..... "Fish and Chips". The first time I had fish and chips was many years ago, in a restaurant called Kitchenette in Istanbul. The fish was yummy and crispy. And you know that I have a thing for crispy stuff. 


However the best fish and chips I had was when I was in London last summer in a famous restaurant called Garfunkel's. Funny story, I saw the ad of the restaurant on the wall of a subway station. Then I got lost, which is pretty normal if you are not a local, and then I looked up. I was standing in front of this amazing restaurant: Garfunkel's.

So when I got home, I said, "Why not try to cook it by myself". It's been a while since I came home from London, about 5-6 months, just a little bit of time I know. What can I say? I am a little bit lazy. I thought that this was a very challenging recipe. But, it wasn't hard, however it needs time. About 1-1.5 hour. But it is definitely worth it. So, here is the recipe for  crispy beer-battered Fish and Chips. Hope you'll like it. 

A Super Easy Dinner

In our family every one loves to eat steak. But we are picky with it when we are cooking for friends. My mother always serves it with salad and baked potatoes. My aunt serves it with rice. However I like to serve it with some mashed potato and rice with peas. 
It is super easy because you can work on several things at a time. 

I started with marinating the steak and then boiled the potatoes. While they were boiling I cooked the rice. And then I mashed the potatoes. 

I recommend you wait for your guests to arrive before you start cooking the steaks because when they become cold and when you heat them again, they become as hard as a rock. I don't think anyone would appreciate that. 

Also for the mashed potatoes I used milk instead of heavy cream so that the dish is lighter and healthier. 

Fried Chicken, Potato Salad and Vienna

I am really sorry because as you've noticed I haven't been writing that much. To be more specific, I haven't been working on my blog posts for about 1 month, which is a very looong time. What did I do during this long time? Well, a lot of things happened; I went to Austria, the second semester of the school year started and many other stuff. 

So, as I've said before I just got back from Vienna, Austria and it was one of the unplanned Gourmet Tours. Of course we had our plans before we arrived in Vienna. I mean normal people would look for museums and touristic places to see. However I booked a table from the famous restaurant before we arrived. That's my perspective because as you know I love new tastes and this trip was full of them.

Nom Nom Nom, My Guilty Pleasure: Mac n Cheese

Mac N' Cheese. 

Does it really need any more explanation? It is an all-time favorite. Cheese, Pasta and Deliciousness packed all together in one bowl. (Wow that sounded like a commercial)  I am obsessed with this meal as you can understand from my effort in describing which sounds like an advertisement. Whenever I want something creamy and whenever I want to have it for a meal, I cannot think anything rather than a plate of creamy Mac N' Cheese.

Mac N' Cheese is a classic American comfort food. To be honest Mac N' Cheese is not popular in Turkey. As you know we Turkish people love to eat meat. And we are not a fan of the Cheddar cheese. We like "white cheese" which is salted and kind of like feta. But the closest cheese to cheddar cheese is "kaşar (kashar) cheese". But no we don't use it in pasta. We eat cheese for breakfast not with pasta. Usually. That's why cheese and pasta are not very compatible in our culture. However I love it. 

As much as I love the easy Mac N' Cheese (you know the ones in the box), I prefer to cook my own. Not because it is very hard to find them here in Turkey (just kidding it is also a reason) but because it is much healthier to cook my own. I know that 5 minute pasta sounds tempting however when you cook your own it is definitely more fun than just stirring a mixture in a box or a can. I never ever buy things that I can cook myself at home. For example; chicken broth or soup or even frozen pizza. That's not my thing. I am the type that always prefers the homemade. Maybe that’s why I love cooking so much.

Mushroom Risotto

Thursday was my parents' 19th Anniversary. And I wanted to do something special for them. As you can imagine, I decided to cook.

I am an Italian cuisine fan. The homemade pasta, pizza and risotto are my favourites. The best dish that I can cook as an Italian dish is; risotto. That's why I decided to cook them a mushroom risotto.

Ingredients: 

Makes 3-4 portions:

• 200 g. mushrooms
• Juice of a half lemon
• 1/3 cups (75 g.) butter
• 2 tbsp. basil, chopped
• 4 cups (900 ml) chicken broth; preferably homemade
• 2 tbsp. (30 ml.) olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped into small cubes
• 1 1/2 cups (275 g.) arborio rice
• 1/2 cups (100 ml.) white wine
• Salt and freshly grounded black pepper
• 3 tbsp. (45 grams) grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Clean the mushrooms with a wet towel and take of the dirt on it. Slice them into thing pieces and put them in a bowl. Squeeze the half of the lemon (the lemon prevents the mushroom from getting dark). Meanwhile, melt the 1/3 of the butter in a pan. Then add the mushrooms in it and cook the mushrooms until they are brown. When the mushrooms are cooked, take them to a plate. 
2. Pour the chicken broth to a pot. Heat it and bring a boil.
3. In the pan that you cooked the mushrooms, add the rest of the butter and melt it. Then add the onions and cook the onions until they are "transparent". Do not caramelise. Add the rice and stir the rice with the onions so that the rice can be coated with oil. Then add the sautéed mushrooms to the rice. 
4. Pour in the wine and cook it until the fluid is fully absorbed. 
5. Pour in a ladle of chicken stock and cook until the rice absorbs the whole fluid. Continue this until there is no more stock left. 
6. Finally, add the chopped basil, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. The cheese will give the risotto a creamy texture. 
7. Serve the dish with extra Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. 

Enjoy :)