Cannellini Beans with Eggplant (Patlıcanlı Kuru Fasulye)

A great twist to a very traditional recipe: white beans, which are generally referred to as the national dish of Turkey.1 medium size eggplant, diced1 cup of dry cannellini beans, soaked over night or 1 can of cannellini beans1/4 lb stew beef [for a meatier stew you can use more stew beef and for a vegetarian version skip it completely]1 big onion, diced3 cloves of garlic, minced3 tomatoes, diced or 1 can of diced tomatoes1 red bell pepper, finely...

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Celery Root Rounds with Carrot (Havuçlu Kereviz Halkaları)

I had celery root rounds first at a tea-party in Turkey as one of the 7 or so dishes that the host prepared for an ~3 hour tea-party! Apparently the recent tea-party trend in Turkey is to impress your guests with the number and the presentation of the goodies you make. Mission accomplished; I was impressed by how much I could eat in 2 hours and with only Turkish tea as digestive. Another thing that impressed me was that although at first it...

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Corn and Bean Soup (Pakla Çorbası)

This Black Sea Region recipe is a recipe from my dad's side of the family. My aunt invites the rest of the family over dinner (in addition to all the special occasions) when she cooks three special dishes. Number one is mantı, number two is dolma, and number three is pakla soup, which by the way draws more attendees than dolmas. This simple soup is so popular among the family members that there had been times when we fought over the second serving....

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