Meatball Casserole (Sahan Köfte)

When I was a kid, I thought meatball casserole was a way to ruin delicious meatballs. So, rather than being excited, I was always disappointed to see meatballs cooked that way: juicy with mushy tomatoes and peppers. But years have passed, and now I agree with Aaron; meatball casserole is the best way to have meatballs--except for grilled meatballs.


























2 potatoes, cut in rounds
1 belle pepper or 4-6 banana peppers, cut in big pieces
2 tomatoes, cut in rounds
2 tomatoes, grated
1 cup hot water
2 tbsp olive oil or butter
2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

for meatball
1 lb ground meat
1-2 slices of stale bread
2 eggs
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp oregano leaves
1/2 tsp salt
1 big clove of garlic, minced
1 onion, grated or finely chopped
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley



























-Put all the ingredients for meatball in a bowl and mix well. Make round meatballs.
-In an oven dish, place meatballs, potatoes, and peppers one after the other. Put tomato slices on top and sprinkle sliced garlic. Pour grated tomatoes, hot water, and oil or butter. (Or you can put the potato slice. Place meatball on potato slice, tomato slice on meatball, and piece of green pepper on tomato. You'll have a great tower. Pour grated tomatoes, garlic, and hot water.)
-Sprinkle red pepper flakes or black pepper on top.
-First let it boil on the stove for a couple of minutes, then bake it at 400F for 25-30 minutes.
-Meatball casserole goes well with rice and bread.

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Turkish Tabbouleh (Kısır)

Kısır is the Turkish and different version of a Mediterranean/Arabic dish called tabbouleh. Although there are many differences between these two dishes, the main one is that the Turkish tabbouleh has tomato and pepper paste. In Turkey the recipe for kısır varies from region to region. In Adana they use more water than anywhere else or in Antakya (Hatay) they don't use water at all; they knead bulgur with tomato and pepper paste until it gets soft. However it's made, kısır is made everywhere in Turkey and is loved dearly. It is served sometimes with the afternoon tea, sometimes as a meze, and sometimes as a great summer dish you can enjoy when it's boiling hot outside.

2 cups of fıne bulgur
2 cups of hot water
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp pepper paste (preferably hot)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 bunch green onions, finely chopped
1 small onion, cut in thin half rounds
1 bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
1 cucumber, finely chopped
2 banana peppers, finely choped
2 tbsp pomegranate syrup
juice of 1 or 1/2 lemon (you have to taste and add less or more lemon juice)
2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp mint flakes
1 tsp cumin
romain lettuce leaves
tomatoes




















-Put tomato and pepper paste in a big bowl and melt them with boiling hot water. Add bulgur and 1 tsp salt into this mix. Stir once. Cover with a thick kitchen towel and let it soak the water for 10 minutes.
-Cut the onion in half first, then into very thin half-moon shapes. In a little bowl, knead onion with 1 tsp salt. Rinse salt and squeeze excessive water.
-Fluff bulgur with a fork. Add pepper flakes, ground pepper, cumin, mint flakes, oil, pomegranate syrup, lemon juice, and kneaded onion. Mix well. At this point taste to see if it needs more lemon juice. Kısır should be a little bit sour.
-Add banana peppers, spring onions, cucumber, and parsley. Mix well.
-Kısır is served and eaten with lettuce leaves and tomatoes. We don't add tomatoes to kısır, because tomatoes make it mushy. So kısır is usually served on a lettuce bed (you can wrap some kısır in a lettuce leaf and eat like that) with slices of tomato on the side.

Although tabbouleh and kısır are different they have one ingredient that unites them: parsley. Parsley is a must-have both for tabbouleh and kısır. Don't even think about making tabbouleh/kısır without fresh parsley (parsley flakes would not work either) or substituting it with something else. That's why I thought this is a good recipe for WHB with its emphasis on my favorite herb parsley. WHB is back at home at Kalyn's this weekend.

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Baked Zucchini (Fırın Kabak)

This is a recipe my mom and I used to enjoy for lunch during hot summer days. I had forgot about the recipe, but fortunately my mom had not. Baked zucchini is a good side dish as well as an appealing diet recipe.

3 medium zucchinis, cut in 1/2 inch rounds

1/2 bunch green onion, finely chopped 

2 tbsp dried mint

1/2 tsp pepper flakes

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

-Mix all the ingredients in bowl and place them on a slightly greased oven dish.
-Bake for 25-30 minutes at 400F.
-Serve with yogurt on top or on the side. If you add one clove of garlic, minced, to yogurt it will be even more delicious.

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Bride Dessert (Gelin Tatlısı)

This recipe is again from my mom. She made this dessert for a tea party. Although I don't like desserts with syrup that much, I must admit this one was awesome.

for syrup
3 1/2 cup sugar
3 cup water
1 tsp lemon juice

for cookies
3 cup flour
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup butter (almost melted)
1/2 luke warm milk
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup crushed walnut
1 tsp cinnamon

















-Boil sugar and water. 5 minutes after it starts boiling, pour lemon juice and turn it off. Let it cool.
-In a bowl mix well butter, oil, baking powder, and milk.
-Add sifted flour and knead well.
-Make walnut size pieces from the dough. In your palm, first round each piece and then flatten them.
-For stuffing mix walnuts and cinnamon. Place 1 or 1/2 tsp of the stuffing in the middle of each piece. Fold it from both sides on top.
-Place them on a greased oven dish and bake at 380-390F until golden brown.
-As soon as you take them out of the oven, pour the cooled down syrup and let it soak.
-Once the little pieces soak the syrup, you can place them on a serving plate.

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Ground Meat Rolls (Kıymalı Rulo)

My mom made this for the afternoon tea time. It takes a while to make, but it is delicious. You should definitely try this!

for the dough
1/2 cup luke warm water
1 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
2-2 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup oil (canola, corn, olive oil, sun flower, whichever you feel comfortable with)
1 tsp salt
yolk of one egg
black seeds or sesame seeds

the stuffing
3 tbsp oil
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1/2 pound ground meat
1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt



















-Mix yeast, sugar, and water with a spoon in a bowl and let it dissolve for 15-20 minutes. Yeast will rise.
-In a pot on medium heat cook ground meat stirring constantly until it soaks its juice.
-Add 3 tbsp oil and onions to ground meat and stir until onion is cooked. Turn it off and add walnut, cumin, cinnamon, black pepper.
-Sift flour into the bowl of yeast. Add milk, oil, and salt. Add flour as necessary to make dough easy to handle. Dough should not stick to your hands.
-Let the dough sit in the bowl in a warmer place to rise twice its size.
-After it rises, divide the dough into two.
-With a little bit of oil and your hands make each piece into a 16 X 16 circle or a squarish circle. Don't worry it doesn't need to be a perfect shape.
-Place the half of the stuffing on your first circle-ish dough. Roll the dough like a cigarette without squeezing it too hard. Do the same for the second dough.
-Brush egg yolk on each and sprinkle black or sesame seeds or don't sprinkle anything.
-Bake at 375F until golden brown like a loaf of bread.
-It's great with tea. Bon appetit!

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Damascus Dessert (Şam Tatlısı)

This is a common dessert in Turkey, but I don't know why it is called "Damascus" dessert. My one guess is that sometimes instead of shredded coconut, it's decorated with crushed pistachios. And in Turkish pistachio is called either "Damascus nut" or "Antep nut" (a southeastern city in Turkey that borders Syria). The recipe is from my mom and is one of her favorites because it requires neither eggs nor oil. Since it's not very heavy you can eat more!

for the syrup
3 1/2 cup water
3 cups sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice

for the cake
1 cup semolina
1 cup bleached flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla

-Mix sugar, water, and lemon juice in a pot and boil for 1-15 minutes. Turn it off and let it cool down.
-In a bowl mix all the ingredients for the cake. Pour them in a greased oven dish (We used a 13 1/2 X 10 1/2 one, but you can definitely use a smaller dish for a thicker cake).
-Bake it at 350-370F for 20-25 minutes until it gets brownish.
-Cut the cake in rectangles, squares, or diamonds.
-Pour the syrup that has cooled down on the hot cake. Let it soak the syrup in the cooling oven.
-You can sprinkle shredded coconut or pistachio, or put an almond on each piece.
-Serve it cold.

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Potato Casserole (Patates Oturtma)

My parents and my aunt are here visiting. Among other things, they're cooking. The potato casserole is tonight's dinner and the recipe is from my aunt. I'll try to get as many recipes as possible while they're here and post them. Bon appétit!

2 pounds potatoes, peeled and cut in 1/2 inch rounds
2 medium onions, chopped
1/2 pound ground meat
2 carrots, cut in rounds
2-3 banana peppers or 1 green bell pepper, chopped finely
1 clove of garlic, thinly sliced
1 1/2 tbsp tomato paste
1/4 cup olive or canola oil
1/2 cup (or less) olive oil
salt and pepper





















-Mix potato slices with salt and 2 tbsp olive oil and place them on a big oven dish and bake at 350 F until they darken to slightly brown.
-Heat the rest of the oil in a big frying pan. Stir onions and garlic until soft.
-Add peppers and carrots. Stir until cooked.
-Add ground meat. Stir until ground meat is cooked.
-Add tomato paste, salt, and black pepper. Stir for 5 minutes, pour in 1 to 1 1/2 cup of water and cook for another 5 minutes.
-In a oven dish put one layer of potatoes. Cover them with ground meat mix. On top put another layer of potatoes and again another layer of ground mix. Repeat this layering until everything is finished.
-Bake it in the preheated oven at 350 F for 15-25 minutes.
-Sprinkle parsley on top before you serve.

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