quirks and foibles in my kitchen

bulgur wheat

Ayca — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:18:53 +0000

bulgur wheat is consumed like rice on its own (cooked like this recipe for example) as well as complementing other recipes like mezes, even meat dishes. more info here if you’re curious.

i quite like this one but don’t cook it often enough to be honest. i really should, it’s very nutritious and filling.

ingredients

a glass bulgur wheat (something smaller than a pint glass please!)
1 green pepper (or 2 halves of different colours, just for the looks hehe)1 large onion
1 can of chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons of tomato paste or paprika paste
1,5 glass of water (same glass you measured the bulgur)
salt, pepper, cumin, paprika

preparation

chop the onion and peppers in cubes and sauté in 1-2 tablespoons of oil until the onions get kind of transparent
add the bulgur, tomato/paprika paste
stir well
add the can of tomatoes
add the water
add the spices
close the lid and let it simmer in low heat

it doesn’t take ages to cook. 10 minutes, maybe 15, meantime it is a good idea to go and stir every 5 minutes.

once cooked, turn the heat off and let it rest for 10 minutes or so, then stir well before serving.

enjoy! x

apple-pear-blackberry crumble

Ayca — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:09:21 +0000

i adapted this awesome dessert from a recipe on BBC Good Food website. James Martin makes this with only pears and blackberries and bake it in one portion cups. but i find it too sweet with pear only, so I add apples for a little sourness.

crumble is my favorite british dish and i’ve made this many times. i even made it with gluten-free flour and soya margarine for andy who happens to have coeliac disease and has no tolerance to dairy products. even with such dodgy ingredients, turned out to be fantastic!

ingredients

4-5 green apples
4-5 pears
250g blackberries
200g caster sugar
300g flour
150g brown sugar
150g butter at room temperature
100g pistachios
single cream, custard or vanilla icecream to serve with

preparation

i used 5 apples and 5 pears like these:

then chopped them up in cubes

then left them on low heat with 200g caster sugar

once they begin to soften, added the blackberries

not gonna cook them for long, just long enough to give its colour – see below

i prepared the crumble while the fruit cooked – first i mix brown sugar with the flour, then crumble all with the butter

then added the pistachios

when done, looks like this:

fruit goes on the bottom of the dish

and the crumble on top

looks like this in the end:

kitchen-helper-girl melike holds it like this so that the fruit and crumble layers can be seen in the photo

then i shoved it in 180 degree oven. when done, it comes out as slightly darkened and with boiling fruit popping out here and there:

we had it with single cream and it was fantastic!

enjoy! x

turkish rice (pilav)

Ayca — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:10:36 +0000

not only my favorite dish, rice is a major part of turkish cooking. whatever potatoes are for the british cooking (no offence but not that there is a lot!), rice is the same for us – if not more. we mostly use a type of short grain rice called ‘baldo’ which i can find in turkish supermarkets here.

lately i’ve been addicted to tesco’s thai long grain fragrant rice and this recipe works wonders with it. it’s not really that fragrant to be honest but if it was, i wouldn’t mind!

there are disturbingly many types of rice (which i expect to write about eventually) but this is the main thing. we use some sort of mini pasta or noodles in it (which we call sehriye) to make it look nice, rather than the vague flavour it adds. sehriye, again, comes in many shapes, the most common types being ‘barley noodle’ (arpa sehriye) because its a similar shape to barley and ‘vermicelli’ (tel sehriye) . sehriye is also used in soups but that’s another story (or not… considering that i’m not too keen on soup). if you can’t resist the urge to try this rice but can’t find sehriye, just break some spaghetti into small pieces, it’ll do!

ingredients

a handful of barley noodle or vermicelli or spaghetti pieces (i used vermicelli)
1 mug of rice (i used tesco’s thai long grain fragrant rice)
1.5 mugs of real chicken stock or a cube of stock (any flavour you like) melted in 1.5 mugs of hot water
1 tablespoon of margarine or butter (make that 2 if you’re feeling naughty)
salt

this amount of rice would be enough to get two people bloated and it would be a satisfactory amount for three people. i would be ok for four but you’re pushing it a bit then. i’d rather double the amount to feed four people and have some for leftovers.

the amount of water you need when you double the amount of rice depends on the size of your saucepan.

the saucepan you cook the rice in is an important issue. my mum likes to cook it in stainless steel saucepans. i like the non-stick, thick bottom tefal ones cos i use less butter in it than she does. to be honest, it doesn’t matter as long as there is a lid and that lid fits the saucepan!

the first ratio of 1:1.5 rice to water, drops to a 1:1 on the third round. so use:

1.5 mugs of water with 1 mug of rice
a little less than 3 mugs of water with 2 mugs of rice
use 4 mugs of water with 3 mugs of rice

if you want to cook 4 mugs of rice, don’t. it’s too much to cook at one go in an average size pan, it will get all sticky and yucky.

i have tried and tried to cook a no-fat or low-fat rice for years. each attempt gave edible results but the flavour was never satisfactory. i am 32 and i tried enough, i give up, you cannot cook a decent rice without butter or margarine.

if you just want to boil some rice and eat it as it is, by all means feel free to. it’s not ‘pilav’ though, it’s just a pile of tasteless thing instead. (i can’t resist the urge to add this little side note: we feed soft boiled rice to sick people who have the runs!)

it’s practical to do the following in that particular order because i suck at giving recipes with exact durations of each stage and it would vary anyway. it’s super easy with these three steps: wash it, butter up, water it!

1. start with boiling some water

2. wash it: put the rice in a sieve and run some warm water over it in the sink. you can use a wooden spoon to stir the rice under the water. we do this so that the rice won’t stick while cooking, instead ‘it will cross its legs’, hehe. continue the washing process until the water runs clear.

3. put the washed rice into a container/ bowl, whatever and cover it with hot water (the water you boiled) let the rice take a nap in there while we play with the noodles

4. butter up: melt the butter in the saucepan and sauté the noodles on medium heat. try not to burn them!

5. just when the noodle colour starts to turn darker, we drain the rice in the sieve

6. once the noodles have turned to a soft brown, we add the drained rice and add salt (as much as you like). adding salt at this stage so that the rice won’t break while sautéing. yes, keep stirring until the rice turns transparent.

7. water it: turn the heat down, add stock or water. careful: the stock/water is hot but not boiling and we turned the heat down while adding this. why? not to burn ourselves of course, i learnt it the hard way!

8. keep the pan on medium heat until the stock/water boils and when it does, use the lowest heat on your hob and leave it to simmer until the water boils away. don’t be tempted to open the lid to check it every two seconds! give it at least a good 10 minutes.

9. when the rice is nicely cooked and its not swimming in water, it’s cooked. keep the lid on leave it rest for 10 minutes.

enjoy!

first post

Ayca — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:06:23 +0000

i’ll just make a copy of the ‘about’ page here for my first post. maybe I’ll edit this later… maybe I won’t. ah, isn’t laziness bliss? ^^

there we go:

my name is ayca. i am a 32 year old woman, a marketing professional (aka grumpy bitch) who constantly dreams of baking cakes for a living instead. i’m originally turkish (but lived in the uk for the last 6 years) and coming from a culture of rich cuisine and a family of fantastic cooks, i enjoy experimental cooking and eating good food. i love cooking for special occasions or ordinary days, i love feeding my cats, family and friends. my most recent hobby is inventing dairy-free, gluten-free, yeast-free, beef-free, lamb-free dishes for my digestively challenged boyfriend andy – i call him ‘fartybum stinkypants’ when he can’t resist the urge and eats stuff he can’t digest =]

i admit i am a lazy person but i try to photograph and write about it whenever i cook something that i haven’t published yet. i had this cooking blog in turkish called ‘lazy chef’ (http://tembelasci.blogspot.org) for friends and family use that started by my best friend ozi’s nagging and now it is available in english for my english-speaking family and friends.

if you come across this blog and end up trying a recipe, i would love it if you come back to drop me a line and give feedback.

enjoy your stay !

ayca x