Colourful tiny cakes in winter - vegetable-cheesy quiche

I prepared these colourful small quiches for a Saturday breakfast since I needed to try my newly bought pie forms. For the dough I used again the recipe of, Michael Roux from his book Pastry: Savory and Sweet. You can make 6 quiche (baking in 10 cm round shape form)  from the below ingredients.

Ingredients:
For the dough: 
250 g flour
1 egg
150 g soft butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch of sugar
1 tablespoon cold milk (I used yoghurt instead of milk) 

For the filling (what I prepared this time):
2 db triangle cheese
2 smaller red pepper
1 medium-sized onion
olive oil
salt, pepper, nutmeg
1 egg+ 2 egg yolks 
2 dl cooking cream
3-4 tablespoon chopped parsley

1. Knead the linzer pastry as usual. In a big bowl crumb the flour with the butter, add the caster sugar, vanilla sugar, egg yolks, lemon zest, mix the ingredients and knead the pastry by hand very quickly. Put it in the fridge for about 1 hour but at least for 30 minutes to chill.

2. Preheat the oven to 200°C and to prepare the basket forms, oil them properly in order the pastry not to get stuck in them. Roll out the pastry and cut it with a pastry cutter then arrange the pastry into the forms. Bake them in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. When they are ready take them out and let them cool.

3. While the baskets are in the oven, let's prepare the filling. Peel and chop the onion, sauté with olive oil in a small saucepan then add the sliced red pepper. In another bowl mix the egg with the cream and cheese, sprinkle with salt, pepper and nutmeg, and finally mix with the vegetables.

4. Fill your chilled baskets with this filling then place back to the oven for another 15 minutes. 

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Cheesy crescent rolls

Yes, yes, yes, yes!!! Absolute success!!! These cheesy cresent rolls are always big favorite among my friends, colleagues and in our family. Today I was at a garden party where the 64 fresh and soft rolls were disappeared within half an hour.

Ingredients:
70 dkg flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 dl oil
2 dl yoghurt
2 dl milk
5 dkg fresh yeast

For the filling:
25 dkg butter (room temperature)
1 tablespoon salt

For the top:
+ 1 egg
+ 20 dkg cheese

Place the flour in a big bowl, mix it with the sugar then make a hole in the middle. Pour the fluid ingredients in the hole, the yoghurt, oil, lukewarm milk then crumble the yeast in it. Mix the ingredients carefully with a spoon and let it sit for 10 minutes.

10 minutes later knead the dough with your hands and add as much flour as the dough needs until it gets soft but not sticky.

Mix the butter with the salt and divide into 4 parts.

Preheat the oven into 220°C.

Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Take one, put on a floured surface, roll it to a plate-sized and set aside. Take another piece of dough and roll it as well. Grease 1/4 of the butter mix on the dough and place the other (already rolled) piece on this. Divide this round shape dough into 16 equal pieces with a knife (as you slice a cake). Take one slice and  roll it up starting from its wider edge. Place on the oven pan (far enough from each other because they become twice bigger in the course of baking), grease it with some egg and strew with grated cheese.

Repeat this 3 times more.

Put the oven pan into the preheated oven and bake the rolls until the cheese on their tops gets gold.

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Pamuk pogaça

As I mentioned in my last post, for our big Turkish dinner in Stockholm I prepared besides meze and desserts, pamuk poğaça as well. This time I chose Edina's recipe.

When it was ready, M. tasted it and he said: "It's like that my grandma made!" I think this is the biggest honorable mention. 

Ingredients (15-20 pieces):

1/2 cup of lukewarm milk

1/2 cup of lukewarm water

1/2 cup of oil

2-3 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cube of fresh yeast (2,5 dkg)

about 40 dkg flour

+ 1 egg yolk to grease

+ for the top: sesame seeds, linseeds, poppy seeds etc.

For the filling:

10 dkg feta or white cheese

a bunch of fresh parsley

Crumb the yeast into a lukewarm milk, add a tablsepoon sugar to it and let stand about 5-10 minutes in a warm place until the yeast doubles its size.


Place about 20 dkg flour to a big bowl and mix with the salt. Make a pit in the middle of the flour then stream the water, oil in it, add rest of the sugar and the yeast-milky mixture.


You can start to mix the ingredients with a wood spoon then after a while you can knead the dough with your hands and add as much flour as the dough needs until it gets but not sticky. 

When it is ready, blanket the bowl with a clean dish towel and set aside for about 30 minutes.

While the dough rises we can prepare the filling for our poğaça. Crush the cheese with a fork in a bowl, add the finely chopped parsley and mix them properly.

Preheat the oven into 180°C.

When the dough is ready too, divide into bigger ping-pong ball-sized pieces. Roll out the balls then fill with the cheesy filling then closing the dough try to form small packs, place them upside down on a baking paper.

Grease the poğaça's top with the egg yolk, sprinkle some seeds on it then in the preheated oven bake them golden brown within 15.20 minutes.

Afiyet olsun!

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Spelt buns

In April I decided to try candida diet what I think everyone can do from time to time because of medical indication or without it as well to clean our body and get rid of the consumed sugar, flour and all the carbohydrates.

Before anyone would get frightened, luckily it is allowable to eat bread made of spelt flour during the diet therefore noone needs to fear of starvation. 

Rita's recipe proved a perfect choice. Though I have changed the recipe a little bit and baked in bun shape instead of bread, but I think both of them is very delicious and stodgy. 

Ingredients (appr. 6 buns):
25 dkg spelt flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoon seed (linseed, pumpkin seed, sesame seed etc.) - optional
3 tabelspoon olive oil
1 dl lukewarm water
3 tablespoon yoghurt

Preheat the oven to 180°C. 

In a big bowl mix the flour, salt, baking soda (drip some fresh lemon juice on it and let it bubble), the seeds. Add the liquid ingredients, the yoghurt, olive oil and that much lukewarm water to get a well kneadable, not too hard dough.

Divide the dough into 6 part, form buns from them, place them on a baking paper (what you grease with olive oil before) then cut X on their top with a sharp knife and sprinkle with some flour.

In the preheated oven bake the buns for around 30 minutes. 

You can bake them in bread form as well or smaller-larger bun form. It is very stodgy because of the spelt flour, not like a distended bread what you can buy in the supermarket or at many bakery.

1-1- smaller bun is always enoguh for me for one dining therefore the above amount buns can be enough for 3-4 days.  

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Indian Naan Bread

I love naan since our 4-weeks holiday in India in 2010.

During our trip we travelled a lot within the country. We just bought a return ticket to Delhi and back, had a Lonely Planet guide and that's all. Okay, we knew of course some place what we definitely wanted to visit but nothing more. We didn't decide how many days we spend here or there. Just enjoy the country, know and talk to the people and try to understand this culture what is totally different from what we have seen before.

Before we left for India, everyone worried about me and asked "What will you eat there?" I didn't know the Indian cuisine too much at that time but I said "I love Indian foods, so don't worry, I won't die by hunger!" Now I know since I REALLY knew Indian cuisine during this trip, it's one of the most colourful, varied and interesting kitchen in the world.

As I mentioned we travelled a lot (Delhi - Agra - Varanasi - Kathamndu,Nepal - Mumbai - Varkala beach in Kerala - Kochi - Delhi), everywhere 2-3 days (on the beach about 10 days :)), depending on how much we liked the place. Everywhere we stopped we tasted the local speciality therefore I can say we never ate two times the same dish.

Indian food is different from the rest of the world in the whole cuisine, in taste, cooking methods. It's a perfect mix of several cultures and ages. Food in India, just like the Indian culture, has been influenced  by various groups, civilizations during the centuries, leading to the diversity of flavours and regional cuisines what we know in modern India in our days.

One of the most important part of the Indian kitchen is the Indian bread. There is a wide variety of breads which reflects the diversity of the whole country, culture. Different varieties include: chapati, roti, paratha, naan, papdum etc.

Naan is cooked in tandoor from which tandoori cooking takes its name. I have already mentioned tandoor before in the post of Turkish Ramadan pide.

First I bring the recipe of naan what I prepare many times especially for a light dinner, house parties next to dips.

I don't know yet where I had found this recipe on internet but I remember that I tried it with my best friend, E. for New Year's Eve.

Ingredients (5 pieces):
25 dkg plain flour
110-130 ml milk
2 tablespoon oil
2 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

+ 1 tablespoon melted butter for brushing
+ cheese (normally I make naan without it)

In a big bowl mix the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Make a pit in the center of the dry ingredients in the bowl then pour in it the milk and oil mixture.

Mix together the dough first by wooden spoon then knead it by hand for 8-10 minutes to make a smooth, soft dough. If it's too thicky, add a little flour to it. Divide it into 5 small balls.

The original recipe said we should set aside, cover with a clean kitchen towel and leave for at least 1 hour in a warm place to double in size. I experienced there is no difference between we don't wait at all or we leave the dough for 1 hour so do not worry, as soon as you finished kneading the dough you can start to bake them.

For the lack of tandoor at home preheat a simple frying pan. Start to roll out the dough balls into oval, teardrop shapes (as you like) and place the naan in the hot frying pan and grill for 1-2 minutes or until there are brown spots on its surface then turn to grill the other side of naan. If you want at the step you can put some grated cheese on the top.

Brush them with melted butter and serve hot.
 

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Simit

Simit, one of the most popular street food in Turkey is a circular shaped bread with sesame seeds, often eaten plain or with jam or joghurt for breakfast and commonly is sold by vendors along streets (almost every corner of the city, especially in Istanbul) who sell it from their trolleys or from their trays what they carry on their heads.

  

You can meet many different types of simit, all which are at least as tasty as the famous Istanbul version. The rich variety is sometimes due to different ingredients, sometimes due to the baking technique and sometimes due just to a special shape.

In Turkish culture people generally drink tea with simit, some prefer it with ayran as well. 

My favorite and most popular simit - breakfast place is Simit Sarayı ın Turkey. Simit Sarayı (means: Simit Palace) is a fast food restaurant where many kind of simit products, pastry and baked gooda are sold freshly all day long. For instance plain simit, simit with cheese, tomato, olives, sucuk (Turkish spıcy sausage), börek, açma, poğaça, wraps, pita bread sandwiches and of course sweet products also such as baklava, sütlaç (Turkish rice pudding), muffins and other cakes.

Simitçi in Istanbul

I love reading Elif's blog since his husband also comes from Kayseri as M. Yesterday she was a big help for me when I decided to bake simit.

These cute simits will be my and my colleagues' breakfast today.

Ingredients (6 pieces):
50 dkg flour
1/2 package dry yeast (3,5 g) or 1/4 package fresh yeast (1,25 dkg)
0,25 dl milk
1/2 teaspoon sugar
0,25 dl oil
2 dl water
2 teaspoon salt

+ pekmez (It's available in every Turkish supermarket. If you don't have at home you can use water also as I did yesterday.)
+ sesame seeds (yesterday I used linseed)

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm milk and let stand about 10 minutes in a warm place until frothy.

In a big bowl mix the flour, salt, oil and add the yeast mix. Start to knead adding water constantly to it. Knead at least 15 minutes by hand (or hand mixer) until the dough is very smooth and springy. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and set aside for 15-20 minutes.

Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces. Split each pieces in two, roll each of these small balls into a 35-40 cm long rope. Lay the two ropes next to each other on the counter. Press their upper ends then braid them carefully and form this braided rope into ring.

Preheat the oven to 250°C.

Put water in a smaller plate, sesame seeds in another one. Dip each simit rings first in the water then in the sesame seeds. Lay the ready simits on a baking paper.

Bake them in the oven for 20-25 minutes until rich golden brown.

The best is eating simit freshly, immediately taking out from the oven but you can also put in the freezer and when you wanna eat fresh simit again you just need to take out from the freezer and warm it up in the oven within a few minutes.

Afiyet olsun!

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Braided zucchini bread with peanut

When I came home from work today my friend called me asked my help what kind of bread she should bake at the first time in her life if she has only basic ingredients at home. I opened the book Eat Well Live Well - Beautiful Baking for the Irish soda bread's recipe when I found something also for myself. Of course.

This low-fat bread based on the Irish soda bread's recipe but contains more several healty ingredients, with grated zucchini, roasted peanuts and linseed.It doesn't demand too many skills either to shape the showy bread. Cutting into thick slices we can serve it with soups or salad as main course.

I can recommend this special bread to test which is soft inside because of the zucchini and during the baking a wonderful aroma floats all around the flat.This is my best and most delicious bread what I have baked until now.

Ingredients (16 slices):
1 small piece of zucchini
40 dkg flour (20 dkg spelt flour and 20 dkg Update lowcarb mastermix)
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon salt
2-3 tablespoon linseed
1 handful peanut
1 big clove garlic
1 spoon olive oil
4 dl yoghurt

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Grate the zucchini with its peel and let it dry on kitchen towels. Set aside.

Sift the flour, baking soda and the salt in a big bowl. Add the linseed, peanut and garlic, then the grated zucchini.

Sprinkle the oil on it, add the yoghurt and mix all ingredients smoothly. If it is needed, you can find some leftover flour in the bottom of the bowl, add some more yoghurt.

Shape a round loaf from the dough and put on a floured counter. Cut into to equal size pieces and twist two 30 cm long stick with floury hands.

Lay the two sticks next to each other on the counter. Press their upper ends then braid them carefully and turn the ends under the bread. Place the braided bread on oily baking paper and sprinkle it with some flour.

While we bake it for 25-30 minutes until it gets golden brown, the bread growns.

It is best to serve warm but it's fresh for 2-3 days.

Afiyet olsun!

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Turkish Ramadan pide (Ramazan pidesi)

I fell in love with Turkish bread (ekmek) last year during our holiday. I don't remember how many different kind of breads we had a chance to taste. Anywhere we ate, it doesn't matter we stopped at a smaller local restaurant next to the road or we had dinner in a fancy restaurant in Istanbul, bread was served (mostly with butter) everywhere while we waited for our order.

Ekmek is a main necessity of Turkish cuisine and households.It is usually made by bakeries two or three times  a day, in the morning and in the evening, therefore you can buy fresh crispy bread all day.

I am sure you haven't seen and tasted such a thing as Turkish ekmek. It is loved by everyone, rich and poor, simple and sophisticated, one and all. You can find a bread bakery at every neighborhood that produces the famous golden, crispy breads, filling the streets with their irresistible flavour. In Istanbul we stayed at our friend's place where right under the flat a bread bakery was found. During our stay we were waken up by the fresh bread's aroma every morning, I can not imagine more amazing thing.

The history of ekmek
During the Ottoman period people believed that bread, as the earliest form of cuisine, dates back to the time of Prophet Adam, the Patron Saint of Bakers who learned how to make bread from the Archangel Gabriel after his explusion from the Garden of Eden. The secret is still held by present-day Turkish bakers and hold it as one of the simplest and honorable things to eat.

The types of Turkish bread
There are so many types of Turkish breads but the most well-known besides ekmek, the ordinary white bread is:

• Tas Firin Ekmegi (this type of bread is the most common in Turkey, baked in stone oven)
• Simit (is a ring shaped bread with sesame seeds on the top.It's one of the most widely consumed foods in Turkey, you can find a simit vendor almost at every corner.)
• Tandır Ekmegi (This is also a very known bread type. It is baked in a round oven " Tandır" in Turkish. I met Tandır - in English: tandoor - at the first time in India where they use it not only for baking flatbreads, the Indian naan but for cooking certain meat dishes as well. I will write more about tandoor later.)
• Mısır ekmek (corn bread, not used very much)

This time I bring for you this special type of flat bread, called Ramazan pidesi which refers to that it is baked during the month of Ramazan.

Ramazan pidesi

For the first try I used Binnur's recipe as base. Let's see how it turned out!

Ingredients:
4 cup of flour (all purpose)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 and 3/4 cup milk
7 gr instant yeast (I prefer fresh yeast but this time I followed the original recipe)

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

Glaze:

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon milk

Ramazan pidesi

Mix the instant yeast, sugar and 1/4 cup warm milk in a small bowl. Stir well to the yeast to dissolve. Cover the bowl with a towel, set aside and let it rest for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, add the flour and salt in a larger bowl, put the bubbly yeast mixture  and 1 1/2 cup warm milk to the flour. Mix and put the dough on the lightly floured table and knead well for about 10 minutes until it becomes smooth (I used hand mixer at the beginning then continued kneading by hand). 

When the dough is ready, slush a clean bowl with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and place the dough in it and spread another tablespoon of olive oil with your hands all over the dough. Then cover it with a clean and damp dish towel. Set aside for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours at room temperature until the dough rises to double its size.

Place the dough on the lightly floured table again. Press all over it with your hands to get rid of air bubbles. Cut the dough in two pieces with a knife. Knead and give a ball shape to each, cover with a damp towel, and put aside for other 15 minutes. 

Place baking paper on an oven tray, then set the doughs on it. Use your palm to flatten each ball into a flatter rounded shape and dip your finger tips in it and press all over the dough. Lightly beat the glaze ingredients in a small bowl then sprinkle some black or regular sesame seeds all over and cover with a clean damp towel. Leave for about 35-40 minutes to rise at a warm place.

Finally preheat the oven to 230°C and put some water in an oven-safe bowl. Place it on the bottom of the oven and the tray on the middle rack. Bake for about 8 to 10 minutes until the colour becomes light golden. Place the pide on the clean towel to cool it down a bit. Serve warm.

Afiyet olsun!

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