Squash & Carrot Tarator

My it's been forever since I updated this blog! I got busy with writing, work, and other projects and sort of let this slide.

But recently I've been very into fermenting.  Uh, not me...milk.  I had access to fresh milk and started making cheese for the first time as well as revisiting other milk ferments I used to do frequently, like kefir and yogurt.  So, I decided it was about time that I start sharing again.

Today, however, I'm not starting with a cheese but with a Turkish meze dish my husband made the other night for the first time, and I've been so in love with it that I've made it three times since.  And it's easy!  All it is is sauteed vegetables with yogurt-garlic sauce.

I'm sure there's lots of variations, but here's how he did it:

Ingredients:

onion - 2 small or 1 large, minced
garlic - about 6 cloves, pressed or finely chopped
carrot - 4-5, finely grated
zucchini - 3-4, finely shredded
olive oil - 1/3 - 1/2 cup
salt - couple of teaspoons
plain yogurt - about 2 cups (or more)

Directions:

Basically, you just saute the vegetables until soft, let them cook, then mix them with an abundance of yogurt-garlic sauce.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet, then add the onion and let cook a few mins.  Add garlic and cook another minute more, then add chopped/shredded carrots and the zucchini.  Let them all cook together until soft, about 20 - 25 mins.

Remove from heat and let cool.  In the meanwhile you can mix up a batch of yogurt-garlic sauce which is a few minced garlic cloves and about a teaspoon of salt mixed in 2-3 cups of plain yogurt (the best you can get! or make!)

When the veges are cool, mix with the sauce, let sit a bit or cook in the fridge.  This is a meze which is typically served before meals, but I love it so much that I've been making it as a side-dish and a snack to have any time.

Here's a picture of a tarator someone else made just with carrots to give you and idea of the mix of veges to yogurt: Havuc Tarator

Cacik -- Cold Cucumber Soup

Happy July 4th! In celebration of this year's holiday, I'm going to repost a recipe from last year's July 4th. We're eating a lot of cacik this year. With the heat and fresh cucumbers and garlic, this cold Turkish soup just can't be beat. My kids guzzle this down. I can never make enough.

Ingredients:

• 3 medium cucumbers (400 g)
• 3 cups yogurt (plain, good quality) (770 g)
• 2 cloves garlic (6 g)
• 2 teaspoons sea salt (12 g)
• 1 cup water (250 g)
• 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil (20 g)
• 3-4 sprigs dill (10 g)

Directions:

Combine finely chopped or shredded cucumber with yogurt. Mix thoroughly. Add crushed garlic. Season with sea salt. Dilute with cold water. Mix well.

Pour into individual serving bowls. Sprinkle with olive oil. Garnish with coarsely chopped dill.

Chill and serve.


Cultural Notes:
This soup is a popular way of serving cucumbers and yogurt all over the country. Served with meat dishes, pilafs or boreks. In winter, lettuce or shredded carrot is used instead of cucumbers. dried mint is substituted for dill.

This recipe is from Samples from Turkish Cuisine by Ayse Baysal.

Grated Beetroot and Yogurt Salad

I've devloped a real love-affair with beets since discovering Sally Fallon's Beet Kvass recipe and learning how nutritious and delicious beets can be. Here's a great recipe for an unusual salad using two fabulously healthy foods: beets and yogurt. Recipe is from Turkish Cooking: Classic traditions, Fresh ingredients, Authentic flavours, Aromatic recipes by Ghillie Başan.

With its beneficial nutritional properties, yogurt is used frequently in meze dishes. It makes a tasty dip combined with mashed or grated ingredients, and mixed with a little vinegar or lemon juice it is good as a sauce over grilled or fried vegetables.

Ingredients:

• 4 raw beetroot (beets), washed and trimmed
  
• 500 g / 1 ¼ lb / 2 ¼ cups thick and creamy natural (plain) yogurt
  
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  
• sea salt and ground black pepper
  
• a few fresh mint leaves, shredded, to garnish

Serves 4

Directions:

1) Boil the beetroot in plenty of water for 35 - 40 minutes until tender, but not mushy or soft. Drain and refresh under cold running water, then peel off the skins and grate the beetroot on to a plate. Squeeze it lightly with your fingers to drain off excess water.

2) In a bowl, beat the yogurt with the garlic and season with salt and pepper. Add the beetroot, reserving a little to garnish the top, and mix well. Garnish with mint leaves.

Notes:
Warm Beetroot Salad: In some households, the beetroot is diced and stir-fried with coriander seeds, sugar and a splash of apple vinegar. Then it is served warm with the cooling garlic-flavoured yogurt and garnished with dill.

A Carrot Version: Cut four carrots into chunks and steam for about 15 minutes, until they are tender but still with some bite, then grate and mix with the yogurt and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with mint or dill.

Per Portion: Energy 95 kcal / 403 kj; Protein 7.8 g; Carbohydrate 14/4 g, of which sugars 13 g; Fat 1.4 g, of which saturates 0.6 g; Cholesterol 2 mg; Calcium 249 mg; Fibre 1/3 g; Sodium 137 mg

Cold Cucumber Soup -- Cacik

This is a fabulous summer soup. Served cold, it's refreshing on a hot day.


Ingredients:

• 3 medium cucumbers (400 g)
• 3 cups yogurt (plain, good quality) (770 g)
• 2 cloves garlic (6 g)
• 2 teaspoons sea salt (12 g)
• 1 cup water (250 g)
• 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil (20 g)
• 3-4 sprigs dill (10 g)

Directions:

Combine finely chopped or shredded cucumber with yogurt. Mix thoroughly. Add crushed garlic. Season with sea salt. Dilute with cold water. Mix well.

Pour into individual serving bowls. Sprinkle with olive oil. Garnish with coarsely chopped dill.

Chill and serve.


Cultural Notes:
This soup is a popular way of serving cucumbers and yogurt all over the country. Served with meat dishes, pilafs or boreks. In winter, lettuce or shredded carrot is used instead of cucumbers. dried mint is substituted for dill.

This recipe is from Samples from Turkish Cuisine by Ayse Baysal.

Purslane Salad with Yogurt--Semizotu

I first discovered purslane when I lived in Turkey and fell in love with it as a salad green immediately. I especially love it fixed in this recipe.

Purslane (Portulaca oleracea), is usually regarded as a common garden weed today, but it has been cultivated as a succulent food crop for more than 2000 years in India, Persia, and the Middle East. From these areas the plant spread to Europe during the sixteenth century where it gained in popularity and was thought to ward off evil spirits.

Purslane is high in vitamin C, and, when eaten raw, has diuretic properties. An excellent crunch salad plant, its cooling leaves blend well with hotter-flavored salad herbs.

You can find purslane growing wild if you are familiar with the plant, or many health and specialty groceries carry it.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (300 g.) purslane
  
• 1 3/4 cups (440 g.) plain yogurt
  
• 2 cloves (6 g.) garlic
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons (9 g.) sea salt

Directions:

Wash purslane thoroughly; drain. Chop coarsely.

Combine with yogurt, salt and crushed garlic.

Chill and serve.

Cultural Notes:

This salad is prepared in Mediterranean and Aegean regions. Wild purslane "tohmeken" is used instead of cultivated.

This recipe is from Samples from Turkish Cuisine published by the Turkish Ministry of Culture, 1993.

Yayla Corbasi -- High Plateau Yogurt Soup

This is one of my all time favorite Turkish recipes. I have adapted it slightly by changing the white rice to brown rice and the white flour to spelt flour or whole wheat pastry.


Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup (60 g) brown rice
• 3 1/3 cups (800 g) water
• 1 1/2 cups (360 g) plain yogurt
• 3 tablespoons (18 g) flour (I recommend whole grain spelt flour or whole wheat pastry)
• 1 medium size (50 g) egg
• 2 teaspoons (12 g) sea salt
• 3 tablespoons (40 g) butter
• 2 tablespoons (2 g) dried mint

Directions:

Put rice in a saucepan with water. Simmer for 35-40 minutes or until rice is tender.

Combine yogurt, flour and slightly beaten egg in a bowl, mixing well. Stir in some soup liquid gradually, mixing thoroughly. This helps to warm up the yogurt and egg so that they don't curdle.

Blend the yogurt/egg mixture into the rice and water slowly, stirring constantly. Season with salt. Simmer gently for 10 minutes.

Melt butter in a skillet. Add crushed mint; stir. Sprinkle over soup. Turks also often sprinkle some red pepper into the butter/mint mixture.

Serve hot.

Cultural notes:

"Yayla" means high plateau. Since milk could not be well preserved during summer months in the old days when ice-boxes were not available, milk would be used to produce yogurt. The best yogurt would be obtained from high plateaus. The name comes from this practice. It is a delicious soup, very popular all over the country.

This recipe is adapted from Samples from Turkish Cuisine by Ayse Baysal.

Carrot Salad -- Yoğurtlu Havuç Salatası

Here's a delightful Turkish carrot salad that's easy to make. It's a good, hearty salad to serve this time of year and is one of my family's favorites.

At home, we simply take about 3-4 large carrots, wash well, and run across a a grater, slicing them fine into a bowl. Then make a salad dressing of olive oil and lemon juice and toss along with a bit of salt. That's it. Simple, yet wonderful.

Here's another version, a bit more complicated and involves slight cooking, but also very good.

Ingredients:

• 3 large carrots
• 1 cup yogurt (250 ml)
• 5 cloves garlic crushed with ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• a few mint leaves or 1 teaspoon dry mint
• a few black olives

Directions:
Scrape and wash carrots; cut into two. Cook in boiling water for 10 minutes. They should be barely cooked and not soft. Drain and cool. Grate carrots into a bowl.

Place yogurt in another bowl. Add garlic, vinegar, lemon juice, oil. Mix well. Add yogurt mixture to grated carrots and mix.

Garnish with whole mint leaves or crushed dry mint. If desired, arrange a few black olives on top.

Serves 5.

This recipe is from The Delights of Turkish Cooking.

Mushroom Soup with Yogurt -- Mantar Çorbası

Here's another good cold-weather soup that's easy to make fresh at home and very delicious. Though the recipe doesn't call for it, I like to add fresh lemon juice--usually just a dash per bowl when serving it up hot.



Ingredients:

• 8-12 large mushrooms (150 g)
• 3 2/3 cups water or broth (900 g)
• 1 1/3 cups yogurt (330 g)
• ½ cup whole-grain flour (55 g)
• 2 teaspoons sea salt (12 g)
• 2 cloves garlic (6 g)
• 3 tablespoons butter (40 g)
• ½ teaspoon red pepper (1 g)

Directions:

Cut mushrooms into quarters. Place water or broth in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add mushrooms into boiling water. Reduce heat. Simmer for 30-35 minutes or until mushrooms are tender.

In a bowl, combine yogurt and flour, blending well. Stir this mixture into mushrooms gradually and stir constantly. Reduce heat.

Season with salt. Simmer gently for 10 minutes. Add crushed garlic; mix.

Melt butter in a skillet. Stir in red pepper; mix. Dribble red pepper/butter mixture over soup. Serve hot.

6 servings.

Regional Characteristics:

The original recipe comes from Bolu province. Usually, a small type of mushroom, called "Mihtepesi," is used in soup making. This dish is also prepared in the Aegean Region.

This recipe is adapted from Samples from Turkish Cuisine.

Ayran -- Turkish Buttermilk

While I'm on a yogurt craze, here's a recipe for a very popular drink in Turkey that is easy to make out of yogurt. It took me a while to get used to it, but I love it now. It's nutritious and delicious.

When we make Ayran at home, we keep it very simple. Mix plain, whole yogurt with a bit of water and salt to taste. You want the consitency to be like buttermilk. Chill, or serve with ice. I usually prefer mine chilled without ice.

Here's a recipe from Samples from Turkish Cuisine that's a different version:

Ingredients:

3 cups yogurt (750 g)
2 cups milk (500 g)
2 ½ cups water ( 600 g)
1 ½ teaspoons salt (9g) (I use sea salt)

Directions:

Place yogurt in a bowl. Beat with a fork or a hand mixer untill well blended. Add milk gradually, mixing well. Stir in iced cold water. Add salt; mix well. Serve cold.

Cultural Note:

[Ayran] is a very popular drink all over the country. It is served with kebabs, kőftes, meat dishes and pilafs as a beverage or it is just served as a refreshment during summer months. Amount of yogurt can be reduced to 1/3 cup per person for a thinner consistency. Only milk, or only water, can be used a liquid. It should always be served cold.

Homemade Plain Yogurt

Here's a snippet from the vows for marrying a Turk: "I promise to love, honor, and eat yogurt every single day of my life." Well, practically... Turks love their yogurt!

Yogurt is very easy to make, once you've tried it and are familiar with the process. Homemade yogurt may not be as thick as commercial, but tastes better without the additives.

Ingredients:

• 1 quart whole milk (nonhomogenized if you can get it, thus cream will form on top)
• a yogurt or candy thermometer
• ½ cup starter plain yogurt (can be from commercial--make sure with live cultures, or from a previous batch of homemade)

Directions:

Slowly heat the milk to 180 degrees F, stirring occasionally. Turn off heat and allow milk to cool to 110 F. Stir in the starter yogurt. Transfer the mixture to a container for incubating and leave for several hours or overnight (6-9 hours). The longer you leave, the firmer it will get, but also the taste will get more bitter.

There are cheap yogurt incubators on the market that do a great job. You can also put it in a glass, enamel, or stainless steel container, cover, and put in a warm spot. Some people have success in the oven with a pilot light on or in a dehydrator. I've wrapped mine in towels or a blanket and put in a warm spot. The best reults I've had were with the incubator, but also in the oven with a pilot light have yielded good results as well.

Learning how to make good yogurt at home will save money and provide a better quality yogurt than what is readily accessible in many parts of the US. Until my local co-op opened, if I wanted good, plain whole yogurt, I had to make it myself. Many, many Turkish recipes call for plain whole yogurt. And the health benefits are wonderful. See a few links from the post below on Garlic-Yogurt Sauce.

Garlic-Yogurt Sauce

Tonight I'll start the recipes out with a double header. First a wonderful Turkish sauce which can be used on many different foods (fried or grilled vegetables, meat balls, pasta), and then one of my favorite vegetables to go with it.

Garlic-Yogurt Sauce is a staple in the Turkish kitchen. And it's wonderful. In order to make good sauce you need good quality yogurt, PLAIN yogurt. Get the best quality yogurt you can afford, or make your own (I'll post directions tomorrow). Also, I highly recommend yogurt from whole milk, not low fat, and definitely not non-fat. If you have concerns about using full-fat milk products, check out one of my links to the right, Eat Fat Lose Fat.

This is one of those recipes that I didn't learn from a cookbook, but rather by cooking around Turks, so I don't have specific measurements.

Ingredients:

• plain yogurt
• garlic
• sea salt

Directions:

For a family of four, I'll usually mix up at least half a quart of yogurt for this sauce. But as the garlic-yogurt sauce keeps well, you could easily mix up a whole quart and keep any leftover in the refrigerator.

Mix the yogurt with a fork or small whip until creamy. Then crush the garlic (2-3 cloves for ½ a quart, but this is to taste) and add to the yogurt. Last, mix in sea salt to taste as well.

That's it. Pretty easy. But it's sooooo good!

Nutritionally, yogurt is a wonderful food. It provides protein and calcium in a very digestible form and is a natural probiotic.

Here's some links for more information on yogurt:
Wikipedia article on yogurt
AboutYogurt.com
article from MedicinalFoodNews.com