Recipes

{Turkish recipe} Feta cheese cake – (peynirli kek)

26/01/2012 Leave a Comment

Cheese is loved by all in Turkey, its one food that doesnt separate the rich & poor, its always found in ever Turkish household & breakfast isnt complete without it.While feta is usually most preferred for its price and versatility, we also have ‘tulum‘, ‘kasar‘ (similar to mozerella), ‘cokelek‘ (parmesan but salty & very hard) & Lor (Haloumi) – but these type of cheese are more expensive and used for breakfast.

Last night we had guests over and among my other bakes/sweets, I made this super quick & easy feta cheese cake. Its not a large cake but very filling, perfect for picnics, snack & best of all my kids just had leftovers for breakfast!

Ingredients

1 cup of yoghurt
1 cup olive or vegetable oil
3 eggs
100grams of feta cheese
1 bunch of parsley (i didnt use parsley)
3 cups of self raising flour
sesame seeds

Instructions

Beat all 3 eggs until its light & frothy
Mix in the remaining ingredients (except the sesame seeds) – mum said it has to be lumpy but I still found it dry so I secretly added 2 tablespoon of yoghurt and it didnt affect my cake at the end.
Pour the mix into a well greased tray- I used my Pyrex glass tray, sprinkle the sesame seeds all over the top
Bake at 175 degrees for 40 minutes -

Note you can add pitted back olives or diced tomatoes for extra taste.

Filed Under: Breakfast, Cakes, Lunch Box Ideas, Turkish living Tagged With: breakfast recipe, easy cake, Turkish recipe

Super quick & easy one pot pasta

17/01/2012 Leave a Comment

Mum is a typical old-school Turkish mum, theres no point looking at non-Turkish recipes because in her mind theres nothing better than a good old hot Turkish meal. I love trying different culture foods and I must say mum loves eating these meals, so long as she doesnt have to attempt making it (yep feeling alittle used & abused here) lol.

As kids our ‘spaghetti bolognese’ didnt include sauce in a jar, or any special ingredients. It was a simple one pot pasta meal that we loved, not only because of the taste but this made us feel like we’re having an Australian meal lol.

In my RARE lazy moods I make mums spaghetti bolognese but my kids dont see it as a ‘special’ meal nor do they believe it is ‘bolognese’ but hey atleast they enjoy it as we did.

Ingredients:

Pasta (I know i said spaghetti, but with small pasta my kids seem to make less mess)
Tomato Paste (I use Turkish tomato paste that mum makes at home or we purchase from the Turkish supermarket – its alot thicker than others)
1 onion, chopped
beef mince (depending on how much pasta your using – just dont add too much as it will overpower the pasta taste)
Yoghurt
garlic, minced

Instructions

This isnt a measure recipe, if its only the kids eating then I use 1/4 of pasta. Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions. Drain cooked pasta and leave it in the strainer.

Sauté chopped onions & beef mince til cooked. Add 1 – 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, & salt.

Keep the stove on low, add the cooked pasta and mix well with the mince – ensure pasta is covered well.

In a separate bowl mix yoghurt, minced garlic & alittle salt. Serve the pasta in plates with a drizzle of the garlic yoghurt – and ‘afiyet olsun’ (bon appetit).

Filed Under: Dinner, Turkish living

What to do with left over BBQ

14/12/2011 1 Comment

We use to (prior to my surgery) have weekly yep weekly BBQs. Hubby is a typical Turkish male and loves his red meat with no knowledge of portion size.

The amount of meat he’d buy & eat I’m sure we could feed half an army. Ofcourse we also have regular BBQ leftovers, as much as I hate the sight & smell of left over BBQ there is no way I’m throwing out that much meat.

Heres what I sometimes do with my left over :

Reheat the BBQ meat covered in the oven – don’t overheat it or it’ll become dry & tasteless. Serve with either gravy or mushroom sauce to boost its taste.

In a large saucepan bring to boil a jar of your favorite pasta sauce, turn off the heat, add the meat and allow the meat to heat up with the lid closed. Serve with rice & veggies.

Stir-fry your favourite veggies, cut up the meat into strips & add to the vegies with any Asian sauce, serve with noodles or rice – done!-

Make Shepherds Pie – I usually have my 7 year old make this for us as everything is already for her except dicing up the meat & making the mashed potato.

Use tortillas and fill with lettuce, tomatoes,sour cream, guacamole, cheese-

Using any dry sauce mixes follow the instructions accordingly, add chopped left over meat into the sauce and let it briefly simmer.

Made left over BBQ casserole last night , kids didn’t realise it was leftovers and hubby obviously loved the meat but we then had left over casserole so I added a little chilli and used it for hubby’s lunch lol.

Would love to hear what you do with your left over BBQ meats or even tips to control hubby’s meat buying habits .

Filed Under: Leftovers Tagged With: Leftover BBQ

Easy pancake recipe

12/06/2011 Leave a Comment

We are a pancake obsessed family, we could eat it all day if it weren’t for the calories lol.

Here’s my easy to remember and follow recipe:

1 cup of milk
1 cup of flour
1 egg

This batch makes 3 large pancakes so I have to double the ingredients to fee my family of 5. I also like my pancake mix alittle lumpy but watery, so its easier to pour onto the pan and turns out nicely thin.

Next time you make pancakes instead of maple syrup, try adding Lemon & sugar (my kids favourite) or diced apples and cinnamon.

Filed Under: Breakfast

Quick & Easy Muffins

05/02/2011 1 Comment

A very easy, quick and yummy muffin recipe, not only do the kids get more hands on with the minimum ingredients but when im in my “very rare ” lazy moods, I simply triple the ingredients and add Cheese, Apple & Cinnamon and Choc chip muffins to make 3 different flavoured muffins.

I had cherry jam sitting in the pantry which smelt a little sour (you know when its almost off…) so I added it and the taste was divine.

Ingredients:

2 cups of self-raising flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
Choc chip, or dried apricots, or jam or apple & cinnamon or what ever you have in your pantry

The fun bit: