Sausage Burrito (sausage optional)

A very nice woman from work brought us some pork sausages from ?somewhere here in Istanbul. So I made coleslaw and baked the sausages to make a burrito. My oh my.

The Burrito

one tortilla (lavash)
spread onto the tortilla:
1-2 tablespoons spinache pesto (JH sauce)
1-2 tablespoons marinated eggplant
1 tablespoon grated cheese
1-2 tablespoons tomato sauce
a couple of sausages down the diameter(middle?) of the tortilla/lavash

Roll it up and enjoy

Here is the finished chocolate babka. I have not yet learned how to control where the pictures go on this blog. I have tried to insert them between text or paragraphs and they all end up in a jumble at the top. Makes it difficult for me to be sneeky and hide Waldo.

Chocolate Babka- for Zeynep

As my friend has asked me to post this recipe, and my daughter has decided we should make it again as she helped me find the recipe. This is a very nice bread with chocolate, not as heavy as a chocolate croissant, rather heavenly.

For my friend, Zeynep.

Chocolate Babka
From Gourmet, December 2006,
Makes 2 loaves

This bread melts in your mouth and is very buttery in texture. Nice for breakfast with a good cup of coffee or tea. The entire process takes about four hours with all the rising time.

FOR DOUGH
¾ cup warm milk (105-115 degrees F- 40 degrees C)
½ cup plus 2 teaspoons sugar
3 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 ¼ cups all purpose flour plus more for dusting
2 whole large eggs
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¾ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ sticks (10 tablespoons- 5 ounces or 140 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened

EGG WASH
1 large (ha) egg yolk
1 tablespoon heavy cream or whole milk

CHOCOLATE FILLING
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, well softened (2.5 ounces or 70 grams)
7-8 ounces (200-250 grams) fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (no more than 60% cacao) finely chopped
¼ cup sugar

Stir together warm milk and 2 teaspoons sugar in bowl of mixer. Sprinkle yeast over mixture and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.

Add ½ cup flour to yeast mixture and beat at medium speed until combined. Add whole eggs, yolk, vanilla, salt and remaining ½ cup sugar and beat until combined. Reduce speed to low, then mix in remaining 2 ¾ cups flour, about ½ cup at a time. Increase speeds to medium, then beat in butter, a couple of pieces at a time, continue beating until dough is shiny and forms strands (?) from paddle to bowl, about 4 minutes. (Dough will be soft and sticky).

Put dough into lightly oiled bowl and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 ½ to 2 hours.

Line each loaf pan with 2 pieces of parchment paper (1-lengthwise, 1-across).
Punch down dough with a lightly oiled rubber spatula, than cut dough in half. Roll one piece out on a well-floured surface into an 18- by 10- inch rectangle (45 X 25 cm).

Beat yolk and cream together. Spread 2 ½ tablespoons softened butter onto dough, leaving a ½ inch (1.5 cm) all around (no butter). Brush some egg wash on the long border.

Sprinkle half of the chocolate evenly over the buttered dough, then sprinkle with half the sugar. Starting with the long side, roll dough into a snug log, pinching firmly along the egg washed seam to seal. Bring the ends of the log together to form a ring, pinching to seal. Twist entire ring twice to form a double figure 8 and fit into one of the lined loaf pans.

Repeat for the second loaf.

Loosely cover pans with buttered plastic wrap and let babkas rise in a draft free place at warm room temperature until dough reaches top of pans, 1 – 2 hours.

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350 F- just under 180 C.

Brush tops of dough with remaining egg wash. Bake until tops are golden brown and bottoms sound hollow when tapped, about 40 minutes. Transfer loaves to a rack and cool to room temperature.

Stress and Anxiety

Stress and Anxiety
That simply explains our household lately. The onset of puberty is major contributing factor, the moderation of MYP and DP a minor contributing factor. I read an article off the Yahoo site regarding foods to help deal with stress and anxiety, the following help alleviate some of this:
Dark chocolate- that would be for the mom
Skim milk- does whole milk count a little?
Oatmeal- we can find oatmeal bars as a snack
Salmon for its omega 3, I hope tuna is a reasonable substitute
Walnuts- no problem
Sunflower seeds- they are abundant here but they’re not the same (can’t easily get the skin off), but this just might require more experimentation.
Spinach- got it in abundance
Blueberries- when are they in season? Haven’t seen them yet in Turkey

Tonight K-dog wanted pasta with red sauce- no problem.
I made a sauce with:

Part 1:
2 cups spinach
¼ cup walnuts
4 tomatoes
½ cup tomato sauce (I thought it was puree but it was too runny)
4 cloves garlic
I put all of this in the food processor and ground it up.

Part 2:
1 ½ cups of the marinated eggplant
2 tablespoons capers (green blueberries con salt?)
Slowly heat up part 2 in a large-ish pan, when warm and a little bubbly add part one.

Part 3:
Boiled noodles- your choice, lots of stores have the “fresh” ravioli or just bowties or elbows

Once the noodles are ready, add a little oil to a wok, start frying the noodles and add the mixture of 1 and 2. I like to add a little cheese, that is optional. Mix it all up and enjoy!

I have noticed that after dinner my little darling is feeling much better about herself. And if I give her an oatmeal bar after school she is less dramatic and emotional. Or maybe the idea just works well with me?

Pizza

The recipe for basic bread dough is what I use for my pizza dough. I cut the recipe in half. To the flour mixture I add various things depending on my mood- cumin, chili powder, dill seeds, garlic salt, curry powder- about a table spoon of the mood for the day.

As I did not have any red sauce left I made a quick tomato and spinache sauce (below) which was good with the crust (I had added chili powder). K-dog loves Hawaiian pizza, so she had a green Hawaiian.

The carmelized onions make their own sauce. And the fun new pizza was with the tomato sauce, pickled jalapenos, and capers- salty and spicy.

BASIC BREAD DOUGH

Ingredients:(for pizza I cut the recipe in half)

1.5 kg flour
30 g fresh yeast or tbsp dried yeast
1 tbsp salt
900 ml tepid water

Procedure:

Sift the salt and flour into a bowl. For pizza dough add about 4 tablespoons olive oil and the extra dry spices (curry powder, corriander seeds, etc. and mix- should be dry). Mix the yeast with the water; if you are using dried yeast, leave it to soften in the water for about 15 min. pour the yeast mixture into the flour. Mix the flour and liquid together into stiff, sticky dough. Put the dough on to a floured board and knead it thoroughly, until it is elastic and glossy-about 10 minutes.

Shape the dough into a ball and return it to the bowl- I put a couple tablespoons of oil in the bottom of the bowl and roll the dough around. Cover the bowl with plastic film and leave the dough to rise until doubled in bulk-1.5 and 2.5 hours, depending on temperature and humidity. (For pizza I ususally only wait an hour, unless I am a day ahead- then I just let it sit in the fridge).The dough is ready when a finger pressed into it leaves a dent that does not immediately smooth itself out.

For pizza: After the dough has risen, divide it up into 4-8 balls depending on the size of your pizzas. If you are not making pizza till much later, place balls in a strong container and place into the refridgerator until you are ready to use them. Other wise you can begin rolling them out and letting them start rising on the pan as you put all the stuff on top.

For bread: Put the dough on a working surface and divide it in half. Knead each half into a ball, cover it with a cloth, and leave it to rest for 10 to 14 minutes. Reshape the dough into two balls. Lay the loaves on a board sprinkled with coarse semolina and cover them with a cloth. Leave them to prove until doubled in bulk again, about 45 minutes to 1 hour. With a razor blade or sharp knife, cut a cross about 1 cm. Deep in each loaf.

Preheat the oven to 230degrees C (450 deg F)HA! I have yet to get my oven to do that 180 is okay (350 just cooks longer and finishes rising). The rest of this paragraph is for bread, not pizza-Put an ungreased baking sheet in the centre of the oven. Lay a wide dish on the oven floor and pour hot water into it so that steam is released into the oven as the water heats. Slide the loaves off the board and on to the baking sheet. Using a plant sprayer, spray water all over the inside of the oven. Bake the loaves for about 45 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove the wide dish containing water. Bake for a further 15 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 200deg C (400 deg F)for the rest of the baking time. The loaf is baked if it sounds hollow when rapped on the bottom with the knuckles.
Cool the loaves on wire racks. Do not slice them until they are cold, preferably the next day.

Optional: Add 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil when mixing the liquid with the flour and salt.

You can use this dough for pizzas! I add about 4 tablespoons of olive oil and I try to use at least ½ the weight in whole wheat flour (that was before Turkey-I think my flour here is already mixed).

Quick Tomato Sauce for Pizza

I was rushed to make a quick sauce- and it was tasty and fairly healthy too.
I took:
5 smallish ripe tomatoes
5 gloves of garlic
2 cups of spinach (whatever fits into the food processor)

Put it all in the food processor (some tomatoes should also be on the bottom to provide liquid) and mix until saucy.

Lamb Ribs

Some Saturdays I don’t feel like making the 25 minute uphill walk to the market, but am always happy we did it. This time, besides the usual greens we bought some pink grapefruit (K-dog’s favorite with honey) and leeks so I guess I’ll be making some soup. We also bought 7 colorful U C Bennetton t-shirts for 50 TL.
I had bought some lamb ribs. K-dog loves baby back pork ribs which are extremely difficult to find and certainly not within walking distance. The lamb ribs look similar to the pork ones, just not as meaty. I was afraid that our dinner would have to be thrown into a pot to make brown sauce, but it worked out.
I put a 9 by 13 pan in the oven (the usual temp) with a couple of tablespoons of butter in the bottom. Once the butter had melted I put chopped leek and onion on the bottom, then the lamb ribs (which I salted with garlic salt and peppered) on top and cooked for 10 minutes. I flipped the ribs over and covered with chopped tomatoes (which I had stirred a tablespoon of curry powder into) and cooked for 20 more minutes. I did not separate the ribs until after they were cooked. I served it on top of Basmati rice. It reminded me of the trip to Xin Jiang province about 11 years ago. It was good, but I should have trimmed some of the fat before cooking, next time.

Cooking With K-dog Lemon Meringue Pie

Lemon Meringue Pie
K-dog has been asking for a lemon meringue pie- my mom usually makes them for her. I remember that when I started baking I was about her age and it was lemon meringue pies- so I figured it was time for her to get started.

For the crust she did not want your typical pie crust, but the one on oowie gooey butter cake.

PIE CRUST

Preheat the oven to 180 C or 350 F.

1 small package biscuits (the Peruvian Margaritas are perfect for this)
1 egg
1/3 cup melted butter
Put the biscuits in a food processor and turn into crumbs. Put in a bowl add egg and melted butter to mix. Then press into the pie pan. Bake in the oven for about 8 minutes.


THE LEMON CUSTARD

Sift these into a saucepan
1 ½ cups sugar
6 tablespoons corn starch
¼ teaspoon salt

Slowly blend in:
½ cup cold water
½ cup fresh lemon juice

Add, blending well:
3 well beaten egg yolks
2 tablespoons butter

Stirring continuously (so as not to make scrambled eggs in your custard) slowly add:
1 ½ cups boiling water

Bring the mixture to a full boil, stirring gently. (K-dog did not know what a boil looked like). As it thickens reduce the heat and allow to simmer slowly for 1 minute. Take off the heat and add
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
Pour into the backed pie shell.

The Meringue- we do not have cream of tartar so I used a splash of white vinegar

Whip until frothy:
3 egg whites

Add a splash of vinegar or ¼ teaspoon of cream of tartar.

Whip the whites until they are stiff. Beat in 1 tablespoon at a time:
4 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar (icing sugar).

Beat in
½ teaspoon vanilla.

Spread on pie and bake 10 to 15 minutes at 180 C or 350 F.