Session # 8 Recipes

Turkish Cooking Class April 17th Menu

LAHMACUN (TURKISH PIZZA)

Ingredients:

filling:

½ lb ground beef

1 onion

3 Roma tomatoes

2 green peppers

1 small bunch parsley

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp red pepper paste

3 tbsp oil

Salt, pepper

10-11 uncooked frozen tortillas

Chop onion, parsley, tomatoes and pepper finely or use a food processor. Add ground beef, tomato paste, red pepper paste, oil and knead all the ingredients for the filling.

Spread this filling over the uncooked tortillas as thin layer, cook at low heat on a nonstick pan with close lid.

STUFFED GRAPE LEAVES

Ingredients:

1 jar canned grape leaves

2 cups calrose rice

1 medium onion

Olive oil

1 teaspoon tomato paste

1 teaspoon red pepper paste

Salt, pepper, dried mint

Boil grape leaves for 5 minutes to get rid of excess salt. Sauté the chopped onions in a separate pot. Add tomato paste, red pepper paste, rice and spices. Add 1 cup water and cook little bit on low heat. Break off the stem of the leaf and put about 1 teaspoon of the filling and roll. Line stuffed leaves into a pot tightly and add 2 cups of water. Place a plate on the top to prevent unrolling and lower the heat after it reaches a boil.

SALAD

Ingredients:

Onion

Parsley

Tomatoes

Salt, sumach

Cut the the onion into four and slice thinly, knead with salt, wash and drain. Mix onion with thinly sliced parsley and sumach. Place the onion salad on a service plate and serve with sliced tomatoes.

SEKERPARE

Ingredients:

2 sticks of butter (room temprature)

2 eggs

4 tbsp powdered sugar

2 tsp baking powder

3 1/3 cups flour

1 tsp vanilla

Syrup

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

Few drops of lemon juice

Prepare the syrup first by boiling sugar water. Boil for 5 minutes and add lemon juice, boil for few more minutes and let the syrup cool down at room temperature.

Mix and knead the ingredients for the dough and prepare a soft cookie dough (add the flour gradually). Make small balls from the dough and press with your fingers to flatten them little bit. Put one hazelnut on each balls. Place them on oven tray and bake in preheated oven until they get golden brown. Wait 3 minutes after removing sekerpares from the oven and pour luke warm syrup on. Cover sekerpares with another tray to absorb all the syrup until serving.