Chop...chop...chop...the Parsley for Tabbouleh

While many of the foodie humans around are spending impressive amounts of time trying to figure out how to do an Instagram-perfect layered cake - for those keen to follow my visual adventures on Insta, I am boiledwords there too - I am terrified about my lack of skills on chopping veggies. Ten years ago, while preparing a barbecue party, I was assigned to finelly cut the tomatoes for an Israeli salad and what I got back was the remark of my friend: 'Is this what you call chopped tomatoes?' And he was right but instead of honing and improving my skills I tried to avoid as much as possible to go again through the same challenge. 

But as there is a beginning for everything, it i also an ending for fears and frustrations and inferiority feelings. Today is the great day when I will do my own tabbouleh salad. Because I want and I can and I'll do it. Chop...chop...chop...

I've slightly adapted the recipe presented in Cooking Class: Middle Eastern. The Australian Women's Weekly, 2003 edition. 

Ingredients
2/3 cup burghul
4 cups fresh parsley, finelly chopped
1/2 cup fresh mint, finelly chopped
3 green shallots, finelly chopped
1 small red onion, finelly chopped
4 medium-sized red tomatoes, finelly chopped, without seeds and the chore
2 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
2 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions

Cover burghul with the same amount of cold water and let it rest for 15 minutes. Press the burghul for spreading the water uniformly in the bowl. After 15 minutes drain the rest of the water.

The most of the time - around 30 minutes of preparation, in total - was spent chopping. I had in the front of my eyes the beautifully fine tabbouleh bowls served in the restaurant. And kept chopping more and more. The onions were the best, the tomatoes went well, but the mint and parsley were a far cry from any original chopped recipe. Which means that I should keep practising at least once the month for better and more experienced results. Maybe I also need a special knife, as a good knife can really help to achieve the best final results. Chop...chop...chop

The final result was delightful, easy to match with some fried chicken or an autonomous salad for the busy healthy mornings. You can add a drop of yogurt, feta cheese, goat cheese, or just eat it as an individual meal or a side dish for a meaty meal. 

Suitable to be kept in the fridge for at least one hour before eating and to be prepared and eaten in the same day.

Serves: 6

Bon Appétit!

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Delicious and Perfectly Easy Halwa Truffles

I love sometimes to offer myself the treat of a fully chocolate truffle, but I never dared to prepare my own batch. Maybe because the ones I can purchase from the store looks so perfectly round in their golden box that I could only dream about producing something at least half as awesome. But I believe in the changing power of books that through words therefore, after reading the Rosewasser&Granatapfel by Suzanne Zeidy I decided that after all, it might not be so difficult to create my own recipe. I was so happy with the results that I dared to bring my truffles as my foodie contribution to a party.

Ingredients
200 gr. Halwa from Koska - it is a Turkish company which do have a lot of kosher certified products
7 tablespoons Tehina spread - I bought mine from the BIO Company store

Directions

Mix and knead well the tehina with the halwa, including by hand, until it looks like a dough. It can be done in the mixer as well, probably but I haven't tried it myself. By repeatedly kneading the dough I was able to avoid any additional lumps that might make the further preparation difficult. I left the content in the fridge for around 30 minutes.

Additionally, you need some ingredients for the decorations. The original recipe recommends: cocoa, white sesame and pistachio. I personally made my own combination, with: cocoa, desiccated coconut and black sesame. For each ingredient, I used 7 tablespoons.

Rolling the little pieces of truffle was a very soothing and relaxing experience. It is very important to take your time first for rolling the little balls as round as possible, second as you are spreading the decorations all over the surface of the truffle. I was partially happy with my results, but I bet the next time I will be a better pupil, more patient and more details focused.

The preparation time is around 40 minutes - minus those when the halwa-tehina dough is in the fridge.

Serves: 30-35 truffle lovers

Recommendation: Try to keep them as much as possible in the fridge prior to serving. Serve them with some black coffee - sugarless, as the truffles do have enough natural sugar - or with a glass of mint - also sugarless - tea.

Bon Appétit!

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My First Kadayif

I am the kind of chef which adores to push her own ignorance limits, and as someone who started its own adventure in the kitchen less than 10 years ago, this happens quite often. I am always open to talk and share my fears and failures, hardship to get accustomed to various tastes and ingredients and the repeated tries to match them. 

I am brave enough to never give up and dare to make at home lovely recipes of meals that I never thought I will ever be able to prepare on my own. 

I grow up completely ignorant about sweets - part of the reason being that I was allergic to plenty of things and the other half that both my in-house nanny and my mother were for various reasons the worse bakers in the world. But I loved to enjoy once in a while outrageously sweet desserts, such as kadayif - or kataif, which I tasted under various variants in the Turkish restaurants since moving to Germany Until today, I've never dreamed of ever preparing my own, not only by following a recipe but by daring to adapt it to my own choices and creative ideas. 

The following recipe is adapted from the very resourceful book by Suzanne Zeidy, Rosewasser&Granatapfel, that you will read about on this blog at least one more time. It is a complex recipe, which requires a lot of time and attention, but with delicious results that you can't wait to repeat.

Ingredients
500 ml. water
300 gr. brown sugar
100 gr. white sugar
4 tablespoon orange blossom; the same quantity of rose water can be used
the juice of a half a lemon, medium size
250 gr. regular butter
500 gr. ricotta cheese
500 gr. ready made kadayif noodles - purchased from any Turkish store, for under 2 Eur.
If you want some extra sweetness, you can also add some 2 tablespoons of honey to the syrup.

Directions

Heat the oven at 250C, at least 15 minutes before the ingredients are prepared.

There are several development stages of the kadayif. The following order is how I've proceeded.

1. The syrup

In a pan add the: water, brown sugar and orange blossom water. Mix well. After 10 minutes, add the lemon juice. Let it boil for around 5 minutes. When ready, put on the side.

2. The noodles

Broke the noodles in two equal parts. Set in the pan half of it, while spreading all over. Meanwhile, heat the butter and spread half of it on the noodles. 

The second half will be added when the ricotta content will be ready, together with the butter.

3. The ricotta filling

Mix the ricotta and the white sugar until a creamy compact pasta. Spread it all over the noodles, trying to cover as much as possible.

Add the rest of the noodles. 

What happens next is a matter of choice.

The original recipe recommend to bake it for around 30 minutes and only after that to add the syrup. My choice was to add the syrup and bake it for around 45 minutes. In this way, all the ingredients are melting together and it is also less sweet as expected (maybe also because of the brown sugar, which is again my choice).

After 15 minutes of baking, I've cut the kadayif into small portions, which helped a lot to portion it when ready to be served. 

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Baking time: 40-45 minutes

Serves: 6-8

I personally had it with a glass of sugar-free mint tea, or a big cup of black Turkish coffee. I kept it at the room temperature, well covered in an Aluminium sheet, and warmed it before serving, at least for 5 minutes at 250C. 

Bon Appétit!

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