Cheese and Potato Gözleme for #BreadBakers

I almost forgot that today's the posting day for #BreadBakers. I'm glad that I checked Facebook to see our lovely Host, Anshie's post about the event, otherwise I would have totally forgotten about it. So thank you Anshie for reminding and also for being such a gracious host.

Our theme for this month is 'Griddle breads' and I almost wanted to make an Indian bread. But then as I was looking through my Pinterest boards, I found these Turkish Gözleme that I had pinned a while back.

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Turkish Pizza Bread (Pide)

BM# 51 -- Baking Marathon: Day 9
Bake of the Day: Turkish Pizza - Pide
After all the breads and loaves posts, today I have a recipe for a slightly different pizza. It's pizza from Turkey called Pide. It is a soft and chewy bread that is made with yogurt and traditionally shaped with a slight hollow that can accommodate any number of fillings.

Pide is essentially a boat shaped bread that is used as a pizza base and can be filled with grilled veggies, cheese, eggs. Even sweet fillings like fruit and custard can be used as fillings and served as cake.

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Turkish Bulgur Pilaf (Firik Pilau)

I made this Pilau or Pilaf to go with the Turkish Fasulye/ Barbunya Pilaki that I made last week. The recipe is from 'The Middle Eastern Vegetarian' cookbook by Sally Butcher. The original recipe uses Freekeh is young green wheat and has been used for centuries in the Middle east. It is a versatile and nutritious grain and can be used in soups, salads, cakes and bread, as a cereal and can be used in place of rice.

After all that information on freekeh which I thought I had in my pantry, I was bummed to see I used it all. So I went to plan B and used bulgur instead. Roasted buckwheat can also be used instead of freekeh. The pilaf turned out delicious even with the substitution.

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Fasulye/ Barbunya Pilaki (Turkish Everyday Beans) for #Food of the World

We are visiting the beautiful Turkey this month for the #Food of the World event. Turkish food happens to be one of my favorite and I'm always looking for opportunities to try new dishes. I borrowed 'The New Middle Eastern Vegetarian' cookbook by Sally Butcher from the library. As the book's name suggests it has vegetarian recipes from the Middle East and after reading through the book a couple of times, I am tempted to try almost all the recipes :-)
This Turkish Everyday beans recipe, Fasulye Pilaki, is traditionally made with white beans like navy or cannellini or Fasulye. Pilaki refers to the method of preparation: anything that is served cold with olive oil is a Pilaki.

I thought I had a can of white beans in my pantry but unfortunately I didn't, so I ended up using small pink beans in the recipe. I don't know the translation of pink in Turkish, so I'm going to stick with the Fasulye Pilaki (modified) name. My dear Turkish friend told me the name of the dish with red beans is called 'Barbunya Pilaki'. But no matter which beans you use, this is a recipe with simple ingredients and delicious flavors. So try it with whatever beans you have in the pantry.

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Turkish Kanefe/ Knafeh

Couple of my friends took me to a Turkish restaurant for my birthday this year. They ordered this crispy, flaky and sweet pastry and we were served a bubbling hot dessert that I used as a cake to blow the candle. The candle almost melted in the hot dessert. I was sold the minute I had my first bite -- it was sweet, crunchy, creamy and absolutely delicious. I heard the name of the dish but it hardly registered in my brain because I was busy eating it.

Then I saw Usha's post for Knafeh and then I realized that it can be made at home. So it had to become part of my Turkish meal. This dessert is very easy to put together, if you have all the ingredients ready.

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Turkish Sarma -- Stuffed Grape Leaves (Vegetarian recipe)

I had these stuffed grape leaves at my Turkish friend's house for the first time. Her mom had brought grape leaves from Turkey and made these for us. I have never tasted anything like these before and really liked them. So when I was planning my Turkish menu, I wanted to give these a try too.

I am lucky to have Turkish grocery stores very close to my house. So after a quick trip to the store, I was equipped with a big can of grape leaves. The stuffing/ filling is like tomato rice and is very flavorful and tasty by itself. Once the grape leaves are stuffed, they need to be boiled for about 30 minutes and you have a very tasty appetizer ready. These are traditionally served with yogurt sauce, but I skipped it and ate them as is.

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Mücver -- Turkish Zucchini Fritters

This is another dish that my friend suggested. I don't remember eating this before, but she said it is a good dish that even my kids might like. She wasn't wrong, even my picky son loved these fritters. Original recipe uses eggs to make the fritters, but I used egg replacer powder instead. The firtters turned out great even without the eggs, they turned out crispy and delicious. 

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Turkish Bulgur Pilaf with Veggies

I thought bulgur was used to make Tabbouleh only until I ate this pilaf. I should have known, bulgur to Turkish is like rice to South Indians -- the many variations of rice we enjoy is incredible. So bulgur
is used in both savory and sweet preparations. Bulgur is made from groats of several different wheat species. It looks like our wheat rawa and it probably is Turkish wheat rawa -- I'm not sure (if any of you do, please add your comment below).

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Homemade Turkish Baklava Recipe

Blogging Marathon# 37: Week 1/ Day 3
Theme: National Dishes from around the World
Dish: Turkish -- Baklava

For the final day of this week's marathon I made Turkish national dish, Baklava. I don't remember the first time I tasted baklava, but it was love at first taste. Baklava is a very rich, sweet pastry made of layers of Phyllo (fillo) dough filled with nuts and sweetened with honey and syrup. 

This has been on my to-make list for a very long time. But with really good Turkish friends we have always had good quality baklavas to enjoy, I never got a chance to try it myself. So this was my chance to make baklava at home and I've to say even though the process of making it is a little tedious with the phyllo (fillo) tearing and so on, but the final product is absolutely tasty and well worth the effort. It is also less expensive to make these at home.

Working with phyllo/ fillo dough is a little tedious and sometimes a little frustrating too as it tends to rip and tear. It is very important to keep the phyllo covered with damp towel at all times to prevent drying out. But it is not the end of the world, everything will turn out OK once the dish is finished.

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