Cough treating herbal tea

Since days, I am fighting with my cough. In the winter time, you feel warm at home and feels better with tea but as I am in Chennai which is now the coolest time of the year around 27C degrees, everywhere is cooled with aircons. This makes it a bit harder to heal yourself since there is never a warm atmosphere covering you. I am not a big fan of pills. I always take the nature´s pharmacy to heal every possible sickness. I have tried many ways but I remembered saving this recipe a few years back when I read Cenk´s tea. I am suggesting this recipe to heal your bad cough in any season you have. As I will be flying home soon for Christmas, I need to kick this cough. Here is a small warning for travellers: Never fly when you are coughing. I made this mistake once and I thought I am having a brain stroke. It is such a terrible pressure in your ears. It took me a while to get rid of it. 

Serves for 2-4

Ingredients:

1 apple

1 ginger (walnut size- peeled and thin sliced)

1 cinnamon stick

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

2 tablespoon cardamom

3 glass of water

2 tablespoon green tea

1 lemon

1 tablespoon honey (for each cup served)

How to:

With outing peeling, cut the apple in small pieces including every part of the apple. Fill the saucepan with water and add in the cut apples. Continue adding in the ginger, cinnamon, peppercorns, cardamoms. Leave it to boil. Once it is boiled, put it to low heat and cover the lid and wait 15 min. After this cooking process, take the saucepan off the fire and pour in the lemon juice and add the green tea. Make sure it is mixed. Cover the lid and let it brew for 5 minutes.  

Take your tea cup and pour your tea through a strainer. Add in the honey and serve. 

Hope you get well soon!

Chocolate Bomb

Recently, I have watched a cooking program where this recipe has taken me in completely. As I was searching for such a dessert for my sweet tooth hubby, this hit the target. To be honest, for me it is too crunchy and a lot of chocolate but I got the good feed back from my hubby. I have to confess something that I have no time and nerves left to make nice photos. I wasted 3 slices already. Nothing turned out as it looked in real and attracted me. But making such a long break, I had this photo problem earlier which lead to posting nothing in the end. Now, I don't mind. I guarantee this will be a very nice option for you and your guests. Something really rich in taste and attractive in shape.

The recipe is from Emel Basdogan! Thanks Emel for sharing this delicious beauty with us!

There we go :

Utencils:

An oven tray
2 round bowls for the batter
1 round glass bowl for shaping and cooling
Spatulas
Hand mixer
Sauce pan

Please preheat the oven to 160C/ 330F.

Make sure before you start that you have all the ingredients measured and prepared. Eggs at room temperature. Flour sifted. Orange zest and juice prepared. 

Ingredients:

Sponge Cake:
7 eggs ( whites and yolks seperate)
1 egg full :)
160 gr. / 1 cup caster sugar
130 gr. / 1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp orange zest
1/4 cup of fresh orange juice
2 pinches of salt

Beat the egg whites. Once the egg whites lose the transparency, add in the salt. Adding salt in it will make it hold on tight.  

In another bowl, beat the egg yolks and 1 egg with the hand mixer. From this moment on, we will not need the hand mixer. Add in the sugar and zest until it takes a texture thick like mayonnaise. Pour in the orange juice. Fold it with a spatula. Once they are mixed add in the egg whites slowly, making sure that the air bubbles are still inside. Pour the batter on the oven tray which is already lined with the baking paper. Put it in oven and bake about 20-25 min. in turbo mode. 

Ganache:
200 gr. cream
275 gr. bitter chocolate
150 gr. pistachios
1 tsp orange zest

Heat the cream in the sauce pan. Once its heated, take it away from the stove. Add in the chocolate pieces and mix. Let it melt with the heat of cream. Very important is it should never be made on the stove. The chocolate can not tolerate the heat! When the colour turns brown, add in the zest and the pistachios. Cool it in the fridge.

Cream:
200 gr. cream
2 tbs icing sugar
16 gr. vanilla powder
100 gr. chocolate chunks

Beat the cold cream adding icing sugar, and vanilla powder with the hand mixer. Add in the chocolate chunks and let it cool in the fridge.

Final step:

Take the glass deep bowl and cover it with a stretch film. This will make sure that the shape of the cake will come out from the mould without sticking. Slice the cake in triangle shapes and lay them at the bottom of the bowl. Pour in the cream mixture and as the last chocolate ganache. Cover the left over cake pieces at the bottom. Then close it with stretch film and let it cool down as long as possible.  I would suggest minimum 4 hours.

I hope you enjoy this delicious dessert as it is really a chocolate bomb!

Savory Cookies

I am normally on the savory side of the cookies rather than the sweet ones. I tried many recipes and here is one I will share with you. This recipe is from my friend Eda. This is associated with her in general, at our teatime gatherings. I made some changes on her ingredients. I am still trying to cut down on access oil in recipes, therefore I skipped the olive oil and the result still came out good. It is crispy outside and fluffy inside.

 

INGREDIENTS:
 
DOUGH
200. gr butter
400 gr. flour
100 gr. yoghurt
5 tbs milk
1 tsp vinegar
1/2 a tsp salt
16 gr. baking powder
1 egg (white inside the dough and yolk on the rolls)

Preheat the oven in 180C/ 350F. 


FILLING
5 tbs chopped parsley
200 gr. mashed feta cheese



HOW TO MAKE IT:

Add in all the ingredients for the dough in the container and start mixing. I used my bread machine for the kneading. Keep kneading until it takes a non sticky texture. If your dough comes too sticky, you can add in some more flour. It might change from flour to flour. 

Once it is ready, you can start preparing the shape. Shape them as desired. I preferred to make round pieces and put the cheese-parsley filling in the middle and folded as I turned it in my hand. I put them on the non stick tray. Using a brush, put the egg yolk on each savory cookie. 

Then they are ready to go in the oven. In fan mode/turbo/ convection, bake it for 25 min. You can check the bottoms of the cookies. If they are golden brown at the bottom, it means they are done.

Here is the result. I hope you enjoy eating these delicious savory cheese cookies.

Bonne à petit!

Frittaten Suppe- Pancake Soup

Well todays soup comes from Austria. This is my husband´s favourite soup that he loves eating only when we visit his mother. I don’t know why I never tried that at home before. As it gets harder to choose a menu for everyday, I came to the idea that he must be missing this soup. It is really very simple but a bit time taking as the pancakes should be seperately prepared. It is a typical  traditional Austrian soup which was made by the farmers in the former times. As they worked outside in the mountains in the cold, they needed sth rich and heavy to give them energy. Those times are over, but this soup has found its place in the traditional cuisine of Austria.

INGREDIENTS: 

1,5 liters of water
3 soup cubes (I prefered the beef cubes)
1 medium size onion (peeled and sliced)
3 carrots
2 pieces of leek 

3-4 pcs of fresh parsley
1 piece of celery
5 pcs of chives (to serve)


For the pancake : (Julia Child´s pate a crepes recipe)

4 eggs
1 1/2cup of flour
1 cup of cold milk

1 cup of cold water
1 tbs melted butter

1/2 salt
salt

HOW TO COOK:

Soup:

Put all the ingredients of the soup in the pan and boil in low heat. 

Pancake:

Put all the liquids and beat them with a mixer. Adding the flour and the melted butter finish the beating. Make sure that there are no residues on the sides of the container. With the help of a rubber spatula, dislodge it and mix again until you get a homogenous mixture. Cover it and rest it in the fridge for about 2 hours.

Take the batter out from the fridge. Get a nonstick pan and pour a few drops of olive oil for the first crepe. Take a spoon and pour the batter starting from the middle of the pan and turn it around with the other hand to give it a good round shape. Wait about a minute to have a nice gold color for the first side and half a minute for the other side.

 

As the cooking part is over, cut the pancakes in thin slices to mix later on in the soup when serving.

 

SERVE:                  

In a soup bowl, put the sliced the pancakes in and pour the liquid part of the soup, spread the cut chives over and serve. 

I hope you enjoy making this soup from Austria!

MAHLZEIT!

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Tarator- Bean Salad

Tarator
Originally uploaded by mujdeoz

Almost everyone is already in the holiday mood or already started the holidays. There is no change in my system. I am working without a stop. Besides, it is getting more and more busy.

The only thing that I do, with the first chance, is to cook and post it to my blog whenever I have something new. It looks like that the blog restriction will not be over here. I have to get used to this. Thinking that it is better than nothing, i will keep on posting my recipes despite all the difficulties that I face, lacking many functions.

This salad is from my archive. It is the right season. One alternative from me to your nice tables full of many kinds of salads during the summer season.


Ingredients:

1/2 kg french/ kidney beans
1 cup of bread crumbs
1/2 lemon juice
6 gloves of garlic
2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 cup of cold water

How to make it?:

This is originally made of kidney beans, since I can not find it here, I made it with french beans. Clean out the beans, chop them in required size and wash. Boil them in the salty water and then drain (sharing 1 cup of water). Add crumbs, squeezed lemon, olive oil and the squeezed garlic. Keep it in the fridge an overnight so that the sauce is absorbed better. Serve it cold.

AFIYET OLSUN!

Brownie

Brownie
Originally uploaded by mujdeoz

Finally I am back. I am sure everyone who has checked my page realized that I have not added new posts recently. In China, like Youtube, blogs are also blocked. Thanks to my friend, I found a way to go in my page. Now, I can view. Yuppiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

Of course, we had many things in agenda. Eurovision 2009, has not been resulted like we hoped. Due to the time difference, I made my schedule to stay awake till dawn. However, I could also resist until 02:30. This is the hardest side of being in China. I always followed the national matches setting my alarm. At first, I thought Hadise has a big chance since her contestants were not that good. Despite everything, Hadise really showed a very good performance. Instead of Dum Tek Tek song,another song could bring us a better result, but for sure, 4th place is not that bad. Congratulations Hadise!

This weekend, I baked Brownie which is the only cake I bake since I am 6. To tell the truth, this cake tastes delicious even when it is raw. As a matter of fact, that is how I showed interest to learn how to make it, at the age of 6. My mum always shared for me and my younger brother a small portion. We always dipped it until the plate is spotless. Now, I can understand my dear mother very well. How much more you share, how small your cake gets. :) Now I am giving the same struggle!! with my hubby. The size of my cake is therefore, a little smaller than the given amounts.So, I had to use a rectangular mould instead of the big round one. It was really fun to eat it unbaked. :))

In general, the Brownies are made with chocolates which of course gives a delicious taste. But my recipe is lighter than the one with chocolate.

Ingredients:

125 gr. unsalted butter (room temperature)

3 eggs

2 cups flour

1,5 cups sugar

1/4 cup cacao

16 gr. baking powder

10 gr. vanillin

2 teaspoon cinnamon

180 ml milk

24 cm. clamp cake mold ( covered with wax baking paper)

How to make it?:

Preheat the oven to 180C. Prepare your mold placing a baking paper. In a deep bowl, mix the dry ingredients flour, cacao, cinnamon, baking powder and vanillin. Keep it aside. 

I used a stand mixer to mix the sugar with butter in room temperature. Make sure the sugar and butter melts completely. Add the eggs one by one and mix until you get a light yellow color. Please remember to mix always in the same direction. Add the dry ingredients mixture, you have prepared earlier. The consistency will be intensive until you add in the milk. Pour the mixture in the mold and put it in the oven. The first 20 minutes, avoid opening the oven cover. Total baking period is around 35 minutes.

Note: I am having some problems about adding the photos like I want. I will keep on like this until the blog restriction is over.

AFIYET OLSUN!

French Beans

Today's recipe is easy to apply to all vegetable dishes. There are many kinds of beans in the world. The fresh bean which is called as French Beans, is my favorite in all. It has a very reasonable prep and cooking time. The magic is in the olive oil.  The tip for green vegetable dishes in basic is, to saute the onions in the olive oil and add the vegetables in. 

Ingredients:

1 kg. French Beans 

1 big size onion (chopped in very small cubes)

1/2 tbs sugar 

2 cloves of garlic

3 big size tomatoes (grated)

1 cup olive oil

2 ts salt

4 cups of boiled water

How to make it?:

Clean out and wash the beans. Saute the onions, garlics and the sugar in a large skillet in the heated olive oil, until tender and lightly brown. Add the tomatoes and then the beans in and mix them for 5 minutes on a high heat. When the beans get darker, add the water. When the beans boil, sprinkle the salt. Keep cooking on a high heat for about 7-8 minutes and then lower the heat. If you have a chance to stand it up in the fridge for a day, all the dishes cooked with olive oil will give a better result. 

AFIYET OLSUN!