Turkish Meatballs

Thank you to our wonderful Hostess Susan for hosting this "Foodie Friday".

Stop by for some fun and exciting recipes and fabulous pictures at http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/

This is my husband's favourite dish........I decided to do an exotic recipe for today. It is a very popular Turkish dish and when I'm there to visit in Izmir Turkey my husband's family makes this dish. It is served very often in homes and restaurants.
This recipe I got off this cookbook that I purchased called The Sultan's Kitchen, I use it quite often I love the recipes. I find that these recipes are very close to how my husband's family cooks so I have been using it more often...... otherwise being married so long I just now wing my recipes, but before they were all new to me as I had no idea about Turksih cooking whatsoever. But I do find that their food is very healthy compared to North American cooking, they use a lot of veggies in all their dishes and make them look like a work of art on the plate.

Turkish Meatballs [Izmir Köftesi]

Adapted from The Sultan's Kitchen (page 77)
serves 4-6

Ingredients:

2 lbs. lean ground beef or lamb
1 small onion, grated
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 eggs
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper
1/4 cup virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3 large tomatoes, diced
2 cups water or lamb/beef stock
2 medium green peppers, seeded and cut diagonally into slices

Heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Make the sauce first. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Stir in the tomato paste, then add the tomatoes and water or stock. Season with salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil. Let simmer, stirring occasionally, while you make the meatballs [köfte] so that the tomatoes boil down.

Combine the ground lamb or beef, onion, garlic, eggs, paprika, cumin and parsley in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. With moistened hands, mix the ingredients for about 2 minutes. Keep a bowl of warm water nearby to wet your hands while working. Shape the meat mixture into 20-25 oval balls.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat, add the meatballs [köfte] and lightly brown the meat all over (about 5 minutes). Place the meatballs [köfte] in an ovenproof dish and set them aside.

Pour the tomato sauce over the meatballs [köfte]. Arrange the green peppers on top. Cover the dish and bake for 40 minutes.

Notes; In my photo as you can see I added some potatoes in chunks to it and mixed it with the meatballs and they all roasted together. When I do add the chunks of potatoes I add a bit more stock. This is how my Mother-in-Law roasts it sometimes with potatoes or without.

Here in my photo I didin't add any green peppers as at that time I didn't have any on hand..... but when I do use peppers I use the Cubanelles, they are the best for flavour.

This dish is good to round of with a salad and your meal is complete.

Oval Meatballs........sometimes I make round ones but the Turks I learned prefer the oval shape.

Ready to be sauteed.

.............ready to eat.

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Nacho's

Thank you to our wonderful Hostess Susan for hosting this "Foodie Friday".

Stop by for some fun and exciting recipes and fabulous pictures at http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/



Just want to wish everyone a very Happy New Year filled with lots of good things.

NACHO'S

This is my favourite dish.........I sometimes just make a meal out of it. It's very easy to put together.

I use 3 different colours of corn chips, to make it more appealing with those colours to the eye and I think that they do taste a bit different the corn chips from each other.

Then I spread on some meat sauce with a taco seasoning, chilies out of a can that I drain, chopped olives assorted green and some Kalamata pitted olives.......if I have on hand some chopped green onions and then three kinds of 'Tex Mex' mix cheese..........after it is assembled I bake it in the oven in a stainless steel platter till the cheese melts nicely or if I'm making a smaller version just for myself I microwave it.

I like to serve this with some salsa, sour cream and guacamole in separate bowls.

To All a very "HAPPY NEW YEAR".........and a Thank You to my Friends who left me nice comments which I enjoyed reading and hearing from everyone.

Kitty Kats

Thank you Hostess Sally for hosting "Blue Monday" for some fabulous inspirational ideas and fun!...

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Blue Kitty Kats

This is a collection of cats that I have..........can't remember where I got them from. They seem to have been around for a long time on my shelves.

Big kitty and a wee lil' one sleeping.

These two snap shots you can see the beautiful turquoise blue colours.

Close up of the pattern on the Kitty kats.

This another set of Kitty Kats.......not sure why they have a yellowy colour to them but they are a cobalt blue.

The Whole Family.

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"MERRY CHRISTMAS"

I want to wish all my Friends a very

"MERRY CHRISTMAS" and their Families.

Blue Mugs and Cookies

Thank you Hostess Sally for hosting "Blue Monday" for some fabulous inspirational ideas and fun!...

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These are my favourite Cut/out Cookies sandwiched with raspberry jam. I got this recipe from a Canadian Living Magazine way, way back from the 80's. I cut it out and pasted it into my trusty 'keeper' recipe notebook.

..............also my two blue cobalt blue coffee mugs, I have a set of six.

All dressed up the cookies with a dusting of confectioner's sugar [icing sugar].


Here is the original recipe that I had pasted into my notebook.

Blue Dessert plate.......I have a set of six.

Naked cookies before the dusting of sugar.......they taste better with confectioner's sugar on them.

Tea Cresents

Source....... Cooking Light

My Blue and White figurines that I picked up at the Flea Market this summer.

Ingredients;
6.75 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, divided
5 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons 2% reduced-fat milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon aniseed, crushed

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, cornstarch, and salt in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk.
3. Beat 3/4 cup sugar, butter, and oil with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add milk and vanilla; beat until well blended. Add flour mixture and aniseed; beat at low speed until blended. Chill 30 minutes. Shape dough into 32 (2-inch) logs; bend logs to form crescent shape. Arrange 16 crescents 1 inch apart on a baking sheet. Bake at 350° for 14 minutes or until edges are golden. Remove from oven; cool on pan 3 minutes. Repeat procedure with remaining 16 crescents.
4. Sift remaining 1/2 cup sugar into a medium bowl; toss warm cookies in sugar to coat. Cool completely on a wire rack.


Rolling the cookies in powdered sugar while they're still warm results in a deliciously sweet, snowy coating.
Yield: 32 cookies

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Have a great "Blue Monday"!

RUGELACH

I made three batches of these cookies yesterday.............I think that my husband and daughter while they were cooling managed to eat one batch. :-)
I got this recipe off my friend Linda of http://linda-howtocookawolf.blogspot.com/. She is a fabulous cook and has been making these for years.

She said that this recipe comes from Sarabeth’s restaurant in NYC…she got it in the old Cuisine magazine in the very early 80’s and has been making them ever since. I use to make a Canadian chef's recipe by Bonnie Stern for years, but this year decided to try Linda's and I really liked the dough better.

Sarabeth’s Rugelach

1 cup butter softened

1 8 oz.pkg. cream cheese softened

½ cup + 2 T.sugar divided

½ t.vanilla¼ t.salt

2 cups flour¾ cup finely chopped walnuts

½ cup currants

2 T.cinnamon

½ cup plum preserves

Confectioners sugar

Pre-Heat oven to 325*

Mix Cinnamon with 1/2 cup sugar and set aside.

Cream together butter and cream cheese,add 2 T.sugar,vanilla,salt ,and flour.

Turn out on board and knead quickly until just together and smooth…

Divide into 3 pieces, press each piece into disc, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour or overnight.

Roll disc out into a 10 inch or 12inch circle…don’t worry if the edges are uneven.

Spread 1/3 of the jam, the cinnamon sugar,nuts and currants over dough. Leave a 1 inch border without filling around circle.

You can roll over filling with rolling pin to press into dough.a long sharp knife or bench knife cut into 12 pie shaped pieces.

Roll each piece into a crescent, long end toward the point. Place on a parchment lined (or silpat) baking sheet .

Turn the edges in so it looks like a crescent.

Bake at 325* for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown.Cool on rack…dust liberally with powdered sugar..

This is the filling that I used for my Rugelach's as I had two big jars of Apricot jam on hand. this filling I've had for years I found in my Mom's old recipe book binder that she had.

Filling:
1 cup walnuts, finely ground
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup apricot jam
In a bowl, mix the walnuts, sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon.

In a separate bowl put the apricot jam and mix well with a spoon just to loosen it.

Ready and baked.........I always put confectioner's sugar [icing sugar] but these were going into the freezer so after for presentation when I take some out to de/frost I will dust them with the confectioner's sugar. But I did sprinkle them with decorator's sugar before baking, which some I will leave just plain as you see them.

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Have a great day!

Mexican Wedding Cookies OR Russian Teacakes

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This is our families favourite cookie, my husband just pops them into his mouth one after another.

When I was in high school while working in the summer time in a dept. store one of the Ladies brought this cookie in that I absolutely loved. I had never tasted one like it before. I asked for her recipe and she gave me an index card and said 'you write and I'll tell you the ingredients and method". She said that they are called 'Mexican Wedding Cakes'. Now sometimes they are named Russian Teacakes, which sounds better for me as my family background is from near around there :-) in that part of the world.







This is still the same index card that I wrote in the 70's that my co-worker recited to me.

I did 2 batches, one with walnuts and one with pecans, and my husband said that he can't tell the difference.

Thank you for stopping by and have a great day!!!!!........... love reading your comments. Let us know what cookies are your Family favourites?