Food that has made me a food enthusiast...

Every summer, we visit our parents in Turkey and enjoy great food, to us some of the most amazing food of course, made from scratch at home, with freshly bought vegetables, seasoned with memories. This is what has made me a food enthusiast. Too many recipes to post, my mom's simple summer vegetable fries with garlic tomato sauce, Daisy's aunt's incredible stuffed peppers, mother-in-law's small plates, grandma's sautéed dried eggplant dish... It is a long due credit...

Jet lagged, sitting alone in the living room and trying to adopt to the new time around 4:00am in the morning (it is 9pm my regular time), no better time to post about some of the delicious dishes that Daisy's mother has surprised us with after a long flight. Being a perfectionist herself, everything was prepared to perfection, can't tell you how tasteful they were. Here they are.

Let me start with the cheese rolls, a true classic. All you need is "yufka", thinly rolled-out dough made from flour, salt and water, cut in triangle shapes, grated feta cheese, finely chopped parsley, white of one egg. Mix the cheese, parsley and egg white, roll the cheese mix into the dough triangles. Fry the rolls evenly in heated vegetable oil until a little darker than golden brown at medium-high heat. Rest them on paper towel to drain excess oil. The egg white is mother-in-law's genius addition, it avoids cheese puffs while frying. This is probably the hardest of all, as you might have difficulty to find the yufka. Turkish/Mediterranean grocery stores usually carry. If you can find the yufka or substitute, try it, you will not get enough...

Lentil balls, another true classic. 1 cup finely crushed wheat bulgur, 1 cup red lentils, 2.5 cup water, 2 small onions, 3-4 small spring onions, generous handful or two of parsley, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 table spoon tomato paste, slightly heaped, juice of 1/4 to 1/2 lemon, salt&pepper, cumin and pinch of cayenne for heat.

RInse the lentils throughly, mix them with water in a pan and simmer until very tender. Add the bulgur and mix well, cover with a lid and let rest for 10 minutes. In the meantime, sweat diced onions in oil, when they are done add the tomato paste and give it a stir for 30 seconds. Add the lentil-bulgur mix, finely chopped parsley and spring onions, salt&pepper, lemon juice, cumin and cayenne to taste. Shape and enjoy. I have had those babies with slices of tomatoes, real tomatoes ripened and baked under the Mediterranean sun, oh yeah!!!

Next shakshuka, another absolute simplicity, absolute classic. 3 medium size long eggplants or one big globe, peel in stripes (see here), dice the eggplant in cubes of about 1/2 inch in size. Rest the eggplant cubes in heavily salted water for 30 minutes, rinse and pat them dry well with paper towel. Fry them in heated vegetable oil at medium-high heat until tender. Take the fried cubes out, drain the oil, sprinkle them with 1/2 tbs sugar, set aside. In a saute pan on medium-high heat, add 3 tbs olive oil, saute for 30 seconds finely chopped 3 or 4 garlic cloves and finely diced pepper (if you have a big bell pepper, half of it should be more than enough, or about 3/4 of a smaller one; but if you can, try something with more pepper flavor). Add 2 medium sized tomatoes, in small dices about 1/4 inch, to the pan, saute until the excess juice evaporates, salt to taste and add 1/2 tbs sugar. To mount the plate, first spread about 1/2 pound strained yogurt (they call it Greek yogurt in the US), spread the eggplants on yogurt, then the tomato sauce on the top. Sprinkle or garnish with parsley.

Last but not least, this, stuffed artichoke hearts with peas, carrots, dill and lemon, man this is jackpot! I'll give the recipe later. For now, I will leave it to your imagination while I am enjoying the left overs (click on the image to enjoy them at a larger scale).

And the light you see on the plates, it is the seasoning of life here, the light of the Mediterranean sun, which bakes the land and the people all day, then gives a gentle affectionate touch during sunset... Oh how lucky I am...