Ciabbata Bread Recipe (and sandwich)

Me love Bread!
That is a fact and an incentive to bake my very own Ciabatta. Again I can blame the cold weather for my cooking-baking frenzy these days or just admit how great it is to spend time in your kitchen.

Well baking bread is certainly not an easy task. Things get a bit more complicated when I tried to search the net and various recipes were offered to confuse me even more. But I  made a good choice by selecting the following recipe from BBC Good Food website

Two minor tweets though in my case:
- the amount of yeast could be slightly decreased when using the yeast here in Turkey or the 42g cube of Yaş Maya.
- also,  the my bread loaves can be baked 5 min less than the indicated time to make them even more softer inside and crispy outside.

But overall, I think  they were pretty successful as we enjoyed them in a Turkey burger sandwich with a side of potato puree (for a change from french fries)

The trick of this recipe or in Turkish the Puf Noktası  is to separate the ingredients in half and prepare half of the dough overnight

Here is the recipe first, followed by some of my pictures

Ciabatta

 Ingredients:

Ovenight preparation

• 250g/9oz Italian type '00' bread flour
• 190ml/7fl oz water
• 15g/½oz yeast

To finish the bread

• 250g/9oz Italian type '00' bread flour
• 10g/½oz yeast
• 190ml/7fl oz water
• 12g/½oz salt

Preparation method:

1. For the overnight preparation, mix the flour with the water in a large bowl and add the yeast. Whisk for three minutes and leave to rise overnight (or at least eight hours).
   
2. To finish the bread, add the remaining flour and yeast to the bread mixture and mix well.
   
3. Gradually add the rest of the water to the bread mixture. When nearly all of the water has been added, add the salt to the remaining water and mix together for a further five minutes, until a sticky dough is formed.
   
4. Transfer the dough into a large oiled bowl and leave to rise for one hour.
   
5. Transfer the dough to a heavily floured work surface and leave to rest for a further 30 minutes.
   
6. Preheat the oven to 240C/465F/Gas 8.
   
7. Cut the dough into three strips and stretch them out to make long, flat ciabatta loaf shapes.
   
8. Place onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper and leave for ten minutes.
   
9. Transfer the dough to the oven to bake for 25 minutes, or until risen and golden-brown.
   
10. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Home-made Vanilla Extract and Chestnut Puree

January has been cold and snowy in Istanbul. Long days were spent cooking and preparing soups, cakes and warm meals. Then one day I realized I was about to finish my Vanilla Extract supply........oups I was in trouble!

Don't get me wrong, you do find vanilla extract in Turkey but I was spoiled using my Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract that I brought back with me from my gourmet store Delicacies in New York! Luckily, my friend Joy or should I say my wonderful baker friend Chef Joy of My Turkish Joys, explained that you could make you own Vanilla Extract with...... Vodka!

After making some research on the net, I realized it wasn't that hard as long as you have good quality vanilla beans and time (6 months to macerate)

So I decided to embark on a new culinary adventure:

1- prepare the ingredients and material - all sterile and clean

2- Extract the 'Vanilla Caviar' - the rule is 2 beans per cup or about 240 ml of Vodka

3- insert the caviar and the cut beans into the bottle filled with Vodka - in my case a cute Maple leaf bottle that once contained a great maple syrup

4- and finally, tightly close the bottle, label and wait....6 months (leave the bottle in dry cool area far from direct sunlight)

And as far as the Crème de Marrons  as we say in French - it is a smooth sweetened chestnut puree enjoyed a a dessert and can also be used in chestnut cakes.

1- boil the shelled chestnuts for 10 min, in order to easily peel them off (make sure to remove the hard shell but also the thin layer covering the fruit)

 2- boil the peeled chestnuts for another 15 min in order to soften them before grinding

 3- Grind finely the chestnuts and add 1/3 of their quantity of milk and another 1/3 of their quantity of sugar

4- finally cook the mixture under low heat for 10-15 min by continuously stirring in order to obtain a smooth creamy texture

 

Voila!

We wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !!!

Year-end Holidays are great, always and everywhere!


Now that I passed more or less the rough first trimester of pregnancy, here I am hosting two New Year dinners back to back (first on Dec 31st then on Jan 1st for actually our friend's birthday who was born on a January First!!!)

For the December 31st, I invited my in-laws and prepared a festive meal with my mother-in-law.  In Turkey, they have this great idea of extrapolating all Christmas related celebration on December 31st. So we decorate homes with trees, we offer gifts to our loved-ones and throw a magnificent dinner with usually a Roasted Turkey.

So our menu was simply and deliciously:
- Roasted Turkey (slightly marinated with tomato puree - this part didn't excited at first but end-up tasty)
- Kestaleni Iç Pilav (rice pilav dish flavored with chestnuts and chicken liver). Must say that the I couldn't personally eat the chicken liver although it added a nice gamy flavor
- and of course plenty of salads and mezze!

Traditional Turkish New Year Dinner

As for dessert - my dear daughter and I made this very smooth and creamy Tiramisu (liquor-free this time) as well as my Algerian touch with a Na'iir plate of a variety of nuts, dried-fruits and some sweets as chocolate, loukums

Wishing you all a wonderful, Happy and Healthy New Year !!!!

Baby n. 2 on the way and NO post!

Yes this is a great news for our family, a marvelous addition YET it prevented me cooking and eating for 3 and half months.

I have to admit that during a rough 10 days back in October I could only eat white rice, white pasta or potato puree - carb and carb and carb with no seasoning whatsoever. Impossible to really explain why but this is part of the fun of being pregnant !!!

So my friends sorry for the 4 month-gap in terms of posting......

Tackling the "lahana"-beast (i.e. Cabbage)

My last veggies order at www.seyyarfile.com, had a nice-big surprise, in the form of humongous Cabbage ("Lahana" in Turkish). One can appreciate the volume next to a decent-size apple

 

So after a  lot of Tartışma, I hesitated between the Turkish version of stuffed cabbage leaves versus the Algerian version. 

The Turkish version that I know and have made in the past, consists on stuffing the leaves with a mixture of seasoned rice and ground beef, then cooked in a tomato-based sauce. 

The Algerian version uses a relatively same stuffing but the 'white-sauce' is cooked with meat-cubes, chickpeas and flavored with cinnamon.

So I decided to leave it up the talented lady of Portakal Ağacı blog to describe in great details her Lahana Sarması recipe. And I will share my recipe of  Dolmat el Kroumb, Algerian style:

The Ingredients:

- well we got it - a huge cabbage

- about 250g of  preferably beef-chucks or ground-beef

- 1 onion

- 1 tablespoon of vegetables oil

- 50g or  a handful of overnight soaked chickpeas

- cinnamon, salt and pepper

The stuffing:

- 300g of ground beef

- a coffee-cup of rice

- one egg

- half onion

- some parsley, salt and pepper

The preparation:

First, you would need to remove delicately the leaves one by one (which remind me of the Turkish expression for over-dressed baby as a " lahana baby")

You may want to start by carving the central root, to help you separate the leaves, then proceed to separating the leaves

- then, blanch the cabbage leaves, which consists of boiling them in salted water for 4-5min to soften them

 - now starts the 'tedious' job: first you would need to prepare the leaves by cutting the central-veiny part, then cut them into stripes for the stuffing

- then, prepare both the ground beef with onion and salt and form small-size meatballs (in the case you are not using the beef-chuck).

Also, prepare the stuffing, la Farce in French, by mixing the stuffing ingredients

- Now starts rolling: take a strip of cabbage leave, place at the bottom a small quantity of stuffing. Flip the right and left edges over then roll like a cigar by trying to make it as tight as possible. (if the cabbage leaves is torn, no problemo, use some patching here and there with cabbage leaves).

and then make as much as you can (stand it)

Once done with leaves, prepare the sauce, by sweating the onions in the vegetable oil and seasoned with cinnamon, salt and pepper. Add the chickpeas and meatballs, and cook halfway through.

 The last step is to place the cabbage leaves in your pan with some water. Cook under low heat for 30 min.

Serve warm  and  finally......Enjoy!

PS: you will be left with many 'undesirable' pieces of blanched cabbage leaves: my recommendation, make a nice and hearty winter soup (with potatoes, carrots and onions, and flavored to your taste)

PS2 : and you would also need something refreshing and light after the above, so a nice desert:

An orange-blossom water and cinnamon flavored pomegranate (and eventually pears) fruit-salad. (that too takes a lot time to prepare the pomegranate, but it is quite rewarding..................and delicious).

"Lüfer Bayramı" and Slow Food Turkey

Last week, I was happy to experience a true "mobilization" around the alarming situation of fish in Istanbul and Turkey in general  (and obviously around the world).

I am certainly not an expert on this subject, but one can easily understand the situation of certain endangered species among fish, in terms of drastically decreasing quantities, fewer varieties etc.

"Lüfer Bayramı" encompassed various events organized by Slow Food Convivia in Istanbul along with food enthusiasts and activits.

Lüfer or Blue Fish (wiki entry)  was actually used as symbol  in this case, to raise public awareness.

On Friday 14-Oct-2011, I attended an interesting conference on this subject at the Culinary Institute in Maslak (MSA), Istanbul, where 5 different participants sharing their thoughts and actions (more importantly) from their different perspective. The panel included:

Defne Koryürek, Fikir Sahibi Damaklar - Slow Food Istanbul Convivium
Mehmet Gürs, chef/işletmeci   (Chef and food sector entrepreneur)
Kaya Demirer, Turyid başkanı (Restaurant, Entertainment and Tourism Association - Director)
Ramazan Öztürk, SürKoop başkanı (Sea  products and Fish Cooperative Institution - Director)
Meriç Albay, SÜMDER başkanı (Sea and Water Engineering Association - Director)

(the conference was obviously in Turkish, a very good yet tough experience for my language skills)

To obtain more up-to-date information and follow their events and actions, I invite you to check the website, tweets and Facebook account of  Fikir Sahibi Damaklar - Slow Food Istanbul Convivium

And definitely, definitely, all of us should be aware and informed about the International Movement Slow Food, and their actions. Please check their website for additional information www.slowfood.com

Nostalgia...at Migros!

Well, just to share some 'nostalgia" feeling  (not that I remember any of the old products)...

For their 50th anniversary, a famous supermarket chain in Turkey had the "good idea" to offer some products in 50-year old packaging.

Of course, Coke jumped into to the occasion and released 4 bottles of the years of 1899. 1900, 1915, 1957.

As for Koska, it certainly made my husband smile looking at their Tahin and Pekmez cans  and saying " ahhh I remember those..."