Leek in Olive Oil - Zeytinyagli Pirasa

One of the easiest Turkish meals that does not need tomato paste (usually evident in most of their recipes) is Zeytinyagli Pirasa (Leek in Olive Oil). It is a sort of a one-pot meal, easy and healthy. I tweaked it to suit my Asian taste, as we like to have more rice because it is our staple, but normally the rice should be lesser.

The ingredients are just leeks, carrots, olive oil, rice, lemon and some sugar and salt. That's it.

• 6 leeks - chopped thickly, about 1 inch
• 2 medium carrots - slice thinly
• 6 tbsp olive oil
• 1 lemon - to be squeezed
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp rice (but in the picture below I used 1 turkish tea glass of rice)
• 2 glasses of water

First, heat up the olive oil on medium fire. Then add in the sliced carrots, give a bit of a stir and cover for a few minutes. Then add in the chopped leeks, stir for about one minute. Add the rice, sugar, salt, squeezed lemon juice, and water. Give a bit more stir and cover, keeping the fire on medium. Then let it cook for about 20 to 25 minutes. Let it cool before eating and enjoy!

My first try - I was a bit stingy with the olive oil 

I also put a lottt of rice :D

To each its own! I like it with a lot of rice but do try whichever you like.

My short adventure with claypot cooking : claypot seasoning failure

I bought an unglazed claypot a few months back as it was on offer at A101. I was excited at the prospect of using it for claypot noodles, chilli beans, claypot rice and etc. But I did not really know how to use it. I googled and watched YouTube videos on how to 'season' or cure it before using it for the first time. There were several different ways to do it but I opted with the one that says rub garlic cloves all over the pot, then rub margarine or olive oil, fill it with water and put in the oven (not a preheated oven as the sudden heat can crack the pot) at 200 degrees celcius for two hours.

And every time before using the pot I will have to fill it with water and wait for 15 minutes, to not put it on high fire and to not wash it with detergent as the pot is porous. Oh, a lot of work for a pot isn't it? 

I somehow managed to screw it up. The first time I used it, I made lamb stew. Apparently that was my first mistake. I saw on a cooking group in Facebook that Turkish moms/grandmas will only cook veggie based food for the first 4 or 5 times to properly seal the pot before putting meat. And I saw on some Indian cooking website that they will first cook rice in the pot. 

After the second usage I noticed a long crack at the side of the pot running to the bottom. So I searched the net again, they said I can reseal with a bit of wet flour. I did that and yes the crack was covered and the pot was no longer leaking. That was when I used it for the third time, to make claypot egg noodles. There was a slight different smell coming from the food, but I just brushed it off as 'earthen smell'. I enjoyed my claypot egg noodles, my stomach was a bit uneasy after that, but I am usually lactose intolerant anyway so I didn't think anything much about it.

Yup this was my claypot egg noodles in the making

Ignorance is bliss

So only the fourth time of using the claypot, it unleashed the KRAKEN. Yup, it attacked me to a 3 day diarrhea and vomiting and stomach cramps. The worst I have ever had. I had to sleep with plastic diapers because the diarrhea just kept coming without me realizing. But I didn't know that the pot was the culprit! That day I had made chicken soup in the pot, and used the soup to make chicken rice, and had another helping the next day when I reheated them. When I got the food poisoning, I thought it was because I mishandled the chicken - thought I defrosted and refreezed them and bacteria formed. But nooo...

I only realized the pot was the culprit when I made chilli beans. I was excited as usual, I bought kidney beans, ground beef, checked the recipe and cooked it. But it was at night so I didn't eat it straightaway and decided to eat the next morning. It was winter in Turkey and there is no heater in the kitchen so I didn't bother putting it in the fridge. The kitchen itself was as cold as the fridge. But when I wanted to reheat the beans the next morning, I saw weird bubbles forming all around the beans. It was not normal at all. It definitely seemed like something was wrong. But I had to get confirmation, so I sent a photo to my family group and asked my mom. My sisters were like THROW IT AWAYYYY!! But I was still in denial, see. I have been craving kidney beans and ground beef. But after a while I accepted the fact - bubbles means bacteria has formed in the food. No other reason. I have to throw it out. When my mom said claypots are porous, it hit me - the POT CAUSED MY FOOD POISONING! So lesson learnt - I won't be using unglazed claypot for a while now, until I get over my trauma. Or I will buy the Japanese donabe pot, one day.

If you want to see the bubbles in my chilli beans, scroll down....NSFL

Eeeee....

Going to the Market/Pazar

After I moved out from the dorm and stayed in a house, I realized that I don't really eat healthily - I would buy nuggets, sausages, instant mee..and if I bought fresh chicken I would most probably deep fry them and eat with rice. I knew that I needed fruits and veggies but as I have a limited budget, I ended up not buying them. That is, until I discovered the pazar.

So this is another survival tip for students who live in houses and not dorms - go to the market/pazar! This market in Cebeci is open every Thursday from 10am to about 8pm and you can really find cheap fruits and veggies - sometimes way way cheaper than the supermarket.

Early in the morning.. they were still setting the place up

Dry goods

At one point during spring I managed to buy 5 avocados for 3TL - and they were really tasty avocados. The normal price for avocados are between 3TL to 6TL per piece. We bought so many that we didn't know what else to eat them with haha

More than 5 - because my roommate also bought some

Before they turned into guacamole *yum*

This was also in spring - apples and pears between 1.50TL to 2TL per kg

Usually I would go to the pazar to get some tomatoes, zucchini, eggplants, spinach, tangerines, bell peppers, cauliflowers, carrots....of course not all at one go, because there was this one time when I got too excited at the pazar and bought so many things and end up not eating them and they turned rotten. It feels really bad to throw food. I learnt my lesson :p

There is also another pazar nearby, the Mamak pazari - also on Thursdays. Their fruits and veggies are not that cheap, but you can find really cheap fish there. About half the price that you see at other fish stalls and supermarket. 

the Mamak pazari at night

It's more crowded

So yeah! Even if you stay in the dorm, if you feel like having some fresh fruits you can buy from the pazar :)

Nasi Ayam - Chicken Rice

A complete plate of Nasi Ayam - served with some soup, cucumbers, tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, fried chicken, chilli and soy sauce

At the end of last semester I had some friends over for Malaysian food and I decided to make Nasi Ayam (literally translated to chicken rice). 

I usually feel discouraged when I try to make Malaysian food because it seems like it needs a lot of work, and a long time is needed in the kitchen. So when it is only for myself I will end up not doing it - that's why I prefer to have friends over to enjoy the meal together. I still haven't tried gulai or rendang though. One day, maybe.

After asking my mom, my sister and finally selecting one recipe from the internet, I set out to cook my first ever attempt at Nasi Ayam. I got a good recipe from here.

There are four parts to cooking chicken rice - the soup, the rice, the fried chicken and the chilli and soy sauce. The chicken will be boiled to become the chicken broth/soup, and then some of the broth will be used to cook the rice and to add in the chilli. We waste nothing :p 

The first thing to do is to blend some garlic and ginger together. This mix will be used for all the four parts so I used about 15 garlic cloves and a thumb of ginger. 

1. the Chicken Broth/Soup

- heat some oil
-sautee the blend of garlic and ginger (about 2 cloves of garlic and some ginger)
-put in 1 whole chicken (cut up in big pieces)
-add about 2 litres of water and 1 cube of chicken stock
-let the water come to a boil and cook until the chicken is tender (but not too long as we are going to fry the chicken later)
- take out the chicken and proceed to step 2

2. the Fried Chicken

- add some light soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, oyster sauce and some blended ginger and let them marinate while you prepare the rice

-after that, just fry the chicken 

3. the Chicken Rice

- this is for 6 cups of rice
- 7 cups of the chicken broth
- 4 tablespoons of butter
- some pandan leaves
- some spices :

The spices - cinnamon bark, lemongrass, star anise, cardamom and a blended mix of ginger and garlic 

I did the following steps in the rice cooker so that it will be easy to cook the rice as usual afterwards :-

- heat the butter 

- add in the blended ginger and garlic, pandan leaf and the spices

- add in the rice, stir well until you can smell the yummy smell

- add in the water, some turmeric for color, and salt

-cover the rice cooker and let it do its job

before serving take out the pandan leaves, the lemongrass and the spices

4. the Chilli (and the Soy Sauce)

-chilli : blend red chillies, garlic and ginger

- add salt, some sugar, vinegar and some of the chicken broth

-soy sauce : add some of the chicken soup to some sweet soy sauce - that's it

As for the side salads, we usually use iceberg lettuce, cucumbers and fresh tomatoes. And for the soup, some green onions.

Ready to eat! Afiyet Olsun

At the same time, my Turkish neighbour gave some Turkish food -
so those two dishes at the top were from her (peas and Turkish rice)

İçli Pide (Turkish Pita) / Turkish Pizza

İçli Pide (Turkish Pita)- in a boat like crust

One of the many survival tips that I have learned from an experienced frugal grad student is that I can have İçli pide for a much cheaper price if I prepare my own topping and bring it to the nearby pide shop (Pide Salonu) to be baked in a stone oven with wood fire. (Well, it should be a neighborhood pide shop and not a fancy schmancy restaurant). 

You can first go and ask them if it is okay for you to bring your own toppings by saying "iç getirirsek pide yapar mısınız?" - which roughly means "if I bring toppings can you do pide please?"

At the pide salonu - preparing the pide crust

This is a pide that I ordered from a restaurant, the normal price for it is around 9 to 15 lira - depending on the toppings and the place. About 70 cm.

So if they say yes, you can go ahead and and prepare your own toppings at home, and ask them to make as many pide as they can with that much toppings. You can say "pide yaptıracağım, çıktığı kadar". Usually I can get about 6 pide with these ingredients :-

• 200 grams of beyaz peynir (white cheese) 

  

  this is the white cheese - made of cow and not goat

• 2 whole onion
• 4 green chillies
• 2 tomatoes 
• 1 egg
• salt, pepper, cayenne pepper
• some oil
• chilli flakes

- Dice the onions, green chillies and tomatoes. Mix them with the white cheese and (raw) egg, add some oil, salt, pepper, chilli flakes and cayenne pepper. If you like parsley you may also add chopped parsley. 

the ingredients

mix the chopped green chillies with the cheese

add the chopped tomatoes, onions and egg

mix them well, add a bit of oil, salt, pepper, chilli flakes

-Put them in a container, and bring a big plate or plastic tray with you so it will be easy for you to carry those pide back home. The guy charges me around 1.25 lira per pide. Even if you add up the costs of the beyaz peynir, onion, oil etc it is still so so much cheaper.

My own peynirli pide

You can also put kasar peyniri (cheddar cheese), mushroom, pepperoni and whatever your heart desires.

This was the time I put mushroom, sucuk (turkish pepperoni-like), and kasar peyniri

Afiyet olsun :)

Special shoutout to my sister

This post is especially dedicated to my sister Ateh, who sent money for me to buy my first oven  - yeay thank you Ateh - may God bless you! It was the start of my many experiments with baking and whatnots.

And to eKi (we were just friends at the time - I wondered why you were so nice ahaha :p), who helped me research on the best value for money oven, and helped me carry it home in the cold winter.

It's just the right size - not too small and not too big, and the price was good. Balim for scale.

welcome to the family!

The first thing I did was to bake a whole chicken. *Excited*

I think I marinated with some soy sauce, black pepper, salt, olive oil 

After 45 minutes at 220 degrees in the oven - then lowered to 180 degrees

Ready to eat!

Black Sea Salmon

Black Sea Salmon/Karadeniz Somon

Every time I pass by the Balikci (fishmonger stall), I will see the Norwegian Salmon for about 38 Lira/kg, and another type of salmon called the Black Sea Salmon (Karadeniz Somon) for a cheaper price. The Black Sea Salmon is usually about 17 Lira/kg.

I got very curious.

How does this Black Sea Salmon taste like? So one day I decided to try it out. I asked for the smallest fish, and I paid 20 lira for it.

I asked the guy to clean the fish, but due to language barrier, he went ahead and filleted the fish. Tamam (Okay), I said.

So at home I decided to bake half of the fish in the oven, and the other to be grilled on the stove the next day.

I just seasoned them with salt and pepper

Okay this doesn't look that nice - but i put potatoes, onions, green chillies, lemons, bay leaves and baked it at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes

Ready to eat - and look at the crispy skin

The taste is not that bad, there's a bit of an earthy taste - like when you eat river fish, but I think it is nice and worth the money I paid. However, the fish was so much nicer when I grilled it the next day.

I didn't take an after photo - too hungry maybe

So yeah, I am glad I bought the fish to satisfy my curiosity hehe. With one fish I got 8 pieces of fillet - so not that bad!