Love eating and cooking...

I guess I have not mentioned earlier that I grew up with fresh vegetables, fruits, and herbs in our garden.This might be a reason why I have desire to cook more than others.I wouldn’t only say that I love cooking, but I do love eating. This morning I looked at the book which was a Christmas gift from my dear friend-Rachel.While I was chopping vegetables, I thought about how expat life has influenced the way I cook.

 Nowadays, everyone eats more internationally  than they used to, I’m sure that living overseas has broadened my tastes.  It’s not just been the cuisine of the countries we lived in, but also that of the many expat friends we made who have introduced us to their favorite recipes in restaurants and in their homes.

Here is the some appetizer recipes I would like to share with you guys:

Cauliflower

 

This is a dip for cauliflower pieces.Raw cauliflower separated into small pieces. Yogourt and mayonnaise equal amounts mix with meshed garlic.  

Shrimp

 

Coat large shrimps with salt and pepper added flour. Fry in corn oil. If you put garlic and fresh ginger while frying it will be more delicious. 

Fried eggplants

4-5 eggplants

corn oil for frying

for salsa;

5-6 large tomatoes

few cloves of meshed garlic

2-3 tbsp vinegar

for yogourt sauce;

1/2 kg yogourt

few cloves of meshed garlic

Peel the eggplants cutting from four sides a narrow band. Either cut  long slices or cut round slices 7-8 mm thickness. Keep these in salty water for a while. When you take them out dry them with a paper towel and fry in hot oil until golden. Put them in a serving dish and cover each layer with either sauce. At the top put lots of sauce. 

Tomato sauce;

Chop tomatoes and put in a saucepan with a few spoon of corn oil. Boil until the tomatoes are cooked. Add the meshed garlic and the vinegar last minute. Cover the eggplants with this sauce.

For yogurt sauce, mix the meshed garlic with yogurt and cover the eggplants with this sauce.

If you wish you can use tomato sauce and on top you can pour yogurt sauce.

Carrots with yogurt sauce

 

4-5 large carrots

2-3 clove meshed garlic

3 tbsp corn oil

yogurt

Grate the carrots. Put in a saucepan with corn oil and let it boil until the carrots are sof and no more juice left. At the last minute add the meshed garlic. After it cools down add the yogurt and serve.

Hommous

1 kg chick peas (or one can of cooked chick peas)

1 bottle of sesami oil (1/2 cup)

1 tsp red pepper

2 lemon juice

1/2 cup olive oil

2-3 clove garlic crashed

salt 

Boil the chick peas until soft, take out the skin. Mesh it until becomes pure. Mix with the rest of the ingredients.

Shrimp cocktail

1/2 kg shrimp

green salad leaves

1 tbsp lemon juice

3-4 tbsp mayonnaise

(1/2 cup ready made cocktail sauce) or

(3 tbsp ketchup, 2 tbsp tomato juice, 1/2 tsp Tabasco sauce)

Boil the shrimp. Peel them but keep few of them with the tails. Cut shrimp to little pieces. In a saucepan mix all the ingredients with shrimp except the salad greens. Place the salad leaves in large cocktail glasses and fill with shrimp mixture. Decorate with the whole shrimps one shrimp per glass, make sure the tails are looking out of the glass. Also put some parsley leaves for decoration.

Walnut sauce (tarator) from  Mualla

 

1 cup hot pepper salsa

1 cup walnut pieces

3 slice old bread  

4 cloves of garlic

1.5 teaspoon cumin

a little lemon juice

Blend the bread and the walnut, add the garlic and salsa and the spices. Serve with toasted bread.

Turkish cheese rolls

1 package of phyllo dough, thawed (8 oz)
1 cup feta cheese
1/3 cup parsley
1/2 cup olive oil for frying
Melted butter

• In a mixing bowl, mix feta, and parsley together. This is best done with a fork, mashing the feta.
• Prepare oil to fry. The desired heat of the oil is 350 degrees.
• While the oil is heating, remove phyllo from refrigerator. Be sure to have a damp towel on hand to cover the phyllo you are not working with. Phyllo dough dries out quickly if left uncovered.
• Take one sheet of phyllo and cut into fourths. Each piece should be about 4×8. Brush each piece with melted butter. Place about 1 tablespoon of cheese mixture at the base and roll up. Seal by adding a little melted butter. Repeat with remaining phyllo and cheese mixture.
• Fry in about 2 inches of oil for 2-4 minutes, or until golden brown. Use to a sieve to remove from oil. Drain on paper towel. Serve immediately.