CORNBREAD MADE WITH MILK

If you are from Black Sea region of Turkey, like me, cornbread would remind you old memories more than just the taste... You would feel the warmth of your grandma, as the smell of cornmeal fills your kitchen. Even if you have never tasted before, its taste will take you to your childhood. In short, cornbread means warm houses. 

Cornbread is a type of bread, made by grinding corn kernels into coarse flour form. It is widely consumed by people of Black Sea region and with the high amounts of zinc content, it helps repairing of damaged cells. Vitamin A and fibers, which are found in cornmeal, protects health of your eyes. Corn oil in cornbread helps you to keep your cholesterol level normal, so that it is pretty good for your health. However, even it has lots of health benefits, people with diabetes should consume with care, because it has high amounts of sugar in it. So, I do not suggest those people with diabetes, to consume very often. 

Another thing for cornbread is that, it is safe to consume for people who have celiac disease. Patients of celiac disease, which is also known as Gluten-sensitive enteropathy, because of their disease, cannot consume food that contains wheat, barley and rye. Therefore, cornbread can be consumed safely by people with this condition. 

 

For centuries, cornbread is widely consumed in different countries and it has varieties of recipes. It is considered as a type of cake for some folks and as bread for some others. If you do a little search, you will see differences in contents such as cream, baking powder, yoghurt, sugar. My mom’s recipe is pretty easy and it is special to her hometown, Giresun. This delicious bread is prepared in villages by baking of cornmeal, water and salt mixture on a wood heated iron plate. We consume cornbread as a substitute for normal bread. It is thinner and it has fibrous look, contrary to most of other cornbread, which is thick with a raised up look. Only change we made in the recipe is using milk instead of water to get a different taste. It really goes well with other Black Sea dishes and it is also great to have cornbread with milk or yoghurt. Small pieces of cornbread added into warm milk is a delicious and filling way to have breakfast. 

Cornbread that you can buy from bakeries is usually prepared as cake, so it tastes fairly different. If you didn’t have chance of visiting Black Sea region to taste cornbread and only cornbread you had previously is that you have bought from a bakery, or you baked yourself using a recipe in which cornbread is prepared as cake, I definitely suggest you to try this recipe. I am sure it will be your favorite, with your kitchen filled with its smell, with its delicious taste and simplicity in making.

 

For 4 people... 

Ingredients 

2 cups roasted corn meal 

1 cups corn meal (not roasted) 

2.5 cups warm milk 

¾ teaspoon salt 

6 tablespoon olive oil (for heating the pan) 

NOTE: There are two types of cornmeal: roasted and not roasted. It tastes better if you use both of them together mixed. 

 

Instructions

1. First, warm up the milk. 

2. Put cornmeal (roasted and not roasted) and salt in a bowl and mix well. 

3. After they are properly mixed, slowly add warm milk in the middle of the mixture and start making the dough. 

4. You can add milk in 3 steps in order to have better consistency while you are making the dough. You should make the dough until you don’t feel cornmeal particles in it and it becomes more consistent compared to cake dough. 

5. After you are done with the dough, cover the dough and wait for 15-20 minutes. 

6. Later, heat the pan with 3 tablespoon of olive oil and boil for a little while. Optionally, you can use butter instead of olive oil. 

7. Place the dough over the heated pan and spread it uniformly until it gets thinner. 

TIP: You can wet your hand in order to prevent the dough sticking to your hands and spread over the pan better. 

8. Keep the dough over the pan until the bottom of it baked well. Using a pan lid, you can check if it is properly baked or not. 

9. After the bottom is baked, using a pan lid, flip the dough. Before placing the flipped dough again, you should add 3 more tablespoon of olive oil. 

10. When other side of the dough is baked enough, it means that your cornbread is ready. You can serve now. 

11. You can consume cornbread with other dishes or you can put small pieces of cornbread in a bowl of yoghurt or you can mix it with warm milk and add sugar. 

Infinitely many thanks to mom and my aunt, for putting so much effort! 

Bon appetite...

CHRISTMAS SPECIAL, MULLED WINE

An essential for winter days, hot beverage to warm you and your hearth: Mulled wine! It really goes together well with all the glowing Christmas decorations and white snow. It is a reason to be happy, to love cold weather and makes you miss winter season. If you have started making a list of beverages to serve for Christmas dinner, be sure that you have mulled wine in the list. This beverage will fill your house with spicy smell and make even you feel dizzy.

Mulled wine is mostly consumed in the countries where winter days are cold. It is mainly made with wine and cinnamon sticks. Other than these two ingredients, it is completely up to you to choose which fruits and spices to add. You can use plenty of cinnamon which controls blood sugar, prevents you from cold and helps your digestion. Ginger, clove, anise and black pepper are other spices which used widely in mulled wine recipes. It is usually suggested to consume those spices in winter season against cold, so with these ingredients, mulled wine is considered as a strong defender for your body.

 

Mulled wine, which is traditionally consumed as Christmas beverage in Europe, has different name and recipe in different countries. In the 17th century, heating of beverage named “Grog” before consumption against cold weather by British, started to shape mulled wine recipes we have today. Later, Scandinavians added vodka, wine, cinnamon, clove, ginger, cardamom, sugar and orange to original recipe and named “Glögg”. It is known as “Glühwein” in Germany, “Vin Chaud” in France, and “Vin Brulé” in Italy. It varies in taste in different countries, since it is prepared by different recipes. 

Preparing mulled wine is simple and entertaining. It does not require much effort because you can simply cut fruits in any size, put them in a saucepan and boil. Also, you can add spices as you please, so you can create recipes for your own taste. In order to preserve look and maintain ease to drink, spices should not be used in powdered form. Most of the people think that mulled wine is boiled while preparing, which is totally wrong. Wine should not be directly heated and boiled in order to prevent alcohol from evaporating. So that, wine is poured into previously boiled ingredients, and it is heated by the heat of those ingredients. If you prepare mulled wine by paying attention to those kinds of tips, you can be sure that it will be your winter favorite beverage. 

While we are counting the days to Christmas, get ready with your fruits, spices and wines. Decorate your glass of mulled wines, and greet New Year with your home filled with smell of spices and fruits.

 

For 3 liters...

Ingredients 

2 liters dry red wine 

1 liter cherry juice 

½ cup honey 

2 oranges 

2 apples 

1 quince 

Seeds of 1 pomegranate 

Peels of 1 lemon 

20 dried black pepper seeds 

15 buds of clove 

15 cinnamon sticks 

1 pod of cardamom 

2 seeds of star anise 

1 teaspoon of grated ginger root

NOTE: It is not necessary to use aged, high quality wine for the recipe. Average quality wine would suffice.

 

Instructions

1. Cut off oranges, apples and quince into large pieces without peeling. Put pomegranate seeds, lemon peels and fruits into a saucepan. You are going to prepare 3 liters of mulled wine, so choose saucepan accordingly. 

2. Remove seeds from pod of cardamom, add them with black pepper seeds, clove buds, cinnamon sticks, star anise seeds and grated ginger root into the saucepan. 

3. Put all cherry juice into a jar, add honey and mix them well. After, pour the mixture into saucepan, over other ingredients. 

4. Put saucepan into heat, boil fruits and spices that you have mixed with cherry juice for 30 minutes. 

5. After 30 minutes, remove saucepan from heat and in order to prevent wine from contacting with boiled mixture, allow 5-10 minutes to cool. 

6. Add 2 liters of wine into mixture and stir well. Allow 15 minutes to make sure that taste and smell of mixture passed into wine. 

7. After 15 minutes, using a sieve, filter all fruits and spices.

TIP: If you’d like, you can leave 2-3 cinnamon sticks, 1-2 clove buds and some fruits at the bottom of saucepan to enhance the taste.

8. You can serve mulled wine in a glass or in a cup with a stick of cinnamon and a slice of orange inside.

I wish all of you a merry Christmas… 

Bon appetite...

ASLI’S CHRISTMAS SPECIAL STAR SHAPED COOKIES WITH ALMOND AND CINNAMON

With start of preperations for Christmas, as December begins, I would like to leave you alone with smell of ginger and cinnamon coming out of your kitchen. Plans for Christmas have been already getting shape as with the decorated pine trees. So, I wanted to publish a recipe that suits for that excitement, special for December and I thought that, best way to gather people around this excitement is to have Asli’s Christmas special star shaped cookies with almond and cinnamon. In short, these cookies will make you and people around you more than happy. 

As the adaptor of this recipe, my sister Asli, she believes in the spirit of Christmas. As the Christmas approaches, her desk decorated without minding her colleagues, keeping decorated Christmas tree twelve months a year, her house filled with colored candles, ornaments and her Christmas recipes are evidences for that. For me, her special Christmas cookies reflect her spirit.

Although being a German recipe originally, I can say that, this recipe, which has become a specialty for my sister, is now turned into a December activity for our family and regarded as a custom for Christmas. Our kitchen is filled with star shaped cookies, made together with whole family, as we get closer to Christmas. My sister, every year makes hundreds of these tiny cookies and gives them away to people around her. She prepares cookie boxes for her friends and relatives and sends them. In short, with the start of December, everyone waits Asli’s special Christmas cookies with excitement. 

Star shaped cookies are made with almond instead of flour, covered with meringue. They really reflect the spirit of Christmas with its addictive taste, so that you can’t stop eating. Cinnamon and ginger added to cookies will ensure aromatic taste. To improve the aromatic taste, optionally, you can add Kirschwasser if you can find. Kirschwasser is a German fruit brandy made with cherries which is widely used with dessert recipes. It is a nice choice for these cookies and it enhances their taste.

These cookies are slightly harder to prepare, it requires some effort. However, their look and taste worth the effort. The hardest part is to covering every single cookie using icing with care. If you are going to give out to your friends, it can take hours to prepare several baking trays of cookies. But surely, whoever tastes your cookies will ask for more. And this will make you quite happy. 

If you are one of those who believes in the spirit of Christmas and you want to carry on the spirit, as Christmas approaches, you can make you and your loved ones happy with those special cookies.

 

For 40-50 cookies... 

Ingredients

250 gr almond flour 

White of 3 eggs 

225 gr powdered sugar 

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

½ teaspoon ginger 

1 teaspoon lemon juice 

3-4 cloves

½ tablespoon Kirschwasser (optional) 

NOTE: If you want to double the number of cookies, you should use white of 5 eggs instead of 6.

Instructions

1. First, wait cloves in lemon juice 5-10 minutes in order to have their taste and smell passed to lemon juice. 

2. Put powdered sugar and white of eggs in a bowl and stir them using electric mixer until the mixture gets snow white color. 

3. After you are done with stirring, take a cup of it to use as icing. Put the remaing into refrigerator. You will use it for cookie dough later. 

4. Put almond flour, cinnamon, ginger, lemon juice and optional Kirschwasser in to a bowl and mix them with a spoon or hand mixer. Pour powdered sugar and egg white mixture on it. 

TIP: You should pour mixture into the bowl in 3-4 steps as you are continue mixing until it becomes consistent. After white snow mixture and other ingredients are mixed well enough, work the cookie dough using your hands. 

5. Roll out the dough until it becomes 1 cm thick. 

TIP: The cookie dough will be very sticky because of almond flour. To prevent it sticking to your rolling pin, you should place cookie dough between baking papers. 

6. Using small star shaped cookie cutter, take out star shaped pieces from cookie dough and put them on baking paper placed on a baking tray. 

TIP: To prevent cookie dough sticking to cutter, coat the cutter with flour before using. By this way you can easily remove the shaped cookie dough from the cutter. 

7. Remove the meringue mixture from refrigerator to decorate cookies. 

8. Pour a teaspoon of meringue mixture onto cookie doughs that you have placed on baking paper. Using a thin stick, cover the cookie dough with meringue. While doing this, try not to spill over meringue from dough. 

9. After you are done with icing, place the dough in a pre-heated oven at 220°C (430°F) and bake them 5-7 minutes. You should check after 5 minutes to prevent meringue icing from burning. 

10. Remove your cookies after they are baked and allow them to cool. After they are cooled, you can share them with your loved ones. 

Thanks a lot to my sister Asli for putting so much effort making these cookies! 

Bon apetite...

CUPCAKES WITH COFFEE AND ORANGE FLAVOR

Same content as in regular cake, but for one: Cupcake! Cupcakes, also known as fairy cakes, are very popular these days. Cake part is nothing but a regular piece of cake, however it distinguishes itself with the frosting and topping it has. 

The use of term “cupcake” originated in the early 19th century, referring the use of cup as measure for amount of contents. The name of the cupcakes which in early recipes, they are made up of one cup of butter, two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, four eggs, comes from that measure of the contents and this name first appeared in a cookbook printed in 1828.

Cupcakes are easy to prepare desserts that you can serve for your special occasions and amaze your guests with the look they have. You can try for different tastes using varieties of flavor for cake and frosting. These tiny cakes have various recipes with contents and frosting which you can get a different taste every time you prepare. How will they look is up to your imagination... 

After seeing too many cupcake shops everywhere and demand for them I wanted to give a try and make cupcakes. Since it has very creamy frosting and I don’t like sweet, I couldn’t dare to buy and try cupcakes. So, the first ever cupcake I have tasted is the one I made. As far as that I have made, tasted and served, I can honestly say that they looked and tasted very good. However, I can admit that I enjoyed cooking more than eating. Especially, as I was adding the topping, I have thought, that was the most enjoying part. 

This recipe is definitely not hard, it does not require much effort. More importantly, you feel prideful as you look at the tiny cakes that you have just made. If you are addicted to that taste, instead of buying, I suggest you to try this recipe.

For 10-11 cupcakes...

Ingredients 

For cake dough: 

2 eggs 

4 tablespoon granulated sugar 

¼ cup olive oil 

½ cup milk 

1.5 cups flour 

1 teaspoon granulated coffee 

Grated peel of 1 middle sized orange 

1 pack of baking powder (10 grams) 

For frosting: 

1 pack of whipped cream powder mix (75 grams) 

2.5 tablespoon powdered sugar 

1 cup milk 

1 teaspoon granulated coffee 

For topping: 

4-5 piece of grated bitter chocolate (optional) 

½ teaspoon granulated coffee mixed with ¼ cup of water (optional)

 

Instructions: 

1. Mix milk and granulated coffee before stirring other cake dough contents, allowing them to wait for 5 minutes. 

2. Mix granulated sugar and eggs using an electric mixer until sugar completely dissolves and become creamy. 

TIP: If you want your cupcakes to be puffy, you should mix eggs and granulated sugar until bubbles appear. 

3. Keep mixing eggs and sugar while adding milk and coffee that you have previously prepared, olive oil, grated orange peel. 

4. After you are done with mixing, pour flour and baking powder and mix them fast with a spoon 

TIP: Another tip for having fluffy cupcake is to not using electric mixer for stirring baking powder. You should use spoon after you add baking powder.

5. Fill the cupcake molds with dough that you prepared, leaving 1 finger depth from the top of the molds empty to allow cupcake to rise during baking. 

6. Bake cupcakes in a pre-heated oven at 175°C (350°F) for 25 minutes. 

7. While your cupcakes are baking, you can prepare frosting. Mix milk and granulated coffee that you are going to add to frosting as you did before. 

8. Stir milk and coffee mix, whipped cream powder, powdered sugar in a bowl using an electric mixer, first slowly then increasing its speed, for 2-3 minutes. 

9. Fill your piping bag with frosting that you have prepared. 

10. Remove cupcakes from oven. Allow them to cooldown for about 5 minutes at room temperature, before covering them with frosting. 

11. After that, cover the cupcakes with frosting using piping bag as you please. 

12. Optionally, you can pour coffee - water mix and grated bitter chocolate as topping over frosting. 

Bon apetite...

LASAGNE WITH BOLOGNESE AND BECHAMEL SAUCE

Lasagne is an Italian dish that is hard to prepare but it is delicious after all that effort. Lasagna, originally, is the name of the pot that lasagne cooked, but eventually, today it is used for the dish itself. 

Lasagne, which is prepared using a lot of tomato sauce, origins back to 13th century. Tomato was not introduced to Europe at that date, so the original recipe for lasagne contains different types of cheese. Today, one of the most preferred recipe is the recipe with Bolognese sauce in which meat is a must and prepared using plenty of cheese. 

An interesting fact that I came across while I was doing a little research on lasagne is that, you can actually cook lasagne in a dishwasher. After you put all the ingredients in a dish and covering it with aluminum foil tightly, you can easily cook it by switching your dishwasher heated dryer mode on. Even I am sure that you are not going to try, I have to say: “Please do not try at home”. 

Lasagne is a filling dish which requires a little bit more effort than most of the dishes because of the preparation of separate sauces, large number of ingredients and the way it is made. You can reduce the effort if you prefer oven-ready lasagne sheets. But be sure that, when you taste it, you will see that it is worth all the effort.

 

For 5-6 people... 

Ingredients 

Main Ingredients: 

12 lasagne sheets 

2 cups grated mozzarella 

For Bolognese sauce: 

300 gr lean minced meat 

⅓ cup olive oil 

4 middle sized tomatoes 

1 middle sized carrot 

1 middle sized onion 

1 banana pepper 

1 red bell pepper 

4-5 mushrooms (optional) 

4 cloves garlic 

1.5 tablespoons tomato paste 

1 tablespoon paprika paste 

Spices for Bolognese sauce: 

A pinch of salt 

1 bay leaf 

Black pepper (optional) 

Chili powder (optional) 

Dried thyme (optional) 

Dried basil (optional) 

TIP: Usually, bay leaves are used to enhance smell and taste of meat and added while the meat is cooked. After meat is cooked, they are removed. 

For Bechamel sauce: 

3 tablespoons butter 

2 fully filled tablespoons flour 

3.5 cups milk 

Instructions: 

1. Grate carrots and tomatoes for Bolognese sauce. Cut peppers, mushrooms, onion, and garlic into small pieces. 

2. Add all the olive oil into the saucer that you are going to fry minced meat and heat up a little bit. 

3. Put minced meat and bay leaf with all spices into heated pan and start frying. 

4. After 1-2 minutes, put onion and garlic that you have previously cut into the pan. 

5. Add tomato and paprika paste just before onion is cooked and continue mixing. 

6. Put carrot, mushroom, tomato and pepper into the pan and cook. 

7. Remove cooked Bolognese sauce from pan and allow it to cool while you are preparing Bechamel sauce. 

NOTE: Remove the bay leaf after you are done with cooking. 

8. Melt butter in a saucepan. 

9. Add flour into saucepan with melted butter and heat. 

10. Keep mixing while adding milk slowly over heated flour. You can remove the saucepan from stove when it gets consistency. 

11. Spread a ladle of Bechamel sauce over the bottom of the dish that you are going to prepare lasagne in. 

12. Place lasagne sheets over Bechamel sauce to cover bottom of the dish completely. 

13. Cover lasagne sheets with Bechamel sauce again. 

14. Spread a couple of tablespoon Bolognese sauce over Bechamel sauce and add desired amount of grated mozzarella. 

15. Place another lasagne sheet and follow same steps until you use all the lasagne sheets and sauce. 

16. Spread remaining Bechamel sauce over top sheet. 

17. Add remaining grated mozzarella all over the dish. 

18. Heat your oven up to 200°C (400°F). Put lasagne into the pre-heated oven. 

19. Remove lasagne from oven after cooking for 25-30 minutes. You can serve now.

Bon appetite...