Roasted Beet Soup-nimbuls (Fırınlanmış Pancar Çorbası)

I had found a recipe for a roasted beet soup at Cafe Fernando. I was mesmerized by the color of the beet soup and also by the fact that I'd never cooked with beets before. So I decided to try; however, the original recipe asked for celery stalks, which I cannot stand, and was introduced as a "sweet" one. So, to avoid celery stalks and sweetness, I modified the recipe a little bit, o.k. maybe a lot.

I updated the recipe after my 2nd trial.

3 beet roots, diced
1 cup beet stalks, chopped
5 cloves of garlic
1 carrot, cut in rounds
1 potato, diced
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup rice
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp white peppercorn
1 tsp crushed pepper/ pepper flakes (if you want it spicy)
1 tsp red chili powder
7 cups of water or vegetable stock
1/2 bunch dill

optional
juice of 1 lemon or lime
crumbled feta

-Wrap beet roots separately and garlic cloves together in aluminum foil and bake in the preheated oven at 375 F for an hour. You have to let them cool down to a bearable temperature before you peel and dice the roots.
-Heat oil + butter in a large pot and start cooking onions, peppers, and beet stalks
-Add carrots and potatoes. Stir on medium heat for 4-5 minutes
-Now it's time to add beets, garlic, and white peppercorns. Stir for 2-3 minutes
-Add red chili powder, stir for half a minute and add water, salt, and crushed pepper
-When the water boils add rice. Cook for 40 minutes on low to medium heat and stir every now and then
-The soup will be ready when rice is cooked
-I used the soup master (the hand blender) to smoothen it. If you won't smoothen the soup, you should probably chop everything finely
-Garnish with dill and serve with a slice of lemon or lime. The sourness gives it a nice flavor

Things to keeps in mind if you'll try to make this soup are 1) do not wear white! 2) do not skip on dill; you won't believe how well roasted beet and dill get along 3) be adventurous and sprinkle some crumbled feta on top with dill (it's good with lemon juice, too, but I think I favor feta over lemon).

This recipe with the must-have ingredient dill is for Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging which is hosted by Ulrike of Kuchenlatein.

Turkish Omelette-nimbuls (Kaygana)

The first time I tried kaygana was 15 years ago when I was traveling in the Black Sea region with my family. There was a small authentic restaurant that served only Black Sea region food on the way to Sumela Monastery, in Trabzon province, and they served us kaygana along with other numerous delicious local food. Since I've always had a love-hate relationship with eggs, I was reluctant to taste it at first. But then it became my favorite egg dish. After our trip I couldn't find kaygana anywhere else, and that's why I believed it was a Black Sea dish; however, from Marianna Yerasimos' 500 Hundred Years of Ottoman Cuisine I learned that kaygana is an old Ottoman dish.

It seems that there are numerous ways of making kaygana. Yerasimos says that you can make "bread kaygana," "anchovy kaygana," or "eggplant kaygana" (mmmm). So it's a really flexible recipe with which you can go creative. You can make a sweet kaygana (by adding sugar, honey, or jam) as well as a savory one; it's all up to you. You can add peppers, green onions, feta cheese, sun dried tomatoes, mushroom, bacon, pepperoni, honey, etc. in the eggy mixture or you can make a plain kaygana and roll all those things with it just like you'd do with a crepe. I tried adding feta and parsley and it turned out great!

One last point: The recipe in Yerasimos' book is not the same as the one I tried in Trabzon, in that little restaurant. The reason is that they use corn flour in Black Sea region, whereas the recipe I used required white flour. But next time I'll try corn flour.

serves 1
2 eggs
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp water or milk
salt

1 tbsp butter or olive oil

2 tbsp finely chopped flat leaf parsley
1/3 cup crumbled feta (you can use more or less than this)
black pepper
red pepper flakes

-Put flour in a bowl and break eggs into the bowl. Mix well. Add water or milk, whichever you want, and mix again. [So far is the basic recipe. You may go ahead and cook it on frying pan with butter or oil, and then roll it with feta and parsley.]
-Add parsley, feta, black pepper, and pepper flakes to this mix and mix them all. (Since feta was already very salty, I didn't add salt).
-Heat oil in a frying pan. Add either one scoop at a time for small rounds or the whole mix for a big one. When one side is cooked, flip it over.

This recipe with my favorite herb flat leaf parsley, which is great for a lazy weekend breakfast, is for Weekend Herb Blogging which was founded by Kalyn and is hosted by Ed of Tomato this weekend.

Yogurt Soup-nimbuls (Yayla Çorbası)

Yogurt soup is a popular comfort dish both in Turkey and Central Asia. To me, it shows how we, Turks, are obsessed with yogurt; we even cook it! It's also a very common sick soup; even inhaling the strong smell of mint or tarragon makes you feel better. Although Turks love this soup, I can see why many people, especially those who are not in good terms with yogurt, may not like this. So, the decision is up to you: to try or not to try...

1/4 cup rice
5 cups of water (if you wish you can use half chicken stock, half water)
2 cups of plain yogurt
1 egg
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp butter
2 tsp dried mint or tarragon
1 tsp salt

-Boil rice in 5 cups of water with salt until (very) soft.
-In a bowl, beat the egg and flour well, and then add yogurt and mix. With 1-2 tbsp water lighten up this mixture.
-Put the yogurt mix in a pot and start cooking on very low. It's important that you start with low heat, otherwise yogurt would curdle. Give yogurt some time to get used to heat. Cook on low heat for approximately 15 minutes and keep stirring.
-Slowly pour in rice along with water into the soup. Keep stirring. First let it boil on medium and then turn it down and cook for another 10 minutes.
-Heat butter in a pan. Once it sizzles, add mint flakes and stir for 20-30 seconds (don't let it burn). Then, pour it into soup.

Turkish Rice Pudding-Baked-nimbuls (Fırın Sütlaç)

Sütlaç is a light dessert originated in Ottoman cuisine. The rumor goes that it was flavored with rose water in palace kitchens, but in my kitchen I skipped that ingredient. If you want to try the original taste, add 2-3 tsp rose water to milk.

1 lt (32 oz.) milk
1/2 cup white rice
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup corn flour or corn starch

-Wash the rice and boil it with 2 cups of water until water is soaked
-Put rice, milk, and sugar in a pot and stir on low. Keep stirring for 20-30 minutes more after it starts boiling.
-Mix corn starch with a little bit of water until the mixture is smooth. Then, add this mixture to the pot. Stir for 4-5 minutes.
-Now you need to decide whether you want to have regular sütlaç or baked one. If you want regular rice pudding, pour the pudding into bowls and serve cold with cinnamon sprinkled on top. However, if you want baked rice pudding, pick oven safe bowls, put put pudding in them, and then broil them until the top is brown, dark brown. Chill and serve.
-Another way to make baked rice pudding is to mix 2 tbsp of pudding (after you turn off the heat stove) with one egg yolk, and spread this mix lightly and evenly on the pudding after pouring them in bowls. If you broil sütlaç with the eggy mixture on top, you'll have a more flavorsome pudding.

See also Rice Pudding with Gum Mastic