Artichoke Heart and Lamb Stew-nimbuls (Kuzu Etli Enginar)

Artichoke and lamb stew is a very common dish in the western Aegean part of Turkey, where Turk and Greeks lived together for years. The original recipe requires artichoke heart, lamb, onion, and, the most important of all dill. Yet, I find the mix of just artichoke and lamb to be very heavy, so I modified the recipe by adding carrot ands green peas.


























serves 4-6

1 pound lamb
8-10 small or 4-6 big peeled artichoke hearts, cut into 4-6 pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped in half rounds
1 pound fresh green peas or 1 can green peas
1/2 bunch dill, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil or 4 tbsp butter
1 1/2 tbsp flour
juice of 1 1/2 lemon
1 tsp sugar
water
salt
-Soak chopped artichoke hearts in a bowl with lemon juice until you cook them. Otherwise, they will darken.
-Heat olive oil or butter in a broad pot and add lamb. Stir for a couple of minutes until it's cooked on each side.
-Add onion and carrot. Stir until onion is softened. Add flour and stir for another minutes.
-Add artichoke, green peas, lemon juice, sugar, and salt. Add water to barely cover vegetables.
-Bring to a boil, and then cover and simmer on low for almost an hour.
-Add dill after your turn it off.
-Serve with rice or bread.

Bulgur Pilaf with Green Lentils-nimbuls (Mercimekli Bulgur Pilavi)

A perfect bulgur pilaf recipe!

1/2 cup green lentils
1 cup coarse bulgur
5-6 sun dried tomatoes, finely chopped
2-3 dried hot chilies, chopped
2 red or green chilies, chopped
2 medium onions, finely chopped
3 tbsp tomato paste
4 tbsp olive oil



























-Boil 1/2 cup green lentils with 3-4 cups of water until soft, approximately 15-20 minutes, and drain. (!/2 cup lentils will make 1 cup after boiled)
-Heat olive oil in a pot. Add onion. Stir for 5 minutes.
-Add sun dried tomatoes, hot chilies, and green peppers. Stir for 3-4 minutes and then add tomato paste. Stir for another 3 minutes.
-Add bulgur, lentils, 2 cups of hot water, and salt.
-Once it starts boiling, turn it all the way to low. Cover and cook until there's no more water left.
-Cover the top of the pot with paper towel or a clean kitchen towel. Seal with the lid and let sit at least for 10 minutes before you serve.

Vegeterian Stuffed Eggplants-nimbuls (İmam Bayıldı)

İmam bayıldı is one of the most popular olive oil dishes of Turkish cuisine. It literally translates as "imam (the priest) fainted." The rumor goes that imam faints, out of stinginess, when he learns the amount of olive oil used to make this dish.

İmam bayıldı is also known as the vegetarian version of another very popular eggplant dish: stuffed eggplants (karnıyarık). In traditional cuisine eggplants are deep fried as a whole, just like in stuffed eggplants, in preparation of imam bayıldı. And the stuffing is kind of stir fried with olive oil. However, my mom skips the deep and stir frying parts and starts with raw vegetables for a lighter and possibly healthier recipe.


























2 lb small eggplant
1 lb onion, chopped thinly in half-moon shape
4-5 green chilies, chopped
10 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 lb tomato, diced
1 tsp sugar
1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped
3/4 cup olive oil



















-Peel eggplants in stripes lengthwise. Cut them into four lengthwise leaving the bottom attached. Put them in salty water to prevent darkening.
-Chop onions very thinly in half moon shape. Place them in a bowl and knead with a pinch of salt.Add finely chopped green peppers and cubed tomatoes to onion.-Add finely chopped garlic, parsley, salt and sugar to the mixture. Mix them all well.-Take eggplants out from the salty water by squeezing them well.-Place eggplants in a broad and shallow pot. With your hand lift the top two parts, open them up, and fill them with the vegetable mixture. If there's any stuffing left, place it on top.-Pour the olive oil on top along with ½ cup water.-Cover and cook first on high until it boils, then on low until eggplants are cooked, approximately 30-45 minutes depending on the kind of eggplant.
-This is a traditional olive oil dish, which means that it's served when it's cold and that it's always better the next day.

Frozen Panda Cake-nimbuls (Panda Pasta)

One of my oldest friends, Sena, taught this recipe to me approximately 15 years ago. It was a big hit then. We would make Panda cake every week. Especially that coco sauce; we didn't seem to get enough of it. Although this is really a pudding, since you need to cut it and eat it with a fork we call it a cake.

200 gr. butter
1 - 1.5 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)
1 cup flour
1 liter milk
1 tsp vanilla or 1-2 piece mastic gum

for the sauce
50 gr. butter
4 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp unsweetened coco powder
4 tsbp milk
1 egg


























-Heat butter in a pan. Add flour and sugar. Stir with a wooden spoon on medium heat constantly approximately for 5-7 minutes.
-Add milk. Stir constantly until it thickens up.
-Add mastic gum if you can find it. (Read Haalo's post to learn more about mastic gum) [Gum mastic can easily be purchased from Middle Eastern stores or from Amazon]
-Pour cold water in a big and shallow pot. Place the pudding pot in the big shallow one so that the pudding pot is surrounded by cold water. Beat pudding with electric mixer on medium to high for 15 minutes. This will air up pudding and give it a nice texture.
-Wet a 2 or 3 quart glass dish. Pour pudding into the glass dish. Cover with a clear wrap and put in freezer.
-For the sauce, melt butter. In a mixing bowl beat butter, egg, sugar, coco powder, and milk. Add milk one tbsp at a time to lighten the sauce up.
-Spread the coco sauce on pudding which should be slightly firm by now. Put it back in the freezer.
-Take Panda cake out of the freezer 10 minutes before serving to give it a little time to warm up and be ready to be cut. Put the rest back into the freezer.
-You can serve it with ice cream.

Çanakkale Style Vegetable Stew-nimbuls (Şaraşura)

This summer stew is a specialty of Çanakkale. Çanakkale, the northern Aegean/ half Thracian city, has a rich cuisine, but once you taste its famous peynir helvası (cheese halva) and fresh fish from Dardanelles you forget to ask for more.

1 lb green beans, trimmed and cut into two
1 eggplant, peeled in stripes and largely diced
1 zucchini, largely diced
2 potatoes, largely diced
3 banana peppers, chopped in big rounds
1 big onion, roughly chopped
2 tomatoes, cubed
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 -2 cups of water
1 tbsp tomato paste
salt



















-Heat oil in a big pot. Add onions. Stir until cooked.
-Add in peppers and tomatoes. Cook for 10 minutes.
-Melt tomato paste in with a little bit of warm water and stir in.
-Add all the vegetables, salt and water. Mix well.
-Cover and cook on medium for 45 minutes or until vegetables are cooked.
-Serve luke warm or hot. It goes well with rice, bulgur, or couscous.