(mix) Fruity cookies

I always keep something in our cookies jar in case if there is family, friends or neighbors come to visit. Or it's just only for accompany our afternoon tea. Mostly chocolate cookies in it... But today I made something else. Since I found many dried fruit in my storage cabin, so why didn't I make them something? like this cookies......

Ingredients:

• 2 medium eggs 
• 250 gr unsalted butter, soften at room temperature 
• ¾ cup brown sugar 
• ½ cup sugar 
• 3 cups flour 
• 2 tsp ground ginger 
• 3 tsp ground cinnamon 
• ¼ tsp ground cloves 
• 1 tsp vanilla powder 
• ¼ tsp fine salt 
• 1 cup mixed dried fruit  
• 1 cup raisins or seeded sultanas, roughly chopped 
• ½ cup roughly chopped dried peaches (if any) 
• ½ cup pecans (or other nuts) roughly chopped 

How to make: 

1) Sift together: flour, salt, ginger powder, cinnamon powder, clove powder, vanilla powder, set aside. In a large bowl, beat together: butter, brown sugar, and sugar, beat until well blended. Beat in eggs one at a time, beat well after each addition, beat about 3  minutes more.

2) Carefully, mix in dry ingredient mixture alternately with fruit mixture plus pecans (or other peanuts). Stir with wooden spoon or spatula until blended.

3) Place the dough in plastic (I use plastic stretch) and shape it long pipe form (as shown),  wrap it carefully and  store in freezer about 40 minutes.
  Note: you can divide the batter into two equal part and wrap individually.

4) After 40 minutes, take the dough from frezer, slice with sharp knife about 0.5 cm thick. Place in baking tray lined with baking paper, do not forget to give a space about two fingers from each other. Let stand about 15 ~ 20 minutes until cookies are slightly thaw.

5) Pre heat oven at 180 ⁰C. Bake for 20 ~ 25 minutes until cooked and golden brown on surface.
Let stand until room temperature before stored in an airtight jar.

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Stuffed Chicken Wings... and I'm back ! ^,^

 It's been for a while I've been absence.. I had some administrative things to do. I'd been to Ankara for few days. Beside went to my embassy, I met some other Indonesian friends there... lovely time. After from Ankara, I went to some other places too... hhh... thanks God, everything are finish now... 

With some Indonesian friends in Ankara

Well... after some time didn't write any post... today I started with one of my favorite.. I'm sure it will be your fave too after you try it ^,^

I love chicken, especially wing part.. I don't know why, I think it more crispy than other part, don't you think so? @(^,^)@

If you are boring just fried them, why don't you try this stuffed recipe or your chicken wing..

What you Need:

 10 clean chicken wings. Discard the bones inside the wings, coat with 2 tablespoons lemon juice and a pinch of salt, let stand minimum 30 minutes.

 ½ portion of boneless chicken breasts, minced. (Or you can use 300 gr minced beef)
 200 gr shrimp, discard head and tail, minced.
 2 large carrots, finely shaved.
 1 egg, lightly beaten.
 2 tsp oyster sauce
 1 teaspoon ground ginger
 3 cloves garlic, finely grated.
 Sugar, salt and black pepper powder to taste.
Other Ingredients for coating:
 2 eggs, beaten
 Bread crumb flour/ panko flour
 Cooking oil.

method:
1) In a bowl, mix together, minced chicken, shrimp, carrots, eggs and all seasonings,taste the flavor. Put the stuffing mixture into pipping bag and fill prepared chicken wings with it. Steam for 30 minutes. Allow up to room temperature before coating them.
2) Dip wings  into beaten egg, coat with panko flour, dip in beaten egg and coat with panko flour again. Do same to all wings. Heat oil in deep skillet, fry wings just until golden brown. Drain.

Serve warm with chili sauce and your favorite salad.

served 10 wings

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Homemade Cherry Compote and some Facts about Cherry

As I said previously, for celebrating cherry season (read: Low price cherry) here in Turkey I will post some recipe using this fascinating cherry. And read some facts about this little cute fruit below that I copy from some sources.

 

Some great facts and advantages about this Cherry:
* Cherry contain anthocyanins which combat diabetes (lowers blood sugar levels)

* Consuming fresh Cherry also can reduce levels of cholesterol in the blood.

As reported by genius beauty, cherry juice can improve your sleep quality. Research has shown that people who had been drinking cherry juice without the sugar in the morning and evening, have better sleep than those who drink other juice in the same amount. The average duration of their sleep improved by 17 minutes after eating cherry juice.
The content of the cherry juice affects melatonin in the body. Melatonin is a hormone that regulates sleep and wake cycles, as manifested by Wilfred Pigeon, a psychiatrist the University of Rochester in New York.

Check my other post using Cherries.

Well, after knowing the fact of these cherry.. let's make this one also, shall we? ^,^

Ingredients:
 500 grams of fresh cherry fruit, pitted and clean the stem.
 7 tablespoons granulated sugar (or you can use diabetes sugar for a healthy reason)
 ¾ tsp citric acid (or can be replaced with 2 tablespoons lemon juice)
 ¾ cup water
 ½ tsp Vanilla extract

In a heavy-bottom sauce pan, put sugar, water and citric acid, bring to almost boiling and  sugar dissolves. Put in fresh cherry, stir very gently until all cherries covered with the syrup, let it cook about 2 ~ 3 minutes.
If you cook it too long, cherry will soft and tend to crushed, but if you like it that way (slightly like jam), you can also cook them a bit longer.

Let stand until room temperature before storage in sterile jars. Keep refrigerated

(Yield about 700 gr). You can double the recipe to make more yield.

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TAVUKLU DÜRÜM (Chicken roll flat bread) / Turkish #CHICKENKEBAB

Selam everybody...Merhaba from Turkey.

Dürüm means Roll in English. Dürüm is very famous in Turkey, I think everybody like it. Dürüm stuffed with lamb or beef şiş kebab(minced meat in skewer then roasted), some vegetable salad and typical spread sauce with a lot of  'Isot biber' (black hot pepper). This 'isot biber' which make Turkish Dürüm has typical taste, and roll in 'lavaş' (read lavash-tortila or flat naan bread look a like)

Dürüm is favorite menu in restaurant, but today I make it homemade with different stuffing. I use chicken instead of minced meat, but with same spread sauce and salad... well, I got "high score" from my Turkish hubby @(^,^)@

in here it is I share my ev yapımı tavuklu dürüm (homemade chicken Dürüm)......

Ingredients: 

ingredients A (Chicken kebab):
 500gr boneless chicken breasts (I use some fats also), cut into bite size
 1 medium onion, grated
 2 cloves garlic, grated
 4 tablespoons olive oil (or other vegetable oil)
 2 Tbsp Turkish spice mix (baharat karışımı) See here for recipe (*)
 Salt and pepper to taste


Replace (*) with:
 1 Tbsp red paprika powder (tatlı biber)
 1 tsp cayenne pepper powder (acıbiber)
 1 tea spoon ground cumin  
 1 tea spoon hot chili flake (or more if you like)
 1 tbsp dried thyme (or fresh, finely chopped) 

Isot biber (Black hot pepper)

Ingredients B (sauce): 
 2 tablespoons tomato paste (mixed with chili paste if you like)
 Isot biber (spicy hot black pepper flake)

 Hot red chili flake to taste 
 3 tablespoons olive oil 
 pinch of Salt 

Ingredients (C) Salad and other complementary: 

 Fresh (daily) Lavaş flat bread
 Onions, thinly sliced, squeezed with salt and wash clean.
 Celery, finely chopped.
 Tomato, cut into thin
 Lettuce (optional), thinly sliced
 Isot biber and red chilly flake for more on top.

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Cherry Cake

Merhaba From Türkiye 👋


First of all, I'd like to thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you can come back, again and again, to check up on any beyond Indonesian or Turkish food or something sweets that you might love. Your comments and emails brighten my days and make this simple blog thing worthwhile 😍💛

 

Yaayyy... Summer really come in market :))
Many kinds of fruits and vegetables which I couldn't find in wintertime, now everywhere in farmer market, and the price getting low each day :))
And I found many many fresh cherries with low price as well as strawberry and other summer fruits.
Cherry season is coming.... Hubby bought some kilos, now I'm thinking how will I do with those many cherries... For the start.. it's my simple Cherry Cake.

Cherry Cake

By: Çitra's Home Diary

Make one 22 cm bund pan

Ingredients: 

 1 cup pitted fresh cherries, cut quartered or halved
 ¾ cup caster sugar
 2 large egg
 ¼ cup (± 60 g) unsalted butter, Soften at room temperature. Plus for greasing baking pan 

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Rosemary Lemon Chicken

I planted some pots of rosemary in my balcony. Since this early spring, my rosemary got some new shoots and grow beautifully with some new green leaves. I'm very happy to see it, more over, the smell of it fragrance in early morning ...and yesterday I picked few new green stems to try some menus using this great scent of this rosemary which I really like, one of them is chicken with rosemary and lemon . Easy and quick to make with perfect result...

And here it's my easy recipe..

served 2

Ingredients:
 2 boneless and skinless chicken breasts.
 3 pieces medium potato, peeled and wedge (apple cut).
 ½ medium lemon, press the juice.
 fresh rosemary, roughly chopped (about 2 tablespoons)
 2 cloves garlic, Crushed and minced (or finely grated)

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Lemon Curd Mousse Cake and 1 year Blog anniversary

Yes, today is my 1st Blog anniversary. Time seemed passed so quickly, I've been writing this blog for a year now. If there is anyone (my blog reader/ follower) follow this blog from start, you'll notice the beginning of my journey writing  this blog and some changes that to be a witness of this blog transformation/ journey.


One year ago, My Blog name was NEVER ENDING LEARNING OF SIMPLY ME, as you can see picture below. I named it like that because indeed I'm still learning anything including cooking/ baking, etc.. learning process for me is never ending.. until now.

 After for a while I change my blog name few times as well as my blog page appearances. Before I finally change this blog into : "My Home diary in Turkey".. my blog name was Indonesian in Turkey. 


During one year writing this blog, some awards and appreciations came from other blogger friends and food site I've joined, all those record you can see it here. 
Thank you to all my readers and friends for the support for me.. Really I appreciated it. If there is one or two award passed to me but I didn't pass to other friends yet.. please be patient, I never mean to keep it for my self.. I just need more time to sit down longer in front of my computer to do so... be patient :)


Up to now, I already posted 201 posts in this blog.. hopefully there will be another more qualify and better post in future.. I just need your support friends :)


Well, and here is another post for celebrate my blog: Lemon Curd Mousse Cake.. this is my 1st attempt of mousse cake. Learning from other page and many source of making this mousse cake, here it is I share my version of lemon curd mousse cake...

Ingredients:
For the crust base:
 1 ½ cup biscuit crumb
 15 g butter, melted

Mousse Ingredients:
 1 cup lemon curd. Recipes can be found here.
 3 ½ tsp powdered gelatin
 5 tablespoons water
 2 medium size whole eggs
 ½~¾ cup granulated sugar ( I use only ½ cup)

 1 package (75 gr) powdered whipped cream and whisk with ½ cup cold milk until thick (soft peak). Store in refrigerator until ready to use.
Or you can use 1 ½ cup chilled whipped cream, beat/ whisk  until thick (soft peak) and store in refrigerator until ready to use.

Topping ingredients:
 ¾ cup lemon curd
 ½ tsp powdered gelatin
 3 tablespoons water

The process:

1) Prepare springform pan 8" size (diameter ± 20 cm). Mix  biscuit crumbs with melted butter, then press evenly on the bottom pan. Set aside in refrigerator until ready to use.

2) Make the mousse: Pour 5 tablespoons water in small sauce pan and sprinkle with gelatin powder, set aside for ±15 minutes to make gelatin soft. Place lemon curd in a medium size saucepan and warm over a very low flame (be careful not to burn it). Remove from heat.

3) Heat soften gelatin over very low heat, stir until gelatin becomes clear solution (do not boil), then immediately pour into warm lemon curd in another pan. Stir well. Set aside.

4) Simmer some water over another pot. Mix eggs and sugar in a heat-resistant bowl or stainless steel, whisk over that simmer water (double boil), beat until sugar dissolves completely (about 4~6 minutes). Remove from double boil.

5) Gradually fold that beaten egg mixture into lemon curd alternately with whipped cream, fold through until all blended and smooth. Pour into the prepared springform pan. Cover with plastic stretch and store in refrigerator.

6) Make the lemon curd topping: the process almost same as step #2 and #3 above. Soften gelatin with water in a small saucepan, let stand ± 15 minutes. Warm the lemon curd in another pan. Then heat the gelatin until clear (do not boil) and mixed with warm lemon curd and stir well. Let it chill for few minutes until hot steam gone before poured over chill mousse.

7) Finishing: Take chill mousse from fridge, pour with topping, cover again with plastic stretch and refrigerate for minimum 8 hours to overnight.

Garnish with lemon wedges or lemon candied.

Enjoy.

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Steamed Sponge Chocolate Cake with Chocolate frosting

It's another order came to me to make another cake. In Turkey cake with decoration like this they call it "pasta". When I got here at first time I got confuse with this "pasta" word because Turkish call "makarna" for Pasta :)) 

Anyway, I made this "pasta" with steamed sponge chocolate as base (recipe as follow). And chocolate frosting as filling between layer and to cover the cake (recipe below). For garnish I use chocolate whipped cream (ready mix).. Since I'm still learning to decorate cake, so here it is my simple chocolate cake decorating .... And thanks God, they liked the cake, both taste and the simple decoration d(^,^)b 

Size of the cake 8 "


Ingredients:
For Chocolate Sponge cake base:
 3 medium size eggs
 ¾ cup caster sugar
 1 ½ cup flour
 ½ cup dark cocoa powder
 1 teaspoon baking powder
 1 teaspoon baking soda
 1 tsp Vanilla essence
 ½ cup whole milk
 ½ cup olive oil (or other vegetable oil)

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