Citra's Home Diary

Repeatable menu... Karnıyarık (Turkish stuffed eggplant)

One from many traditional Turkish meal. Served in almost every family dinner table and also one of repeatable menu. Eggplant with minced meat stuffing, spice with some seasoning topping with green banana pepper then wet roasted in oven.

Some variation, we can roasted them in tomato sauce gravy to get rich flavor. Serve them warm sprinkle with some parsley or coriander.

Ingredients:

4 pcs medium size eggplant, peeled in stripes lengthwise
200 gr ground meat
2 cloves garlic, crushed and finely chopped
2 onions, small cubed
1/2 bunch (about 25 stalks) parsley, finely chopped the leaves
1 big tomato, small diced
salt to taste
2 tbs olive oil
Enough frying oil for deep fry
olive oil for sauteing
about 1 cup hot water (or you can add tomato pasta in it)

For topping:

1 tomato, slice crescent shape
green banana peppers, as many as eggplants
parsley or coriander leaves for serving

Cara Membuat Tahu sendiri/ Homemade tofu

Have you eat tofu?- it's healthy.

Have you ever think to make your own tofu?- beside it's easy, it's also healthy because anything we make by our self, we can control what and how the ingredients we use.

Tofu was my daily food back when I was in Indonesia. I ate it almost everyday on my menu. You can eat it as a snack or as side dish. So, when I'm living here I can not find ready tofu here in Turkey.. maybe nobody eat tofu here :))

Then I feel something missing from my menu... so here I am.. making my own tofu... Try it once and you will like it too.. ^,^

Things to Prepare:
1) a large pot at least 6 liters capacity
2) Sieve/ strainer
3) Cheese cloth to filter or can use a clean cloth thin cotton.
4) Blender/ food processor
5) Tofu mould-anything you have with holes.
6) Weight or press tools

Ingredients:

• 500 grams of soybean
• Warm water
• ± 200 ml lemon / lime juice

How to make:

A) Rinse soybeans. Soak in plenty of water (see Figure 1). Soak overnight untill double its volume because absorbed water (Fig. 2). Rinse and drain (Fig. 3).

B) Blend soy bean with warm water, the ratio 1: 4 in volume = 1 for soybeans: 4 for water (Figure 4). Prepare a strainer and cheese cloth. Strain and wring out the blender yield (figure 5). You may keep the dregs and used to make tempeh gembus.

C) Put all soy milk in big pan, heat until almost boiling (Fig. 6). You can cover with lid, but let it open a bit so it won't boil overt. After almost boiling, let stand briefly until lukewarm. Then slowly add lemon juice while stirring very slow until the soy agglomerate such as figure 7, Leave it up to room temperature and precipitation settled.

D) Prepare tofu mold like a figure 8, Cover with cheese cloth (cotton filtre). Slowly, pour the soy precipitation/ sediment into the mold (Figure 9) and cover with the rest of the filter cloth (Fig. 10). Give ballast like the picture 11. As you can see at Fig. 12, residu fluid drop down from the mold. This process for about 3 ~ 5 hours.

E) If you want more dense tofu, Steamed after being pressed.
The process of making yellow tofu, add a little salt, turmeric powder and garlic powder in the cooking process No. 6.

Have a try.

Beef Saute in Pita Bread

I made Pita bread yesterday. And for filling I make beef saute with cumin for our iftar (breaking fast) menu today. Hubby said, why don't you try to make meatball for the filling next time?

Eh, why not.. ^,^ But I make this beef saute because inspired by döner kebab that he like so much. I slice the meat in very thin and wide, so it's döner look like (*_*), with strong cumin flavor which I like.. I'll bet You will get great menu for your lunch or dinner with this pita bread...

served 4~6

Ingredients for beef saute and how to make:
• ± 350 g beef, thinly widely sliced .
• 2 medium onions, finely sliced half-ring shape
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed & finely chopped
• 1 medium size tomato, cut into small squares
• 2 carliston pepper, seeded, sliced lengthwise
• ½ teaspoon pepper powder
• ½ tsp all spice powder
• 1 ½teaspoon ground cumin
• ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp salt or to taste
• Small amount of sugar
• Enough cooking oil for sauteing

Making beef saute:
Heat oil in a skillet, cook beef until tender--If necessary add small amount of water and cook until water dried again. Stir in onion and garlic, saute until fragrant and wilted. Combine tomatoes and carliston biber, continue stir frying until wilted. Put all other spices, check the taste. Remove from fire.

Other ingredients:
• 4 pieces of Pita bread (you can see recipe here), halved each
• Sliced onions
• Sliced tomatoes
• Lettuce
• Chili flakes for sprinkle on top

How to serve:
Arrange the salad inside slice of pita bread, give beef saute and sprinkle with chili powder/ flake if you like.

Serve warm immediately.

Pita Bread

Pita bread is a round pocket bread widely consumed in many Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, and Balkan cuisines. It is prevalent from the Balkans through Turkey, the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula. The "pocket" in pita bread is created by steam, which puffs up the dough. As the bread cools and flattens, a pocket is left in the middle.

Originated in the Middle East and were traditionally cooked in tandoor ovens.

Yield 8 ~ 10 breads.

Membuat susu kental manis sendiri I / Homemade Sweet Condensed Milk I

Selam everybody....Merhaba from Turkey.

Have you ever think to make your own sweet condensed milk? Maybe for you who can find it easily around corner in your place, making it at home will consuming a lot of effort and not practical at all. But for those who's just like me, finding this product is like finding a water in desert :))

Maybe because in Turkey not many people know and use this sweet condensed milk. And indeed, provide need demand, right? ^,^

In my homeland, mostly people using this, we call it "susu kental manis". Even you can find in economic packet for you to bring anywhere ^,^

Well, anyway... If you like to make everything by homamade, or you can't find it in your place, or you just want to try to make it.. here it is my recipe for homemade sweet condensed Milk

Yield ± 250 ml

What you need and how to make it:
 50 gr unsalted butter
 ¾ cup granulated sugar
 ¾ cup water
 1 cup powdered milk

Pandan and Coconut Steamed Cake

Pandan or Pandanus amaryllifolius one kind of tropical plant. The plant is rare in the wild but is widely cultivated. It is an upright green plant with fan-shaped sprays of long, narrow, blade like leaves and woody aerial roots. The plant is sterile, flowers only very rarely, and is propagated by cuttings.

used widely in Southeast Asian cooking as a flavoring-wikipedia

Beside can give such a nice flavoring in foods, some kind of pandan can give beautiful natural green color, I just love it.

This pandan we can plant it either on garden yard or inside pot. Too bad I don't have it in my home here. I have no idea even if I can bring this plant here, whether it can survive in 4 season country like Turkey. I remember my mom plants this pandan in pot at our house in Indonesia.

Last time my friend brought me pandan paste from Indonesia and give me 1 small bottle. I was so happy cause I miss it's fragance and I miss some Indonesian food (mostly dessert and cake) using this pandan falvor...

So here it is my 1st Pandan cake in Turkey @(^,^)@

You can try to find this pandan paste in Asian grocery store in your country/ city, maybe you'll get lucky to have one...

Ingredients A:
• ¾ cup grated coconut (fresh or dried)
• 2 tablespoons caster sugar

Ingredients B:
• 3 medium eggs
• ¾ cup caster sugar
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tsp vanilla powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of fine salt
• 1 ½ tsp pandan paste
• 100 gr unsalted butter, melted and mixed with ½ cup olive oil

Friendly Tag... I'm in

I've been tag by My dear foodie friend Ping. Hai Ping..! thanks for tagged me and be part of this friendly event. Here I just copy paste the rule to enliven this event from her page.

This tag is all about your own stuff. I think it's a great idea to highlight some long forgotten posts or some lonely, neglected, uncommented recipe ... especially during one's early days of blogging. I'm happy to be tagged by Ping, from Ping's picking to take part in this 7 - Link Challenge. That's 7 of your own posts in relation to the categories and then to nominate 5 victims bloggers to join in. No extra cooking or baking required.

2 simple rules:

A) publish links for the categories below (1 link per category)

I'm not sure exactly when the post should be published, so I just choose my posts only publishes in 2011

Here are my links:
1. The most beautiful post:
Steamed Chocolate brownies with Sun Flower decoration

I consider this one to be most beautiful post in this 2011 until I felt pity to cut this cake ^,^

2. The most popular post:
Popular post based on google search this year, goes to:
Pırasa Böreğı

3. The most controversial post:
Frankly speakıng I don't really understand what ıs most controversial post is. 1st in my thought, controversial means, I post something, then suddenly somebody else claim it as his/ her post ..hehehehehe...anyway, then I decide my LAHMACUN to be controversial post. Why? I read on my tweeter some people claim this food came from their country, not Turkey. I know, some countries in same area (middle easter and mediteranean) have similarity in food and culture. Just like in south east asia, we have some similarity in food and culture, between, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore. Every country has differential and it's own characteristics :)

4. The most helpful post:
I think it will go to: Ayran-Cold yogurt drink

5. The post that was surprisingly successful:
Goes to: Cheddar cheesecake with fruits topping

6. The post that did not get the attention it deserved:

I know, most of you probably unfamiliar with this food, but once you try it.. you will like it. it's healthy vegetable snack during your empty hour :))

Meet: Ote-Ote/ koheci/ Weci/ fried vegetable snack

7. The post that I'm most proud of:
Tiramisu Cheesecake is the most I proud of. It's new for me also and I'm surprisingly amazed how great when Cheesecake mix with tiramisu flavor ^,^

B) nominate up to 5 bloggers to take part

And my next 5 nominees are.....

1. Erin - Dinners, Dishes, and Desserts

2. Kelly - Eat your self skinny

3. Madeja - Cranberry Jam

4. Akheela - Torview

5. Sizuka - The Cat, The Rabbit & The Hedgehog

Chicken Cardamom with Bulgur Pilaf

Selam everybody.....Merhaba from Turkey.

Who doesn't like cardamom? If you don't like it, you better try it.

If you are looking for dinner or lunch menu idea, I recommend this one. Quick and easy to make but the result isn't as simple as how it's prepared. I guarantee it will be repeatable menu for your family.

I made this bulgur pilaf deliberately simple so it can go with your other favorite meal.

Served 4 .

Cardamom Chicken Ingredients:
 4 pieces of chicken thighs, stab at some places with a fork
 1 medium onion, grated
 3 cloves garlic, grated
 2 tsp cardamom powder
 1 teaspoon ground cumin
 ½ tsp pepper powder
 ½ tsp powdered ginger
 ½ tsp chili powder
 4 tablespoons canola oil or other vegetable oil
 1 tablespoon molasses (can be replaced with honey)
 1 ½ tsp salt or to taste

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