Citra's Home Diary

Lokma /Turkish donuts in simple syrup

Selam everybody....Merhaba from Turkey...

What I am going to share with you today is Lokma.

Lokma is a traditional Turkish dessert made of flour, sugar, yeast and salt bathed with syrup or honey. Lokma was first cooked by the sultan's cooks at Ottoman Empire palaces, and for centuries, it was unknown how it was made. After the 20th century, it became a tradition for Turks to cook and serve lokmas to neighbours.

This lokma is also can be found around neighbouring countries like in Greek called loukoumades. Or Zeppola of Italy and in Iran or Iraq, called luqmat al-qadi from Arabic language لقمة القاضي

These luscious bites — the word lokma means “a bite” or “a morsel” — are the doughnuts of the Orient, crispy on the outside, with a melt-in-your-mouth texture on the inside. Served hot as they emerge bubbling from the pot, sprinkled with a dusting of pure cinnamon, they are also found in markets, more commonly in Izmir, the third largest city of the nation.

Kıymalı Biber Dolması / Turkish #stuffed pepper with ground meat and how to make Garlic yoghurt sauce

Selam everybody...Merhaba from Turkey...

Kıymalı means (with) meat in Turkish language. Biber means pepper and Dolması/ dolma means stuffed. So Kıymalı Biber Dolması literally means stuffed pepper with meat.

Dolma, Turkish term for stuffed vegetable dishes common in the Middle East and in Mediterranean countries including the Balkans, the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia.

Common vegetables to stuff include tomato,pepper, onion, zucchini, eggplant, and garlic. The stuffing may or may not include meat. Meat dolmas are generally served warm, often with tahini, egg-lemon or garlic yogurt sauce; meatless ones are generally served cold.

Kıymalı Biber Dolması / Turkish #stuffed pepper with ground meat and how to make Garlic yoghurt sauce | Çitra's Home Diary. #stuffedpeppers #foodphotographyidea #turkishfoodrecipe #resepmasakanturki #mediterranean #stuffedbellpepper

Dishes involving wrapping leaves such as vine leaves or cabbage leaves (Lahana Sarması) around a filling are called sarma, though in many languages the distinction is usually not made. Check my Yaparak sarma here.

Strawberry Cobbler with Oatmeal streusel

Selam, Merhaba from Turkey everyone....

Just before strawberry out of season soon and they will be more and more expensive, yesterday I bought another kilo of fresh strawberry. Yes, I love and enjoy eating them fresh or make it for delightful dessert.

Strawberry with crunchy flaky pie is my number one favorite. But of course together with Panna cotta would be a fancy and special dessert for your romantic dinner.

Or you can check my other dessert using this favorite strawberry here.

And today I made this delish strawberry cobbler. What's special about my cobbler this time is I add some yummy crumbly oatmeal streusel on top of it. So you can imagine the crunchiness topping twisted with delicious sweet slightly sour strawberry filling inside.

My family like it, especially that topping. So I am thinking to make other cobbler with other filling later. Cherries maybe?

Yemeni Chicken Mandi easy recipe

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 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 😍💛

Yemeni Chicken Mandi recipe.| Çitra's Home Diary. #middleeast #chickenmandi #lunch #chicken #resepayam #resepnasimandi #hawaij #spicemix

Today I am going to share one delicious middle eastern dish calls, Chicken Mandi. It's one of popular traditional dishes from Yemen.

Mandi is now popular among other Arab countries as well. Traditionally, the meat is slow-cooked in a tandoor (underground oven) which makes the meat extremely tender and delicious and served over aromatic rice.

The spice rub used to marinate the meat (lamb or chicken) is called Hawaij– coriander seeds, cumin seeds, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, whole black peppercorns are roasted till aromatic and made into a powder. See also how to make hawaij spices mixture in my previous post.

This is a very mild dish, not spicy at all. The rice was extremely aromatic and tasted very flavorful. Enjoy this Mandi in its authentic way!

My husband loves it and me as Asian also enjoy it very much. And since it's not hot spice at all, my kid eat her portion happily.

Yemeni Spice Hawaij

Selam everybody...Merhaba from Turkey...

Did you hear about Hawaij spice before? Hawaij (spelled hawayej) is a Yemeni spices mixtures. There are two type of hawaij, both derived from the Yemenite kitchen: one is meant for soup, the other for black coffee. Spice mixture for soup are also used in stews, rice, vegetarian dishes and as barbecue spices rubbed into the meat. Basically this kind of Hawaij consists of cumin, black pepper, turmeric and cardamom. More intricate versions may also contain cloves, nutmeg, saffron, coriander and dried onions.

The mixture for coffee is made from anise seeds, fennel seeds, ginger and cardamom. Although it is primarily used in brewing coffee, it is also used in desserts, cakes and slow-cooked meat dishes. In Aden, the mixture is made with ginger, cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon for black coffee, and when used for tea excludes the ginger

This spice came to Israel along with immigrants from Yemen, and it is widespread among yemenites in Israel.

Basically, hawaij made by roasting – coriander seeds, cumin seeds, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, whole black peppercorns until aromatic and made into a powder. Very few and very basic spices are used for making the dish.

Rose Macarons with rose jam butter cream filling

Selam everybody...... Merhaba from Turkey.

As spring blooms in every corner of my town, these eye catching rose macarons beautifully bloom with perfect feet in my oven. My overwhelming happy heart because I can add more collection for my macarons flavor. And proudly I can pass another macarons baking without fail.

This is true story... once you succeed baking nice, perfect and yummy macarons. I'll tell you, YOU CAN NOT STOP! ^,^
And you better start to find some new friend to enjoy them together. Or... maybe you start thinking to make money by selling them among friends and relatives.. why not?

Macarons is very expensive here. Once I tried to buy from local patisserie at one mall, I must paid 25 TL (Turkish lira) for 4 small macarons! Just convert it to your own money.
And for me nothing so special about that macarons I bought but they came with nice pastel color which I like, that's all.

And it was too sweet for me.

Long long time ago when I was visiting my sister who lived in Kajang, Malaysia at that time, I remember I ate macarons at Kuala Lumpur, in one cafe inside petronas tower. . . I remember I ate chocolate macarons with chocolate filling. The tart was perfect and the sweet was just balanced with the bitterness of the chocolate. And that was I think best chocolate macarons I ate until.. I can bake it by my self.. lol.

Should I fly to Paris to taste better macarons? 😍 ^,^

Well.... just go to your local market to grab some almond meal. Then go to your kitchen to start baking them by your self. You will get cheap yet yummy macarons without flying to France.

Strawberry yogurt cupcake with strawberry buttercream

Selam everybody.... Merhaba from Turkey.

What I like about yogurt cake is very simple and quick to make. Like this fresh strawberry yogurt cupcake I made today. The cake was so fresh with fresh strawberry chunk inside yet fluffy and moist cake.

Every evening after dinner we-like other Turkish family- always have our Turkish tea time. For me drinking tea without any snack along with it, is just not like my style, so these strawberry cupcake are perfect for our tea time cake in front of TV.

Also if you are coffee lover, you should make them also. Cause these delish cupcake it's just perfect for afternoon coffee. Enjoy it with your favorite coffee, on your very comfortable couch with unfinished fave book. ^,^

For the complete beautiful touch I made fresh strawberry butter cream icing for garnish and enrich this tasteful strawberry yogurt cupcake.
Look at them with that high cone ice cream-look alike..aren't they just adorable? Almost too cute to eat.... ALMOST. 😍

But if you want to skip the butter cream it's okay, replace it with some strawberry or lemon icing glaze. They are still tasty as should be.

Ikan saus lada hitam / Indonesian crunchy fish in black pepper sauce

Resep dalam Bhs İndonesia ada dibagian bawah

Selam everybody..... Merhaba from Turkey..

Ikan means Fish in Indonesian. Saus Lada hitam means black pepper sauce. The humble of lightly crushed black peppercorn mix with oyster sauce and ginger-garlic spices is a fusion of Indonesian flavor with Chinese influence. The sauce mixture in this dish make it so special and really gets along with fish or any seafood you cook with this sauce. Eg, crab, calamari, lobster, or prawn.

This dish is one popular as street food along with other kinds. If you were live in big city like surabaya, jakarta and some other cities, you might find some Chinese food street vendors along the main street open their "kitchen" after the afternoon. And also you can find at some Indo-Chinese restaurants which open mostly almost 24 hours.

Ikan means Fish in Indonesian. Saus Lada hitam means black pepper sauce. The strong of lightly crushed black pepper corn mix with oyster sauce and ginger-garlic spices is a fusion of Indonesian flavor with chinese influence. The sauce mixture in this dish make it so special and really gets along with fish or any seafood you cook with this sauce. Eg, crab, calamari, lobster or prawn. #fish #seafood #indonesianfood #maindish #stirfry #asianstreetfood #sausladahitam #blackpeppersauce

But even it's popular as street food, still some moms-like my mom- sometimes cooked it for us at home. Usually, she uses crab for this black pepper sauce. Yes, this black pepper sauce is just perfect for crab.

And since I couldn't find any crab until now in Bursa I want to fulfill my craving on some my homeland food like this crunchy fish cooked in black pepper sauce. Making it is actually very simple and quick for prepare-as many types of Indo-Chinese food.

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