♥♥ When two Cultures mixed (。◕‿◕。) Everything in my Page are only simple thing, but I did it with great love.

Smoked Paprika roasted chicken with pearl couscous pilaf

Selam...Merhaba from Turkey....

Have you heard pearl couscous? Have you eat it before? 
Also calls Ptitim in Hebrew, other calls Israeli couscous. In some countries calls mograbieh/ moghrabieh or giant couscous or fregola. It's small balls of toasted semolina flour. Not technically a grain, but more like pasta. 

Beside bread, couscous is a staple dish in Mediterranean area. Beside pearl couscous there is also Moroccan couscous which has smaller grain than pearl couscous. Both have high nutrition and low fat.

As an Asian this dish is part of my cuisine adventures. Mostly it took me several times to taste one food for make me like that food, but for this pearl couscous I instantly like it at 1st plate.

The unique chewy texture of this dish make me think of other yummy variation I could create from it. Last time I made couscous salad but I didn't satisfied with the taste.. So maybe I should start with simple dish first like this simple couscous pilaf.

And for make more special on our dinner table, I serve this pearl couscous pilaf with roasted smoke paprika which already became my family favorite.
These dish are perfect and fulfill all things you want to provide for your family dinner yet simple and quick to make. For complete it I made simple tomato salad and parsley. You can add some arugula and fresh mint too- I didn't have stock of it.

For making Salad dressing I simply mix some freshly lemon juice with olive oil, seasoned with salt and fresh ground black pepper. Keep in a small jar until ready to use.

And for making smoked paprika roasted chicken, you should marinate chicken and all other ingredients at least 2 hours before-- mostly I prepare a night before so I have best smoke paprika flavor seeped to my chicken perfectly in next day.
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Ispanaklı peynirli börek / Spinach with cheese phyllo pastry


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


Most of the time, the word "börek" is accompanied in Turkish by a descriptive word referring to the shape, ingredients of the pastry, for the cooking methods or for or a specific region where it is typically prepared.

In Turkey, we know many variety of börek depends it filling and how to make it. 
Su böreği  or 'water börek' is one of the most common types. Layers of dough are boiled briefly in large pans, then a mixture of feta cheese, parsley and oil is scattered between the layers. The whole thing is brushed with butter and laid in a masonry oven to cook.

Sigara böreği 'cigarette börek' or kalem böreği 'pen börek', a smaller, cylindrical variety is often filled with feta cheese, potato, parsley and sometimes with minced meat or sausage. A variety of vegetables, herbs and spices are used in böreks, such as spinach, nettle, leek, and courgette, and usually ground black pepper. The name kalem böreği was adopted in September 2011 by some Turkish pastry organizations in order to avoid alluding to smoking.

Paçanga böreği, is a traditional Sephardic Jewish specialty of Istanbul filled with pastırma or kaşar, and julienned green peppers fried in olive oil and eaten as ameze.

Saray böreği 'palace börek' is a layered börek where fresh butter is rolled between each of the dough sheets.

Talaş böreği or Nemse böreği 'sawdust' or 'Austrian' börek, is a small square börek mostly filled with lamb cubes and green peas, that has starchier yufka sheets, making it puffy and crispy.

Kol böreği 'arm börek' is prepared in long rolls, either rounded or lined, and filled with either minced meat, feta cheese, spinach or potato and baked at a low temperature.

Sarıyer böreği is a smaller and a little fattier version of the "Kol böreği", named after Sarıyer, a district of Istanbul

Gül böreği 'rose börek', also known as Yuvarlak böreği 'round or spiral börek' are rolled into small spirals and have a spicier filling than other börek.
Çiğ börek or Çibörek 'raw börek' is a half-round shaped börek, filled with raw minced meat and fried in oil on the concave side of the sac, very popular in places with a thriving Tatar community, such as Eskişehir, Polatlı and Konya.

Töbörek is another Tatar variety, similar to a çiğ börek, but baked either on the convex side of the sac, or in a masonry oven instead of being fried in oil.

Laz böreği, a specialty of the Rize region, is a sweet version, filled with muhallebi (Ottoman-style milk pudding or custard) and served sprinkled with powdered sugar. It similar with Greek Bougatsa.

Kürt Böreği is similar to Laz böreği, without the custard filling. It is also called sade (plain) börek and served with fine powdered sugar.


And my post today is one of common börek people make here, Spinach börek or Ispanaklı börek. Most of time I use cheese or peynir (turk) to mix with spinach as filling. But if you want to skip the cheese, feel free to double your spinach for the filling. And here my recipe for Ispanaklı peynirli börek.
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Terbiyeli Tavuk çorbası ( Creamy seasoned Chicken soup)

Selam Everybody....Merhaba from Turkey...

Soup or çorba (read chor_ba) in Turkey is always served as first/ opening dish in dinner or lunch time before we go to main dish. If you check my other Turkish soup you will find that mostly Turkish soup are creamy one as people's preferred. Use yogurt and or flour as sauce and thicken the soup.

Unlike Indonesian or other Asian soup, Turkish soups are smooth and no big chunk of meat or vegetable used. If using meat, cut it into very small chunks. For vegetable soup mostly we blend it to smooth and creamy.

Terbiyeli Tavuk çorbası ( Creamy seasoned Chicken soup)
And nothing can comfort us during cold days than a family and good creamy soup on our dinner table. And this tebiyeli tavuk çorbası it might become your choice too for bring the warmth into your house ^,^

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Chocolate Chiffon Cake (resep oke Chiffon kek coklat !!)

Resep dalam bahasa Indonesia ada dibagian bawah.







Chocolate Chiffon Cake (resep oke Chiffon kek coklat !!) | Çitra's Home Diary. #chocolatechiffon #chiffoncakerecipe #chocolatecake #bestchiffoncakerecipe #resepchiffoncake #valentinebakingidea

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

This is my 1st chiffon cake I made in Turkey! Yes, 1st I made chiffon cake in Turkey because I didn't have bundt pan special for chiffon here. I did make chiffon cake before when I was in Indonesia because we had chiffon pan. And if you don't have chiffon pan in Indonesia (or mostly Asian countries) you'll easily get it in baking ware shop anywhere you meet.

Once I tried to bring it from my homeland 2 years ago and kept it in my luggage....And when I open my baggage...gosh....it was flat!! I was so disappointed and feel eerie to thought how bad "baggage people" handled our luggage!

Maybe because in Turkey people don't really familiar with chiffon cake (or maybe angle food cake) so I couldn't find it offline on bake ware shop or any shop like that here. There are some online shop but it's so expensive for me and it'll take months to delivered here cause they import from China or other Asian countries. 
So I decide to wait until I home to Indonesia or maybe somebody would go home to Indonesia and I'll ask help to bring one for me (^,^) with special note of course remembering my first bad experiment brought a pan in luggage (^,^)


And one day.... in very cold, snowy and boring day... I decide to take a walk to central market (we call it çarsı). My home is near that central market so anytime I'm boring I just drag my self there. That central çarsı is also tourists spot in Bursa, so it's big and never boring me although I went there many times.

So anywaaayyyy... I went into one glassware shop, nothing specific to look for...just wandering around and window shop sometime enough for me.... but that day I saw a cake mold similar to chiffon cake mold. It's written at label as angel food cake mold, but it's non stick pan and the bottom is fix (un-removable) like normally chiffon cake mould.
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DIY Non toxic water color for kids

"Family is like branches on tree, We all grow in different directions yet our root remains as one"

Selam Everybody....Merhaba from Turkey......

Out door activities in my opinion is the best thing to do for our kids. I was grew up in tropical country with mostly sunshine almost whole year... Even when it rainy season, me  and my siblings also some neighbor's kids played under the rains without worrying and guilty feeling from our parents.... and guest what?! We hardly ever got heavy/ serious sickness due to those activities.

Maybe because playing out side require many physical activities which influence increasing immune system for our body. And beside that out door activities may reduce kid's stress.

And kids in my era (around 70~80's) there was not any electronic gadget like phone or any fancy toys like now days. We were simply happy play with mud, sand, kite, bike, snail, grass or anything we found ^,^
Surely every kids have their own era just like we do. 

My kid doesn't go to school yet, hence in summer time regularly I take her to park to play. But sometimes even in winter with thick snow I'll let her play with snow for few minutes. But that's it... not really much can do out door in winter.. so mostly I tried to make her busy in home. 

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Lemon Chicken / Ayam saus lemon

Resep dalam bahasa Indonesia ada di bagian bawah







Merhaba from Turkey everyone....

I love chicken, my kid loves chicken and it's great and cheap choice to fulfill protein source for our family. All I need to do is just make as many variations as I can so my kid won't be bore to eat it.

My today post is Chinese style Lemon Chicken. I love the sweet and sour taste in it, just reminded me of my Indonesian sweet and sour chicken.

Ingredients for Chicken:
  • ± 700 gr boneless chicken thigh/ breast, small chunk about ±4 cm
  • 3 Tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp salt (to taste)
  • 1 big egg
  • 2 Tbsp water
  • ± 150 gr all purpose flour
  • ± 100 gr cornstarch or tapioca
  • 1 tsp black/ white pepper
  • pinch of salt for flour mixture
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • Enough cooking oil for deep fried
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Pistachio Butter Cake Truffles

For English recipe scroll down



Pistachio Butter Cake Truffles

Assalamu'alaikum...... Merhaba dari Turki....

Coklat, siapa yang gak suka coklat? Ya kalau kamu salah satu yang gak suka mungkin postingan saya hari ini boleh kamu lewatin ^,^

Karena hari ini saya mau bagi resep Butter cake coklat truffles. Saya sih termasuk yang moderate saja kalau makan coklat, sedang-sedang saja. Tapi suami dan anak saya... wohooohooo... they are sweet tooth banget! Ya mungkin karena suami saya orang Turki yang terbiasa dengan dessert yang manis-manis apalagi kalau creamy dan nyuklat.
Kalau anak saya sih maklum, anak kecil mana yang gak suka coklat coba? ^,^

Apa sih istemewanya butter cake truffles ini? Biasanya saya bikin pure dari cooking chocolate plus cream sebagaimana layaknya basic chocolate truffles. Tapi kali ini saya ingin buat dengan bahan dasar cake. Karena kebetulan saya punya sisa Marble butter cake yang karena saya bikinnya porsi besar (bagi keluarga saya)--kita jadi bosan makannya.

Jadi ceritanya manfaatin cake left over hasil baking 2 hari lalu. Sebenarnya cakenya sendiri masih bisa dimakan atau disimpan di freezer sampai dengan sebulan sih..tapi males ah nyimpen-nyimpen segitu lamanya. Kalau pengen lagi ntar baking lagi aja ^,^

Pistachio Butter Cake Truffles
Jadi kalau kalian punya cake sisa atau bosan dimakan gitu aja, coba deh resep ini. Untuk bahan-bahannya bisa dikonversikan sesuai banyaknya cake yang ada. Kalaupun gak punya cake sisa tapi pengen bikin, cake dasar apapun bisa kok dipakai, tetep aja konversikan bahan lainnya sesuai banyaknya cake. Paling gampang baking cake dari cake box siap pakai saja kalau ingin membuat cake truffles ini.

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Marble Butter Cake Recipe / Resep Cake marmer

Resep dalam Bhs İndonesia di bagian bawah






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

Butter cake, one of cake I grew up with. I still remember taste of my grand mother's butter cake until now. 
Back then in my homeland I remember anytime there was an event like wedding or birthday or new born baby or circumcision ceremony there was always this kind of cake.
Slightly crumble with swirl pattern like marble is typical cake we can find easily in "kampong" or Indonesian alley as homemade.

Unfortunately my grandmom past away when I was still at high school and had no chance to ask her any of the recipes. Well, my auntie do made this ... yet I didn't ask her yet until today ^,^ ... maybe later. 

Hence lately I wander around the net about this marble cake recipe. I found some- both western and east/ Asia style and try to compare them. Read and review some of them. Mostly western style use whole egg method to their recipe while east/ Asia style mostly separate egg method--well few of east style also use whole egg but still bit different here and there from western method.



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Creamy Carrot Soup Recipe (Soup Wortel)

Selam Everybody.....Merhaba from Turkey...

If you notice I recently post many soup recipes. Yes, it's chilly outside and nothing can suit with that than a bowl of hot yummy soup.

And what about carrot soup? definitely, it's always my choice to bring warmth not only on our dinner table.
Serve 4~5 sharing
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Chicken Sausage Rolls

Selam Everybody.... Merhaba from Turkey....

There is a time in a month or two I feel like don't want to do anything just lay down on my bed. When I was single a long time ago and that time came to me like a virus I usually spontaneously and unprofessionally absent from my office work... 😃

And now...when there is a time in a month or two I feel like don't want to do anything.... I can not! ^,^ With one kid asking full attention the whole day I have already "not so active" on my Facebook or tweeter anymore these past 2 years...
I just write and post in this blog with simple words and shortly as I already sleepy doing it late at night. So.. the point is I can not have lazy days anymore, not now...maybe a few years later... 😊

And for cooking also...I would find something as easiest and fast as I can... simple, quick, and maybe can be frozen to eat later again. Like this Chicken sausage roll. I made them about a dozen, eat some, and freeze the rest.
But that was my plan..couldn't resist eating this little yummy more than 3 as a snack together with hot tea in these cold days. They didn't make it into the freezer... ^,^

Chicken Sausage Roll | Çitra's Home Diary #sausageroll #chickenrecipe #lunchboxidea #pastryroll #asianstylesausageroll #pastryrecipe

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Bülbül Yuvası Tatlısı / Turkish baklava: Nightingale's Nest sweet pastry

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





Bülbül Yuvası Tatlısı or nightingale's nest, from its name I think you already can figure it out why this dessert looks like that. When I search around the net to find the recipe I found many versions of this nightingale's nest. Some make from the dough (similar to shortbread) while some make from phyllo pastry.

And since I'm a big fan of baklava, I choose to make this dessert from phyllo dough. Besides it's easy and practical, I love the sweet yet crunchiness of thin phyllo sheet melting in my mouth.

Serve it with a generous sprinkle of pistachio I'll assure you this is going to be the best dessert in your chill days and a great companion for your coffee time.



For making this Bülbül Yuvası Tatlısı you need thin rolling pin (in turkish language we call it oklava). The diameter about 5 mm (thinnest one- I use this). You can use any kind similar e.g straw or chop stick, just make sure it's long enough to roll phyllo sheet (at least 5 cm longer than your shorter side of phyllo sheet).
The thinner your rolling pin, the smaller log/ coil you'll get.
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