cookbook healthy appetite

8/13/2019 COOKBOOK Healthy Appetite

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Project accomplished by

Support for Youth Development Associaon



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About the project

This project appeared out ofour desire to inform the Euro-pean young people about theimportance of having healthyeang habits and to oer an al-ternave to the fast-food indus-try most oen promoted by themass-media. In order to reachthese results, we will collabo-rate with four partners through-

out Europe (Italy, Latvia, Polandand Turkey).

About a month before the ac-tual exchange, there has beenan AVP (Advance Planning Visit)here, in Cluj-Napoca, in order tobeer implement the project.This visit lasted for two dayswhen the team leaders from the

other countries were involvedin the organizaon and evolve-ment of the project.

The exchange will take placebetween the 21st and the 28thof February; there will be 26parcipants from ve dierentcountries. The organizers, the

parcipants and the indirectbeneciaries of the project willhave the opportunity to acquire

skill and abilies to tackle un-healthy diets, and this experi-ence will mean a more healthylifestyle.

The project’s goal is to createa cookbook with 100 recipes

from the cuisine of ve Euro-pean countries. This cookbookis a helpful tool which will givemore young people the oppor-tunity to experience the culi-nary tradions of each of theseve countries, without havingtoo much me or experiencewith cooking.

The project lasts for ve months,from December 2010 to April2011, and takes place in Cluj-Napoca, one of the main univer-sity centers in Romania, whereapproximately 120 000 studentsfrom all over the country studyeach year.

HEALTHY APPETITE!

21-28 FEBRUARY2011,

Cluj-Napoca

www.healthyappete.s4yd.ro4



TheProject TeamAngela ANTON

Project

Manager

Marius Beri

Berescu

Coach

Diana

Șerbănescu

Bogdan Petru Pincan

Andra Huțuțui

Team Leader

Cătălin Stănescu

Mariana Petrea

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PartnersUnione degli Assessora alle poliche socio-sani-

tarie e del lavoro, Palermo, Italia

Language and Cultural Center “World at Our

Home”, Rezekne, Letonia

Elblag Europa Associaon, Elblag, Polonia

KIR-CED Kirsehir Youth Culture, Art andEnvironment Protecon Center, Kirşehir,

Turcia

Is an associaon of local governments acve in pro-mong social welfare policies.

Is a non-governmental organizaon which runsinternaonal work and European projects and inwhich local inhabitants have the opportunity to

learn foreign languages.

We are open minded and full of posiveenergy. We support NGOs and social lead-ers in building the civic society.

Is and independent, non-governmental,non-parsan and non-prot youth organiza-on.

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Book Cover:

Bogdan Petru Pincan

Design:

Bogdan Petru Pincan

The cookbook content was developed by:Angela AntonBogdan Petru PincanCris IepureDiana ȘerbănescuOana Câmpean

Sorana Chiper

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ContentItaly 11

Bannock With Curly And Oil

Bruschee

Calamari Ripieni

CanazzoFriata Of Potatoes And Onion

Friella

Gelo di Melone

Granita di Limone

Macco of Broad Beans

Melanzane Tunisine Panate

Orata al Cartoccio

Panelle

Panini di Mozzarella

Parmigiana

Pesto alla Trapanese

Pollo all’arancia

Zuppa di Asparagi

Latvia 27

Baked Potatoes with Cheese

Black Bread Soup

Chicken Breast With Rice

Chicken Wings With Rice

Chicken With Vegetables.

Cold Soup

Debesmanna

Fried Chops

Fried Potatoes With Egg

Herring With Potatoes

Meatballs With Smashed PotatoesMilk - Vegatable Soup

Potato Gran

Potato Pancakes

Quenelle Soup.

Rice With Tomatoes

Stued Tomatoes

Summer Squash Chops

Vegetables Stew

Vegetables With Noodles And Millet

Poland 43

Eggs with asparagus

Buckwheat with vegetables and tofu,translaon

Chicken with leek

Pasta with strawberries

Pyry z gzikiem

Zucchini pancakes

Potato pancakes

Pancakes lled with spinach

Tomato Soup

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Botwinka

Cucumber soup

Pumpkin soup

Bread soup

Cream of peas soup

Vegetarian letcho

Cauliower rissole

Spring salad

Kisiel

Apples roasted with nuts

Strawberry shake

Romania 59

Cake with Bananas

Vegetable Soup with Sour Cream

Pan Cooked Chicken Breast with

Mushroom Saute

Potatoes with Bread- Crumbs and GarlicChicken Breast with Spinach

Rozi – Bizi

Squash Food

Mozaic Rice

White Fish lled with Vegetables

Potatoes Salad with Herbs

Steak with Mint Sauce

Fried Chicken with Vegetables Sauce

Barrels with Mushrooms

Cocktail Tomatoes

Pear Dish

Turkey 75

Adana Kebab

BaklavaBuer Beans with Meat

Chicken Saute

Eggplant Stued with Lamb

Fruit and Nut Soup

Kebab Casserole

Lady’s Thigh Meatballs

Lamb Kebab With Vegetables

Man

Plain White Pilav

Pumpkin Dessert

Red Lenl Soup

Scrambled eggs with vegetables

Spinach Salad with Yoghurt Recipe

Stued Green Peppers in Olive Oil

Tavern Pilav

Turkish iced cucumber-yogurt soup

Vine Leave Wraps with Olive Oil

Water Pastry

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From the Italian Kitchen

Buon appetito!

Alice Milazzo

Crisan Sabano

Kairi Rebane

Elisa Maria SalamoneAngelo Parisi

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The Sicilian cuisine shows traces of all theculture which established themselves onthe island over the last two millenniums.Although its cuisine undoubtedly has apredominantly Italian base, Sicilian foodalso has Spanish, Greek and Arab inu-ences. Sicilian food, like every othercultural aspect of this island, is stronglylinked to its geographical posion. Sicilyis the biggest island on MediterraneanSea, and this posion is at the base ofthe Sicilian historical evoluon. Greek,Lan, Arab, Norman, Swabian, Angevinand Aragonese are the people who dom-inated Sicily from 700 BC to 1800 - periodof the Unicaon of Italy.

The complex history of Sicily has le trac-es in architecture, landscape, culture andcustoms; but the most salient traces of allthe cultural backgrounds are to be foundin food. Sicilian cuisine is rich of avors,odors and colors, due to the fact that it isa ‘popular cooking’ based on products ofits elds and sea.

The Greeks brought grapes and olivesand introduced the incumbent popula-on to wine making. The Romans intro-duced the Sicilians to the fava beans,chick peas, lenls, some forms of pastaand devoted huge areas of previouslyforested land to grain producon. TheArabs brought almonds, aniseeds, apri-

cots, archokes, cinnamon, oranges, pis-tachio, pomegranates, saron, sesame,spinach, sugarcane, watermelon andrice. They introduced many tastes thatare now considered typically Sicilian, in-cluding the sweet and sour combinaonsof raisins and pine nuts with vegetablesand sh that form the basis of severalcommon dishes. They also started a longSicilian ‘love aair’ with sweets, includ-ing ice cream and granita (made withsnow from Etna and other mountains),

marzipan and candied fruits. Arabs also

introduced the most advanced farmingand irrigaon techniques and dislledgrape must to make grappa. Normansand Hohenstaufen brought some of theirnorthern European innovaons includingthe rotang skewer for cooking meat andsalng of sh. The French, who followedthem, brought a legacy of chefs for thearistocracy. Apart from pung the -nal touches for sweetmeats, such as theCassata, the Spanish brought many vitalingredients for today’s Sicilian diet. TheNew World provided chili and sweet pep-pers, tomatoes, potatoes which were allincorporated into already exisng reci-pes so that they would now be unimagi-nable without them.

Today, you will eat very well all over theisland. A prime characterisc of the Si-cilian cuisine is the quality of the ingre-dients. You will rarely eat anything thathas not been produced by a local farmerfrom a few miles away of the place youare located at. The freshest sh on thecoast, the tasest meat and cheeses anda huge range of vegetables, fruit and fun-gi, all with a richness of avors that you just won’t nd at a supermarket! Wheth-er you’ll choose to eat at one of the sim-plest local traoria or at a more sophis-cated restaurant, the Sicilian chefs willput all of their skills and pride into thedish you ordered and simply surprise you

with an elaborate avor that wouldn’thave expected to nd.

We have seen that the Arab inuence onSicilian cooking was the most profound.That legacy connues today in ways thatmake Sicilian cuisine inimitable. Encour-aged by the nomadic Arabs, as well as bythe demands of the natural terrain, Si-cilians raised primarily sheep and goats.The ocks provided the milk for caciocav-allo, provolo and pecorino cheese. The

whey le over is used to make ricoa

The Sicilian cuisine

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and the Sicilians swear that only sheep’smilk ricoa gives the right avor to theirdesserts. The Saracen sweet tooth was alegacy from the cloistered nuns who be-came famous for their cakes and sweet-

meats, marzipan fruits, cannoli and cas-sata.

The cassata is one of the most famousdesert; its name comes from the Ara-bic word ‘quas’at’ (round pot), used forpreparing the cake. This is a ricoa-cakedecorated with icing sugar and almondpaste.

The almond paste is also used to makenice sweets with dierent forms and col-ours; they are typically for November

2nd, a special day for commemorangthe dead ones.

Inexplicably, some of them have funkynames, such as fedde del cancelliere(chancellor’s buocks), minni di virgini(virgin’s breasts) and St. Agatha’s breasts(named aer Agatha, a Chrisan martyrwhose breasts were cut o). The ques-ons are unnecessary . Just enjoy thesesweets!!

Perhaps, the most famous gi from theArabs was the ‘sharbāt’ (drink/juice)which became sorbeo for the Italiansand sherbet/sorbet for the English. It ismade out of fruit syrup diluted in water.The sorbet is somemes served betweencourses as a way to cleanse the palate af-ter the main course.

Mt. Etna provided ice, a boon in such ahot country, and the sorbeo becamegranita, a version made by parally freez-

ing the avored water, then mixing theliquid and the frozen part to a slush. In1670, it was taken to Paris by FrancescoProcopio. By the 18th century, Sicilian ic-es and sorbets were everywhere! In turn,this led to gelato which is not actually icecream, for there is no cream, but a basemade of crema rinforzata (a mixture ofmilk, cornstarch and sugar) with groundnuts, chocolate or vanilla added to it.

When the impoverished Sicilians went to

Ellis Island to sele on American shores

much of the cooking was lost, subsumedby Neapolitan cooking. The Neapolitanswere the rst great wave of Italians whoreached the American shores, arriving ina great number in the period between

1880 and 1900. The rst thing they didwas to establish food markets whichwould provide for the foods they loved.When the Sicilians began to immigrate ina larger number, aer 1900, they foundsome of their foods in these Neapolitanstores and their cuisine adapted to theNeapolitan. Some of the more exoc Ar-ab inuences were lost. Saron was pro-hibively expensive in America and fellaway from Sicilian cooking. Inexplicably,raisins and pignolia/pine nuts were omit-

ted from a rich capunata/caponata (dishconsisng of a cooked vegetable saladmade from chopped fried eggplant andcelery seasoned with sweetened vinegarand capers in a sweet and sour sauce).Pasta con le sarde (pastas with sardines)fell to the side, as well. Fresh tuna wasnot as abundant as in Sicily, and certainlywas more costly. Though a strong can-ning industry sprang up around the useof tuna, the sh was not always canned

in oil, and when it was, it didn’t taste likethe ne olive oil that was used back tothe homeland, in Sicily .

Many of the sweets were made in homekitchens, but only on special holidays. Itwas the grandmothers who knew this art,which was not necessarily passed on tothe next generaon. Their children werediscovering American sweets, many ofthem manufactured. Today there is a re-newed interest in all the Sicilian special-

es. Those grandchildren with memoriesfrom their ‘nonnas’ (grandmothers) wantto nd the authenc recipes and getback into the kitchen to prepare themon special occasions. This is frequently adicult task, since Sicilian cooking is lo-calized, changing from village to village.The desserts made by Sicilian-Ameri-can grandmothers may have had theirnames twisted by me and the Englishlanguage. But cooking is fun, not bur-densome to this generaon. They may

connue the mingled tradions of their12



mothers, while looking for the original.

Dishes from Sicily include arancine (aform of deep-fried rice croquees), pasta

alla Norma (specialty of Catania; a divinecombinaon of eggplants, tomatoes,basil and ricoa. Pasta alla Norma wasso popular in 19th century Sicily that itwas named aer the Sicilian composerBellini’s hugely successful opera ‘Norma’,to honor both the dish and the opera,whose perfecon matched each otherin the eyes of Nino Martoglio, a famousSicilian theater director.), pani ca meusa(Palermo; a sandwich made of fried beefspleen served with a slice of fresh Sicil-

ian lemon and perhaps some grated localcaciocavallo cheese), couscous al pesce(Trapani; a Moroccan-inspired couscousdish served with fresh sh) and capo-nata (see above). The main meal is pas-ta, somemes replaced by vegetables(beans, chickpeas, lenls).

Also bread is used a lot - Sicilian baker-ies have to prepare it several mes a day.Sicilians usually dress the food with extravirgin olive oil (buer isn’t used oen; re-placed by lard if necessary). Salt is mostlysea salt, produced in Marsala. Oen foodis seasoned with basil, parsley, garlic, on-ion, peppermint, wild fennel, rosemary,sage, jasmine, raisins, pine nuts but alsoorange and lemon peel; the table is en-riched with olives, tomatoes and fruits.

Another important aspect of Sicilian foodis the street food, bread with panelle ecrocchè (cornmeal pancakes), is the bestsnack for Sicilians.

Sweets are another specialty: frua mar-torana, pignolata, buccellato, cannolo,granita and cassata siciliana. Sicily usescitrus fruits in its cuisine.

On November 17th, 2010, UNESCO rec-ognized the Mediterranean diet paernas an Intangible Cultural Heritage ofSpain, Greece, Italy and Morocco, thusreinforcing it not only as a fundamentalpart of their history and background, but

also as a great contribuon to the world.

The Mediterranean diet is a modern nu-trional recommendaon inspired bythe tradional dietary paerns of coastalregions of southern Italy as well as Crete

and other parts of Greece in the 1960s.This diet, in addion to regular physicalacvity, emphasizes abundant vegetar-ian food, fresh fruit as the typical dailydessert, olive oil as the principal sourceof fat, dairy products (mainly cheese andyoghurt), sh and poultry consumed inlow to moderate amounts, zero to foureggs consumed weekly, red meat con-sumed in low amounts and wine con-sumed in low to moderate quanty. Total

fat in this diet is 25% to 35% of calorieswith saturated fat at 8% or less of calo-ries.

Sicilian culture consider food to be a ritu-al and important aspect of their daily life,eang being a good opportunity to havesomeone’s company or gather the familytogether and/or celebrate an importantevent.

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All ingredients are used cold. Mix the sugar with the cornstarch.

Then add the water and the lemon juice.

Keep srring with a spoon in order to dissolve the sugar.

Aer the sugar is dissolved put everything into the freezer, not forgeng tooccasionally sr.

When it has solidied, spoon it into ice cream glasses and serve.

4 cups of sugar

2 teaspoons of cornstarch

4 cups of water

2 ½ cups of lemon juice

Lemon GranitaGranita di limone

Preparation 10min

Cooking time - min

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1 kg tomatoes

a bunch of parsley

garlic

extra virgin olive oil

salt

pepper

Cut the tomatoes in small cubes and put them in a big bowl.

Then add the garlic already cut, the parsley and enough oil, salt and pepper.

Mix everything and give me to the avours to blend.

Before serving, toast the bread and spoon the mix on top.

BruschetteBruschetta

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Cut the eggplants in round slices and fry or roast them.

Put the eggplant slices in a baking n and cover the enre surface.

Then cover the eggplants with the sauce and the cheese.

Repeat the process two or three mes.

Put the baking n in the oven for about 30 minutes at 180 degree and thenyou have a delicious easy to make meal.

6-7 eggplants

500 g of grated parmesan cheese

tomato sauce

salt

pepper

ParmigianaParmigiana

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 30min

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5 slices of chicken breast

5 oranges

our

oil and pepper

margarine

Dip the chicken in our.

Warm up the pan, adding 3 spoon of margarine.

When melted, fry the chicken. As soon as the chicken turns golden, add thefresh orange juice.

Cover it and cook it for about 20 minutes.

Chicken with OrangePollo all’arancia

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 20min

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Cut the eggplant into slices, chop the onion

Cook (sauté) the onion and the 2 cloves of garlic in hot extra virgin oil, thenadd the eggplant and let it fry on medium-high heat in a frying pan (the egg-plant half fried, half crude).

At the end of frying, add the tomatoes and leave on medium heat for 15minutes, then add the basil at the end.

Boil the pasta (alla dente).

When cooking pasta, drain and pour the sauce into the pan, tossing it to getthe avor.

Serve on plates, adding two fresh basil leaves.

2 eggplants

1 onion

a few leaves of basil

2 cloves of garlic

350 grams of pasta (preferably penne or fusilli)


1 can of peeled tomatoes

Pasta alla “Norma” Traditional Recipe

Preparation 30min

Cooking time 20min

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1 watermelon weighing about 5 kg,

800 g sugar,

200 g sweets starch

100 g chocolate,

100 candied pumpkin,

pistachios,

powdered cinnamon

Buy a ripe watermelon weighing about 5kg.

Skin and seed the watermelon.

Mix it in a blender or push it through asieve.

Add the sugar, sweet starch and cinna-mon and when everything is mixed andthe sugar is dissolved, put it on a low

heat and cook it for 4-5 minutes unl italmost hits the boiling point.

Remove from heat and cool it down atroom temperature, srring occasionally.

When cold, add the chocolate, candiedpumpkin diced in small cubes, a sulof pistachios and nally some powderedcinnamon.

Mix everything and then pour it intoproper moulds.

Sprinkle some diced pistachios on top ofthe jelly and let it in the fridge for somehours.

12 medium-sized squids

200 g of breadcrumbs

parsley

2 cloves garlic, crushed

salt

pepper

olive oil

Clean the squids pull head, tentacles andinnards out of bodies.

Cut heads o below eyes. Also cut thetentacles and minced them. Rinse thebodies, making sure to remove quills.

Toast 200 g of breadcrumbs in a frying-pan with a lile bit of oil, enrich it withthe minced tentacles.

When it’s ready, put everything into abowl, adding 1 tablespoon of choppedparsley, the crushed garlic, salt and pep-per.

Knead the composion and thin it withsome drops of oil.

Using a small spoon or a pastry bag, stu

the squids’ sacs with this lling and closethem with a toothpick.

Do not overll them. Line them on theboom of a well greased baking-pan,brush them with plenty of olive oil andseason with salt and pepper.

Cook in the oven for about 30 minutesunl they are so and tender. Serve im-mediately. Don’t forget to remove thetoothpicks before serving!

Watermelon Jelly Stuf fedCalamariGelo di melone

Calamari ripieniPreparation10min

Cooking time 30min

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 30min

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400 g of raised bread dough

1 garlic

olive-oilsalt

Arrange the dough evenly in a well-oiledpan, sprinkle the surface with slices ofgarlic, salt and a bit of oil.

Bake it in a very hot oven for about 20minutes and serve.

1 onion

oil

500 g broad beans (fava beans)500 g beans

500 g archokes

wild fennel

water

salt

pepper

Clean the archokes by removing theouter leaves, shortening the stem andtrimming the points and cut them instrips.

Cut the onion in small cubes and fry it inhot oil.

Add the archokes and aer a fewminutes, add the broad beans and thebeans.

Mix everything and then add the wildfennel.

Cover all with water, season with salt andpepper and let it boil for about 20 min-utes.

2 eggplant

3 eggs

bread crumbs

oil

5 cheese slices

Cut the eggplant into slices. Beat theeggs in a bowl mixing them with salt andpepper.

Dip the eggplant slices into the egg mix-ture, then into the bread crumbs and af-terwards fry them unl they turn goldenbrown on both sides.

When served, place a cheese slice ontop.

Pancake

Home Baked ThinFocaccia with

Garlic and Olive Oil

Frittella

Focaccia all’aglio e olio

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 20min

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 20min

Tunisian BreadedEggplant SlicesMelenzane tunisinepanatePreparation 10min

Cooking time 20min

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5 sea breams

1 lemons

parsley

oil, salt and pepper

garlic

Clean and scale the sh. Wash it and patit dry.

Pour in a glass 4 parts olive oil, 1 partlemon juice, a lile bit of salt, mincedparsley and garlic.

Mix thoroughly and let the sauce rest fora few minutes.

Season the cavity of the sh with smallpieces of lemon.

Put the sea breams in a sheet of alumini-um foil. Heat up the oven to 200°.

Put the sea breams in the aluminium foilin a baking dish of appropriate size.

Brush inside and outside the sea breamswith sauce.

200 g chickpea our

parsley and olive oil

These are simple chickpeas our friers,quite common in the Palermo district.

Dissolve 200 g of chickpea our in half aliter of cold salted water.

Place the pan over medium heat andconnue mixing unl a thick paste isformed.

Add some chopped parsley, remove thepan from the heat and allow the doughto cool.

Using your palms, shape the dough intosmall oval-shaped friers of about 5 cmlength.

Fry them in a deep pot halfway lled with

olive oil unl they are golden brown.

5 Mozzarella

2 red ribbed and rm tomatoes

1 head of Genlina leuce

1 cucumber

salt

pepper

oil

toast

Cut the mozzarella in half and place thecut side up to dry on a paper towels.

Wash the leuce and tomatoes, peel thecucumber and cut them into slices.

Season with salt, pepper & mozzarella.

Make sandwiches with this mixture andtoasted bread, topping it with a drizzle ofolive oil and if needed, salt and pepper.

Sea Breams inPaper

Chickpeas Fritters

Orata al cartoccio

Panelle

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 25min

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 20min

Mozzarella PaniniPanini di mozzarellaPreparation 10min

Cooking time 25min

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2 eggplants

2 peppers

4 potatoes

1 onion

4 tomatoes

oilsalt

Cut the eggplant, the pepper and thepotatoes into small cubes and fry themseparately.

Cut the onion, fry it in hot oil, add thetomatoes peeled and cut.

When they are cooked add all the othervegetables and let them cook for fewmore minutes.

600 g of anelle or other short pasta(rigatoni are suitable)

200 g of grated cheese

200 g minced meat (beef)

200 tomato sauce

1 onion

100 g bread crumbs

oil - salt – pepper

red wine and cheese slices

In a pan, fry the nely chopped onion,add the minced beef, deglazing every-thing with red wine.

Aer the alcohol is burned o, add thetomato sauce, diluted with a pint of wa-ter; season with salt and pepper and cookover low heat for about half an hour.

Boil the pasta in salted water, drain itwhile it’s sll ,,al dente” and toss themwith the sauce.

Add grated and sliced cheese and pourinto a baking dish greased with oil andsprinkled with bread crumbs.

Cover it with more bread crumbs, oil andput it in the oven for about twenty min-utes.

1 cauliower

1 onion

anchovy paste

pine nuts

raisins

saron

Clean the cauliower and break it intoparts. Boil it in water with salt.

Chop the onion and fry it in a pan, addthe anchovy paste and quickly sr with awooden spoon to dissolve it.

Add the cauliower, the pine nuts, theraisins and the saron and mix every-thing together.

Pasta withCaulifower Sauce

Baked Pasta

Pasta con i broccoliarriminati

Pasta al forno

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 20min

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 25min

Roasted Sicilianvegetables

CanazzoPreparation 10min

Cooking time 20min

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Cook the pasta al dente in the cauliowercooking water.

Drain the pasta when ready, put it in abowl, top it with the sauce and toss.

Wait for a few minutes so that the aro-mas blend in and serve.

500 g of pasta1 kg of tomatoes

3-4 bunches of parsley

garlic, crushed


salt

pepper

Chop the parsley.

Put it in a bowl with enough oil, add alsothe crushed garlic and mix all the ingre-dients.

Cut the tomatoes and add them too.

Season with salt and pepper.

Boil the pasta and mix them with thesauce while they are sll hot.

1 kg asparagus tops

4 eggs

50 g pecorino cheese,

garlic, choppe

vegetable broth

olive oil

salt, pepperbread croutons

Boiled 1 kg of asparagus tops, drain them,and then fry them lightly in a frying-panwith olive oil and 1 clove of crushed gar-lic.

Add 1 liter of vegetable broth, salt, pep-per.

As soon as it reaches the boil, pour in 4beaten eggs mixed with 50 g of gratedpecorino cheese, salt and pepper.

When the eggs mixture starts curdling,sr the soup with a wooden spoon andserve it with fried bread croutons.

500 g of vermicelli pasta

500 g of tuna

500 g of ripe tomatoes

1 onion

parsley

olive oil

salt and pepper

Dice the onion and fry it in a pot with halfa cup of olive oil, add some parsley too.

Before being add, the tomatoes must bepeeled and chopped without seed.

Trapanese PastaPesto alla trapanesePreparation 10min

Cooking time 20min

Asparagus Soup

Spaghetti with

Tuna

Zuppa di asparagi

Vermicelli al tonno

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 20min

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 15min

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Potato and OnionPancakeFrittata con patate e

cipollePreparation 10min

Cooking time 20min

Season with salt and pepper and cook itfor about 15 minutes.

Then, add the drained tuna and cook itfor a few more minutes.

Boil the pasta al dente and mix themwith the sauce.

6 eggs

300 g of potatoes

2 onions

200 g of bread crumbs

200-300 g of parmesan cheese

saltpeper

Cut the onions in slices and fry them.

Cut the potatoes in thin circles, fry or boilthem.

Break the eggs in a bowl; add the cooledpotatoes and onions, the bread crumbsand the cheese.

Also, season everything with salt.Mix it together, put it in a baking n andlet it cook in the oven for about 20 min-utes at 180 degrees and it’s ready!

It can also be fried in a pan but it needsextra care to ip the friata so that bothsides get a golden brown colour withoutruining it.

800 g of dry broad beans

salt

wild fennel


Keep the broad beans in a bowl full ofwater during the night.

Aer this, rinse the broad beans with wa-ter and put them in a pot with enoughwater to cover all the beans.

Let them cook for 30-40 minutes (addhot water if needed) and somemes mixit with a wooden spoon.

Crumble the wild fennel and put every-

thing in the blender.At the end add a lile bit of extra virginoil and the meal is ready.

Thick Cream ofBroad BeansMacco di favePreparation 10min

Cooking time 40min

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From the Latvian Kitchen

Laba apetite!

Dace Blūma

Solvita Strode

Ulrika Malta

Viktors ČistjakovsVitālijs Čuhnovs

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Latvia is located in a temperate climaczone with fairly long and cold winters andwarm, short summers. Due to the harshclimate and relavely poor soil qualityLatvians have always worked hard to pro-vide food for themselves and their fami-lies. That is why they treat food, especial-ly bread, with great respect ― becauseit is not something that can be taken forgranted and have always lived on what

they could grow themselves. Bread hasa special place in Latvian consciousness,and respect for it is encouraged fromearly childhood. The tradional Latviancuisine is shaped by the seasons. In theautumn , food customs are more extrav-agant. Since the cellars are stued withgoodies, it is a good me to celebrateweddings.

More detailed informaon about the tra-dional Latvian diet stems from the 19th

century. At this me a plant from NorthAmerica was spreading quickly: the po-tato. Thanks to potato farming, Latvianpeasants no longer had food shortagesin winter and spring when stores of grainhad been depleted. It is believed that themost common meal for Latvian coastalshing families in the 19th century wasboiled potatoes with coage cheese andherring or pilchards. Today, potatoes pre-pared in dierent ways, are sll a verypopular component in the Latvian diet.

In the summer, when there was a lot ofoutdoor work to be done further awayfrom home, people would eat a mod-erate breakfast - for example, milk por-ridge. Lunch consisted of food broughtfrom home such as rye bread, coagecheese, rūgušpiens (curdled milk), andsomemes also fried meat or paes.Aer lunch, people would usually havea nap before beginning to work again.When returning home in the aernoon,

soup or porridge was eaten with a drinkof rūgušpiens. On Sundays, the diet con-sisted of stewed meat, white bread,pīrāgi (bacon rolls), pancakes, sweetenedcoage cheese or berry jelly with milk.

It is hard to idenfy a tradional Latvianidenty of their cuisine, because coun-tries such as Germany, Russia, Ukraineand the Scandinavian naons had a hugeimpact along the history. Latvian naonal

cuisine can be described as a mild one,without signicant spices and with rela-vely high levels of fat. To add avor areusually used onions, garlic, cumin andhoney for sweetening. Much to the hor-ror of vegetarians, the gurus of Latviancuisine have proclaimed meat as the kingof all foods. They eat lots of potatoes andoen call them “the other bread”. Cooksare praccal and very generous; theytend to go for dishes that do not take

much me to prepare.Most tradional Latvian dishes are veryhearty and nourishing – a real joy for agourmand! The nutrional pyramid isquite well balanced with lile room forsnacks: very simply cooked meat, beansrich in proteins, peas and all kinds of ce-reals.

Everyday cooking, uses cereals - oat,millet, barley and pearl barley, rye andwheat – for bread and porridge. A list

of common ingredients contains: sorrel,peas, beans, turnip, cabbage, beet, rad-ishes, pumpkin, carrots and potatoes.

During winter, meals have more meatand root vegetables and during summerdairy products, soups and porridge pre-dominate. In the autumn, pigs are butch-ered and the cooks would use almostevery bit of the pork to make delicioustreats out of it. Beer, homemade wineand liqueurs made from berries picked in

Latvian Tradional Kitchen

27



the summer are the most approachabledrinks for the Latvians.

In late summer, women begin to stock upinto their cellars with considerable en-thusiasm in order to get ready for win-ter me ― they make and put away jam,canned fruit, pickles, dried sausages,barrels with salted cabbage, cucumbers,mushrooms, meat and herring.

Homemade food always tastes so muchbeer. And every Latvian knows a secretmushroom-picking place and a very spe-cial recipe for a mushroom dish.

Although the daily tradional Latvian cui-sine has simple dishes, for Sundays and

other holidays, foods are a bit more so-phiscated:

• Mārņi, marks the beginning of win-ter and occurs halfway between the fallequinox and the winter solsce on Nov.10th. It is a one-day fesval and a joyfulintroducon to the long winter season.The namesake of the fesval, Mārņš isa lesser deity or mythical character as-sociated with the waning of the sun, aswell as with war and sacrices of roost-

ers. Mārņi is a slaughter me, so thereis usually a variety of meats at the fesvalmeal. The best known delicacy is rooster.Tradionally, a black rooster is killed toensure the well-being of the horses (asthis deity cares for horses). Pork, pīrāgi,root vegetables, cabbage, bread, apples,cranberries, grey peas, beer and sweet-breads are some of the other foods of -fered.

Christmas

At Christmas on the table , it needs to bedisplayed nine specic dishes which arebelieved to bring wealth to the house.Among them you can nd steamed cab-bage, blood sausage, gray peas withbacon, sh, almond cookies and gin-gerbread. The banquet’s most charac-terisc food must include a pig’s head

which has been boiled together with bar-

ley mashed with a pestle. Though Latviacelebrates Christmas on December 25th,this holiday is closely linked with paganwinter solsce celebraons. Latviansmark the 12 days up unl Christmas with

gis.

Easter

Easter (Lieldienas - “Great Days”). In thepast, it used to be a celebraon of thespring equinox (March 22nd); however,once Chrisanity took hold, this fesvalbecame associated with Easter, and nowis celebrated on the date when Easter

Sunday falls. Eggs symbolize the sun anda new beginning for life. Coloring eggsappears to be a more recent tradion,but one that everyone enjoys. Most com-monly, Latvians would color their eggs byboiling them in water which containeda large quanty of dry onion skins. Thiscould produce a variety of colors, de-pending on how long the eggs were lein the water. A short immersion produc-es a light yellow, a longer one a golden

brown, and a very long immersion — adeep, ruddy brown.

Midsummer fesval

Midsummer fesval – called Jāņi (theLatvian name for John) or Līgo svētki(svētki = fesval) – is held on the nightof June 23rd to June 24th. It is a naonalholiday celebrated at a large scale by al-

most everyone in Latvia and by people ofLatvian origin abroad. Celebraons con-sist of a lot of tradional elements - eat-ing Jāņu cheese, drinking beer, singinghundreds of Latvian folk songs dedicatedto Jāņi, burning bonre to keep light allthrough the night and jumping over it,wearing wreaths of owers (for women)and leaves (for men) together with mod-ern commercial products and ideas. Oakwreaths are worn by men named Jānisin honor of their name day. Small oak

28



branches with leaves are aached to carsin Latvia during the fesvity.

Nowadays, food in Latvia consists mainlyof chicken & pork llets baered in eggand deep fried then served with tradi-

onal dark rye bread and lots and lots ofsalads and fresh vegetables. Most of thesalads are like a basic potato salad madewith various chopped meats and veg-etables. Most of the salads use a creambased dressing rather than a mayonnaisebase. Popular food in Latvia includesdishes such as cabbage soup, small shwith onions, potato salad, smoked orsalted eel. Latvian food has main coursesof meat or sh. Desserts generally fea-

ture forest berries.Two of the most popular tradional Lat-vian drinks today are ruguspiens (curdledmilk with no other addives) and kers(cultured milk). Other popular tradionaldrinks are kvass (a non-alcoholic drinkmade from yeast), fresh or fermentedbirch juice and beer. Beer is a tradion-al Latvian beverage - it is impossible toimagine ancient or contemporary Lat-vian celebraons without it. Riga’s Black

Balsam is a thick, black alcoholic liquidwhich has been produced since 1700. Itis drunk either with coee or mixed withvodka. Kvass is a refreshing fermentedsummer drink made of black or regularrye bread. Sparkling wine is another pop-ular drink.

Beliefs associated withfood

There are many beliefs and customs as-sociated with food and eang habits inLatvia. One of the most important fea-tures of Latvian “eang equee” is tooer food to others around you if youare eang.

Latvians are enthusiasc bread eatersand in many homes, when cung therst slice from a loaf of bread, the endis called a ‘farmer’s son’. Young women

compete to eat this piece so that theycould marry a ‘farmer’s son’ - someonewho has his own home and farm. An-other belief is that a loaf of bread shouldbe sliced from the faer end, so that the

eldest daughter to be the rst to marry.Today people sll hold a number of be-liefs about salt. Each Latvian knows thatif a food has too much salt, the cook is inlove. If salt is spilled on the table or onthe oor, then there will be a quarrel inthe house.

Sing down at a meal is a serious busi-ness which requires people to be calmand act with decorum, and show respectto the food and to those who worked to

put it on the table - the plowman and thecook. The place of honor is at the head ofthe table, where the head of the houseusually sits. Those who sit at the cornerof the table should be afraid of the ‘curse’that they will not get married in the nextseven years. And everyone knows that ifa spoon or fork falls on the ground, a fe-male visitor will arrive, whereas if a knifefalls, the visitor will be a male.

29



3 cups water

1 cup cranberries (or other acidic fruit or apple)

½ cup sugar

½ cup semolina

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 10min

Boil water; pour the washed cranberries and boil them unl the berriesare dissolved (7-10min).Filter the liquid using a sieve. Pour it back into thepot, add sugar and boil. When the sugar has melted, add semolina in smallstream. Make sure your srre slowly all the me. Be careful not to makelumps. When it is ready, it should be a thick creamy consistency. It should notbe too thick, otherwise it won’t wroth.

Take it away from the stove and place it in cold water or on the window. Mixit from me to me, unl it is cold enogh not to burn yourself when touch-ing it. Use a whisk or mixer and blend unl Debesmanna grows three mes inhight and turns bright pink.

Serve with cold milk.

Debesmanna Traditional dessert

30



600g pork;

50 g white bread;

2 eggs;

1 onion;

salt;

pepper;

chopped greens;

1 tablespoon of cream;

1 tablespoon of our

1kg potatoes

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 20min

Peel the potatoes and boil them.

Oponal: salad made of vegetables(cabbage, beets, carrots, etc.)

Mix the meat with onions and soaked in water bread.

Grind the mixture for several mes. Add the eggs and mix everything onceagain.

Make meat balls, put them through our, then fry them in oil/fat on bothsides.

Serve them with potatoes, cream sauce and greens.

Meatballs with mashed potatoesKotletes ar kartupelu biezeni

32



Cut the chicken llet into pieces. Use a pan to fry the chicken in its own juice,oil-free.

Add salt, pepper and spices.

Fry it for 10 minutes, unl the chicken is brown.

Serve with boiled rice.

If desired, it can be eaten with green vegetables (e.g. cucumbers mixed withtomatoes and cream)

800g chicken llet

500g rice

lemon

salt

onion

greens

Chicken breast with rice Vistas krutina ar risiem

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 20min

33



Prepare dough without a starter. Aer dough has risen, divide into 30-35gpieces, roll into round balls and leave on a pastry board for 10-15 minutesto rise. Press each piece at, place bacon lling in the centre, press togetheredges of dough above or at the side of lling.

Roll with both hands to even out lling; make the shape long with slenderends and bent into a half-moon. Place on a greased baking tray, leave to rise,brush with beaten egg and bake in a hot oven. Brush with melted buer onceremoved from the oven.

Bacon lling:

Cut the rind o the bacon. Dice bacon and onion and stew (stew only for ashort period, so that fat does not run o), add pepper and mix well.

450-500 g our

250 g milk or water

25 g yeast

75 g margarine

25 g sugar

5 g salt

1 egg

Filling:

350 smoked streaky bacon

5 onions

ground pepper

Bacon pies

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 20min

Piragi

34



1 medium size summer squash

5 eggs

our

oil for frying

spices (vegeta)

Firstly, you have to peel summer squash,then cut it in medium lean slices.

If the seeds are small, you don’t have toclean them.

Put the our in the one plate and in an-other one, beat the eggs, then mix it withspices.

Roll one slice in our, drench it in pre-

pared eggs and put it on the frying panto fry.

Fry it unl it gets crunchy and brown onboth sides.

4 potatoes

2 carrots

100g green peas

300g cabbage

200g cauliower

spices and salt

Take a pot and put in water, then cut po-tatos carrots in pieces and put them inthe pot.

It is advisabe, peas to be put in the potfor a beer taste.

Take cabbage and cauliower leaves andput into the pot.

Also you can add dills and some vegeta-ble spices for a beer taste.

Boil the vegetables for about 15 minutesand don’t forget to sr aer some while.

Aer that, add salt and leave to boil forabout 5-10 minutes.

For even a beer taste, you can add sourcream.

6 potatoes

1 garlic head

1 tsp vegetable oil

1/4 gl grated cheese

1 tsp parsley (cut)

pepper, salt

Take whole cloves of garli, rub them withoil and wrap them in foil.

Potatoes with the peel and garlic needto be cooked on the grill unl they areready. Roasted garlic is nely trimmed.

Cut each potato in half, remove the spoonVidin and mix them with garlic mixture.

Add the parsley, cheese (for a lile deco-

Baked Potatoeswith Cheese

Vegetables stew

Breaded SummerSquash

Cepti kartupeli ar sieru

Darzenu sautejums

Kabacu karbonades

Preparation 20min Cooking time 25min

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 10min

Preparation 7min

Cooking time 10min

35



Vistas sparnini ar risiem

raon), salt and pepper.

Beat with mixer homogeneously the en-re mass.

Fill the potatoes with the mixture and

with the remaining cheese, herbs and it’sready to be served.

6-7 chicken wings

1 medium-size red bell pepper

1 medium size onion

2 garlic cloves

100-200g Thai sweet chili sauce

1 teaspoon of honey

salt and pepper

orange pepper (oponal)

2 packets of Basma rice

Basket making

Fry wings in a pan on high ame - thekey is make them brown rather than frythem. Fill it with salt, pepper and orangepepper.

Before the end of cooking, add nelychopped garlic, chopped onion length-wise and sliced into strips peppers andfry them unl the onions and garlic arebaked. It is literally about 2-5 minutes

We must use a pan re resistant glassmold. For the sweet Thai chili sauce, addabout 50 grams of water and on top ofit, put a teaspoon of honey. (Advice: Donot go over the wings; the template arearranged so that the wing ps should belowered)

4th Set the oven and bake for 20-30 min-utes

Rice

Fill with water a huge pot and add salt!

You must put two packets of Basmarice and boil them unl the rice is almostready (it can be determined by the factthat the sck is almost, but not 100%swollen)

Put a colander and rinse packets of a 2-3minutes under running hot water. Thenwith a fork, squeezed the excess water.

Done!! Put the rice dish, side wings andpour the sauce from the mold.

6-7 boiled potatoes

cream 100gcheese 200 - 300g

1 - 2 carrots

2 onions

400-500g minced meat

spices

salt

pepper (black ground)

You must use dishes or pots, which youcan put into oven. (heat resistant; prefer-ably glass)

Then cut cooked potato into slices. Halfof the sliced potatoes are spread on thebuom of a container, folding them nice-ly. (If you want to have 3 levels, you mustdivide 1 / 3 of the potatoes).

Bake minced meat, adding a lile pepper,spice mixture and fry with grated carrotsand onions. (15 - 20 min.)

Chicken Wingswith Rice


Gratin potatoesGratin kartupeliPreparation 10min

Cooking time 20min

36



On relaid potatoes leads over ½ of friedminced meat with vegetables.

Tad sprinkled with grated cheese (rich)

Over the top it can be put sweet cream,

for a beer taste.On the middle of each layer, there canadd the dill and spring onions. That willbe taser!

Aer that, the ingredients are baked ina heated oven unl it can be seen whenthe potatoes along the edges are start-ing to get crunchy, and remaining brown(about 20 min.)

6 large tomatoes

500g beef ground meat

1 small onion

3 garlic cloves

1 eggs

coriander and parsley greens, oliveoil, salt and pepper

Washed tomatoes, are being cut theupper part and with a spoon you mustremove the seeds, then tomatoes are

sprinkled with salt and invert to drain ex-cess moisture.

Preheat oven to 200 degree heat. Mincedmeat is mixed with egg, chopped onion,garlic, herbs, salt and pepper.

Tomatoes are lled with minced meat,imposed caps and splash with olive oil.Bake it all for about 45 minutes and servethem with boiled rice and green salad.

Enjoy your meal! It is a delicious meal

and sll you can put on it cheese with

garlic to melt, for a beer taste.

200 g rice

4 tomatoes

2 onions

2 garlic cloves1 teaspoon of tomato sauce

1 teaspoon of salt

ground red pepper

seed oil

parsley

1 bouillon cube

Boil rice in salted water. Cut the toma-

toes, onions and crush the garlic.Fry the onions and garlic in hot oil, addtomato sauce and bake them for a fewminutes. Add tomatoes and the bouil-lon (made in advance from the bouilloncube). Stew them for 10 minutes.

Aer that, add rice, salt and ground redpepper and mix them. Stew them againfor 10 minutes.

Serve it with greens.

1spoon of Sour cream.

2 potatoes

Stuf fed TomatoesPilditi tomatiPreparation 10min

Cooking time 10min

Cold SoupAuksta zupaPreparation 10min

Cooking time 10min

Rice with

TomatoesRisi ar tomatiemPreparation 10min

Cooking time 20min

37



1 hard-boiled chicken egg

1 cucumber

fennel

onion chives

1 tomatoparsley leaf

1 tablespoon of sugar

2 teaspoons of salt

1 teaspoon mustard

Take a bow and cut the onions, dilland chopped parsley leaf, add salt andsqueeze greens.

Chopped cucumbers are added alongwith tomatoes and sugar, gently mixedand poured with chilled ker.

Add the remaining ingredients, and thenslowly sr soup and if you feel a lack ofsalt, you can add it aer.

300 g black bread

700 g water

100 g sugar

raisins,cinnamon and whipped cream

Preheat the oven and toast the fresh

black bread. It takes about 15 minutes.Aer that put the bread into a pot andpour hot water over it. Keep the breadin the pot for 30 minutes.

Use a sieve to strain the bread. Whenit looks like gruel, add sugar, cinnamonand raisins. Boil everything unl the rai-sins are soaked.

The soup is ready. Eat it with whippedcream.

400 grams minced meat

4 tablespoons bread crumbs

1 egg

1 carrot

pasta

bay leaves

beef teaspice

Mix minced meat with bread crumbs andadd beaten egg with spice.

Moisten your hands and make smallmeat balls.

Put them into the water to boil alog thegrated carrot and when the quenellestarts oang on top, add pasta, beef teaand bay leaves.

1 carrot

2 cabbage heads

1 potato

1 tablespoon of green peas

1 glass of milk

1 glass of water

a lile bit of buer

Black Bread Soup

Rupjmaizi zupaPreparation 10min

Cooking time 45min

Quenelle soupFrikadelu zupa


Milk - VegetableSoupPiens - darzenu zupa


38



1 teaspoon of salt soluon

Grate the carrot.

Put it in a pot, add buer and water.

Place a lid on the pot and boil for 8-10minutes.

Then, add small grated cabbage, thechopped potato and green peas. Boil for10 more minutes.

Add milk and boil them again for 2-3 min-utes.

potatoes

milk

herring

coage cheese

sour cream

greens

salt

Boil the peeled potatoes. Drain them

well. Mash the boiled potatoes and addmilk to create the desired consistency(thicker, liquid, etc). Add salt and pepper(if desired).

Mix coage cheese and sour cream in abowl, add salt. If desired, greens can al-so be added.

Serve the coage cheese and smashedpotatoes with chopped herring pieces.Garnish everything with herbs.

½ fried chicken

100g cauliower

celery greens: 1 / 4 stem

½ sweet peppers

2 carrots

½ radish

¼ cups of sour cream

½ cups of yogurt

½ lemon juice

ground pepper

salt

Boil the cauliower in salted water for15 minutes, then put it in a sieve and

drain the water.Cool and cut in inorescences. Cleanand cut intro straws the celery and thesweet pepper, the carrots and the rad-ishes. Cool selery.

Remove the chicken’s skin. Separate theesh from the bones and cut the meatinto slices.

Mix the cauliower and the meat. Addsalt and pepper, cream, yogurt and lem-

on juice. Put it in the freeazer for 10 min-utes. Serve the salad bowl, decoratedwith herbs.

Herring withPotatoesSilke ar kartupeliem

Preparation 20min

Cooking time 20min

Chicken with Vegetables

Vistas gala ar darzeniemPreparation 10min

Cooking time 10min

39



1 tomato

2 tablespoons of sliced onions

½ green pepper

3 tablespoons of olive oil1 teaspoon of millet

50 g noodles

Chicken broth: 1-½ cups

2 tablespoons of olives

pepper, salt

Scald the tomatoes. Cut the tomatoes in-to pices aer you have scaled them.

Mix chopped peppers with chopped on-ions and fry them in oil.

Wash the millet with cold water, add thebroth and boil it on low ame for 5 min-utes. Add tomatoes, peppers, onions,noodles, salt and pepper and boil unl itis ready.

Before serving, decorate with olives, on-ion and pepper rings.

potatoes

egg

spice

sour cream or some other souce asyou wish

Firstly you must heat oil in a pan, cut po-tatoes in small pieces and put them to fryon small re. Put in pan lid.

When the potatoes are almost ready,add some spice.

When the potatoes are done fry one ortwo eggs as you wish and mix it with po-tatoes.

4 pcs pork or chicken: 4 pcs

40 g buer:

40 g melted buer:

ground black pepper, nutmeg, saltto taste

60 g wheat our:

1 egg:

3 tablespoons of milk:

sugar

spring onions, olives, lemon

Pound the meat slices.

Mix our with eggs, milk, salt and sugar.Soak the meat slices in the mixture. Af-ter that, fry them in melted buer. Addspieces.

Before serving the meat, decorate theplate with lemon and olives in archforms.

Vegetables withNoodles and Millet

Nudeles ar darzeniemun MilletPreparation 10min

Cooking time 15min

Baked Potatoeswith EggsCepti kartupeli ar ogluPreparation 5min

Cooking time 10min

Fried ChopsCepta galaPreparation 10min

Cooking time 15min

40



41



From the Polish Kitchen

Dobry Apetyt!

Anna Śledzińska

Artur Matłach

Kamila Kamuda

Małgorzata MatuszewskaMarta Nasiadek

42



Food has always played a crucial rolein the Polish history. Despite the fact thatfor over 100 years Poland disappearedfrom the map of Europe, Polish peoplemanaged to stay united thanks to threethings: their language, their catholic re-ligion and their tradional food. Eventough Polish cuisine is rich in its own reci-pes, due to polical shis to its borders italso gained a great deal from the cuisinesof its neighbours e.g. Russia, Ukraine,

Germany, Hungary and from the cuisineof the Jewish community living in Poland.

A typical Polish meal

A tradional Polish dinner (served be-tween 1 and 3pm) consists of 2 courses.First course is usually a soup: most oenrosół (chicken broth served with vermi-celli pasta and sprinkled with parsley),żurek (sour rye soup with potato and

sausage served with a hard-boiled egg,somemes in a loaf of bread), or barszczczerwony (beetroot soup with vegeta-bles and sour cream served with smalldumplings lled with mushrooms orbeans). Other popular Polish soups in-clude: kapuśniak (sour cabbage soup),krupnik (barley soup with smoked meat),and cucumber or tomato soup.

The most important part of dinner isthe second course. There are numer-

ous opons you may choose from, butthe number 1 on Polish tables is kotletschabowy (breaded pork cutlet) servedwith potatoes and cabbage.

Polish landscape (especially the Mas-uria region) is abundant in forests andlakes; therefore it is no surprise that sh-ing, hunng and mushroom picking havealways been among the most favouriteleisure acvies for the Polish people.This fact is also reected in food, as the

naonal Polish dish is bigos. It is an ap-

pezer, a seasoned ‘hunter’ stew madefrom sauerkraut (shredded cabbage thathas been fermented) with chunks of vari-ous meats, sausages and mushrooms.However tradionally it may be, bigos isnot served daily but most oen duringreligious celebraons such as Christmasor Easter. Among other popular Polishmain-course dishes are: gołąbki (cabbageparcels originally from Lithuania, stuedwith meat or meat and rice and served

with tomato sauce), zrazy zawijane (beefrolls stued with bacon, gherkin andonion or red pepper), roasted tender-loin, chicken liver or sh e.g. fried pikeor trout, salmon baked in dill sauce andnally a Jewish dish – carp in aspic withraisins (karp po żydowsku).

A typical Polish dinner ends with adessert and it is usually a home-madecake. Among the most tasty are: ciastodrożdżowe (a raised cake), makowiec(sweet poppy cake), mazurek (short crusttart), szarlotka (apple pie served withice-cream or whipped cream), piernik(gingerbread) and of course sernik (fatcheese cake). If you are a connoisseur,you cannot miss Polish doughnuts withrose-avoured lling.

Drinks

Polish drinking habits are gradually

shiing from vodka (which is sll verypopular) to wine and local beer. Thereare numerous ne local beer brandssuch as Żywiec, Lech, Okocim, Tyskie orWarka, which are sold in most shops andpubs. Poland has praccally no wine ofits own so most wines you will nd areimported from Bulgaria, Hungary, Franceor Spain.

Tradional Polish Cuisine

43



Vegetarian food

As Poles’ eang habits are keepingtrack with the seasons’ changes, when

the spring comes, Polish meals becomea lot more vegetarian than during win-ter. Even though, it is possible to buy allkinds of vegetables in the supermarketthroughout the year, there is nothing likenowalijki (young vegetables) form yourown garden. Among tradionally Polishmeat-free dishes are: pierogi (stueddumplings, most popular with coagecheese and potatoes – ruskie, with cab-bage and mushrooms or with strawber-ries), naleśniki (crepes lled with cot-

tage cheese, fruit or jam), knedle (rounddumplings stued with plums), plackizmieniaczane (fried pancakes made fromgrated raw potatoes served with sourcream or sugar).

Even tough vegetarian lifestyle is start-ing to appeal to a larger amount of Poles,there is sll a long way ahead of us. Atypical Polish vegetarian has 2 choices:either cook for himself/herself usingcookbooks and numerous recipes avail-

able on the internet or go to a vegetar-ian restaurant (e.g. a chain of Greenwayrestaurants present in all Polish cies andlarger towns).

Fortune favours the brave

Tradional Polish food is not meantfor people on a diet as the majority of

dishes are hearty and greasy. However, ifyou go to Poland with an open mind andempty stomach, you have come to theright place. Smalec is a delicacy you can-not miss, especially while taking part ina food fair organized quite oen in smalltowns and villages. It is parally dou-ble fried lard with onion, marjoram andcrackling, spread on a slice of fresh breadand served with ogórek kiszony (dill-pick-led cucumber). Other Polish delicacies,which may sound unorthodox but are

very tasty include: czernina (ducks’ bloodbroth with vinegar), aki (seasoned tripecooked in bouillon and vegetables), nóżkiw galarecie (jellied calve troers), karpw galarecie (carp in gelane), kaszanka(fried sausage made from buckwheatblended with pork blood served withfried onion) or biała kiełbasa (white sau-sage).

44



Wash the apples but do not peel. Cut into the top of the apple and hollow

out the seeds.Be careful not to cut the apple in half. Fill the wholes in apples with walnuts,sprinkle with cinnamon and if the apple is a sour kind, add some vanilla sugaror honey.

Place the apples on the baking tray and put into the oven.

Baking me depends on the kind of apples. The apple is usually ready whenits skin starts to crack and separate from the rest of the fruit. Serve hot withvanilla ice-cream.

apples (one per person)

walnuts

vanilla sugar/honey

cinnamon

Apples Roasted with Nuts

Jabłka pieczone z orzechami

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 15min

45



200g roni/fusilli pasta

400g fresh strawberries

200ml low fat cream or natural yogurt

sugar

Preparation 5min

Cooking time 15min

Boil the pasta.

Meanwhile wash the strawberries, blend with cream and add sugar.

You can use blender or squash the strawberries with a fork – the sauce willbe thicker.

When the pasta is ready pour the strawberry sauce on it.

Pasta with StrawberriesMakaron z truskawkami

46



Cook the vegetable stock – boil the carrots, parsnip, onion and garlic, add apinch of salt, pepper, herbs and bay leaf.

Let it boil for 20min in a covered pot. Meanwhile boil the rice.

When the vegetables are so take them out and blend them.

Add 1l of tomato juice to the stock and let boil for 5min.

Add blended vegetables and serve. Serve with rice and a teaspoon of sourcream on the plate.

1l tomato juice 100%

2 carrots

1 parsnip root

100ml of brown rice

pinch of Provence herbs

pinch of sea salt

1 onion

2 cloves of garlic

200ml low fat sour cream

1 bay leaf

Tomato SoupZupa Pomidorowa

Preparation 5min

Cooking time 25min

47



Wash the zucchinis and cut o the ends, then grate (if the zucchini is older,peel the skin and hollow it out). Put the zucchini in the strainer, add some saltand wait for it to release the juice. Press on the zucchini once more and put itin a large mixing bowl. Add 1 egg, salt, pepper, crushed garlic and some our(but not too much).

Pick the baer with a tablespoon and place some on hot oil (preferably rape-seed or grape seed oil).

There may be 3 pancakes max on the frying pan.

Fry quickly on both sides ll the pancakes turn brown. Serve with dill sauce.

Zucchini PancakesPlacki Z Cukinii

3-4 medium size zucchinisall-purpose our1 eggsalt, pepper1-2 cloves of garlic

Preparation 15min

Cooking time 15min

Preparation 15min

Cooking time 15min

48



Preparation 5min

Cooking time 25min

Mix the beef with nely chopped onions and pickles. First add only 2 pickles

and check the taste, tartar cannot be too sour so mind how much pickles youadd.

Then mix beef with egg yolks (1 per person), season salt and pepper, thentaste. Take some fresh lovage leaves and chop them or pound them with apestle.

Finally add the leaves and some olive oil, check the taste. Serve with crackersor garlic bread.

The procedure is prey much the same with salmon. Grind the salmon, addone crushed clove of garlic, some chopped dill and salt or pepper.

Beef:

500g ground beef sirloin2 onions

2 or 3 dill pickles

3 or 4 egg yolkssalt, pepper, lovageolive oil

Salmon:

400g of Norwegian smokedsalmon

1 clove of garlicbunch of fresh dill

salt, pepper

Beef / Salmon Tartar Traditional Recipe

49



Young Beet SoupBotwinkaPreparation 15min

Cooking time 15min

bunch of young beat (leaves + roots)

3-4 medium-size potatoes

dill

cream

lemon juice

vegetable stock cube

1-2 bay leaves

2-3 grains of allspice

salt, pepper

First, peel and dice the potatoes andstart boiling them.

Put the stock cube, bay leaves and all-spice into the water. Add the washed andnely chopped young beat (leaves, stems

and roots).Simmer ll potatoes are so. Seasonwith lemon juice, salt and pepper.

You may add cream once the soup is onthe plate and sprinkle with fresh dill.Serve with a hard-boiled egg.

3 potatoes

4-5 small carrots (or 2 large ones)

2-3 parsnip roots

bunch of fresh parsley leaves

a piece of celeriac

4-5 Polish dill pickles

100ml of Polish dill pickle juice

½ - 1 vegetable stock cube

1 heaped tablespoon of our1 heaped tablespoon of buer

salt, pepper, ‘vegeta’ – Polish mix ofspices

cream (but not obligatory)

Start from preparing all the vegetables.

Peel and dice the potatoes, grate the car-rots, parsnip and celeriac. Let it sim-mer for 7-8 minutes. At this point bouil-

lon should be boiling so add ½ or 1 stockcube (according to personal preference).

To thicken the soup take 200ml of watermixed with a tablespoon of our and addit when the potatoes are so.

Finally, season with pepper and addcream.

Remember that once you mix cream withhot soup, there might be lumps.

To avoid that, pour the cream to a sepa-rate bowl and gradually add some soupto it, constantly srring.

When it turns to a white watery sub-stance, pour all of it to the soup.

Sprinkle with fresh parsley before serv-ing.

1 kg of peeled, diced pumpkin

2l of broth (oponally 2 stock cubes)

Cucumber SoupZupa OgórkowaPreparation 15min

Cooking time 15min

Pumpkin SoupZupa Z DyniPreparation 10min

Cooking time 25min

50



Bread SoupZupa ChlebowaPreparation 15min

Cooking time 15min

2 heaped tablespoons of Parmesancheese

1 heaped tablespoon of Goudacheese

2 medium-size onions

1 tablespoon of buersalt, pepper

Dice onions and sauté in buer.

Make the broth – put the stock cubes in-to boiling water, then add peeled, dicedpumpkin, onion, pinch of salt and pep-per.

Cook in a covered dish for about 20 min,

and then blend.Add the Parmesan and sr.

Season with salt.

Serve with a bit of sour cream or a sprin-kle of grated Gouda cheese.

200g of dry bread

1l of water

250ml of sour cream

a handful of raisins (sultans)

1 cinnamon scksugar, salt

5-6 cloves

1 tablespoons of buer

lemon

To prepare the soup you may use dry slic-es or heels of bread.

Dice the bread and soak in cold water,

heat unl it boils, then pass it through a

sieve.

Add raisins soaked in water, cloves, cin-namon sck, some sugar, a pinch of saltand bring the soup to the boil again.

Take the pot o the heat; add creamand buer, season with sugar and lemon juice. The soup is very lling, enough foran enre dinner.

1 n of peas (280g aer draining)

1 big or 2 small onions (200g

large bunch of fresh mint or a table-spoon of dried mint

800ml water

1 big or 2 small dried tomatoes in oil(10g) – for a poron

1 teaspoon of oil (could be oil fromtomatoes)

ground coriander

1 tablespoon of capers (10g) – for aporon

Put the peas into the pot with water andboil.

Fry chopped onion, add mint and simmerfor a couple of minutes.

Then add coriander and put everythinginto the pot with peas.

Cook for 5 min and blend. Gently squashthe capers so they release the juice andadd to the soup.

Cut the tomatoes into stripes and add.

It is important that capers and tomatoes

Cream of PeasSoupZupa Krem Z GroszkuPreparation 15min

Cooking time 10min

51



Caulifower Rissole

Vegetarian Letcho

Sznycle z kalaf iora

Leczo wegetaria skie

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 5min

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 30min

are not cooked with the soup but addeddirectly before serving.

1 kg of green pepper

½ kg of zucchini or marrow

½ kg of oniontomato concentrate

rapeseed oil

salt, pepper, ‘vegeta’(Polish mix ofspices)

Wash and slice pepper and zucchini.

Pour about 70-100ml of oil into the pot,add pepper and zucchini and let it stew.

Meanwhile chop onion nely and add tothe stew.

Aer 15-20min add tomato concentrateand let it stew for another 10min.

Season with salt, pepper and spices ofyour choice. Serve with brown rice. Verytasty!

cauliower

2 eggs

breadcrumbs

spices of your preference

Boil or preferably steam the cauliower,strain and wait for it to cool.

Then squash it with a fork, add eggs,breadcrumbs and the spices.

Mix all the ingredients and form a rissole(chops) and coat in breadcrumbs.

Fry on both sides using rapeseed oil llrissole turns brown.

leuce

2 tomatoes

bunch of radishes

a clove of garlicolive oil

sunower seeds

salt, pepper

czubryca zielona (a mix of spices:dried onion, garlic, parsnip, basil,oregano, lovage, savory, black pep-per and salt)

The best eect comes from mixing a fewdierent kinds of leuce e.g. iceberg let-tuce, curly leuce, romaine leuce, but-terhead leuce and rocket salad (suchready-made mixes are available in somesupermarkets).

Tear the leuce and put it in a large mix-ing bowl.

Cut the tomatoes and radishes into cubes(not too small).

Add 1 crushed clove of garlic. Meanwhile

Spring SaladSałatka wiosennaPreparation 10min

Cooking time 3min

52



Eggs withAsparagusJaja ze szparagamiPreparation 10min

Cooking time10min

roast some sunower seeds on a non-sck frying pan (without oil).

Finally add 2 tablespoons of olive oil,seeds and spices.

4-5 eggs

fresh or frozen asparagus

salt, pepper

cheese or goat’s milk cheese

Put a few asparagus on the frying panwith a bit of olive oil (or preferably grape

seed oil) and defrost it.If you have fresh asparagus, slice them atan angle and put them on the frying panso that they create a single layer.

In a small mixing bowl, mix eggs withsalt, pepper and other spices of yourpreference and pour it onto the aspara-gus but don’t sr.

Wait for the eggs to curdle (but not toolong) and sprinkle with grated cheese.

Serve in the form of a pancake cut inhalf.

2 chicken legs

leek

buer

salt

garlic

Tear about 7-8 leek leaves and washthem.

Cut the green side into long stripes andplace half of them on the boom of acasserole.

Crush 1 clove of garlic and rub it into thechicken legs, add a pinch of salt, then putthe chicken into the casserole.

Cover it with the rest of leek leaves and afew slices of buer.

Place the lid on the casserole and put itinto the microwave for 7 minutes.

Then take out, turn the chicken on theother side and pour the melted buer onit so it would stay juicy.

Put it back in the microwave for another7 min.

Take out, turn the chicken again andput back for the last 6 min but this meuse the grill funcon to make the skincrunchy.

Serve with raw vegetables.

1 kg of potatoes

1 onion

1 egg

all-purpose our

salt

Chicken with Leek

Kurczak z poremPreparation 10min

Cooking time 20min

Potato Pancakes

Placki ziemniaczanePreparation 15min

Cooking time 15min

53



Wash, peel and grate potatoes (you mayuse a blender) then put it in a large mix-ing bowl.

Add grated onion, egg, some our (butnot too much), salt and mix all the ingre-dients.

Heat some oil on the frying pan (prefera-bly rapeseed or grape seed oil) and placea lile bit of potato baer on it.

Spread it so the pancakes are thin andcrunchy (there may be only 2 pancakeson the prying pan).

Fry quickly on both sides in hot oil.

Serve either with a vegetable salad andmushroom sauce or as a sweet dish –sprinkle sugar on top.

Pancakes:

baer

all-purpose our (50dag)

2 glasses of mineral water or milk

(500ml)2 eggs

pinch of salt

Filling:

1 or 2 packages of frozen spinachleaves (2x450g)

buer

4 cloves of garlic

salt, pepper, nutmeg

Blend all the ingredients of baer ll it’srunny (the consistency of thin cream). F

ry on both sides – very thin layer of bat-ter, there may be only one pancake onthe frying pan at once.

You may want to use 2 pans for frying tomake it faster.

Meanwhile defrost spinach on a separatefrying pan, add 2-3 tablespoons of buerand crushed garlic.

Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.When the pancakes are ready put a bit oflling in the centre, then cover it with a

pancake from 3 sides and roll it towardsthe 4th side.

new potatoes

natural yogurt

coage cheese

onion

salt, pepper,

chives

Boil or preferably steam potatoes in theirskins.

Meanwhile mix coage cheese with yo-gurt, spices, chopped onion and slicedchives.

When the potatoes are ready, put themon a plate and pour the sauce on them.Serve with vegetable salad.

Pancakes Filledwith Spinach

Placki ziemniaczanePreparation 5min

Cooking time 20min

Preparation 0min

Cooking time 5min

Pyry z gzikiem

Traditional dish

54



Starch Jelly

KisielPreparation 5min

Cooking time 15min

Buckwheat with Vegetables and

TofuKasza gryczana zwarzywami i tofuPreparation 15min

Cooking time 15min

300g of fresh or frozen strawberries

large natural yogurt (1,5% fat max)

fructose or honey

Put all the ingredients into a blender andblend unl it’s smooth.

Pour into cups, cover and put in thefreezer for 1-2 hours or drink as a shake.

fruit (raspberries, currants, blueber-ries or apples)

3 glasses of water (750ml)

10dag sugar

potato our/starch

Boil 0,5l of water with sugar and add thefruit. Cook the fruit to a pulp.

If you are making apple kisiel you need topeel and grate the apples rst.

Mix one glass (250ml) of cold water with3 tablespoons of potato our and add tothe pot with fruit, constantly srring.

Boil for 2 minutes.

Serve with fresh fruit, syrup or vegetar-ian cream (oponally low fat cream).

200g of buckwheat (2 bags)

a few leuce leaves8 radishes

2 small tomatoes

1 green or red pepper

2 small cucumbers

oponally: green olives, kohlrabi,caper

200 g tofu

2 tablespoons of apple vinegar

4 tablespoons of olive oil1 tablespoon of buer

honey

soy sauce, salt, pepper, curry

Boil or steam the buckwheat. Chop thevegetables.

Mix the vinegar with a pinch of salt, pep-per and honey, set aside for a couple of

minutes, add olive oil and mix with thevegetables.

Dice tofu, season with soy sauce, pepperand curry, sauté in a frying pan.

Put the vegetables on a plate then putthe buckwheat on it, add buer and -nally sprinkle the dish with tofu.

You may use goat’s milk cheese insteadof tofu.


Strawberry Shake Truskawka shake

55



56



57



From the Romanian Kitchen

Pofta Buna!

Andra Huțuțui

Angela Anton

Bogdan Petru Pincan

Cătălin Stănescu

Diana Șerbănescu

Flavius Ciocănel

Mariana Petrea

Marius (Beri) Berescu

58



Romania is a beauful lile country inEastern Europe in the Balkan region.Meal me in Romania is a very specialme. Family and friends come togetherand may linger long aer a meal is overin deep conversaon.

The food of Romania is diverse. Foodchoices and cooking styles are inuencedby Balkan tradions as well as German,Hungarian, Turkish, Russian and those of

the Near East which includes Israel, Pal-esne, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq.

Some of the tradional Romanian dishesare stued cabbage leaves known in theRomanian language as sarmale.

Other vegetables cooked and servedare stued bell peppers (ardei umpluți);green beans (fasole verde); carrots sote;roasted peppers (ardei copți); eggplantsalad (salată de vinete) and tomato salad(salată de roșii).

Potatoes are popular in Romania and areserved very oen. They are cheap to buyand are sold everywhere during the fall,both in grocery markets and along thestreets and highways in front of privatehomes (also where people sell other fruitor/and vegetables they grow in their owngardens/greenhouses).

Pork (and somemes lamb) is preferredover beef in Romania and pork fat is used

for cooking. For Christmas, a pig is tradi-onally sacriced by families from thecountry side, in their own backyards anda variety of recipes are used to preparethe meat. Caltaboşul, a thick sausagemade of pork’s liver and intesnes, is apopular dish and out of meat, fat, garlicand other spices sausages (cârnați) aremade. Romanians love grilled mincedmeat rolls (mitei) and meatballs madefrom a mixture of pork and beef, rice,chopped carrots and herbs (parsley, es-

pecially). Ghiveciul is very similar to astew, made of meat and vegetables (itcan be prepared in the oven, baked, orthrough normal boiling).

At Easter, it is served roasted lamb anddrob - a baked mixture of minced organs(liver especially, but heart, lien, lungs andkidneys can be added), meat, vegetablesand boiled eggs.

Lovage - an unusual herb tasng like cel-

ery - is used in Romanian cooking, espe-cially in lamb soup. When soured withlemon juice, a dash of vinegar or borş (afermented wheat bran liquid), soups be-come/are named ‘ciorbă’.

Dried beans/kidney beans soup (oenmade also with smoked pork) is servedhot during the winter (or cold during thesummer) and with fresh onions. Taratoris a cold soup, of Balkanic inspiraon,served during the summer and it is pre-

pared with cucumbers, yogurt, milk, gar-lic, walnuts etc.

Dierent BREADS are very popular inRomanian culture and there are manyinteresng variees. Cooked cornmeal/polenta (mămăligă) is tradional in all ofEastern Europe, and very common in Ro-mania, used in every possible combina-on with meat and/or cheese dishes; it issaid to be the poor’s bread.

The industry and tradion of cheese arenot as developed as they are in countrieslike France, Italy, Holland or Switzerland,but we do have some very disnct kinds:caş, caşcaval, telemea, urdă, brânză deburduf (a salty, creamy cheese madeof sheep milk and kept in sheep skin orstomach that has been carefully cleanedand sawed on the edges, or in a tubemade of pine bark – see photo):

Romanian desserts are not very sophis-

cated. The most common are pies (of

Romanian Tradional Food

59



all shapes and sizes) stued with saltyor sweetened cheese, apples or evendierent vegetables, crepes (lled withfruits, cheese, jam), strudels, spongecake (known as pandişpan or chec), rice

pudding (made of rice boiled in milk andsugar) and gingerbread (turtă dulce).

More and more wines are produced nowin Romania. In the past, religious inu-ences and y years of polical isolaonfrom market inuences kept it from be-ing so. Romanian brandy - made espe-cially of plums or other fruits (apricots,pears, apples etc.) grown here - is con-sidered to be a naonal spirit drink and itis called țuică or pălincă. (Being a strong

alcoholic drink, it is served in small glass-es.) When vising homes anywhere inRomania, people are friendly and warmand there’s always an invitaon to sharetheir food and a glass (or several ) ofstrong țuică.

Regional descripon ofthe Romanian cuisine

Transylvania

Transylvania (center of Romania). In thisregion, smoked fat (eaten either as it is,with onion and bread or when preparingmeals) is oen used for the whole periodof the year, even during summer. Porklard and rântaș (a paste obtained fromsteemed chopped onion and white our)are at the base of many dishes. Sauces

are usually white or colored with papri-ka. Salads and dressings are sweetenedwith sugar. Tarragon is a ‘must add’ in-gredient for soups. Most popular mealsare: papricaș with dumplings (chickenlegs prepared with white our, paprikaand dumplings), balmuș (polenta madewith milk and sheep cheese incorporat-ed while it is sll cooking), bulz, carawaysoup, cabbage soup with sour cream,ciorbă with meat and tarragon, cabbage„à la Cluj” (ne chopped cabbage layered

with minced meat and cooked in the ov-en), stued mushrooms, gulaș, smokedmeat and cheese, langoși (deep fried atdoughnuts with dierent stungs – cab-bage, garlic, sour cream, sweet cheese or

salted cheese with dill), puddings etc.

Moldavia

Moldavian (east of Romania) cuisine issaid to be the most rened of all. Mol-davian housewives, no maer what citythey live in, always receive their guestswith delicious chicken cirbă with crou-tons and cheese omelet, or the famous

pies ,,poale-n brâu” (literally trans.: „lapsover girdle”). Cakes are specic to thisregion and they come in many dierentrecipes and tastes. Vegetables are trans-formed into mouth-watering dishes inthe kitchen of Moldova.

Of their soups, stands out the giblet soup(ciorbă de potroace) made of chicken en-trails cooked with carrots, onion, parsleyand rice. It is said that this soup is thecure for a morning hangover .

Polenta and cabbage or tomato saladsoen accompany the main dishes.

The Romanian province Wallachia,stretching along the Danube, the Roma-nian Plain and up over the Carpathians,was famous for the pares given by Wal-lachian princes in the honor of their for-eign guests. The kitchen of this area isinuenced by French cuisine, thus in ad-dion to tradional dishes based on veg-

etables and meat, the lovage borş (a bitsour soup), the neles, the beans, mush-rooms and chicken are well known andappreciated.

Muntenia

In Muntenia (South) roast with plumsand cheese and pumpkin pies are specialdishes served especially during the win-

60



ter. Roasted chicken with quinces or apri-cots or duck with olives can compete foran honorable place among the favorites.Coconut jelly and goose roasts are pre-ferred by the people of this region. A

prey common meal consists of soupwith meatballs or beef, vegetable soup,scrambled eggs with onion or cheese andpolenta.

Oltenia

Oltenia (South) is known for its honest,hardworking and tough people. Thesepeople usually care very much for their

specic foods and are very into spicyfoods. A characterisc for the Olteniancuisine is the cooking technique of somefoods in test, a special pot made of clay.People from the rural area ‘take advan-tage’ of all the avor that herbs such asneles, sorrels and spring onion can of-fer. Leek is an emblemac ingredient inthe kitchen of this region and so are theOltenian sausages (made of equal partsof pork and beef, garlic, salt, pepper and

marjoram; this mixture of ingredientsis then stued in sheep intesnes andsmoked for 2 or 3 hours).

Banat

Banat is located in the South-West ofRomania with its county residence atTimișoara. The kitchen of this provinceis strongly inuenced by Austro-Hungar-

ian, Greek, Italian and French cuisine.The food is mainly prepared with pork,vegetables fried and steamed in oil orlard, white sauces with our and spicedup with pepper, thyme, (sweet)chilli andcaraway. Soups (may) contain home-made vermicelli, are soured with lemon juice or sweetened and thickened withsour cream and avored with tarragon.

Dobrogea

The cuisine from this part of Romaniawas strongly inuenced by fauna, climate

and oriental cuisine (Turkish and Greek).For dressing the food a lot of sh, game,muon, poultry, beef and pork are used.Dobrogea is rich in vegetables, fruit, milk,cheese and eggs and the dishes preparedhere are light, tasty and emphasize allthe richness of avors oered by thisland. In cooking, buer is preferred tooil. Main dishes are joined by side dish-es consisng in rice, vegetables or pas-tas. It is used a lot of buermilk, yoghurtand telemea (a specic Romanian saltedcheese).

Along the history, and especially aer theWorld War I, the cuisine of Dobrogea issubdued to dierent changes; foods aremore rened, more delicate and taserand they increase in variety and quality.Among the specic dishes we recall: shciorbă, tripe ciorbă, sh marinades, carpbrine, spit-roasted sh and lamb, stuedcarp, muon sausages, Dobrogean sal-ads and pila, şaşlâc, kebab, muon pas-trami, ghiudem, musaca, rice side dishesand as for desserts, we have to menonabout baclava, sarailii and sweetmeatsmade with raisins and Turkish delight.

61



14 spoons of our

14 spoons of sugar

14 spoons of milk

14 spoons of oil

4 spoons of cocoa

1 spoon of vanilla avored sugar

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 spoon of rum

4 eggs

2 bananas

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 45min

Mix the eggs with the sugar unl it is dissolved.

Then add the milk, the oil, the bananas which have been peeled and smashedwith a fork (turn them into an even paste),

Then gradually add the our in which you have previously mixed 3 spoons ofcocoa, the backing powder, the rum and the vanilla avored sugar.Mix it upunl you get a uniform composion.

Grease with buer and sprinkle with the rest of cocoa a rectangular tray andaerwards pour the whole composion.

Bake for at least 45 mins at medium temperature.

Let the cake cool down and only then slice it up.

Cake with BananasChec cu banane

62



Finely chop the onion and bellpeppers and put them in a pot, in which you have

previously heated the 4 spoons of sunower oil.

Add as much black pepper as you like, and let the vegetables fry a lile bit. Then,add 8 mugs of water and boil at mild re.

Meanwhile, clean and peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes, mince theroots (carrots, parsley and celery) and put them in the pot to boil (at mild re).

When the potatoes and carrots are boiled, add salt to give taste and take thepot o the stove/gas range. Chop the green parsley, add it into the pot and sr.

Pour soup in soupbowls and add 2 spoons of fresh sour cream. Serve it while itis sll prey hot.

1 onion

2 pimientos or medium redbellpeppers

4 spoons of sunower oil

800 g of potatoes

2 carrots

1 parsley root

150 g of celery root

1 bouquet of green parsley (toadd avor) ă

400 g of sour cream

salt and black pepper

Vegetable Soup with Sour

CreamSupa de legume cu smântâna

Preparation 20min

Cooking time 30min

63



2 chicken breasts

1 onion

3-4 cloves

6 spoons of olive oil


oregano/rosemary/basil (op-onal)

Preparation 20min

Cooking time 20min

Defrost, if necessary, the chicken and cut it into medium chunks. Julienne theonion and put it in a frying pan, at medium re, in 4 spoons of hot olive oil.

Aer 3-4 minutes, add the chicken breast, a lile bit of pepper and the garlic(which have been minced). Cook the meat unl it releases all the juices.

When it’s done, lter the chicken through a strainer to get rid of all the wa-ter le.

In another pan heat 2 spoons of olive oil, then put the chicken chunks andlet it fry a bit.

Flavor it with oregano, basil and/or rosemary. Serve while it’s sll warm, to-gether with the mushroom saute or sauces made of sour cream and greener-

ies/herbs, along with side dishes made of rice or potatoes.

Pan Cooked Chicken Breast

with Mushroom SautePui la tigaie cu sote de ciuperci

64



600 g Champignon mushrooms


1 chopped bellpepper

1 chopped pimiento

1 onion

400 g creamy sour cream (forcooking)


chopped basil

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 45min

Wash the mushrooms and cut them into bigger pieces (cubes or slices). Putthem into a pot, sprinkle some salt and pepper and leave the pot with the lidon top, on mild re, to release the water.

Let it cook for about 15-20 mins and then lter them through a strainer to getrid of all the liquid released.

In the meanme, heat two spoons of olive oil in a pan, and fry just a lile bitthe onion, cut julienne, and the chopped bellpepper and pimiento. Add asmuch salt and pepper as you desire.

Aer the vegetables are almost done, add the ltered mushrooms. Keep eve-rything on re for 2-3 mins; then add the sour cream and basil.

Cook it for another 3-4 mins and sr connuously. Serve it while it is warm,on top of the pan cooked chicken breast.

Mushroom SauteSote de ciuperci

65



600 g Champignon mushrooms


1 chopped bellpepper

1 chopped pimiento

1 onion

400 g creamy sour cream (for

cooking)

salt, black pepper and choppedbasil

Preparation 20min

Cooking time 20min

Wash the mushrooms and cut them into bigger pieces (cubes or slices). Putthem into a pot, sprinkle some salt and pepper and leave the pot with the lidon top, on mild re, to release the water.

Let it cook for about 15-20 mins and then lter them through a strainer toget rid of all the liquid released. In the meanme, heat two spoons of oliveoil in a pan, and fry just a lile bit the onion, cut julienne, and the choppedbellpepper and pimiento. Add as much salt and pepper as you desire. Aerthe vegetables are almost done, add the ltered mushrooms.

Keep everything on re for 2-3 mins; then add the sour cream and basil.Cook it for another 3-4 mins and sr connuously. Serve it while it is warm,on top of the pan cooked chicken breast.

Potatoes with Bread-

Crumbs and GarlicCartof i cu pesmet si usturoi

66



1 chicken breast


1 teaspoons sesame seeds

300g spinach leaves

1 teaspoon freshly milled horserad-

ish250ml white wine

± salt, pepper, red pepper powder

Cut the chicken breast in two.

Season the meat with salt, black pepperand red pepper powder.

Put the sesame seeds in hot oil and thenfry the chicken breast in it.

When the meat is fried, pour the whitewine and leave the pan on low heat.

Separately, put the washed spinachleaves in a pan with a lile bit of hot oil.Fry it for 5 minutes, always mixing.

Don’t fry them to much because they willchange their colour into a darker one.Put the spinach leaves and the slicedchicken breast on the plate, beaufullyarranged.

300g rice

200g green peas

1 onion

4 spoons of oil

1 carrot1 bunch of dill

250ml white wine

salt, pepper

Wash the rice in more waters and boil itin 1 l of water with salt and pepper.

In a pan,

fry the onion and the carrot, nely

chopped.

Add the peas and the chopped dill.

In a well oil baking n put alternave lay-ers of rice and peas.

Pour wine over the ingredients and placethe baking n in the over for 20 minutesbefore serving.

6 big squashes

2 onions

4 tomatoes1 red bell pepper

50 ml oil

1 bunch of parsley

salt, pepper

Peel the squashes, wash and cut theminto large pieces.

Fry the onion for about 2-3 minutes.

Chicken Breastwith Spinach

Rozi - Bizi

Squash Food

Piept de pui cu spanac

Rozi - Bizi

Mâncare de dovlecei

Preparation 30min

Cooking time 15min

Preparation 15min

Cooking time 25min

Preparation 25min

Cooking time 25min

67



Then, add the squash and the choppedred pepper.

The tomatoes must be put in hot wa-ter for a minute, peeled and chopped insmall cubes before being added.

Put also 1 cup of water and let the ingre-dients boil on low heat unl they are wellcooked.

Sprinkle chopped parsley on top beforeserving.

Serve the food hot or cold as you prefer.

2 big carrots

2 parsnip roots

4 potatoes

1 celery, medium size

1 beet

100g oil

1 spoon of sugar

1 lemon

4 spoons of Dijon mustard

2 rosemary

salt, pepper

Wash the vegetables rubbing them witha plasc brush.

Without peeling them cut them into thickscks the size of a nger, not thinner.

Put them in a bowl and season them withsalt and pepper.

Grate the lemon zest and then squeeze

the juice.

Put the lemon zest in the juice; addsugar, oil, mustard and rosemary, nelychopped.

Mix well and pour the sauce into thebowl, over the vegetables.

Sr well, cover the bowl with plascwrap and let it rest for 20 minutes.

Place vegetables with the sauce in a bak-ing n and put it in the hot oven.

Bake vegetables in hot re unl they geta brown and crispy.

1 cup long grain rice

1 onion

½ red bell pepper

½ yellow bell pepper1 carrot

200g bean pod

5 spoons of white wine

2 teaspoons of soy sauce

salt

Wash the rice in cold water at least twice.Boil it in water with a pinch of salt.

Separately, nely chop the onion and fryit in a pan.

Add the carrots and the diced peppers.

Add also the bean pods that must bechopped and boiled separately rst.

Fry the ingredients together for a fewminutes and then add the wine and im-mediately aerwards the rice and thesoy sauce.

Mosaic Rice Vegetable in theOver Orez Mozaic

Legume la cuptor Preparation 10min

Cooking time 25min

Preparation 10min

Cooking time 20min

68



Season with salt and cook the ingredi-ents on high heat for a few minutes.

The wine and the juice le by the vegeta-bles will sweeten the rice.

4 white sh llet (hake, cod or anyother ), about 200g a piece

400g carrots

400g green peas

200g cauliower

1 onion

4 spoons olive oil

1 lemon

salt, pepper

Sprinkle the llets with lemon juice, sea-son them with salt and pepper and keepthem cool for 30 minutes to tender.

Then fry them in oil on both sides.

Boil in water with salt the carrots cut in-to pieces, cauliower chopped in smallpieces and peas.

When the vegetables have soened,drain them, fry in hot oil the choppedonion and when it begins to turn yellow,add the boiled vegetables.

Hold the bowl for 5 more minutes at me-dium heat, season with salt and pepper.

Serve llets on warm plates, along withthe vegetables sprinkled with lemon juice.

6 big potatoes

4 eggs

2 bundles of green onion

1 bundle of pilework

1 small green salad

1 bundle of dill

70ml olive oil

1 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar

50g pied olives

salt, pepper

Wash the potatoes.

Boil them in water without peelingthem.

Add one teaspoons of salt in the water.Boil the eggs for 15 minutes on low heat.

Peel them and cut them in cubes.

Peel and wash the greens, drain them ofwater and chop them larger.

Put in large bowl the potatoes, the eggs,the chopped herbs, sliced olives.

Add olive oil, vinegar, season with saltand pepper and mix gently by inversion,in order not to break too much the po-tatoes and especially the eggs. Serve thesalad cold.

White Fish f illedwith VegetablesFile de peste alb culegumePreparation 10min

Cooking time 20min

Potatoes Saladwith Herbs

Salata de cartof i cuverdeturiPreparation 25min

Cooking time 25min

69



4 carrots

4 potatoes

2 parsnic roots

4 parsley roots

1 large turnip or 2 small ones

1 large celeriac4 mushrooms

4 garlic clove


salt, red pepper powder, pepper

Peel the vegetables and wash them.

Cut them into large pieces, rounds orrods.

Place them in boiling water with salt.

Meanwhile, peel the garlic, crush it andsprinkle it with coarse salt.

Sr with a wooden spoon, gradually add-ing oil.

A homogeneous paste must be ob-tained.

Add a lile bit of red pepper powder and

freshly grounded pepper.Use a blender for a creamier sauce.

Drain the vegetables of water and putthem in a bowl.

Add in the garlic sauce with a lile bit ofthe water in which the vegetables boiled,srring constantly. Pour this sauce overthe vegetables.

Mix the ingredients so the sauce would

be incorporated, but without crushing

the vegetables. Season with spices, ifneeded.

8 slices of meat (pork or viel llet,chicken or turkey breast)

250 ml white wine

2 spoons of sugar

2 spoons of dry mint

2 red bell pepper

1 lemon

100ml oil

1 spoon of cardamon powdersalt, pepper

Cut the meat into thin strips. Season withthe spices and fry them in hot oil for 5-6minutes. Put sugar over the meat andsr.

Aer about 3-4 minutes, add the wine.

Cover the pan and let it boil for 20 min-utes on low heat.

Then add the red bell pepper, cut intocubes and the well crushed.

Boil for another 10 minutes, and thenadd the juice from lemon.

Season from salt and pepper and let it onlow heat unl the sauce thickens

Steak with MintSauceFriptura cu sos deMentaPreparation 25min

Cooking time 25min

Vegetables withHot Sauce

Legume cu sos picantPreparation 10min

Cooking time 15min

70



600g chicken breast

2 spoons of poppy seeds

2 spoons sesame seeds

2 eggs

1 spoon of our

2 bell pepper

1 onion

4 big tomatoes

1 teaspoon tomato sauce

100g pied olives

salt, pepper

Cut the meat into 1 cm thick slice.Season them with salt and pepper.

Mix the our with beaten eggs.

Dip the meat into the mixture and theninto the poppy and sesame seeds.

Fry the slices on both sides.

Separately, fry the sliced onions and pep-pers.

Aer 3-4 minutes, add the tomato sauce,the tomatoes and the olives.

Season with spices and boil for 10 moreminutes.

4 medium squashes

100g kaiser

5-6 medium mushrooms

1 big onion

1 glass of white wine

3 garlic clovesalt, pepper

oil

green dill and capia pepper fordecoraon

Fry a bit the kaiser and the chopped gar-lic and onion.

When the onion is golden, add the mush-

rooms chopped, salt and pepper.Aer 3 minutes, add the wine.

Fry the ingredientsfor 5 more minutes,constantly sring

Cut the squashes in 2 pieces. Peel theirskin in some places so that you havestripes on them.

Using a spoon, carve the squashes andthen ll them with the prepared sauce.

Place them in a baking n with a bit ofwater, oil, a pint of salt and pepper pow-der. Place it in the oven for 20 minutes.

Fried Chicken with Vegetables Sauce

Pane de pui cu sos delegumePreparation 20min

Cooking time 20min

Barrels withMushrooms

Butoiase cu ciuperciPreparation 20min

Cooking time 20min

71



4-6 mediem tomatoes

2 large cans of tuna

1 small can of peas

50 g rice

2 spoons of yogurt

1 lemon

a bit of sweet corn cannedsalt, pepper

Wash the tomatoes and cut them a cap.Using a spoon carve them. Save the pulp.Drain the tomatoes on a grill.

Boil the rice in salted water. Drain thecanned tuna and peas.

Put the tuna and the peas in a bowl, add

salt, pepper, lemon juice and the yogurt.Mix them together.

Fill in the tomatoes with the pasta, deco-rate them with young celery leaves andkeep them cool unl serving.

Tip: When serving, add a bit of cheese ontop.

1 pastry dough

3-4 pear

100g brown buer

100 g buer

cinnamon

Melt the buer in a pan, then add thesugar and keep it on low heat unl cara-mel forms.

Add the pears, halved, peeled and cored.

Sprinkle cinnamon and cook for 5 min-utes.

In a tart form, carefully pour the carameland the halved pears with the carvedpart on top in a ower form.

Place the pastry dough on top and gentlyfold the edges inwards.

Prick it with a fork or a toothpick and putthe baking n in hot oven for 20-25 min.

Remove the baking n and let the tart ,,to catch its breath “ for a few minutes.

Flips it carefully on a plaer and servewarm.

Cocktail Tomatoes Pear DishRosii-cocteil Platou cu pere


Preparation5min

Cooking time 15min

72



73



74

From the Turkish Kitchen

Afyet olsun!

Filiz Tüzün

Mustafa Bağ

Naime Eda Mavuş

Üzeyir YılmazYıldıray Kırık



75

According to many culinary experts,Turkish food is considered to be amongthe top three greatest cuisines in theworld along with French and Chinese.Some may agree with the French andChinese but nd the Turkish one debat-able. When looking back at Turkish his-tory, the reason for Turkish cuisine beingranked among the top three cuisines inthe world can be understood beer. Let’stake a look.

Original Turks lived a nomadic life styleand migrated from the Far East Asia,(mainly Western China Tibet and Mongo-lia regions) to the current geographic lo-caon of Turkey and surrounding areas.As they moved from the Far East to AsiaMinor (current Turkey), the Turkish an-cestors adopted various foods from vari-ous cultures along the way which led to avery diverse although developed and re-ned cuisine. For instance, man whichis small pieces of dough stued with

minced meat and spices topped with yo-ghurt sauce is supposedly adopted fromChinese dumplings. It is said that theidea of ‘dolma’ (stued vegetables) camefrom man. Due to their nomadic life-style, the nomadic Turks’ diet was main-ly based on animal products such lamb,goat and game. Dierent techniques ofpreserving food were invented in orderto prevent food from spoiling. Perhapspasrma (pastrami - which is dried cured

beef) mainly made in the city of Kayseri inCental Anatolia region came about fromthe need to preserve meat without spoil-ing. It is no secret that the integraon ofnomadic Turks with other civilizaons,geographic locaons and weather hadinuenced their culinary tradions whichbrings us to food culture of the OomanEmpire. The vast Ooman Empire whichcovered three connents for a lengthof almost 600 years and controlled thespice road, inuenced food culture from

North Africa to Eastern Europe (up to Vi-

enna, Austria) and most of the MiddleEast leaving a trace of similaries in thecurrent Mediterranean, Eastern Europeand Middle Eastern cuisines. The Impe-rial Palaces had enormously large kitch-ens that had separate cooks for eachkitchen specializing in one single type ofdish that was developed and perfectedover me. For example, each cook spe-cialized in pilav (pilaf), dolma, baklava,kebabs, desserts and so on. Dried fruitssuch as apricots, raisins, currants and the

best quality spices frequently were em-ployed in cooking. Through developmentand improvisaon, the Ooman Cuisineevolved to be the current Turkish cuisine.Aer the end of Ooman Empire, themodern Republic of Turkey, founded in1923, adopted the same delicious cuisineand cooking techniques.

The importance of food during the Ot-toman days and now in the current Re-public of Turkey cannot be overstated. It

is a signicant part in culture and dailylife. This solid sense of food culture canbe found in every single part of Turkeyalbeit the food itself is very heterogene-ous. Although some dishes are prevalentthroughout Turkey, every region, evenprovince has its own type of cuisine thatmay not be recognized by other regions.

Almost every region or province is re-nowned with one or more types of foods.The South/Southeast region encompass-

ing mainly Adana, Mersin, Hatay, Gazi-antep, Kilis, Şanlıurfa provinces is knownfor its spicy and versale foods. Red pep-per paste and many types of spices arefrequently used in its food such as kısır,dolma, kebaps, stews and many otherdishes to enhance avor of the dish.Mersin is known for its tantuni (sautedminced meat with spices placed insidebread), Antakya is renowned with itsdelighul dessert künefe, Adana with

Adana kebap, Gaziantep with baklava,

Turkish Food Culture



76

antepsğı (pistachios), Şanlıurfa withçiğ köe (ne bulgur mixed with rawground meat and spices) and CentralAnatolia with keşkek (meat and wheat orbarley stew).

When hamsi (anchovies) is menoned,the rst place that comes to mind in Tur-key is the Black Sea region which is locat-ed in Northern Turkey. This area is alsoknown for its kara lahana (collard greens)dishes, black tea and hazelnut farming.Kayseri province which is in the Anato-lian region is known for the best manand pasrma. The Mediterranean regionin southern part of the country and Ae-gean region in the west part of the coun-

try are popular with vegetable and oliveoil dishes and the list goes on.

The variaon of Turkish food from re-gion to region is as a result of a diverseweather, lifestyle due to geographic lo-caon and ancestry. Turkey is composedof people with dierent ancestries whocarry on their food tradions for centu-ries allowing a wide range of foods to beserved in Turkey. Thanks to the diverseweather, numerous types of crops grow

in Turkey enabling a rich cuisine to form.The wheat farming that started with thenomadic Turks for centuries has given afocus on doughy foods such as ekmek(bread) which is a main staple through-out the country, böreks (stued pastries)and bulgur pilafs. Due to proximity to theseas, sh and other seafood are a crucialpart of the Mediterranean, Aegean, Mar-mara and Black Sea region diets.

The foundaon of Turkish food is based

on the freshness of the ingredients. Inrural areas the vegetables come rightout of people’s garden just before cook-ing, the meat comes from a farm or lo-cal butcher. As society changes and moreand more women parcipate in the workforce, naturally many urban dwellers areadapng to the modern convenienceseagerly leaving behind some of the foodtradions, although there are sll somepeople who are living in cies and per-form the roune of grocery shopping

daily in order to get the freshest availa-ble ingredients. In smaller cies and lesspopulated areas, fresh ingredients aresll the biggest factor in cooking.

Some of the main ingredients used in

Turkish food can be stated as follows:tomato paste, red pepper paste, pome-granate molasses, olive oil, yoghurt, ol-ives, cheese, cumin, sumac, red pepperakes, paprika, black pepper, lemon, or-anges, parsley, mint, dill, garlic, onions,tomatoes, green peppers, eggplant, zuc-chini, green beans, cucumber, cabbage,sh, chicken, beef, lamb, yua (phyllodough), kadayıf (shredded phyllo dough),chick peas, dried beans, lenls, pistachi-

os, walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds.

Turkish food can be divided

into the following groups:

1. Mezeler (Appezers)

2. Dolmalar (Stued vegetables with riceor meat)

3. Çorbalar (Soups)4. Salatalar (Salads)

5. Baklagiller (Legumes)

6. Zeynyağlı Sebzeler (Vegetable disheswith olive oil which are usually servedcold)

7. Pilavlar (Rice or bulgur pilafs)

8. Etli Sebzeler (Vegetables with meat)

9. Börekler (Stued pastries with meat,cheese or vegetables)

10. Pideler (Flat bread with cheese, meat orvegetables)

11. Kebaplar (Kebaps which range from ke-babs cooked in a pot to skewered ke-baps)

12. Balık ve Deniz Ürünleri (Fish and otherseafood items)

13. Tatlılar (Desserts)

14. İçecekler (Drinks such as Turkish coee,Turkish tea, rakı, ayran)



77

Turks love eang and relishing food. Asa result, feast-like meals are not out ofthe ordinary in a Turkish home. If you arepresent in a Turkish home for breakfast,lunch or dinner, the variety and the eort

put into preparing the table will be veryevident. In Turkey, having people over fordinner or a tea party is a very commonand frequent tradion which involves so-cializing. It is part of the society, cultureand tradion.



78

3 ¼ cups sugar

2 cups starch

2 ½ cups water

1 ¼ cups buer or margarine

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 cups pistachio nuts (un-crushed)

4 ½ cups our

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ tablespoons olive oil

2 eggs

Preparation 20min

Cooking time 60min

Place the sugar and 2 cups of water in a saucepan, boil for 10 minutes, addthe lemon juice and bring to boil again for a short me.

Remove from heat and leave to cool. Crush or grind the pistachio nuts. Sithe our into a large bowl, add salt and and mix.

Slowly pour the oil, make a hole in the middle and add the eggs and veryslowly add the water.

Knead into medium s dough. Cover with a damp cloth and leave for about10 minutes.

Divide the dough into balls and roll each ball out very thin, sprinkling withstarch unl half a millimeter thick.

Place half of the rolled out dough into a baking pan of 35-40 cm. diameter.Sprinkle pistachio nuts on the top of the sheet. Place the remaining sheets.

Cut the layered pastry sheets into squares or diamonds. Heat the buer with-

Baklava Traditional Recipe



79

For the dough:

2 cups all-purpose our½ tsp salt

1 egg

lightly beaten

For the lling:

1 small onion

grated

1 pound ground beef or veal

1/3 cup chopped fresh Italianparsley,

salt, freshly ground pepper

Yogurt and garlic sauce:

2 cups yogurt, at room tempera-ture,

2-3 tsp minced garlic,

salt, oponal

Pepper topping:

2 Tbs buer

1 tsp Aleppo pepperpinch of sumac, oponal

Manti

out burning it and pour over the pastry.

Bake in a barely moderately heated oven for approximately 40-50 minutesunl it is golden brown.

Remove from the oven and set aside for 2-3 minutes and then pour the cold

syrup over the pastry, cover and let it soak in.

Traditional Recipe



80

Prepare the dough by making a well in the our, and adding the salt, egg, and¼ cup water in the centre.

Using your ngers, work the ingredients together unl dough is formed. Ifneeded, add more water a spoonful at a me.

Knead the dough on a lightly oured surface unl smooth and elasc. Gatherinto a ball, place in a bowl, cover, and let rest for an hour.

Prepare the lling by mixing together in a bowl the grated onion, meat, pars-ley, salt, and pepper to taste. Set aside.

In a small bowl combine the yogurt and garlic, with salt to taste, if desired.Let it rest at room temperature unl ready to use.

Divide the dough into 2 balls. Roll out one ball of dough at a me on a lightlyoured surface unl very thin (about 1/16 inch). The secret of good dough isto roll it in dierent direcons, not just in one direcon.

Cut strips 1 inch wide, then cut into 1-inch squares. Place about a ½ teaspoonof lling in the center of each square.

Bring the four corners together over the lling and pinch to seal. Connuemaking man unl all the dough and lling are used.

Place the man on a lightly oured surface to lightly coat them.

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and put in the man. As soon as theyare cooked they will rise to the surface.

Remove them from the pot with a sloed spoon and place in a serving bowlor individual bowls with a ny bit of the cooking liquid.

Cover to keep warm while cooking the remaining man.Pour most of the yogurt sauce over the man saving the rest for when youserve the dish.

Quickly heat the buer in a small skillet and when the buer is sizzling hot,quickly add the pepper, mixing well.

Remove from the heat and drizzle over the yogurt sauce. Sprinkle with sumacif desired. Serve man at once with yogurt sauce.

Man can be frozen.



81

500g spinach

2 teaspoon of red pepper

1 glass of plain yogurt

5 pieces of garlic

4 full spoons garlic

4 full spoons of olive oil

salt Preparation 10min

Cooking time 20min

Clean and cut the spinach. Boil it for a short period of me.

Take the spinach out and wash with cold water, dry in a colander.

Put in a deep dish; mix with squashed garlic and yoghurt.

Take them at a service plate. A

dd some redpepper and pour some olive oil if you like

Spinach Salad with

YoghurtMeyhane Pilavi



82

500g spinach

2 teaspoon orf red pepper

1 glass of plain yogurt

5 pieces of garlic

4 full spoons garlic

4 full spoons of olive oil

salt Preparation 10min

Cooking time 30min

Clean up and cut the spinach. Boil it for a few minutes.

Then take the spinach out and wash it with cold water, dry it in a colander.

Put the spinach in a deep dish, mix with squashed garlic and yoghurt.

Arange everything on a service plate. Add some redpepper and pour someolive oil if you like.

Tavern PilavMeyhane Pilavi



83

Su Böregi

Water Pastery

4 glasses our

16 glasses water

¼ glass water

8 tablespoons salt

8 eggs

corn starch

1 tablespoon salt

2 glasses melted margarine

250 gr. grated white cheese

5 glasses milk

1 bunch parsley

Sprinkle our over a wooden board, make a hole in the centre and add 4

eggs, 2 glasses milk, 1 glass melted margarine, water and 1 tablespoon saltand knead unl a dough is formed.

Make it into the shape of a roll and slice it into 12 equal pieces; press eachpiece, cover with a wet cloth and allow it to rest for half an hour.

Aer half an hour roll the pieces in our, place them on top of one another,press with the hand, sprinkle our and roll them out one by one but not toothinly.

Sprinkle a pinch of corn starch over each piece, place again on top of another,and roll them out again by pressing on the edges of the rolling pin.



84

One by one roll out once more, sprinkle a pinch of corn starch in betweenthem, place on top of one another, and roll them out making one layer ofdough larger than the other.

One layer of dough must be rolled out twice the size of the baking tray onwhich it will be cooked.

Blend 3 glasses of milk and 1 glass of melted margarine in a bowl, add 4 eggs,cheese, chooped parsley and salt, and then connue blending.

Grease the baking tray, line the larger layer of dough in so that it will overlapthe size of the tray, then evenly spread over the lling.

Put 16 glasses of water into a pan, add 8 tablespoons of salt and bring toboil.

Put each piece of the dough into the pan one by one, hold it for one minutethen take it out and put into another bowl lled with cold water and presswith your hands so that the water drains out.

Place on a baking tray. First place one layer of pastry, then the lling, repeatthis unl all the pastry is used and close the edges with the overlapping piece.

Bake in a moderately hot oven for an hour. Remove from the oven, cut intoslices and serve.



85

¾ cup olive oil

¼ bunch of parsley

1 lbs. semi-fat ground meat

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. black pepper

2 onions

3 Tbls. our

5 eggs

3-4 Tbls. margarine

2 Tbls. uncooked rice

Saute the chopped onions and 1/2 ofthe ground meat with 1 Tbls. margarine.Boil the rice in a lot of water unll is so,

drain it and allow it to cool.Remove meat from heat, add the rest ofthe ground meat, the rice, chopped pars-ley, salt, black pepper, and 3 eggs andknead well. Take egg-size pieces of themixture and give them an oval shape. Puthalf of the our on a tray. Place the meat-balls on the tray and sprinkle the rest ofthe our over them.

Beat 2 eggs in a bowl, coat the meatballs

with beaten eggs 20 minutes before themeal and fry them in a pan containing3/4 glass of heated olive oil, unll theyturn golden.

Take meatballs o the pan with a perfo-rated spoon, drain them well, and placeon a serving plate.

Serve with french fries!

¾ pound ground lamb

2 tablespoons unsalted buer, cutinto ny pieces

¾ pound ground veal

Extra virgin olive oil, melted unsaltedbuer, or vegetable oil for brushing

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper, ormore to taste

2 medium onions, peeled and sliced

2 teaspoons freshly ground corian-der seeds

1 tablespoon sumac (a spice found inMiddle Eastern markets)

2 teaspoons freshly ground cuminseeds

nely chopped fresh parsley leavesfor garnish

2 teaspoons freshly ground blackpepper

salt to taste

2 pide bread (see Note below)

In a large bowl, knead the lamb, veal,cayenne, coriander, cumin, pepper, salt,and buer together well, keeping yourhands wet so the meat doesn’t sck on

them. Cover and let the mixture rest inthe refrigerator for 1 hour.

Prepare a charcoal re or preheat a gasgrill on medium-low temperature for 15minutes.

Form the meat into paes about sixinches long and two inches wide. Grillunl the köe are springy to the touch,about 20 minutes, oen turning them oneach side.

Meanwhile, brush the pide bread with

Lady’s ThighMeatballs

Kadin Budu KoftesiPreparation 20min

Cooking time 40min

Adana KebabKebab




86

olive oil, melted buer, or vegetable oiland grill or griddle for a few minutes unlhot but not brile.

Arrange the köe on a serving plaer orindividual plates and serve with the pide

bread, sliced onions, a sprinkle of sumac,and chopped parsley as a garnish.

Note: Turkish style pide bread is not thepocket bread we know as Arabic bread orpita bread. It is a atbread, though, thatneeds to be warmed before using, usu-ally to wrap foods in. It can be replacedwith pita bread, of course, or even Indiannan bread that you might nd in an In-dian market. Pide bread can be found inGreek and Middle Eastern markets (oen

in the frozen food secon).

4-5 tomatoes (peeled, cut into small-medium sizes)

2 chicken breasts (cubed)

10 garlic cloves (le whole or cut inhalf if large)

1 tablespoon red pepper paste

4 tablespoons oil

thyme

In a medium pot, mix oil and pepperpaste over medium heat.

Add chicken and cook for 5-10 minutesunl is just white.

Add garlic and tomatoes, connue cook-ing over medium heat unl the chicken isdone (approx. 15-20 minutes), occasion-ally srring.

Sr in an extra large pinch of thyme.

2 cups short-grained rice

4 cups beef or chicken stock

2 tablespoons buer

1 grain of masc gum (oponal)

Soak the rice in warm water with a pinchof salt for 20 minutes. Then drain it and

wash it two or three mes in cold waterunl the water is clear.

Put stock, buer and a pinch of salt in asaucepan and bring to boil.

Add the rice and sr once with a woodenspoon. When it’s boiling, add a grain ofmasc and turn the heat down and sim-mer covered.

When the pilav is cooked, remove fromthe heat, set aside, covered for 10 min-

utes, then place it on a warm dish andserve hot.

1 clove of garlic

1 kilo lamb cut into pieces

1 small soup spoon salt

1 soup spoon thyme

2 green peppers, sliced

2 soup spoons buer

20 small onions or shallots

4 tomatoes cut into pieces

Chicken Saute Tavuk SotePreparation 10min

Cooking time 30min

Plain White PilavSade Pilav

Preparation20min

Cooking time 30min

Kebab CasseroleGuvec KebabiPreparation 20min

Cooking time 120min



88

1 1/3 cup rice

½ teaspoon all spice

2 teaspoons sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 medium size lemon

Wash the vine leaves and remove thecoarse stems. Put the water and a tea-spoon of salt in a pot. Bring to boil andadd half of the leaves.

Simmer them for 4-5 minutes, turningover once. Simmer the other half in simi-lar fashion.

Measure the cooking liquid and com-

plete it to 2 3/4 cups and set aside.Peel the onions, wash and chop nely,place it in a pot together with oil andnuts, cover and sautè for 20 minutesover low heat, srring occasionally. Sr afew mes so that the nuts are browned.

Wash and drain the rice and add to thepot and sr a couple of mes. Add theremaining salt,

sugar and the 1 ¾ cups of the hot cookingliquid, sr and sprinkle with currants.

Simmer it rst on medium and then onlow heat for 10-15 minutes, unl all theliquid is reduced.

Wash the parsley and the dill and removethe stems and chop nely. Add them tothe cooked rice together with mint, spic-es and the lemon juice and leave coveredfor 10 minutes. Place the vine leaves sothat the side with veins is inside when it’s

wrapped.Place the prepared lling to one side,fold the side edges over with the llingand then wrap it.

Cover the boom of a shallow saucepanwith vine leaves and the removed pars-ley and dill stems and place the wrappedvine leaves over them.

Place a heat-proof at plate over.

Heat the remaining boiling liquid and add

to the pan slowly, pouring from the edgeof the dolmas.

Cover and simmer over low heat for 50minutes. Transfer to a serving dish whencool, and garnish with lemon slices.

½ glasses red lenls (Mysore dhall)3 tbsp oil

8 glasses meat stock

2 medium size onions

2 tbsp margarine

1 glass milk

3 egg yolks

1 tbsp salt

½ tsp black pepper

Wash the red lenls. Put them in eightglasses of meat stock and 1 glass of wa-ter. Cook for 35 minutes unl they aretender. Blend.

Melt the margarine in another sauce-pan.

Add chopped onions and fry lightly for 7to 8 minutes.

Add our and fry it for 1 more minute.

Add them to the meat stock with the len-l puree. Put in salt and pepper. Let sim-mer.

Beat the egg yolks with cold milk and addthem the boiling soup.

Turn the heat o as soon as it starts boil-ing.

Serve with a slice of lemon.

Red Lenl Soup is commonly served in

Red Lentil SoupKirmizi Mercimek CorbasiPreparation 20min

Cooking time 35min



89

Turkey.

Squeeze lime over it and sprinkle withred pepper akes (kirmizi biber).

The soup can be served with bread.

Meze, small dishes served throughoutthe Eastern Mediterranean and the Mid-dle East, are usually oered to accom-pany raki, ouzo or arak, an anise-avoredgrape disllate similar to grapa, verypopular with the residents of that part ofthe world.

Karabiber (Black Pepper), one of the out-standing restaurants in Istanbul, servesthe most vibrant and authenc Turkishfood. Mucver -- Zucchini Friers -- is partof the tradional meze course accompa-nied by çaçik, a yogurt/garlic/cucumbersauce. These friers could also make abrilliant side dish for seafood, poultry orlamb without the çaçik.

1 lb. small zucchini (courgees),coarsely grated.

sea salt.

1/2 lb. equal parts of crumbled fetaand grated casseri cheeses

6 scallions, minced

½ cup chopped fresh dill

¼ cup fresh chopped mint

¼ cup fresh italian (at leaf) parsley

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup all purpose our

freshly ground black pepper (mala-bar black peppercorns are recom-mended)

oil for frying

Place the grated zucchini in a colander,salt lightly and mix well.

Let stand for 30 minutes to draw out theexcess liquid.

Using paper towels, dry the zucchini andplace them in a bowl.

Add the cheese mixture, eggs, scallions,dill, mint, parsley, our and salt and pep-per to taste.

Sr mixture unl you have a thick baer.

In a deep fryer, over medium-high heat,pour the oil to a depth of 1/4 inch (ap-prox. 7 mm).

When the oil is hot, use a serving spoonto drop spoonfuls of the baer in the oil,being careful not to crowd the pan. Fry,turning over once, unl brown on both

sides, 2 - 3 minutes per side.With a sloed spoon transfer the frierson paper towels to drain. Keep warm un-l all the friers are cooked.

Serve hot with the çaçik on the side.

32 oz. plain cow’s milk yogurt (theoriginal recipe uses thick sheep’smilk yogurt)

1 cucumber, peeled, seeded andcoarsely grated

3 large cloves garlic, nely minced or

Turkish IcedSucumber-YogurtSoup

Cacik Preparation 20min

Cooking time 50min

Çaçik

Traditional recepiePreparation 20min

Cooking time 35min



90

passed through a garlic press

4 tbs. extra virgin olive oil

1 tbs. freshly chopped mint

¼ tsp. dry oregano

¾ tsp sea salt

Line a large sieve with cheesecloth (mus-lin), place over a bowl and spoon the yo-gurt onto the cheesecloth.

Refrigerate overnight to drain the excesswater (if using sheep’s milk yogurt, it isusually not necessary to drain as the yo-gurt is suciently thick).

You should end up with 1 1/2 cup drainedyogurt.

Refrigerate unl needed. Please notethat the longer you keep the yogurt, thetangier it becomes as it sll contains ac-ve cultures.

Salt the grated cucumber and draw ex-cess moisture.

Dry with paper towel (like the zucchiniabove).

In a bowl combine the drained yogurt,minced garlic, olive oil, salt and mint andmix well. Fold in the dried cucumber.Sprinkle the oregano on top.

You can either serve immediately or cov-er and refrigerate overnight.

400 grams buer beans (cannellinibeans)

15 grams tomato paste

2 onions

salt

250 grams diced lamb

40 grams margarine or vegetable oil

2 tomatoes, nely chopped

Soak beans in plenty of cold water over-night. Drain and rinse under water. (oryou can buy these in a can from your lo-cal store, which is what I do)

Cook beans in water unl tender.

Brown meat and onions in margarine oroil. Allow any juices to evaporate.

Add tomato paste and sr through. Addchopped tomatoes and cook for threeminutes.

Place enough water to cover meat, coverand cook meat unl tender.

Rinse beans again and add them to meat.Sr. If water is low add a lile more.

Add salt to taste and simmer unlcooked.

1 kg. lamb meat (without bones)

1 tablespoon vinegar

2 medium size onions

2 tablespoons thyme

3 tablespoons margarine

3 tablespoons oil

2 small tomatoes

2 teaspoons salt

Butter Beans with

MeatEtli Kuru FasulyePreparation 10min

Cooking time 20min

Lamb Kebab With VegetablesGuvec KebabiPreparation 10min

Cooking time 20min



91

2 tablespoons tomato paste or to-mato sauce

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 small carrots

2 large sheets of wax-paper

100 gr. green peas

2 bunches of dill

Melt the margarine in a saucepan. Addthe meat cut into egg size pieces andbrown on all sides.

Add nelly chopped onions, scraped car-rots cut into small scks, one bunch ofchopped dill and some salt. Cook on me-

dium heat, srring from me to me, un-l the juice is absorbed.

Add vinegar and peeled and chopped to-matoes or tomato paste dissolved in verylile water. Cook for 5 more minutes.

Add 1 glass of warm water. Cover andcook on medium heat for 1-1 1/2 hoursunl the meat is tender. Take the meatand carrots out.

Strain the sauce. Heat the oil. Lightly frypeeled potatoes cut into small cubes.

Take them out and add them to the car-rots, together with preserved greenpeas, chopped dill and oregano.

Cut up 6 pieces of wax-paper (20x30cm.). In the midlle of each one, put onepiece of meat, 2-3 tablespons of vegata-bles and some sauce.

Fold the sides over to make a parcel (tak-ing care that the sauce does not leakout). Place the parcels side by side in apan.

Slightly wet them with water. Bake themin a hot oven for 15 minutes.

Serve the parcels nicely arranged on aplate.

1 cup white beans

½ cup lberts, toasted

1 cup garbanzos

½ cup walnut pieces

1 cup barley

ground walnuts for topping1 cup dried cut apricots

1 cup cut raisins

½ cup cut gs

1 cup sugar, or to taste

water to make about fourquarts

The night before, rinse and soak the

beans (garbanzo and white together) andthe barley in 2 dierent bowls.

In the morning, drain and cook unl ten-der, again in 2 pans. In a large pot, com-bine beans, barley, fruit, sugar, and wa-ter.

Cook over medium heat, srring occa-sionally, unl the fruit is very so and thebarley starch is released.

Correct for sweetness; sr in lberts and

walnuts.Allow to cool or refrigerate, if desired.

Serve as snack or dessert with walnutssprinkled on top.

Fruit and NutSoup

AsurePreparation 20min

Cooking time 30min



93

¼ 1700 g Pumpkin medium size -

2 ¾ 500 g sugar cup

1 cup - 100 g walnuts (chopped)

Cut the pumpkin into quarters. Removeseeds and the stringy interior.

Pare and cut into 5-6x2 ½ cm (2-2 ½ inch)slices 1-1 ½ cm (0.5-¾ inch) thick.

Place in a covered shallow pan.

Sprinkle with sugar. Let it stand for 4-5hours unl the pumpkin is juicy.

Cover and simmer for 1 hour or unl it’stender.

Remove from heat; cool it down.

Arrange on a serving plate.

Sprinkle with crushed walnuts. Serve atroom temparature.

Pumpkin DessertKabak Tatlisi

Preparation20min

Cooking time 3h



94

Notes



Notes

cookbook healthy appetite

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