İç Pilav

In Turkish cuisine, rice has a very important place. From Central Asia to Anatolia and to the our kitchen hes passed more then 70-80 rice varieties. At our wedding, it is a tradition to cook meat with riceand it continues in many regions today. The most popular type of meat with rice is İç Pilav. t is usually prepared with the liver. It is enriched with many spices according to the region.

İngrediendts:

• 2 cups of rice

• 2 tablespoons butter

• ½ cup of oil

• 1 cup of peanuts

• 1 cup of pickled grape

• 2 onions

• 150 g lambs

• 4 cups of broth

• Salt, black pepper, allspice

• 1 bunch of parsley

• 1 bunch of dill

Preparing:

Peel off the lamb's skin and cutinto small pieces. Peel and chopthe onion. Add the lamb to thepan with fried oil, sauté it with a little stirring until it is slightly pink, and take it from the fire and leaveit on the side to use the pilaf. Then put in a pot, butter, pinenuts, and small chopped onions, and roast them until brown.

Then add the washed rice and boilthem for 10 minutes with stirringwithout stopping on the fire. Thenadd the black pepper, 4 cups of broth, salt, pickled grape, allspiceand then cover on the rice. Cookthe rice first on strong fire andthen medium-strength fire untilthe rice juice is caught. After ricejuice is caught, add lamp, sautéedwith minced bunch dill and let it rest for half an hour and serveafter mixing……

Hünkar Beğendi (Sultan’s Delight)

Hünkar Beğendi is basically a lamb stew served on a bed of aubergine (eggplant) purée – and the lamb and the aubergine are a perfect match for each other. The rich flavours are testament to thefact that this is a dish from the Ottoman kitchen. Ottoman cooks werevery competitive with each other, eager to come up with the bestcreations – and whoever created the Hünkar Beğendi recipe must havebeen mightily pleased with themselves!

The first stage is to make a tomato based lamb stew and you can do this either the day before you want to make Hünkar Beğendi or on the actual day. Making your stew first just means you can concentrateon your aubergine puree before you serve up your masterpiece to yourfriends and family.

İngredients:

• 500 g flaked chopped meat

• 1 medium onion

• 1 tablespoon tomato paste

• 2 cloves garlic

• Salt, black pepper

For Eggplant With Bechamel Sauce:

• 1.5 cups milk

• 1.5 tablespoons of flour

• 1 tablespoon butter

• 7 tablespoons canned eggplant

• A small bowl of grated kashar cheese

• Salt, black pepper

Preparing:

Put a large pan on the stove andheat. Add meats onto. Cook themeats until the water disappears. Then, chopped onion and garlic. Cook until 7-8 minutes. Finally, put tomato paste and 1/3 cup wateronto the meats. Cook until 2 minutes and remove from heat.

• For eggplant with bechamel sauce :

• Put butter into a smallsaucepan. Melt the butter gently. Add flour in the saucepan. Cookwith stirring a wooden spoon ormini wishk a minnute. Then pourmilk little by little onto. Whisk mil into the flour until it is completelysmooth. Bring to a boil. Cook 2 -3 minnutes stirring constantly. Thenadd roasted eggplant into thebechamel sauce. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper. Finally, put grated kashar cheese. Stir 1-2 times. Then remove from heat.

Put eggplant with bechamel sauceinto a serving plate. Put meatsmixture onto the eggplant withbechamel sauce. Serve hot …..

Etli Kuru fasulye

A meal that has entered the Turkish cuisine after 18th century. But the popularity of this food, which has been rising rapidly, has taken an important place in Turkish cuisine. Almost every region has its own method of cooking and using different materials; beans may be plain, sausage, meat, sometimes as hot peppers and vegetables such as tomatoes, onions, peppers or albanian peppers.

İngredients:

2 cups white/butter beans½ lb beef/lamb meat, chopped2 onions, chopped2 tbsp oil1 tbsp tomato paste1 dried red pepper/green pepper, chopped½ tsp baking soda (optional)¼ tsp chili red pepper flakes (optional)1 tbsp salt to taste1 cup hot water

Preparing:

Wash white beans, place them in a pot and cover with water(approximately 1 inch above thebeans). Leave them in waterovernight or for at least 12 hours. The next day, cook them with thesame water till beans get soft overlow heat. You could add bakingsoda to have softer beans quicker. When they are soft, add ½ tbsp of salt.

In another pot, sauté choppedmeat with oil till they are brown. Then add onions and sauté for 2-3 minutes over medium heat. Stir in peppers and tomato paste. Addone cup of hot water and theremaining salt, and then simmertill the meat is soft.

Transfer the cooked white beans into the pot. Simmer for 10 minutes over low heat.

Serve White Beans with Meat, with pilaf or over pilaf. Also cacik and pickled vegetables are good to go with this recipe…..