Murat's Chicken Soup

Soul food for everyone! This is about as basic and simple a chicken soup as you can get. It's really nice when you get sick (G-d fahbid!)

Ingredients

1/8 cup olive oil
1 medium-sized onion, chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
Handful of chopped baby carrots (optional; I don't like cooked carrots ruining my soup!)
3 small potatoes, diced
2 gloves of garlic, chopped or minced
1/2 tsp. oregano
3+ T. lemon juice
Huge bunch of fresh dill, chopped
2 chicken breasts
Salt and pepper to taste


Directions

1. In a large soup pot, saute the onion in the olive oil. When it is almost translucent, add the garlic and saute that, too (tends to burn, be careful!)

2. Add the diced potatoes and chopped celery and fill the pot with water so it just covers all the ingredients

3. Add the chicken breast, lemon juice, oregano and dill to the pot. Cover with additional water if needed.

4. Allow to simmer for 45 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

5. Once the chicken is cooked, pull it out of the pot and shred it with a knife; return shredded chicken to the pot

6. Salt and pepper to taste; voila!

Pasta Caprese

This is a perfect spring/summer dish, but cleaning the pot is kind of a pain.

Ingredients

2/3 box of shell pasta
Several sprigs of fresh basil
1 large or 2 small cloves or garlic, VERY finely chopped
1-2 medium tomatoes
1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
2 T. olive oil (plus more for cooking)
Fresh ground pepper to taste


Directions

1. Boil the macaroni with olive oil and salt

2. Meanwhile, chop the basil, tomatoes, and garlic

3. When pasta is tender, drain and stir in the olive oil, basil, tomatoes, and garlic

4. Sprinkle in the cheese a little at a time; if you put it in all at once, it will all clump up on the spoon and won't spread around much on the pasta (you may still need to separate the cheese a little)

5. Add pepper at the end when it is a plate/in a bowl, otherwise it may clump up in the cheese

Avocado and Tomato Salad

This is like a deconstructed guacomole. Makes a nice, light lunch.

Ingredients

2 avocados, cut into bite-size chunks
2 tomatoes, cut into bite-size chunks
Lime juice from 1 lime (or lime juice to taste)
4 T. olive oil
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
1 garlic clove, very finely choppped (optional)


Directions

Mix it all together, being careful not to mush the avocados. If you put too much lime juice, add more pepper/salt (and visa-versa). You can add jalepenos or cilantro if you want to.

Gozleme

These are like Turkish crepes, but a little more savory than sweet. Not for those intolerant of lactose :) If you have a Turkish store in your neighborhood, you can buy the really thin dough from them. Otherwise, you'll need to make it yourself (sort of a pain, but at least you won't need to workout your shoulders at the gym that day).


Dough Ingredients

1 cup flour (more if needed) (125 g.)
1/3 yeast packet
A little less than 1/2 cup water, room temperature
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sugar

Dough Directions

1. Mix flour and salt in one bowl and yeast, sugar, and water in another.

2. Add water mixture to flour mixture while stirring until a dough forms (add more water if needed)

3. When it can stick together into a dough, place on a floured counter and knead for approximately 10 minutes, or until it becomes smooth

4. Put dough back in bowl and cover with a damp paper towel/washcloth for at least 15 minutes

5. Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces; let sit for at least 20 minutes

6. Roll them out as thin as you can (more flour will likely come in handy at this point). Turks get it paper thin. How? I don't know. My dough is always a little lumpy.


Filling Ingredients

1 part feta cheese
1 part chopped fresh parsley
1 part ricotta cheese
Ground pepper to taste (I like loads!)

(1 cup each is a good guideline)


Filling Directions

1. Mix together. There, wasn't that easy?


Actual Gozleme Directions

Fill half of rolled out dough with the filling and pinch closed; cook in frying pan with olive oil or butter (depending on taste) until browned. Serve immediately.

Sour Cream Doughnuts

Another Hannukah classic...just in time for Passover. You wouldn't believe how simple these are (doughnuts always seemed so...complicated). Surprisingly little sugar (but I'm sure the oil and sour cream don't make it any healthier!)

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour (312 g.)
1 tsp. baking powder
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups sour cream
2 T. sugar
1 T. vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar
Oil for cooking


Directions

1. Mix flour, baking powder, eggs, sour cream, sugar, and vanilla together in large bowl

2. In deep frying pan, heat oil (deep enough for 1 inch of dough)

3. Roll dough into balls and cook a couple at a time for 3-5 minutes

4. Remove and coat with powdered sugar

Latkes

A Hannukah classic, just in time...for Passover. Oh, well. These are very tasty, but I hope your house is well-ventilated! Serve it with the classics: sour cream and/or applesauce!


Ingredients

1/2 large onion, chopped
6 baking potaties, peeled
2 beaten eggs
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 T. flour (30 g.)
1/4 tsp. white pepper
Oil for cooking


Directions

1. Grate potatoes and place them in cold water

2. When you're finished grating them, remove water by draining the potatoes through a sieve, then mix them

3. Mix the potatoes and onions together in a large bowl

4. Add eggs, baking powder, salt, flour, and pepper

5. Shape into 3-inch pancakes (add more flour if the pancakes are not sticking together, but usually 2 tablespoons is fine)

6. Cook in oil (medium-high to high heat) for about 4 minutes on each side; place cooked latkes on a paper-towel covered plate

Ginger Yogurt Chicken

Marinade for chicken (I like breasts, cubed, about 4):

2 1/2 cups yogurt
Lemon juice (1 lemon's worth or 2 T.)
2 T. fresh ginger, sliced
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. coriander
1 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. black pepper
3/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 cloves garlic, pressed (or finely chopped)
2 T. olive oil


Directions

Marinate overnight (or at least for a couple of hours), then cook on stovetop until chicken is cooked through. Eh, voila, tres simple, no?


Just make sure not to marry Turks, who don't like ginger :(