Celeriac with Turmeric

From "The new book of Middle Eastern food". It doesn't specify a country/ethnicity of origin, but I will guess Eastern or Southern Mediterranean because of the turmeric.

Although simple, the dish was like nothing I've had before (the fact that I've almost never had celeriac helps that cause). The celeriac cubes take on a light yellow color, which makes them almost look like pineapple chunks.

The one issue I had was trying to reduce the broth to a thick sauce at the end. I must have started with too much water.

Also, some of the chunks of celeriac still had some of that very fibrous stringy tissue on them still. Next time, need to cut off more of the outer celeriac layer.

 
 

Spinach and yogurt soup

In the native Turkish: "ıspanakli yoğurt çorbası."
Recipe from "The Sultan's kitchen: A Turkish cookbook", by Ozcan Ozan.

Delicious and comforting. The author describes it as "perfect for serving on a summer day"; Thomas feels like a perfect soup for a cold day, because of its creamy consistency.

On top of the spinach flavor, there is a distinct sourness from the yogurt and lemon juice as well as the paprika flavor (which, in my case of using hot paprika, gave a a solid kick).

Comparing the look of my soup to a photo in the cookbook of one of the other "yogurt soups", it's clear that mine was a little short on the yogurt and not of a smooth enough consistency. I think I may have raised the heat to high after adding the yogurt mixture which may have led to curdling (of the yogurt, or maybe of the egg yolk).

Eggplant slices with pomegranate syrup

Native name: "Betingan bel Rumman"; note: I tried to use Google translate to verify what language this is in and what the literal translation is, but had no success.  I'm assuming it's the phonetic transcription of the Arabic name of the dish (because the dish is from Syria).

Recipe from "The new book of Middle Eastern food."

This turned out okay; it had a major sour kick, though (from the pomegranate).  Also, I think the eggplant was undercooked:  it definitely had some from texture still and that bitter taste that raw eggplant has.  The slices that were the most cooked definitely tasted the best.  The problem is that all of the slices were beginning to significantly brown when I took them out of the broiler, so they couldn't have gone much longer.  The broiler was on "high" and the surface of the pan was 4.5 inches below the gas opening.  Next time, either cut them thinner, or use a lower temperature broiler setting (or bake).  I was somewhat stingy with the brushed-on olive oil also.  I wonder if more liberal oil application would help distribute the heat?

Yogurtlu Kebab (Kofta with tomato sauce and yogurt)

From Roden's "The new book of Middle Eastern food".

Delish. As Mike points out, the combination/contrast of the tomato sauce and yogurt works really well. As the recipe didn't specify specifics, I used my "half-sharp" hot paprika in the olive oil mixture on top. With this, I thought it was on the verge of being a little too intense.

The recipe calls the meat concoction "koftas", but I feel like the size of my "burgers" was much bigger than the typical kofta. Whatever, though, right?

Scaling/portion note: the amount of tomato sauce that came out of following the recipe seemed a little skimpy. Increase by 50% next time.

For the recipe, see the image below.  For the kofta part of it, mix the following:

• 2 lbs ground lamb
• 2 onions, grated
• 3 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder

Pita (Khubz)

From Roden's "The new book of Middle Eastern food".

My pita adventure left a nice mess in the kitchen. Definitely didn't help that I was trying to quickly finish up before running off to meet some friends.

I baked the bread's in the oven for 3 minutes (on the lower end of the 3 to 5 minute range). By that point, they really hadn't browned at all and tasted slightly undercooked. This afternoon, I toasted one that I had frozen -- it browned, but became quite hard/brittle. Next time I reheat one, I'm going to bake instead of toast and maybe sprinkle a little bit of water on, like some of the experts suggest.

They also turned out much thicker than I had hoped (certainly when compared against the standard store-bought versions). When I rolled them out, they seemed sufficiently thin (at about 1/8 of an inch), but I guess the cooking process really makes it expand.

One other note: the recipe claimed that the dough should be allowed to rise over a 20 minute period after being rolled out. As far as I can tell, though, my dough didn't rise at all after that point. Perhaps because I let it rise too much during the initial stage, there was no oomph left in the yeast?

Lentil salad (Salatet Adds)

From Roden's "The new book of Middle Eastern food".

A simple, comforting and filling dish. A good addition to the culinary repertoire.

Swiss chard leaves stuffed (sarma/dolma) with rice, chickpeas, in tomato

From Paula Wolfert's "the cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean".

These were a major pain in the ass. The recipe called for hulled, split chickpeas and claimed that it wasn't too difficult to do this processing oneself. I disagree. Next time, I think I'll use the "chana dal" from an Indian grocery.

As I spooned out the filling into each leaf, it seemed like a very insubstantial amount. However, it appears that during the cooking process, the filling expanded (probably as the rice cooked).

The final result was fantastic (the lemon juice drizzled over the top, essential) and got even better as it sat for a few days.