Gooey Cream Cheese and Chocolate Muffins

I tried this easy muffin recipe three years ago and really fell in love with it. Somehow, I forgot the recipe and did not make it again. However, this morning it came to my mind and I made this delicious easy cake batter in a flash.

Ingredients:
175 gr of flour
25 gr of cocoa (1 packet)
2 teaspoons of baking powder
200 gr of sugar (Approximately 1 and a half cups, seperately)
5 tablespoons of olive oil (or any type of vegetable oil) 
175 ml of water (approximately 1 cup)
2 teaspoons of apple vinegar(or any white vinegar)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
150 gr of cream cheese
1 egg
2 tablespoons of chocolate chips

How to:
1. Start with preparing your muffin cups and heating the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. 

2. Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa into a big bowl and add 100 gr of sugar (1 cup). Mix them well.

3. Add the oil, water, vinegar and vanilla extract and combine. Then set aside.

4. Take another bowl and whisk the egg, add cream cheese, half a cup of sugar and chocolate chips and mix very well.

 

5. Pour two spoonfuls of cake batter into the muffin cases and top it with a spoonful of cream cheese. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Eat and enjoy!

Orange Ring Cake

Ingredients:
175 gr of butter (room temperature)
175 gr of sugar (approximately 1,5 cups)
1 tablespoon of Golden Syrup or thick honey
3 oranges
2 eggs
200 gr of flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 cup of milk 

How to:

1. Start with greasing a ring cake mould lightly with olive oil and pour in a tablespoon of Golden Syrup (or honey). This is very important as it will help the oranges to caramelize.

 

2.Grate the rind of two oranges at hand and put on a bowl, set aside. Peel and slice the oranges and put them neatly at the bottom of the mould.

At this point, turn your oven on for 160 degrees Celsius.

3. Cream the butter with sugar in a mixer at high speed. Add the eggs one by one and keep mixing until very well combined.

4. Sift the flour with the baking powder (you can use self-raising flour as well) into the mixture and add the orange rind, juice of one orange and milk. Stir with a spatula. 

5. The batter is not so liquidy, so pour it slowly into the baking tin and level with a spoon or spatula. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 45 - 50 minutes.

6. When you take your cake out of the oven, wait for at least 15-20 minutes before you transfer it onto the serving dish. Eat and enjoy! 

Potato Patty For Brunch

Very easy recipe for today as it is Sunday and we are feeling lazy. Yummy late breakfast with potato patty and cheesy omelette on top with a fresh tomato salad.

Ingredients: (Serves 4)
2 big potatoes
2 tablespoons of flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3-4 stalks of spring onions
Salt, pepper
Olive oil

How to:
1. Peel and chop the potatoes into big chunks and boil them for 15 minutes.

2. Drain the excess water and add flour, baking soda, salt, pepper and small chopped spring onions into the potatoes and mash well.

3. Make your mashed potatoes into a ball (like a dough) and divide into four balls. Then press with your hand to make patty shapes.

4. Pour a little bit of olive oil into a pan, heat the pan and put your patty pieces on the pan and fry for 3-4 minutes on each side to make it crispy.

5. Take your patties onto separate plates, put scrambled eggs or omelette on top and eat and enjoy!

Coconut Cake

Did someone say comfort food? This cake totally is! Not much to say about it, the title tells all. Perfect baking joy on a Saturday, when luckily, I've got nothing to do.
This cake recipe is from a friend on Crete. This is an Albanian family I have met there who are friends of my mother-in-law and the wife invited us one day for tea and served this amazing cake. I got the recipe from her and made little changes. So, I will also write the ingredients for the original cake. My cake tastes and feels the same as hers because the star of this cake is dried grated coconuts.

Ingredients:
200 gr of sugar (1 big glass)
4 eggs
1/3 glass of olive oil
2/3 glass of milk

200 gr of flour
1 big teaspoon of baking powder
1 big teaspoon of vanilla sugar
80 gr coconuts


Original ingredients:
250 gr of margarine
4 eggs
250 gr of sugar
250 gr of self-raising flour
1 packet of vanilla sugar
180 gr of coconut

How to:
1. Whisk the eggs with sugar. Add the milk and oil and mix together.

2. Add the flour and baking powder, vanilla sugar and coconuts into the mixture and mix with a spatula, not a high-speed mixer.

3. Lightly grease a rectangular bread-loaf cake tin and pour the batter in.

4. Bake in the pre-heated oven of 175 degrees for 40 minutes. So easy! Eat and enjoy! 

Indian Cuisine: Moghlai Lamb Korma With Sultanas

We love Indian food and I love cooking it because it is pretty easy, filling and always delicious. All these different spices coming together and even if you are suspicious, the way they work so well together is amazing and mouth-watering. If you haven't tried Indian cuisine before and if you consider yourself open-minded about different tastes, if you are into spices, then this is right up your street. As a Turkish person who mainly cooks Mediterranean dishes, at first Indian recipes looked very complicated to me. But once you get the basic spices in your kitchen, actually it is pretty straightforward. And many of the spices are common, like cumin, chilli pepper, black pepper, bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves... Spices like cardamom pods, coriander, mustard seeds, fresh ginger are different. And fresh coriander. I couldn't get used to the taste of it, so I used fresh parsley instead. Also, it doesn't have to be hot if it is Indian. Go for 'korma' sauce with chicken or lamb and you will end up with sweetish almondy dishes.

Ingredients: (serves 3 - 4)

250 ml fresh yoghurt
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of ground cumin 
1 teaspoon of crushed mustard seeds (the original recipe asks for ground coriander) 
1/2 teaspoon of ground chilli pepper (I used sweet chilli in this dish) 
4 tablespoons of chopped parsley (or fresh coriander) 
5 tablespoons of olive oil 
2 small sticks or 1 (5 cm) cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
6 cardamom pods
900 gr boneless chopped lamb
1 onion
4 tablespoons of sultanas
2 tablespoons of fresh cream 
Freshly ground black pepper

How to:
 
1. Pour the yoghurt into a bowl and whisk until it is creamy. Add salt, cumin, crushed mustard seeds (or ground coriander), chilli pepper, generous amount of ground black pepper and fresh parsley (or coriander) and mix to combine.

2. Put the olive oil into a deep pan (with a lid) and once it is heated add the bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cardamom pods and saute for a few seconds. Lay the meat into the oil in a single layer (they should not sit on top of each other) and brown on all sides.

3.  When the lamb is browned properly, take them out of the pan and let them sit in a plate. Then, add your chopped onion into the pan and start stirring and cooking.

 

4. Once the onions are brown on edges, bring the meat back into the pan and add the yoghurt mixture with the sultanas. Bring to a boil and turn the heat down.

5. Put the lid on and let it simmer gently for almost an hour or until the meat is tenderly cooked.

 

6. After an hour or the meat is cooked, take the lid out and turn the heat up if it is still juicy. By this time, my dish was all pasty, so I didn't have to turn the heat up.

7. Then, add the fresh cream into the meat, stir and let it melt properly. Decorate with more fresh parsley or coriander when you serve.

8. This dish goes very well with plain jasmine rice boiled with a bit of lemon juice and the squashed lemon itself. Eat and enjoy! 

Don't forget a small bowl of salad to go with it for some freshness.

My Indian recipes come from this book which I bought in England 3 years ago.

Traditional Turkish 'Börek' with Courgettes and Cheese

Making bourek (börek) or filo pastry is such a heart-warming activitiy that reminds me of my childhood days, when my grandmother would come and bring fresh filo pastry to make yummy stuff. Generally it would be bourek or fried small envelope pastries made with filo. My paternal grandmother used to make the best courgette filo pastry with milk, and however much I try, I cannot attain the same texture. There are numerous delicious recipes you can make by using filo pastry (ready made or home made). It is a good snack to have at home, great for a quick breakfast on work days, an amazing afternoon tea and if you are making it yourself, you know what's inside, thus you can make it healthy.

  
Ingredients:

4 sheets of big filo pastry (or 8 sheets of Greek baklava filo pastry)
2 small courgettes
400 gr of white cheese (or Greek feta cheese)
1 egg white
A splash of milk
Olive oil
Salt, pepper
Dry mint
Dry red chilli

How to:

1. First, let's start with the courgettes. Wash and grate them in a bowl, add the cheese, one egg white, 2 or 3 tablespoons of milk, a pinch of salt, half a teaspoon of black pepper, 1-2 teaspoons of dry mint and a sprinkling of dry chilli. Mix well in a bowl and set aside.

2. Take a big oven tray and lightly grease it with olive oil.

If you are using big Turkish filo pastries, the filo should be bigger than the tray, so keep the bigger parts drooping outside of the tray, so that you can overlap it on top of everything and it will look like a big envelope.
If you are using Greek filo sheets, they may be the same size as your tray, which is fine.

Lay the first filo sheet and sprinkle with some extra virgin olive oil. Lay your filo pastries one by one and between each layer keep spreading olive oil. This will make your bourek very crunchy.

3. Once you have used a little bit more than half of your filo pastries, take the bowl with the courgettes and cheese mixture and pour it over the filos, spread evenly and add a splash of milk (yes, even more milk).

4. Keep layering the filos, brushing with olive oil in every layer. And when you come to the last filo, put it on top firmly. If you are using big Turkish filo pastries, fold the overlapping bit on top and tuck in from the sides, so you will have a big envelope kind of bourek.

5. Now brush the top layer with generous amount of extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle some sesame seeds and black cumin (nigella sativa) seeds and sprinkle a little bit of water with your hands.

6. Bake in the preheated oven of 200 degrees for 45 minutes or until it rises and is golden brown.

 

 7. Leave to cool before you slice your bourek. Perfect for tea time, or for kids when they come back from school. I know because I used to love it so much! Eat and enjoy. 

 Utterly delicious snack for the afternoons when you feel peckish! 

Turkey and Vegetables In The Oven

This dish is for the crowded families and busy mummies! It is one of the easiest meals, it's very light and healthy, nutritious and it tastes even better the next day. The best thing is you can add any  vegetable in your fridge. Turkey is a good lean meat but it can be a bit bland sometimes, so it needs some flavours and spices with it.

Ingredients:
700 gr of turkey breast
1 big potato
1 big carrot
2 tomatoes
2 corgettes
200 gr mushrooms
1 white onion
1 red onion
1 glass of boiled chickpeas
5 cloves of garlic
Crushed tin tomatoes (1-2 glasses)
Salt, pepper
Chilli flakes
Dry or fresh thyme
Olive oil

How to:
1. Wash and chop the turkey breast into biggish bite sizes. Put them in a big oven and splash some extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and put aside.
2. Wash and clean the rest of the vegetables and start cutting them into chunky pieces. There is no rule in this dish as it is a family dish, you can cut the pieces any size you like. Put all the vegetables in a very big bowl.
3. Mix the vegetables, onions, garlic with the turkey pieces, add the boiled chickpeas and add some crushed or tin tomatoes on them (approximately a glass will be enough). The tray should have some tomato and olive oil on the bottom but the food should not swim inside the juice.
4. Sprinkle with generous amount of salt, pepper, thyme and dry chilli and mix thoroughly until every piece is covered in seasoning, oil and tomatoes equally.  
5. Cover the tray with aluminum foil but leave a bit opening on the sides to let some air come out. This way, nothing will get burnt, nothing will be dry and all the smells and flavours will mix together in the steam.
6. Cook it in a 200 degree oven for about 45 minutes or until everything looks cooked. Then, take out the aluminum foil and let it cook for 10 minutes more. You can add some melting cheese on top at the last minute, but that's up to you.

Quick Pumpkin Pie

I had three slices of pumpkin at home, which wouldn't be enough to make traditional pumpkin dessert, but which I could nevertheless throw away. So, I made up this pumpkin pie. I couldn't be bothered to make a crust or pie pastry, so I went for the easy biscuit+ butter combination. In short, I was having a lazy day. =) This pie is made for you; you can adjust the amount of sugar, cream, cinnamon inside it. To give you a basic idea, here is my recipe. If you are having a lazy day like me, don't bother to chop walnuts on top or to spread some melted chocolate -which would be amazing but anyway. Just serve it with vanilla ice cream. Yummy!

Ingredients:
1 packet of sweet biscuits(I used petit beurre biscuits)
80 - 90 gr of butter
3 big slices of pumpkin 
3/4 glass of water
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of white sugar
2 heap tablespoons of creamy Greek yoghurt
2 heap tablespoons of double cream 
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon 
1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves

How to:
1. Chop the pumpkins into small bits and put them in a small pot with a glass of water and start boiling.
2. In another small pan, melt the butter, mix it with crushed biscuits. Pour the crumbly mixture into a pie tray to make the base. Press with your fingers to make it firm and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
3. Put the pumpkins with the water in a liquidizer and add sugar, cream, yoghurt, cinnamon and cloves and mix until you have a well-combined creamy mixture. If you don't want to use cream, you can put more yoghurt instead or leave the pumpkins as they are.
4. Before you add the pumpkin mixture on the pie crumb, taste it. Does it need more cinnamon? More sugar? You can adjust it to your taste. And finally, pour it on the pie tray and level with a spoon or spatula.
5. Bake in the pre-heated oven of 190 degrees Celsius for 35 minutes. Eat and enjoy! 

Dark Cocoa Biscuits

Weekend is coming and I want to have a nice treat in my kitchen. This is a basic, easy and practical recipe to make biscuits. You can decorate them with whichever  glacing you choose. If you are feeling a bit shy about making biscuits or cookies, if in the past you treid but failed, don't worry. This recipe is really easy and quick. All you need is to bring the ingredients together, be VERY careful about the measurements -especially the butter and the flour- then, you'll be fine. 

Ingredients:
225 gr butter
140 gr white sugar or caster sugar
1egg
250 gr flour
25 gr cocoa
A pinch of salt

How to:
1. First of all, the butter should be in room temperature. Then, whisk the softened butter with sugar until creamy and thoroughly combined.
2. Add the egg and mix again. Then, add the flour, cocoa and salt and mix everything together until it forms a big cookie dough.  
3.Form your dough into a neat ball and wrap it in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30-60 minutes. This step is important, as it later on will make your biscuits crunchy. It is vital that the dough should chill and rest, if you don't have time, let it sit at least for 30 minutes.
4.Take your dough out of the fridge and roll it between two sheets of oven paper (otherwise, it will tend to stick on the rolling pin). This makes it easier to clean the kitchen and to transfer the biscuits onto the baking sheet. Use 10 cm plain round cookie cutters or glasses.
5. Bake in the pre-heated oven of 190 degrees Celsius for 10-15 minutes (until golden).

 

Ready to go into the oven! 

6. Let them cool down a little bit on the tray and then transfer them on a wire rack to cool off completely.

These biscuit are way yummy as they are. However, if you are into glazing and decorating, here are A FEW IDEAS:
Melt white chocolate, pour it into a cone made out of oven paper, then drizzle on your cookies.
Melt the milk chocolate or bitter chocolate and dip the biscuits on one side for extra indulgence.
Mix 5-6 tablespoons of icing sugar with 1-2 tablespoons of water and decorate your biscuits with this classic icing.