Homemade chocolate - never buying chocolate again!

Yes, that is a Star Wars mold, just out of refrigerator so icy a bit but all the more fitting for the theme.

I always wanted to make chocolate home, and this recipe from: http://minimalistbaker.com/diy-dark-chocolate-almond-bars/ was a great initiation.

We followed all the steps to the T, just did not add the vanilla (because we did not have it) but we found it sweet and flavorsome enough for our taste.

All the ingredients are easy to find except raw cacao butter. We had to buy it online, and it typically is carried at organic stores.

Once the cacao butter melts, everything comes together pretty fast. It is just whisking things together, and pouring chocolate over the almonds.

Though it melts in hand a bit faster than the usual chocolates, it does keep shape in room temperature. For better results one should tamper the chocolate but I cannot imagine pouring chocolate onto a cold surface. It does look so messy! Maybe next time!

Canli Balik, Mustafa Amca'nin Yeri, Amasra

www: http://www.amasracanlibalik.com/
Summary: Freshest of the fresh fish and salads


At the end of a road trip with my parents a few months ago, we arrived at Amasra. Amasra is a small coastal town in the northern region of Turkey. One day, I will a road trip covering the entire Northern region!

We went to the most famous of the fish restaurants in the town, but I am sure, with the fresh ingredients they get to work with, majority of the restaurants in the town would produce decent fish on a plate.

Mustafa Amca, in addition to its fish, is famous for its salads. As seen in the picture, this beautifully presented salad, is full of fresh salad leaves and herbs, and roots, and the vinaigrette they use is absolutely delicious! We had to order another plate!

We ordered some warm appetizers to start with and to whet our appetite - the fried squid and the shrimp, which came in a clay pot and cooked in butter was excellent! I believe we finished many slices of bread with the sauce of the shrimp only!

For fish, we tried Hamsi  tava, Mezgit tava, and Barbunya tava. Hamsi is a kind of anchovy, but I have never found the exact the same kind (fresh, I should add) outside Turkey. I miss this fish dearly - it has such simple but strong delicious taste. You can find a good article on hamsi here: http://seasonalcookinturkey.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/hamsi-turkish-anchovies.html
The other fish are more common: Mezgit is haddock and barbunya is  red mullet.  The word "tava" explains how the fish was cooked - it is covered in a mix of  corn and white flour, and fried in a special pan. The video below shows how the fish is cooked - the video is in Turkish but what they are mainly saying is that it requires expertise to make sure that the fish is cooked thoroughly but did not soak much oil!

In summary, we loved Amasra. We loved its quietness and simple charm. We went off season, and  its quietness is obviously attributed to that. In my opinion, off season is the best time to visit touristic places,  giving a chance to the explorer to meet the real people of the city, away from the crowds.

Green plums and salt

If, when I was a little girl, somebody told me that I would miss eating green plums one day, I would look at this person disbelievingly. But it is the case. And  each spring, I crave green plums! Knowing this, my mother used to freeze them for me so that I can eat them when I visit in the summer.

This spring, a few months back, I found them in our middle eastern grocery shop. The shopkeeper, seeing the delight in my eyes, asked me whether I was Turkish! I am, for sure, not the first Turkish person clutching a pack of plums with such a happy smile in his shop. :)

There is something about these plums, crunching them dipped in salt, says spring to me. They are quite short-lived, and you have to catch them or the season is over before you know it. Very much like spring weather.

Next, I need to find these - the unripened almonds!

The Sichuan, London, UK

Address: 14 City Rd, London EC1Y 2AA
WWW: http://www.thesichuan.co.uk/

Summary: Some very good dishes, some not so good but still worth going

OK, I have to admit we have become somewhat snobs when it comes to Chinese food. We had the good luck to visit China several times, and simply love the food! We also have the good luck to have Chinese friends who constantly educate us on Chinese food both in the UK and in China. So, having read all the reviews, we had very very high expectations for this restaurant.  Did they deliver? Well with some dishes yes, with others no. But, they do definitely deserve other visits. 

In this first visit, after a long walk in drizzling rain, we entered with a very warm reception, but definitely wanted some warming food too. So, we ordered jasmine tea (4 pounds) and soups to start with - Sweet and sour soup (3.80 pounds) and Won Ton Soup (4 pounds). There was an initial mixup with the soups, and we had them after a bit of delay. The Sweet Sour soup tasted good but let us down unfortunately as it had very cold parts - we assume they microwaved it, which is not a very good sign. The Won Ton soup, on the other hand, was great. Actually, one of the best I ever had! The dumplings were delicious, the broth was very very tasty.

Next came our vegetables - Dry-Fried Green Beans (8.50 pounds) and Stir Fried Chinese Broccoli (9.80 pounds). These were no where near what we expected. The green beans were not salty and they did not have this dried crinkly texture, which we love so much. The Chinese broccoli - overcooked and soggy and not enough garlic and salt. 

But our disappointment vanished when the boiled fish with sizzling chilli oil and peppercorn (22.80 pounds) came! This is one of my favorite Sichuan dishes. I remember the first time I ate it was in Mandarin Wok in Champaign-Urbana. My time in United Stated also marks  the beginning of my culinary adventures. And this fish in chilli oil was a staple I came constantly back to. In Beijing, I discovered other fish cooked in oil and vinegar, but Sichuan  is always the best. And the one we had in The Sichuan was very good too! And it is a huge quantity, which can easily feed three or four people. 

So next time we go, we will order Won Ton Soups, and Sichuan fish and some rice! And there we will have the perfect meal. For the other items in the menu, I do not have the same enthusiasm.

Sixtyone Restaurant, London

Address:  61 Upper Berkeley St, London W1H 7PP
WWW: sixtyonerestaurant.co.uk

I was meaning to write about our experience here. It was quite some time ago, in January. We received a dining experience gift in this restaurant, and it seems quite a number of  patrons did the same too. :)

Their menu for the gift experience was quite exquisite (so, it will make a good gift for somebody else in the future, noted). The menu started with the bubbly, delicious, and perfect for setting the mood.

The meals, although on the small-looking side, are quite delicious and at the end, it becomes quite filling. Especially, if you add the lovely deserts. I would say the beef and the chocolate options are superior to the fish and pastry layers option. There is a reason why things become classics.

Lokum in Safranbolu is truly special

This time our visit to Turkey took us to new places. One of these was Safranbolu,  which became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994 due to its well-preserved Ottoman era houses and architecture.  It is a gem of a place to visit, and the people are truly lovely and show the true Turkish hospitality forgotten in big cities. 

But, let's come to the lokums - or Turkish delights. The most famous  is the one with "saffron", as the name of the city suggests. But, I opted for the rose petal, rose water, pistachio, and wild blueberry (translated from "yaban mersini"). It even converted Steve, who cannot care less about Turkish delights!   Come to think of it, it feels weird ( but good ) to be so surprised by a Turkish delight!

I really liked Safranbolu.  I even imagined living here:

Then, I heard the call of the big city in my veins. Nice to take a breath though from the hustle bustle that we so readily throw ourselves in. 

Chocolate Raspberry Cake (Or Hard to be Martha Stewart!)

We wanted to make a cake for a friend's birthday. A proper 3-tiered cake with lots of filling and frosting. We worked two people, on and off, entire day to create a cake. The result is below and gorgeous, but gosh, imitating Martha Stewart is hard!

The original recipe is here: http://www.marthastewart.com/1140966/chocolate-raspberry-cake

We followed the recipe mostly to a T, so I am not repeating it.
The only difference is in the filling.  The filling recipe is actually how you make jam. We had some raspberry jam already home, so we decided to make use of that. We followed the recipe to do half the quantity of the filling, and mixed it with raspberry jam.

The following picture summarizes the many steps -

Final note, the frosting makes more than the cake, even though we used it very generously.
Also, we used very dark chocolate - for sweet toothed people among us, it could have been a bit sweeter! For me it was just perfect. :D

PS:
I finally found the picture that shows a slice!

Making Cheese with the Wildes, Tottenham, London

I saw the offer of a cheese making class in a food magazine some time ago. But, only last week, we could take the time to visit this Tottenham micro-dairy, called Wildes Cheese run by two brilliant gentlemen: Phillip and Keith.

We opted for a short course of cheese tasting, and curd stretching to make our own mozzarella.
The night started deliciously with a tasting of a lemon flavored soft cheese, and a do-not-know-what-to-call-it-but-a-bit-feta-like cheese with chilli jam. Chilli jam is my new found love.

When everybody arrived, we wore our plastic aprons, and newly-recruited-sailor hats, and marched in to take a tour of the micro-dairy. Both Keith and Phil are passionate about their venture, and explained to us with much gusto how they get their milk from a single farm, where the cows are grazing in Sussex. And, then how they make their curd, and experiment with new flavors, and keep their cheese so that they can start forming the crust.

Of course there was a lot of cheese tasting! So so much of it.

 Then we started the class! After a demonstration, we gave it a go of putting hot water in the curd, handling and stretching it gently, and forming them into mozzarella bowls, or stretching them to plaid them into something more fancy.

 Left the place with lots of mozzarella cheeses, which went on top of the home-made pizzas. They taste gorgeous!  Thankfully, Phil and Keith gave us more curd so that we can make more!

Healthy cookies: Sultana and Oat Cookies

I am not so in to cookies, and so, we seldom make them in this house, But when I saw this recipe from the Healthy Food Guide, May 2015,  it had the promise of finally making use of those oat sachets we buy with so much enthusiasm and hope (typically around new year resolutions time), and never eat.

Note: I adapted the recipe so these are not the original ingredients.

Ingredients:

60 g coconut oil

2 tbsp sunflower oil

40 g light muscovado sugar

40 g pure cane sugar syrup

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 egg lightly beaten

160 g plain flour

60 g porridge oats

2 tbsp poppy seed

20 g desiccated coconut

40 g sultanas

Put the coconut oil, sugar, syrup and vanilla in a large bowl and beat with electric mixer until combined. Add the remaining ingredients and beat with a a wooden spoon to form a dough. 

Shape dough into a ball with your hands, then put on a large square cling film.

Roll the dough into a log shape around 20 cm long- here aim to be more circular than I managed. 

Put the dough in the fridge to chill overnight. 

When ready to bake, heat the oven 170 degrees  Fan (190 degrees normal), and line two baking sheets with baking paper. 

Cut the dough into slices.  You may choose to flatten to a disk shape. That is what I omitted.  Doing so may improve shapes.

In 15-20 mins, they become firm to touch. And that is when they are done. 

Cool aside for 5 minutes, and then move onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Or if you are not patient, just start eating! The sweetness of sultanas, and the crunchiness of desiccated coconut and poppy seed - they are just delightful!

Savory scones - Walnut scones

I have become a big fan of scones since I moved to the UK. I prefer them to all the lovely things that come in an afternoon tea. Especially, when accompanied with cream and strawberry jam. And, I stand by my conviction that best scones are found in Scotland.

But, this recipe (from the Vegetarian magazine, summer 2015), is as good as it gets, and it has a nice twist: It feels more savory than a traditional scone.

First ingredients:

225 g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tbsp baking powder
50 g butter, cubed
50 g walnuts, chopped, plus 6 walnut halves
125-150 ml full-fat milk
1 egg beaten

To serve:
The magazine says soft goat's cheese and fig jam.
I used a home-made blood orange jam

1. Heat oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7 and lightly dust baking sheet with flour.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder and good pinch of salt in a large bowl. Add the butter and rub together until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
3. Add chopped walnuts and the milk, mix together until it clumps together. Then tip into your work surface and squash together to form a ball - try not to work the dough too much to avoid heavy scones.
4. Flatten the dough to make a disc of roughly 3 cm thick. Then cut into 6 triangles with a sharp knife.
5. Transfer to a baking sheet, brush with a little beaten egg. Place a walnut half on each scone.
6. Bake for 15 minutes until golden, and this is the result:

And, it goes lovely with a bit of jam:

The shapes of these scones are a bit odd, but with some experimentation, this is a perfect recipe. :)

A mini recipe for the blood orange jam. This recipe is inspired by Abel and Cole, and it is quite interesting as it uses honey instead of sugar. I kind of played with the quantities. I had some crystallized organic honey, which I wanted  so desperately to use.
So it roughly goes like this: Use 3 blood oranges (medium/small size), 2-3 spoons of honey.
I squeezed the two oranges. The other one peeled, removed the white skin, chopped the flesh small.
Then, put together with the honey in a pan, and boil. The rest depends on which consistency you want your jam.  I check by dripping some on a cold plate, and if it is not runny, that is my perfect consistency.

The perfect carrot cake

I love carrot cakes. So, I could not help try this recipe from PinterestTriple-Layer Carrot Cake {Starbucks Copycat}. I slightly changed it but was very happy with the outcome.

First ingredients (some not shown in the picture)

For the cake:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil + 1/2 cup single cream (This is my change - I just did not want to use 1 cup of oil. This was the first time I used cream in a cake, ended with a very moist cake.)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
4 eggs
4 carrots (you see the sizes in the picture)
1/2 cup raisins
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

For the frosting (this is where I changed the original reciper):
1 tub of Philadelphia, and 1 tub of Labneh cheese  (Labneh is slightly saltier than Philadelphia, and that creates a nice contrast - in the future I would add another tub)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon milk and a bit more
1/2 tablespoons of honey
(I kind of improvised this part - so taste as you go to find the right combination)

To make the cakes:

Sift dry ingredients together into a large bowl. Add oil and cream, and stir well to form a somewhat stiff mixture. Set aside.

Adding one egg at a time, blend the mixture until it's smooth and foamy.

 Add the wet mixture to the stiff mixture. Mix well.

Add grated carrots and stir. Add the raisins and the nuts, if desired. Combine all the ingredients very well.

Pour cake batter into three well-greased 8" round cake pans. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees F for 30-45 minutes. The cakes are done when they start pulling away from the sides of the pan.

Cool the cakes in the pans for 10-15 minutes. Invert them onto cooling racks, and cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting:
Mix softened cream cheese, milk and vanilla. Add the honey. Blend well until frosting is smooth. When the cakes have cooled, frost each layer and then cover the sides and top. (I definitely needed more frosting) Sprinkle the walnuts over the frosting. Store in the refrigerator.

And here is the result:

 Best carrot cake ever!!!

Finally Gnocchi!

I so wanted to make gnocchi, but the first time I tried it, years back, it was such a disaster that I decided that I should just eat this in a restaurant.

This lasted until one day I came across a Stanley Tucci recipe in a Waitrose magazine.

Ingredients:
675g floury potatoes, unpeeled
1 egg lightly beaten
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
2tsp olive oil
1 tsp salt (I think it needs more salt)
100g +/- flour
80g freshly grated parmigiano
110 g unsalted butter
10 sage leaves

To make a gnocchi,  boil the potatoes until very tender.
Peel off the skin, mash it (I used a potato ricer).
Spread onto a flat workspace and cool.

Gather the cooled potato in a mound, an a make well in the center. Put the beaten egg (the whoe and the yolk) and olive oil, and season with salt. Place the flour and parmesan outside the potato and using a fork gradually mix in the ingredients to form a soft dough.

Once come together knead the dough on a cutting board surface. Cut into 4 pieces, and form each piece as a  long sausage.
Bring a large pan of water into boil. Lightly flour the surface and cut the sausages into small pillow shapes.  Here I used one sausage, and froze the rest.

Cook the  gnocchi in water. They sink first but come to the surface as they cook.

Now, we ate them in two ways.
The first one is we melted butter, and cooked the sages, and then coated the gnocchis in the butter.
The sage butter is a very good complement to this pillows of soft dough.

As a second option, using the frozen ones, in a week day,  we covered them in more parmesan and baked  them in the oven a bit.

Delicious in both ways, but does better with a little more salt.

A potential classic: Potato Paratha

It took us by surprise that this was so easy to make! I love parathas, and the recipe is from Abel and Cole.

The ingredients are:

500 g potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 tbsp of olive oil

2 tsp cumin seeds

Thinly sliced fresh chilli

A good pinch of  thyme 

A little grating of orange zest

A good pinch of sea salt 

1 to 2 mugs of plain flour

Boil the potatoes in salted water till mashable. Drain, mash with a potato ricer (or how you like). 

Add oil, spices, orange zest, chillies, salt

Sift the flour little by little to form a soft dough. 

Generously dust a cutting board with flour. Scoop a golf-sized lump of the dough. Roll it on the board, flatten by hand. Go until 1cm thick. 

Place a large pan over high heat - no need for oil. Turn the heat down after a few mins. Cook each side till golden. 

And enjoy!