Too Many In One: Menemen; Popular Turkish Egg Dish, "Oh, You Didn't" Cake, Relief About School, Spring Love

It was such a relief to make it to noon for me, today. In this week I've been busy studying for my exam which was due Friday morning. Since this class I'm taking is my last until university graduation, I focus on it seriously. On Thursday I get a text message from my classmate, letting me know that I might want to go to school because my name is on the "get in touch with us asap" list of student affairs office at my faculty. Just as graduation is approaching, this sudden news make me quite uncomfortable.I go to the office, anxiously, and find it out: I have to take one more class - otherwise I can't graduate. (In fact I have already taken more than minimum amount of credits... but you need to complete exact amount per term and that's where it went wrong before, so they say) What confused me is, prior to every term I did my registration with an officer, it just can't go wrong! She admits her fault. There, in the end I have to take care of this. When's the exam for that class? Today! (Meaning... on Friday) Finding out Thursday, taking the exam on Friday. What class? Adult Psychopathology.

- This is me from a break during studying at night

Ehh... Speechless. Emotions rushed to my brain in fact, "should we make a drama out of this and spend few hours bitterly?" - No, no. Can't afford it. Okay.

- I was distracted thinking, and ended up doing this arrangement. Isn't it ironic that Ganesha is believed to be an obstacle remover... (and placer, too.)

To sum up, while I was studying for one completely unexpected exam and my other exam last night, it was food I found comfort in. Here's what I did: I bought chocolate strawberry cake for base, sweet cream mixture to make it with milk for filling, and banana to decorate! I plan to learn baking sweet stuff, too.

- "Oh, you didn't" cake

Now that I took both exams, it's a great amount of relief I feel. Besides, it was such a beautiful spring day. Staying outdoors felt so good I didn't want to come home. So after getting off the bus, I walked as slowly as possible and felt warmed up. Sunny days with a breeze... Just the perfect weather to me. On the way I got Maji some chicken. I don't know if she likes her special meal or this whole chicken cooked on big rolling skewer more, though. Maybe she doesn't care because both have chicken, and she loves it. Hmm. I wonder if anyone that stops by is a cat lover, as well? If so, let me know I'll post homemade healthy cat food preparation I do, to share with you.

As I turned around the corner and continued walking, there was my favorite homeless cat buddy who I usually feed. Such a weak little voice for that body! I find him so cute for this reason. He got the chicken leg and I talked to him while watching him a little as he ate chicken with pleasure. When I got back home, I also fed my cat too and it was my turn to eat.

Menemen, a popular and easy to prepare Turkish egg dish

I was very lifted to see mom cook for me, thinking that I would be tired for it. Couldn't agree more! She made me a kind of egg dish we call "menemen". Menemen is a Turkish breakfast dish, originally. It has pepper, tomato, onion, eggs and spices. She made me the traditional one which I'll share now that I mentioned it.

- A slice of mozzarella cheese melts on top - not in original version, but why not?

Ingredients would be:

2 eggs
3 tomatos
2 peppers
1 white onion

2 tbs butter/oil of choice

I want to add a note here, amount of veggies could change due to your liking. Just make sure you have them all if you're going for the original taste.

Spices especially:

Grounded black pepper
Cayenne pepper
Mint (dried is okay. mom put fresh mint so herbs are fine as well)
Salt

- Noon meal

Preparation:

First of all I'd dice all of the ingredients for convenience. Melt butter on pan, white onion goes first. Keep stirring, onions become translucent - now's the time for peppers. We had long & thin slightly hot green peppers, but any kind of pepper will do. Get green bell pepper if you want. Just get vitamin A fix! Good for skin and eyes. Back to the cooking, peppers now softened so it's tomatos turn. Tomatos will make it watery as they get cooked, it's okay. It's good idea to add the spices now, so they'll release flavor into it. Lower the heat and let tomatos get ready. As that happens, it's time for eggs. Tap the eggs firmly on the side of non sticky pan in turns and scramble them onto the veggies. Mix the egg white and yolk and cover evenly all over the veggies. If you think this is hard, well try scrambling them into a bowl, mix there and then pour it over veggies same thing. Now, slow cooking 3-4 minutes. Sprinkle a pinch of salt if you like. Ready.

(It's much easier to cook it than instruct it that long!)



Along with it:

Any kind of bread!
Additionally I had purslane with garlic, olive oil and Turkish yogurt.

- Purslane meze, refreshing

I haven't had menemen or purslane meze in a while, so it was a delish meal for me. Feeling more energetic afterwards, I noticed how beautiful it is still outside. Days are longer... it means more sunshine. Definitely love it.

As I was looking out the window enjoying the sun, my cat joined me soon after. I thought I'd capture my relief and her adorable face in the same frame. She wasn't much interested, so much stimuli from the street, I understand. But, I care for memories.

- Maji baby is distracted...

... and I am done, for today.

I already have the draft saved for next post, marinated beef. Though this post was like a therapy I had to attend in my mind with a priority, in order to put things in order and feel comfort again.

Take it Easy Day: Baby Spinach Pasta with Turkish Yogurt

Sometimes I'll just rush to see the pictures of the food being mentioned in the blog post. (Sometimes?) No, Most of the time. Always! Visuality comes first for me. I need to be able to smell, and almost taste the food just by the looks of it. Then comes the curiosity for the recipe, cooking method, ingredients... Since it's Monday though; I've got no recipe! Today I just want to take it easy with that, and go with pictures with little notes attached. It's not a complicated dish anyway. Nutritious and delicious... how about those? Check, and check. Enjoy!

Turkish Pan Borek w/ Nettle & Feta : Phyllo Pastry That Won't Bite You Back!

... Nettles? Used as filling to phyllo pastry?

Nettles! This is a plant that's been used as herbal medicine for centuries and even to this day that continues in rural areas of my country. How about the culinary use of it? I did a quick search for it, by that I mean that I went to websites that has my props - like one of them being TasteSpotting.com ! Using the search option, I just wanted to find out how many kinds of nettle featuring food I could find. Some examples are:

- Nettle soup (popular)
- Nettle tea (hmm it's described as tonic. oh, nettles have an effect to draw excess fluid from body. one fact!)
- Nettle pesto (not sure! basil seems to have won my heart.)
- Nettle ravioli & pasta (i'll try both! - but i want yogurt. sorry nettles for i'm treating you as a substitute to spinach here)
- Nettle risotto (if i'm ever out of options what to cook. - err. see i'm positive.)
- Nettle fritters (mm sorry.)

By the way the best Google search could come up with was nettle soup, so. Moving on.

...Turkish Pan Borek w/ Nettle & Feta?

First of all; Turkish people adore borek ("börek" in fact - could be pronounced as boh-rek roughly.) . Borek; being the phyllo pastry - fillings of it vary from cheese, vegetables, meat... It's a very versatile food for us. We might have it for breakfast, as a companion to Turkish tea. Or simply anytime of day. For example now, the hungry Turk typing these lines on a sleepless 4:37 am in the morning - could happily have some. Have my mom make it, though. Please?

Börek - as we Turkish people call it - has been one of the favorite "comfort foods" of my childhood. It'd make my day to wake up to its warm, invigorating smell coming fresh out of the oven. That feeling it would give... It's important for me as a symbol of feeling happy - more than it's taste. I should be fair though, it tastes just as great.

Back to today's focus.

Turkish Pan Borek w/ Nettle & Feta Preparation:

1. Nettles, washed. Some olive oil. Non-sticky pan :Nettles as the main ingredient, are not stingy anymore after being stir fried till the leaves don't fight back the utensil, meaning they are softened from heat of the non-sticky pan.
2. Nettles ready to use, feta cheese, grounded black pepper : Preparing a mix of nettles & feta cheese - avoid extra salt depending on cheese type. Feta to me is naturally a little salty, so.
3. Spreading the phyllo layers: Phyllo - 4 or 5 layers feed three. Almost.
4. Keep olive oil (about a tablespoonful of), some milk (i'm not strict with measurements... really. milk here is just being used to keep the phyllo moist inside while it'll be crispy outside. so milk is just a side ingredient being the peacemaker in between phyllo and pan! use accordingly.)
   

That was the hard part.

Next step is, to spread one layer of phyllo dough on a flat surface - and sprinkle? some nettle & feta mix on it, making sure it's in even amount in middle. Holding the phyllo from the ends and making them meet in the center, covering the filling. So now there should be almost a rectangular shape with ends tucked in; till it took a rectangular-ish shape. Almost a tutorial I tried to make with a simple doodle:

This folding type is for the inner layer. On a non-sticky pan with help of some butter or oil of choice, first layer gets made until crispy on outside. Then this layer gets placed in second layer phyllo waiting on the side. More filling on top, and then ends tucked in again. Each time, phyllo layers tucked in each other with more filling on top. Cooked until crispy, then onto the next layer of uncooked phyllo and again the same step. More layers could be added. Following this, the pastry is ready!

Credit: I had this pastry at my sister's place, made by sister's boyfriend.

Taste: It was moist inside and crispy outside. Nettle & feta went well together, but spinach is easily a substitute to nettle if necessary. Sister contributed with a delicious salad of mostly greens - she's the master salad maker.

Thank you for reading.

Feedmeback!



&

That's sister and me... just caught in action.

Okay, I had fast food. I didn't like it. My tummy did.


Ozge