All posts tagged: Turkish

Turkish Cheesecake – Künefe

The Turkish Cheesecake Künefe or Kanafeh is the Middle Eastern version of Cheesecake. Unlike the Western iterations of the concept Künefe does not contain cream as a cooking ingredient. There are many ways to make Künefe. Some call for a frying pan or skillet; others use the oven; most of them use sugar; others use honey; some suggest to serve Künefe with Kaymak (buffalo milk cream); others don’t care about cream. And so on, and so forth. Our Turkish Cheesecake recipe is made in the oven and uses honey syrup instead of sugar syrup.

Turkish Red Lentil Soup

Hot or cold, the Turkish Red Lentil Soup is a good one. It is nutritious too. Using vegetable broth/stock turns the recipe to vegetarian and vegan. Enjoy!

Traditional Turkish Baklava Recipe with Honey Syrup

Baklava is Turkish Cuisine’s most emblematic and widely known dessert. Other nations in the area make it too, with certain twists. E.g. the Greeks prefer less spice in their Baklava, the Lebanese tend to want their Baklava drier (with less syrup) and cut in mouthfuls, etc.

Turkish Lamb Stew over Eggplant Puree (Hünkar Beğendi)

Hunkar Begendi is an ultra-classic, traditional Turkish recipe whose name translates to “Sultan’s Delight”. As we can reasonably imagine there are many, many variations of Hünkar Beğendi: some recipes call for cheese and milk, others for milk and flour. Some call for lamb, others of beef. Some call for butter, others for olive oil and some “Westernized” versions even call for … vegetable oil and margarine (hello?). We chose a version that (we believe) is most representative of Turkey and its people.

Sauted Eggplant with Capsicum and Yogurt – Turkish style

The Sauted Eggplant with Capsicum and Yogurt – Turkish style is a classic family/home cooking recipe from Istanbul. A bit spicy for Western palates, but well, it’s very much worth it.