Scrambled eggs a la ceyda

Last Sunday, I was gently awoken by my bambina'm around 9am. I opened my eyes and saw her looking at me itching to ask me something. Then she said something which made me so proud of her "Mummy, can you teach me how to cook eggs".

After deciding what she wanted to make with the eggs, she chose scrambled eggs.

She asked me what the secret is to cooking, to which I replied: always cooking with love.....


Ingredients: 2 eggs, 2 tbsp milk, knob of butter, salt & pepper.

- Beat the eggs and milk with a fork, add salt & pepper.
- heat frying pan and add the butter.
- add the eggs, stirring gently with a wooden spoon (or a spatula) for about 1 min, or until set

My baby is growing into a fine young independant adult.
Oh, and a brilliant chef........

Kisir (Tabbouleh)

Originated from Syria & Lebannon, Kisir is one of the most popular salads in the Middle East. Traditionally it's made with bulgur, tomato, cucumber, and finely chopped parsley, seasoned with olive oil & lemon juice, but every country does have it's own variation.

The version I make is East Turkey meets South West Turkey and makes a short trip to cyprus :)) I like it spicy and acidic, so I tend to add lots of lemon juice and hot chill flakes.


Ingredients: 1 glass of bulgur (cracked wheat), 1 glass boiling water, finely chopped fresh green herbs (I usually use parsley & mint - but you can use anything you desire as the sky's the limit), finely chopped spring onions, home made tomato puree, home made pomegranate molasses, olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, cumin, salt, chilli flakes, tabasco sauce ******


****** notice how I do not state quantity. Everything about this dish is optional - so I will leave it up to you.

 Directions: - In a bowl add the bulgur and boiling water. Stir and cover with a muslin cloth (or tea towel), leave for 15-20 mins until cooked.
- once cooled give it a good stir with a wooden spoon.
- start adding the ingredients one at a time, and mixing well.
- I like to start with the tomato puree, followed by chooped herbs, spring onion, leaving the spices and seasoning to last.

Make sure you taste at each stage to make sure the seasoning is just right.

- serve with lettuce and lemon slices

Firinda Magarina (Northern Cyprus style Macaroni Cheese)

Firinda magarina is a very common dish in Northern Cyprus, and I can bet that every household will eat this once a week, whether it is at home or going to relatives & friends for dinner.

Mum and my Nan always made this when we had a big group of guests round for dinner. Not only is it really easy to make, but can be made well in advance (in the morning or the night before). It can be served on its own or is a great side dish with roast potatoes & roast chicken.

Ingredients: 1 packet of mezzanelli pasta (for those in Turkey/Cyprus this is 'firin makarna'), 1 packet helim - grated, minced meat, chopped onions, chopped parsley, seasoning.
For the sauce: 6 tablespoon flour, 1lt milk, 200ml sunflower oil, 3 eggs.

Directions:
- in a frying pan fry the mincemeat, follwed by onions until softened. Finally add the chopped parsley and seasoning. Take off heat and leave to cool.
- In a pan of boiling water (with chicken stock or 2 bullion tablets), add the pasta and bring to boil.  Once cooked, drain and leave to cool.
- In a oven dish sprinkle some grated hellim, add half of the pasta and sprinkle another handful of hellim. Pour all of the mincemeat ensuring the pasta is covered, again sprinkle with hellim. Put the remaining pasta in the dish and yes you guessed it, another sprinkle of hellim. Put to one side
- To make the sauce: in a saucepan add the eggs, flour and oil and whisk. While whisking gradually add the milk. On a low heat, continue mixing until the sauce starts to thicken and boil. Pour on top of pasta and bake in 180 degree pre-heated oven until browned.



The best part of making this is getting to lick the sauce in the pan. We used to have fights with my siblings to see who could get to the pan first. Ahhhh, the good old days :)

Badadez Kofte

Another of my all time favourites from my childhood days is the Badadez Kofte. My nan used to make this with meat that she used to mince herself with knives.

Badadez kofte is made with mince meat, finely chopped onion, finely chopped parsley, 1 egg, salt and pepper, and of course 'badadez' which is the Cypriot name for potatoes,

 Here you can see my bambina'm mixing the ingredients.

Once all the ingredients have been mixed, make kofte shapes and shallow fry them until brown.


These are best served with salad or black-eyed peas salad

Apple Crumble CupCake

What a better way to eat the good old apple crumble: make it into a cupcake :)

American-Style Pancakes a la Ceyda

My bambina'm wanted to have a picnic breakfast this morning and offered to make something for us.

Looking through the cookbook her grandma gave her, she decided to make this scrummy American-Style pancake.

Ingredients: 140g self-raising flour  /  2 tbsp sugar  /  175ml milk  /  1 egg


Sieve the flour into a mixing bowl. Stir in the sugar and make a well in the centre.

Lightly whisk milk and egg together and pour in the well and mix with a wooden spoon until you have a smooth and creamy batter.

For best results, leave the batter to rest for 30 mins.


In a pan heat some oil, pour in the batter with a ladel and cook for about 2 mins or until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip over and cook for another 2 mins.


Serve with absolutely anything you desire. We served with chocolate sauce and cream.



This is the 2nd dish Ceyda has made from her cookbook.

Valentine's Day Cake

I wanted to make something light and fluffy for Valentine's to ensure that after eating it you wouldn't fall asleep on the couch with your beau. So I opted for a light vanilla cream filled heart shaped choux, topped with roasted almonds and dusted with icing sugar. Not so heavy is it :))

Eton Mess

This is English dessert consists of strawberries, meringue and cream.

Magarina Bulli

Today I'm having a nostalgia filled day, going back to my childhood with the lovely filling Cypriot food mum and nan used to make: the infamous Magarina Bulli

Boil the chicken until cooked through. Put the cooked chicken in a baking dish and lightly oil. Bake in oven until browned. With the chicken stock, bring to boil and add spaghetti / linguine and boil for about 10 mins.

To serve: put the pasta and some of the juices in a soup dish, topped with grated helloumi and a piece of your favorite chicken piece.


yummy yummy

Strawberry & Banana Crunchy Muffins

This is a very light snack with virtually no fat at all. So it's ideal for all those ladies who are watching their figures.

Ingredients: 300g flour / 1 packet baking powder / pinch of salt / 125g sugar / 1 egg / 4 tbsp oil / 280ml milk / 100g strawberries (or any red fruit) / 2 ripe bananas (mashed) / 2 weetabix biscuits / a handfull of choc chips (opt)

Seive the flour and backing powder in a mixing bowl. Add the sugar and stir.
In another mixing bowl add the wet ingredients and wisk. Pour into the flour and stir.

Add the fruits, weetabix and choc chips.

Put into 12 muffin tins and bake for 20-25 mins in 200C pre-heated oven.

muffins, muffins and mo muffins

After my little accident last week, spending the whole week in bed, I was excited to be able to get up and make my next batch of goodies. I want to thank my dear friend who kindly brought back muffin cases and food colouring from the UK as I never seem to be able to find them here in the local supermarkets. Yes, you know who you are; thank you again and again. I hope you liked the muffins.

My brother and the children made these muffins for the whole family last summer. Not only did they look good, but tasted really light and fluffy. He was kind enough to give me the recipe. Thanks A.
He is always introducing us to world cuisine. the great thing is that even though his food is delicious, he has never made the same thing twice for me, so each time I get to try another one of his tasty dishes. Again, I thank you.


Today is my first try for these muffins........

Moon Rocks

This is one of the recipe's I use when giving children cooking lessons. They are very easy and quick to prepare/make.

They are also ideal for unexpected guests:

Like Mum Used To Make

Kofte served on pitta bread, served with home made tomato salsa and topped with yoghurt. This one's for you mum :))

L'ush Hash

The inspiration of this muffin came to me from 2 things; the first one was a coffee shop which used to sell lemon and poppy seed muffin, and the other one was a lemon drizzle cake mum used to make a few years back.

Combining the two just increased the pleasure of eating this delight......

Roasted Red Peppers and Tuna Chunks Salad

Ok I know I have got slightly carried away with the choux pastry over the past few weeks, so I wanted to add something on the healthier side. What more healthier than a nice bowl of SALAD.....

Roasted Red Peppers and Tuna Chunks Salad
Roast the peppers under a hot grill. Once blackened, put in a bag and leave to cool. Peel the skin and slice into edible pieces.
In a salad bowl add lettuice, peppers, tuna chunks, spring onions and black peppers. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.....

Choux Bun.... Part II

The first time I made these little beauties, they didn't rise as well as I wanted them to. So I wanted to give them another go....

As the choux pastry is slightly bigger than a profiterol, the trick was to put a little hole in them after baking for 25 mins and put them back in the oven for an extra 5 mins.

Once cooled, you can add your vanilla filling and chocolate ganache.

When sprinkled with icing sugar, the end result looks too tasty to eat.....

Love is in the air.....

Here is something to remind you that Valentine's Day is on the way, pretty soon it'll be spring again, and the flowers will bloom and most important of all; love will be all around

* this was made by my student, who by the way confided in me that he couldn't even make a sandwich :))  just goes to show how easy cooking can be

Strawberry & Vanilla Custard Swiss Roll

Like I told you, this is the year that I try new things and succeed....

Chocolate Swiss Roll

I always wanted to try making this, but was always reluctant that it wouldn't turn out the way it was meant to. This year is the year I try new things and succeed!!

The hardest part (which was not very hard at all) was mixing the eggs and sugar until it became thick and creamy. That's how easy this cake was.

Directions: Mix 3 eggs with 90g sugar until think and creamy. Mix 30g flour and 2 tablespoons of cocoa. Spread on to baking try and bake in pre-heated oven at 200 degrees for 10-12 minutes until the cake is set.

Take out and roll. Once cooled add the creamy mixture and roll again. sprinkle with icing sugar before serving


Need I say more........
just enjoy it :)))



Chard and Onion Borek

Spending most of my time making muffins and cakes, I have become really lazy when it comes to home cooking. This weekend I opted for making a savory borek dish, which is very easy to make and goes down well with a lovely cup of tea.

Brush fillo pastry with eggs & oil, between the sheets add the pre-cooked chard and onions.

Bake at 180 degrees until brown.


Served with salad

Choux Bun....

Istanbul doesn't have a wide range of international desserts, I decided that I would like to try making home made Choux Buns and introducing them here.......

Choux buns are made with choux pastry, filled with homemade custard cream, topped with chocolate ganache and icing sugar

Not bad for a first try

Orange Crunchy Biscuits

Ceyda wanted to make something from her very 1st cook book, which her grandma gave to her as a Christmas present this year. I must say, the book is actually brilliant with very grown up recipes. I can't wait to try them out :))

She chose a simple to make yet at the same time elegant looking biscuit. Obviously taking after me, she personalised the recipe to give it her own personal touch.


Here is the final product:....

Ingredients:
125gr self raising flour
60gr butter/margarine
60gr sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp honey
orange zest (or lemon zest)

- Mix ingredients until it forms a small ball of dough.
- Wrap it in cling film and chill for a few hours.
- Roll out and cut out in shapes
- Grease baking tray and bake in pre-heated oven for 6-8 mins at 180 degrees.
- Remove biscuits and leave to cool
- Decorate with icing

Bon apetite :))

Every week Ceyda will be making a new dish to add to this blog. Watch this space for my bambina's tasty creations........

Cake Pops

I will be giving Cake Pops a go today. Cakes on a stick  :))

Photos to follow

Christmas Dinner

Living so far away from my parents and not being able to spend Christmas and the New Year with them, in 1998 I started having annual Christmas dinner parties with my friends here in Istanbul. As it is not celebrated here, it was a new experience for them and at the same time making me less home sick.

Thinking back to my earlier years at the start of my adult life, I think that's when I actually started to enjoy cooking. My first menu comprised of Leek & Potato Soup, followed by the traditional roast with the trimings. I didn't feel I was capable to make a proper christmas pudding (actually, I still don't think I have the time), so I opted for a classic apple pie and custard, which turned out beautifully.

Having a large living/dining room, I managed to host upto 12 people in the first annual dinner. The punch was very amature to say the least, but went down a treat. Thank you to all my friends who have been with me through thick and thin.

Over the past few years, not being an avid turkey fan, I have made different main meals with the traditional trimmings. From from roast chicken to kofte to roast lamb.

Putting all my past experiences together, this year's menu will comprise of the following:
Leek & Potato Soup
Roast Leg of lamb (with onion and bay leaf)
Roast potato (with rosemary and garlic)
Roasted vegetables (anything to add some colour to the platter; carrots, red pepper, green beans, ......)
Mushroom & Onion gravy


This year's dessert: will have to be my croquembouche, as it's been the favourite so far.

Thanks in advance to all my ginuea pigs :)))

Muffin de la Portakalli

Coming up to the festive holiday season, entertaining is something that is unavoidable this month. And what a pleasure it is to be surrounded by loved ones; eating, drinking, being merry :)) Thanks girls for last night :)

This morning, with the inspiration of my friend, we created an orange zest and dark chocolate muffin. As a secret ingredient, we added a slighty naughty treat; orange liquor......... This one's for you G.