MERCİMEK ÇORBASI

RED LENTIL SOUP

It is another easy to make recipe. Everybody likes and knows this soup in Turkey.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of red lentils
• 3 tbs of rice
• 2 tbs of green lentils
• 1/2 onion ( chopped )
• 1 tbs of tomato paste
• 4 cups of water
• salt
  

Sauce :

• 3 tbsp of vegetable oil
• 1 tsp of red pepper flakes
  

Wash and drain red lentils, rice,and green lentils. Take them in a large pot. Add water, tomato paste and chopped onion. Turn on the heat high, bring it to the boil. Turn the heat down to low and cook it until red lentil is mushy, stirring occasionally. Add salt at the end. You can add some hot water if the soup is too thick.
In a small skillet, take vegetable oil and red pepper flakes. Turn the heat to low and stir until the pepper gives its smell. Add this sauce into the soup.

NOKUL

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 1 cup of milk ( warm)
  
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp of yeast
• 5 tbsp of sugar
• 1 tbsp of salt
• 4 cups of all purpose flour
  

Filling:

• 1/2 cup of poppy seeds
• 3 tbsp of vegetable oil

In a large mixing bowl; mix flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. Add milk and vegetable oil and knead. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise for one hour.
Take the poppy seeds in a small skillet. Turn the heat to the medium high and cook it until it starts to give its smell, stirring constantly around 5-6 minutes. Let it cool for ten minutes. Take the seeds to the grinder and grind it for 5 minutes.




Take it into small bowl and add 3 tbs of vegetable oil and mix it.



Take the dough and knead it until it is bubble free. Divide the dough into two equal parts. Roll the first half to make 12" square. Spread the half of filling onto the dough and roll it tightly.Prepare the second half with the same way. Cut the rolls into 1 inch parts and place them on a rectangular pyrex. Let it rise for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 F and bake it for 4o minutes or nokuls are just golden brown.

LAHMACUN

First of all, you could make lahmacun with tortilla which is more practical or you can make your own dough which is more delicious:)
I made this one with tortillas but I will give the recipe for the dough.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of ground beef
• 1 medium size onion
  
• 2 medium size of tomatoes
• 1 bunch of parsley
• 2 green pepper
• 5-6 cloves of garlic
• 1 tbsp of tomato paste
• 1 tbsp of red pepper paste
• 1/2 tsp of black pepper
• salt

For the dough:

• 10 tortilla breads

or:

• 4 cups of all purpose flour
• 2 tsp of salt
• 1+1/2 cups of warm water
• 1tbsp of yeast

Wash and drain tomatoes, pepper, onion, garlic, and parsley.Take onion, garlic and green pepper to the bowl of food processor and process it until finely chopped .Take them into a big mixing bowl.Put tomatoes to the food processor and process until smooth consistency and take the tomatoes to the mixing bowl too. Chop parsley and take it to the mixing bowl. Add meat, tomato paste, pepper paste, black pepper, and salt to the mixing bowl and knead them all until well combined.
Preheat the oven to 450F. Take a tortilla and spread 2-3 tbsp of mixing. Sprinkle some flour to the baking sheet and place the tortilla on it and bake it for 10-15 minutes.You can bake 2 to 3 tortilla at a time.
For making your own dough, mix flour, salt, and yeast in a bowl and add warm water slowly to make a soft dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise for 1 hour and knead it again until it is bubble free. Take a small part of dough (like a lemon) and roll it as large as tortilla. Before spreading the mixing you should bake the dough first for 5 minutes and then add the mixing.
You can serve lahmacun with ayran and onion salad.

ZEYTİN EZMELİ AÇMA

ACMA WITH BLACK OLIVE PASTE

Ingredients:

• 1/2 stick of butter ( melted )
  
• 1 egg+1 egg white
• 1 cup of milk
• 5 tbsp of sugar
• 1 tbsp of salt
• 1tbsp of yeast
  
• 4 cups of all purpose of flour

Filling:

• 1/2 cup of black olive paste

Glaze:

• 1 egg yolk
  

Mix all of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add milk, melted butter and eggs. Knead them all together with your hands until becoming dough. The dough should be soft. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest until the dough rises to double its size. It takes one to two hours. ( If you have bread maker, you can use it for this step. ) Take the bowl and knead the dough again until it is bubble free.

Divide the dough into two equal parts. Roll the first half to make in 22" 11" rectangular. Spread the olive paste to the half of the rectangular.



Fold the dough.



First divide into two by cutting lengthwise and than make 1 inch stripes.




Twist the stripes around and give them swirl shape.




Repeat this steps for the second half of the dough. Put a parchment paper on a cookie sheet and place all of the acmas to the sheet. Let it rises for about 30 minutes and brush them gently with egg yolk. Preheat the oven to 350F and bake it for 45 minutes or acmas are just golden brown.



Note:You can either buy black olive paste from a Mediterranean store or you can make it by yourself if you have some black olives.