Pilav with Bulgur

Bulgur Pilavı

Bulgur is a traditional ingredient for making pilav or pilaf in Turkey (burghul in Arabic). Turkish often accompany main meals with pilav either of rice or bulgur. I have had this dish so often as I was growing up, and my mum often diced up fresh and really tasty tomatoes on top of it. I often make bulgur pilavi at home, and not always alongside Turkish food - it goes well with food from other kitchens as well. This recipe is for this weekend's herb blogging event hosted by Foodblogga.

Bulgur pilavi often includes onions diced and lightly fried. There are various versions, for example, with different vegetables or green lentils. The one in the photo has got capsicum and tomatoes lightly stir-fried with onions.

There are two types of bulgur, fine and coarse. To make pilav, you need the coarse type. The fine bulgur is used in salads or dishes such as red lentil balls. I wouldn't attempt pilav using fine bulgur, which might reveal a soggy kind of mash.

Preventing bulgur to stick in the pot is sometimes a challenge, better to use a deep non-stick pot.

But recently, I discovered that rice-cooker makes excellent bulgur pilavi! You need to prepare onions etc. on stove-top, and add in the rice-cooker after bulgur and water.

For a different taste stir through your favourite herbs in the end, and a teaspoon of butter.

1 onion, chopped

2 tablesp olive oil

2.5 cups of water

1 cup of bulgur

1/4 teasp salt

1 tbsp butter

Pre-rinse the bulgur using a strainer.

Lightly brown the onion in olive oil. Pour in the water, and bring to boil. Add bulgur and salt, cover and cook over high heat. When water begins to boil, lower the heat. After water is absorbed, place a thin cloth (or a clean teatowel) over the saucepan and let it rest.

Stir in the butter, and some herbs to your liking.

Note 1: As I previously wrote, it is a challenge to obtain well-absorbed bulgur pieces that have not stuck to the bottom of the pot. So for the rice-cooker method, first lightly brown the onion in a frypan on the stove-top. Then use your rice-cooker as you would for rice (i.e., add rice and water according to instructions), adding the browned onion in the cooker before starting it.

Note 2: If using rice-cooker, follow the amounts given for rice. My rice-cooker has a small cup, and requires at least two cups of rice/bulgur. After adding bulgur, adjust the water amount again according to the rice-cooker requirements. The size of the onion (small v. large) is left to preference.

Tomato Soup with Rice

Domatesli Pirinç Çorbası

Since I last visited my blog, it's been two months and it's now winter in Melbourne. This week, it's been raining heavily, there are floods in the southeast, trees falling down, riverbeds overflowing. The good news is I am still busy but less so. This soup is a great winterwarmer soup again from Turkey, and also great for the Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Kalyn's Kitchen this week. This soup is commonly made with fresh parsley, but dried mint also works well.

Fresh tomatoes are always better, but tinned tomatoes are practical and work fine. Another short-cut (great for weeknights) is to use one-day old leftover cooked rice. 1 cup is enough, and you only need to add the rice, and bring the soup to boil. If using cooked rice, adjust the amount of water to 3-4 cups.

If you like thicker consistency, stir 1 tablespoon of flour into the thickened tomato mixture and before slowly adding water.

Spice it to taste, sweet paprika, freshly ground black pepper, ras-el-hanout (I know it's not Turkish, but I love it).

2 tablesp olive oil
1 clove of garlic, diced
2 large tomatoes, crushed
(or a tin of crushed tomatoes, around 400 gr)
1/2 teasp salt
1/2 teasp sugar
1/3 cup uncooked rice
5-6 cups of water
1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
(or 1/2 tabsp dried mint)

Lightly fry garlic in oil in a large saucepan. Before garlic changes colour, add the tomatoes, salt and sugar. Cook tomatoes for about 5 minutes until it is thickened. Add the rice and water. Cook covered, stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes until rice has softened. Add the parsley, cooking for a couple of minutes. Serve warm.

Croutons: Croutons are optional, not being part of the original recipe. To make your own croutons, dice one-day old bread, drizzle with olive oil and place in a microwave safe container. Microwave uncovered in high for 2 minutes. Stir, if necessary, microwave another 20 seconds, and another 10 if necessary. (Watch out, they burn quickly - so only increase time at short intervals).

Turkish Meat Balls

Köfte

Weekend herb blogging #79 is hosted at What did you eat?, and dried mint and lemon myrtle take their part in these Turkish meat balls.

Meat balls are one of the most common ways of eating meat at Turkish homes. They are especially liked by children. Spices can vary from person to person, but cumin and black pepper are the main ingredients. Dried thyme is also popular.

I always use cumin and dried mint, and may add quite a few other spices according to my mood. My recent additions are a North African spice mix called the Ras-el-hanout, and the Australian herb lemon myrtle (online order available at Spice Bazaar). I often make a big batch, and freeze some. Ask for double-minced lamb from your butcher, if you are after nice textured meat balls.

Meat balls are often served with rice, and often a tomato-based salad. This time, I served with Italian firm polenta, spicy tomato chutney, and beetroot salad.

1 kilo double-minced lamb

1 large brown onion, chopped finely

2 slices of bread

2 tablesp dried mint (& 1 teasp lemon myrtle, if using)

1 teasp, each of salt, black pepper, cumin and sweet paprika

1/2 cup fresh parsley (optional)

other spices (optional)

vegetable/olive oil for shallow-frying

Place bread in a bowl and cover with water. Once it soaks the water, squeeze the bread well to get rid of the water.

Press on the chopped onion to get rid of extra liquid. In a large bowl, add onion, bread, spices and herbs; and mix well. Add meat, and knead well. Make small patties.

Shallow fry in a pan in vegetable or olive oil, initially on high heat, and then at lower heat, until well-cooked.

P.S. If the lamb appears to have too much fat, add one egg to the ingredients.

TURKISH RED LENTIL BALLS

This week's herb blogging event is hosted by Tomato, and coincides with the Australian Day weekend. My dish, red lentil balls, uses flat-leaf parsley together with green onions.

Kırmızı Mercimekli Köfte

These red lentil balls originate from eastern and south-eastern regions of Turkey. They are easy to make, and are delicious, especially when wrapped in lettuce leaves. Serve warm as a nice vegeterian dish; or cold, as a salad or side dish. Do not hesitate to adjust the amount of spices and herbs to your liking (e.g., exclude cumin, add cayenne pepper, etc.).

The bulghur variety in this dish is the fine version (as opposed to the coarse one) - available at Middle Eastern shops. You may also try this dish with green lentils, but they take longer to cook, so will need more water.

2 cups water
1 cup red lentils
1/2 cup fine bulghur (cracked wheat)
1/2 cup olive oil
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 large onion, chopped finely
1 teaspoon of tomato paste (optional)
1 teaspoon cumin (optional)
1 teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup fresh, chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup green onions (scallions)

Bring two cups of water to boil in a pot, and add the lentils. Cook in low heat until the water is absorbed, and the lentils are mushy. Turn off the stove, and stir the bulghur into lentils. Let the mixture rest for 15 minutes to allow the bulghur to soften and expand.

In the meantime, fry the finely chopped onion and minced garlic in olive oil until lightly browned. Add tomato paste at the last minute, stir and turn off the stove.

Add the fried onion and garlic into the lentil mixture along with the spices and salt. Lightly knead until the ingredients are mixed. Taste, and adjust salt and spices. Add the parsley and green onions, and lightly knead. Shape the mixture into egg-shaped balls. Sprinkle with paprika, and serve with lettuce leaves.

Super Souper Challenge

Turkish Wedding Soup (Düğün Çorbası)

This traditional soup is rich and nutritious. Although it is one of my favourites, I do not make it often due to preparation time it requires. However, the outcome is definitely worth the effort. The soup has four stages: meat preparation, soup base, egg mixture, and the sauce. Despite the meat and the egg, the soup is not heavy at all, and is a mix of great flavours. I think it is timely for the upcoming soup event.

1 litre meat stock (or water for a lighter version)

250 gr lamb, diced into small cubes

2 tablesp. butter

3 tablesp. flour

3 egg yolks (two also works fine)

juice of 1 lemon

Sauce:

2 tablesp. butter

1 teasp. paprika

1. Cook the finely diced up meat in a pot with a cup of water for about 20 minutes, skimming the froth occasionally. Add the meat with the leftover water into the stock, and cook the soup base until boiling.

2. In a separate pot, heat the butter, and add the flour, stirring until the flour changes colour. Add some of the meat stock into the flour gradually, stirring so that the mixture is thick and homogeneous.

3. Blend the egg yolks and lemon juice together in a nonreactive bowl. Add some of the soup mixture to the egg mixture, stirring it at the same time. Add some more soup mixture, and repeat. The aim is to prevent the egg mixture from curdling. Then return the egg mixture back into the soup. Cook until it has just started boiling.

4. For the sauce, melt the butter in a frypan, add the paprika. Cook until it bubbles, but watch out that it doesn't burn.

5. Pour the soup into bowls with equal pieces of lamb, and add a spoonful of sauce before serving.

Dishes of Comfort

Yoghurt Rice Soup (Yayla Çorbası)


This Turkish soup was already in my list of recipes to post, and fit well with the Dishes of Comfort one-off blog event (hosted by Cream Puffs In Venice).

The literal translation of this yoghurt rice soup is the plateau soup. It is a traditional soup well-known in rural Turkey but also common in the cities. It is a great winter-warming soup. My mother made this soup quite often, which I have always enjoyed. It was a kind of staple in our kitchen, so it goes with my childhood. I now make it myself from time to time, but my mum's soup tastes different for some reason, and I continue to enjoy hers on my return visits to Istanbul. I suspect it's a combination of factors, the difference in the ingredients back at home, and the mother effect.

6 tablespoons rice
6 tablespoons natural yoghurt
2 eggs
3 tablespoons plain four
2 cups of chicken stock (or water with stock powder, if you prefer)
3 cups of water
1 tablespoon of butter (or olive oil)
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon of dried mint (this is a must)
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
salt to taste

1. Wash the rice until the starch runs off. Boil it in a pot with three cups of boiling water. Cook until the rice is soft, put aside. Do not dispose of the water.

2. In a ceramic bowl, beat the eggs, while adding the flour in small amounts. Then add the yoghurt, and the lemon juice, mix a little more until you have a thick mixture.

3. In a deep pot, heat the two cups of chicken stock. When it has warmed up, add a few spoons of the stock into the thick egg mixture, so that the mixture becomes runny. Then, add the egg mixture back into the chicken stock slowly, and mixing continuously until the soup begins to boil.

4. Add the rice along with its water into the soup. Add salt to taste. Close the lid of the pot, and bring it to boil once, before turning off the stove.

5. In a separate pan, melt the butter together with the mint and the cayenne pepper. When heated, stir a few times, and stir the butter sauce into the soup. Serve in soup bowls.

PS. I often short-cut, and use a day's old leftover rice. Then I boil the 3 cups of water with the stock in stage 3, and add the cooked rice as above in stage 4.