Thursday, May 08, 2008

Favorite Salad

House Cafe is one of my favorite places in Istanbul and I go there
pretty much everyday and most of my friends are sick of it already,
including my sister. They have a great breakfast menu, not so great
granola but tons of vegetarian options and Turkish dishes. My
favorite out of all is the spinach-lentil salad and I started to make
it at home for my dad and he also likes it a lot.

Here is the recipe, totally my version, inspired from House Cafe.

1 cup of lentils, cooked and cooled. I cook lentils with bay leaves
and a pinch of salt, be careful not to over cook, they are done very
fast. Once they are cooled, I pre-dress the lentils with a tablespoon
of balsamic vinegar, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of olive oil.

2 cups of baby spinach, cut rough

1/2 cup of sun dried tomato in olive oil, cut fine strips

1/2 cup of goat cheese, crumbled

1/2 cup of toasted pinenuts

Zest of one lemon, cut into fine strips

Dressing, this is not an exact measurement, I made it impromt but it
is close enough.
1/3 cup Balsamic Vinegar
1 tablespoon Honey
1/3 cup extra virgin Olive Oil
1 tsp Sea salt
1tsp black pepper
1 tablespoon Mustard
Optional: 1 tablespoon pomegranate Syrup

Just before serving, mix all the ingredients except pinenuts. Sprinkle
the nuts on top and enjoy...I wish I could have made some for Popeye:)

Thursday, May 01, 2008

I discovered a new blog...

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/cinammon_rolls_/

She is fantastic!

Baking Fairy at work...

This is an amazing crumble recipe....I could not find cornmeal in
Istanbul so I used farina (irmik) and it turned out really amazing. We
used strawberries and next time I will try with a combination, sour
cherry, raspberry and strawberry.

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2007/05/the_department.html

Hazelnuts are so popular in Turkey and we have tons of it here. I
can't find them as much in Costa Rica. I have this cake in the oven
right now. Thanks Cenk for the hint.

http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/03/hazelnut-brown-butter-cake/

Cenk's Korovo cookies are next:)
http://cafefernando.com/korova-cookies