Cooking Recipes and Gastronomical Information

Turkish Cooking RecipesTurkey is a vibrant, significant crossroads of east and west, and culture reflects this. On the menu, Arabic delights from the east meet the hearty goodness of the west to create millennia-old fusion cuisine which will whet just about any appetite. Here’s how you can whet your own appetite for Turkey.

Baklava Thousands of crispy crunch microscopically thin layers of dough soaked in sweet goodness, the baklava is one of the world’s favorite deserts.

Ingredients:
· 2 glasses of ground walnuts
· 2 glasses melted butter
· 2 teaspoons olive oil
· 2 lemons
· 4 eggs
· 2 teaspoons salt
· 1 ½ kilograms of sugar
· 500 grams flour
· Starch

Make the dough by combining the salt, flour and water, and kneading it together, folding it, kneading it and repeating that process five times. Once done put a wet cloth over the dough and leave it overnight. When ready, cut up the dough into about 20 pieces, starch it and roll it as thinly as you can, paper thin, then stack the thin layers on top of each other, pouring butter over each layer and sprinkling the finely chopped walnuts, once all the layers are in place cut into squares and bake for 60 minutes.
Meanwhile, cover sugar with water in a saucepan and add a tablespoon of lemon juice in order to create viscous syrup upon boiling. Very slowly, pour this over the baklava, which in turn will absorb all of the sweet, sticky goodness.

Turkish Stuffed Dried Mushrooms
This is a delightful hourdurve or side dish to any Mediterranean themed party or meal. These Turkish mushrooms are truly scrumptious.

Ingredients:
· 2 tablespoon butter
· 8 tablespoons grated cheddar cheese
· 200 grams Minced meat
· 4 onions
· 24 large mushrooms
· Salt
· Black pepper, freshly ground
· lemon
· Paprika

Directions:
Squeeze the lemon into water and remove the mushroom stems from the mushrooms, then soak the stems in the lemon water. Sauté the meat, salt, butter, onions and pepper and stuff the mushrooms with this mixture, plug them tight with the soaked stems and sprinkle on the grated cheese before baking them in the oven. Give each a generous little dash of paprika just before serving.