Gozleme

Have you heard of these delicious Turkish Anatolian flat breads known as Gozleme?

They sounded familiar but I hadn't had one until this summer when we happened to be in gorgeous Sydney for the Vivid Sydney light festival. The festival sees the entire city light up every night in the most creative, gorgeous way and it is a sight to behold. While the festival is on the for the week, the streets are filled with lovely street stalls and one of them sold Gozleme. It seemed to be a hot favorite and so we stood in line for a good 20 minutes to get a hot, steaming Gozleme fresh off the pan.

It was delicious, crispy, flat bread stuffed with spinach and feta, full of flavor.

Back home in India, we wanted to have it one more time, and like most international foods, if you want to have something a little bit out of the ordinary, you have to make it yourself. Chennai is behind most cities in India in the diversity of its cuisine. It is getting more adventurous every year but still very far away from other cities in India.

Anyhow, I decided to make the gozleme. Having got the recipe off the web, here goes. (a small note here: I got the recipe from a website called Ozlem's Turkish Table. This website is quite a gem. She has step-by-step instructions for most recipes and every single item on there looks do-able and delicious! Do take a moment to go through her website. I've bookmarked half her savory pastries!!). It came out quite perfectly. Do give it a try. Its easy and even the kids love it.

Gozleme
(recipe from Ozlem's Turkish Table)

For the flat bread:
3 cups All-Purpose Flour, sifted
8 g Dry Instant Yeast
3 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp Plain Yogurt
260 ml Warm Water
A pinch of salt

For the filling:
200 g Spinach Leaves, finely chopped
1 Onion, finely chopped
230 g Feta Cheese
1 tbsp Olive Oil
Crushed Red Pepper, or Chilli Flakes, or Red Pepper Paste, to taste (optional - you can make the filling as spicy as you'd like or omit it completely)

Combine about half the warm water, salt and yeast in a bowl and leave aside for 5 minutes until the mixture is frothy. Now combine the flour, yeast mixture, olive oil, yogurt, salt and the rest of the water. Combine all the ingredients and knead until a soft dough is formed.

Divide the dough into 5 balls and keep aside, covered in a damp cloth, until doubled in size.

Meanwhile prepare the filling.  Combine all the ingredients for the filling and knead well to release the flavors and make the onions softer. I ended up sauteeing the onions and blanching the spinach leaves.

Now roll out each ball into a thin, flat round. Fold the top and bottom edges of the round until they meet in the middle.

 Spread the filling in the center and then fold the left and right sides until the filling is covered.

 Press the edges together to seal.

 Repeat for the remaining dough.

Heat a non-stick flat or griddle pan. Brush one side of the gozleme with olive oil and place, oil side down, on the pan and let cook for 5-6 minutes until browned. Brush the other side with olive oil and flip over and cook until both sides are brown.

 Repeat for the remaining gozleme.

Serve either cut up into squares or rolled up. Attack! :)

Green Pasta (for the kids)

Not sure about other kids, but mine refuse to eat spinach. Or any leaves. They love broccoli and most vegetables but hate spinach. But I've been trying very hard to get them to eat it. This is what we made for dinner tonight and they actually liked it. I wouldn't say loved but they did like it, and that's a huge step. And said they would like to have it again. Sometime.

Green Pasta
(Pasta with a lovely creamy spinach sauce)

1 cup Pasta, feel free to use any kind, cooked
3 cups Spinach
2-3 Garlic cloves
1 cup Plain Yogurt
1 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated, plus more for garnish
1/2 cup Pine nuts, toasted (optional or feel free to substitute any nuts that you like)

In a blender, add the spinach, garlic, salt, yogurt and parmesan and blend to a smooth sauce.

Put the pasta in a pan on medium heat and add the spinach sauce. Stir to combine and cook together for a few minutes. 

Spoon the pasta into bowls/plates. Top with grated parmesan and toasted pine nuts.

Really quite nice.

Spinach Raita

I had this for lunch at a friend's and though I'm not a big yogurt fan, I loved this one. And it's so super simple!

Enjoy.

Sonu's Spinach Raita

Clean and chop spinach leaves.

Put 1-2 cups of salted water to boil. When boiling, drop spinach in it for 3-4 minutes.

Drain well. Keep aside.

Beat yogurt lightly with a fork. Add salt and crushed jeera. Add the boiled palak, chill for ½ hour and serve with roti or rice.

Spinach Rice

I recently went to a modern Andhra restaurant, Maya, in Chennai. Andhra Pradesh is a small state in southern India, whose cuisine is typically very spicy and loaded with masala, tamarind and ground spices.

This restaurant surprised me though. The food was mild, full of subtle flavors and delicious. The one dish that really stood out to me was the lovely spinach rice. I asked my waiter if he could give me the recipe and he, very graciously, told me the ingredients. So I made an attempt at it, and thankfully, it turned out exactly how I'd hoped. (I've added peas to this rice, in order to get in more veggies, but the original recipe didn't have it, so feel free to leave it out).

Spinach Rice (with Peas)

2 cups White or Brown Rice, cooked and cooled

4 cups Spinach, cleaned and washed

1 tbsp Mustard Seeds

1 tbsp Urad Dal/ Bengal Gram

1 large Onion, peeled and chopped fine

2-3 Green Chillies, slit (optional)

1/2 cup Green Peas, cooked (optional)

2 tsp Sesame Oil

Salt, to taste

Heat the oil in a small pan. Add the mustard seeds and urad dal and stir until mustard seeds begin to pop. Add the onions and green chillies and cook until the onions are transparent. Now add the spinach. Continue stirring/ cooking until wilted.

Mix in the cooked rice, peas and salt and fold until fully combined with the spinach mixture.

Delicious! Even my I-won't-eat-anything-green daughter ate it without a complaint!

Hara Bhara Kabab

I recently got a wonderful cookbook called Complete Book of Indian Cooking by Suneeta Vaswani. Its filled with 350 delicious recipes and beautiful photographs. This one was particularly good. And quite healthy too.

Hara Bhara Kabab

(Spinach and Potato Patties)

2 Russet or gold potatoes

2 cups Spinach, cooked and squeezed dry

1/4 cup Peas, cooked and coarsely mashed

1.5 tbsp Green Chillies, chopped

1 tbsp Ginger, finely chopped

3 tbsp Cilantro, chopped

2 tbsp Cornstarch

1 tbsp Chaat Masala

Salt, to taste

3 tbsp Oil

In a saucepan of boiling water, cook whole potatoes until tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Drain, peel and mash.

In a bowl, mix together potatoes, spinach, peas, chillies, ginger, cilantro, chaat masala, cornstarch and salt, until well blended. Divide into 12 portions. Form into 2-inch round patties.

In a large non-stick skillet, heat 2 tbsp of the oil over medium heat. Add 6 patties at a time and pan fry on both sides until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels. Serve hot with chutney or ketchup.

Spinach Kozhambu

Kuzhambu is a spicy curry, originating from south India, made with a combination of vegetables or fish/ chicken. Usually they do not have lentils, but this one does and is milder than most other kozhambus. When the kozhambu is made with yogurt, its called More (Buttermilk) Kozhambu and is a wonderful addition to rice on a hot day.


Spinach Kuzhambu

2 bunches Spinach
1/4 cup Toor Dal (Pigeon Peas)
2 Onions, chopped
4 cloves Garlic
2 tsp Chilli Powder
1 tsp Coriander Powder
2 tsp Fennel Seeds
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 Tomato, chopped
2 Green Chillies, slit
1 tsp Fenugreek Seeds
1 small piece Cinnamon

Clean and chop spinach.

Grind together chilli powder, coriander powder, 1 tsp fennel seeds, cumin seeds, one onion and a little water. Keep aside.

Cook the dal in some water, until tender.

In a little oil, add the fenugreek seeds, cinnamon, remaining fennel seeds and chopped onion and saute. Add spinach and saute well. Add the ground spices, the cooked dal, about 2 cups of water, salt and cook for 10-15 minutes.

Serve hot with cooked rice.

Other kuzhambus in this blog: Tomato More Kozhambu, Puli Kozhambu, Vethal Kozhambu.

Spinach Chicken

A few years ago I was involved in a recipe chain letter. You know those chain letters that you mail to 5 people as well as the people who mailed it to you? Well, this was the fun version of that!

One person emails a recipe to 5 people and those 5 people each add a recipe and send it to 5 others including the ones who were originally on the list. At the end of it you get hundreds of recipes! It's pretty cool. So thank you Saima, whoever and wherever you are, for this lovely recipe.


Saag (Spinach) Chicken

3 pounds skinless Chicken pieces
5 cloves Garlic, minced
2 large Onions, minced
2 large Tomatoes, crushed
1 inch piece Ginger, minced
4 tbsp Milk
4 bunches Spinach, washed and chopped
2 tbsp Butter
1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 tsp Coriander Powder
1/2 tsp Turmeric
2 large Cardamom pods
2 Cloves
7 tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 tsp Garam Masala
1/2 tsp Salt

Fry the chicken lightly in 4 tbsp of oil for 3-4 minutes until lightly browned and set aside.

Put the spinach into a deep pan, add 1/4 cup water. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. When cool, grind in a blender and set aside.

Heat the remaining oil and add ginger, garlic and onions. Saute until lightly brown. Add tomatoes, salt cayenne, coriander powder, turmeric, cloves and cardamom. Sprinkle with one tablespoon water. Cook for 10 minutes over low heat. Add chicken and milk. Simmer until the chicken is tender.

Add spinach and garam masala. Cook until spinach starts sticking to the pan. Remove from heat. Add butter and keep covered until ready to serve.

Spinach with Corn

This is dedicated to a dear friend. She recently started to cook. And she has slowly started to enjoy it, but is still afraid of the "unknown" ingredients and "cooking techniques".

And then I began to think what she would definitely need in her kitchen - its a clean slate as far as Indian cooking is concerned. What would one who was cooking everday Indian food, absolutely need in the kitchen? What are the spices? vegetables? grains?

I came up with this list:

Mustard seeds
Cumin
Turmeric powder
Chilli powder
Tamarind
Green Chillies
Garlic
Ginger
Dals: Urad, Toor, Masoor and Moong

Is that a fair list? What is the bare minimum you have to have in your kitchen at all times?

And then I went to the recipes part of it. I found the 10 recipes that I took with me to the US, as a student, were invaluable. I've posted two of them before: Spicy Potatoes and Bell Pepper with Gram Flour. This is a 3rd recipe. It's so easy that its almost a no-brainer, but the flavors blend so well together and everyone always enjoys it.


Spinach with Corn

1 bunch Spinach, cleaned and chopped
1 cup Corn, cooked
1 tsp Cumin seeds
1 tsp Mustard seeds
Salt, to taste

In a saucepan, heat a little bit of oil. Add the mustard seeds. When they begin to splutter, add the cumin. Brown for a minute. Add the spinach and salt and cook until it begins to wilt. Now add the corn and mix well.


That's about it. And it's always a hit!




This is off to Shriya of Spicy Tasty's Fortune Cooking Contest. This is my favorite way of eating greens.




So here we are at the end of the Recipe Marathon - it was one of the most fun events I've taken part in. Not only did we manage to cook up something everyday and post about it (which, you must admit, is a HUGE feat!), we also managed to find lovely friends in such a short time. If anyone has any doubt of whether to join this the next time around, I hope you won't hesitate - it really was so much fun. Now onto the food!

DK made fantastic sabudana vadas - oh-so-delicious! Divya made mattar paneer - an all-time favorite. Swati professed her love for...eggs.
Check out Siri's and Bhags' contribution. Lakshmi made some great looking rice. Raaga posted tons and tons of recipes! Ranji made a refreshing watermelon juice. Valli used the entire ridgegourd!