Passover and Prasinagua

Over the next couple of weeks I will be preparing dishes for Passover. I will post recipes as and when we make them. 
It's a very busy time in the kitchen as I like to prepare ashkenazi recipes that my Mother traditionally used to make and Amir likes to cook sephardi recipes from his side of the family. 

 Passover, a time for Jewish people to remember the liberation of slavery and to remind ourselves of the suffering endured. So, I am not sure if I am supposed to feel guilty or not by immensely enjoying all the traditional biscuits and cakes baked during this festival.

My Mother-in-law will be coming to stay with us in England for 5 weeks as she does every Spring and she will be bringing something with her of great importance. Prasinagua - the best translation of this I can give is 'green growing without water'. It's written in Ladino. As Yiddish is to the ashkenazi Jews, Ladino is for the sephardi Jews. In Istanbul, Amir's Mum will go by the edge of the road side to search for wild grass. She then picks the grass and dries it. When dry, she will make little parcels with the grass and bring them to England. It amazes me that she hasn't been stopped and searched by customs who may be under the impression that she is smuggling in weed or some kind of drug! 
On arrival at home in England the first thing she does is give all of us a little bundle of grass to put in our purses or wallets. She then scatters some of the dried grass all over the hallway by the front door and tells me not to clean it up for 24hrs! She has great pleasure in giving us the parcels of grass and tells the children every year that the grass will bring good luck and prosperity in to our lives. This grass grows wild and in abundance and shows the coming of summer and so with it, it will bring an abundance of luck and prosperity in to our home, inşallah, we hope.
In Greek the word prasino means green and one of the recipes we traditionally eat over passover is meatballs containing leeks. Leeks in Turkish is pirasa. So there is a connection with the meaning of prasinagua.
So, to all of you who celebrate Passover and all of you who don't, I wish you prosperity, luck and all good things to enter your homes and in to your lives.
I look forward to sharing our Passover recipes with you. XXXX

This is a bundle of grass still kept in my purse from last year.

*I will welcome any other information about prasinagua and please let me know if any corrections are needed.*

Pancar Yaprağı Böreği (Beetroot Leaf pie)

Let's take a look at the stereotypical Jewish Mother. Honest about their emotions, caring, compassionate, worrying, overprotective, neurotic, sometimes smothering (especially with kisses), double all of that and what do you get? The stereotypical Turkish Jewish Mother! and all of these unique qualities of the wonderful women that they are seem to become a reality over the dinner table.
Amir's Mum, who I adore and love very much works extremely hard preparing food. With no air conditioning in the house in Burgaz and the temperature soaring to it's heights outside, there she is, in the kitchen with a wooden spoon in one hand and a cigarette in the other wearing a loose cotton dress. Every so often she wets her face and hair to keep cool while the pots and pans simmer and steam.
8pm is dinner time. We have all returned from the club, showered and changed into comfortable clothes and ready to sit down for dinner. Amir's Mum asks for our plates one by one as she serves the meal that she had been preparing all morning. We wait for her to sit down herself before we start to eat.
I know, that in the corner of her eye she is watching us to see if we are enjoying the meal, if no-one speaks about how the food is the questions start......
"Nasıl?" (translated as how, how is it?)
"Güzel mi?" (Is it nice?)
"Niye yemiyorlar? Çocuklar sebze sevmiyor mu?" (Why aren't they eating? Don't the children like vegetables?)
At that point I explained that Serena and Dan didn't like to eat all vegetables, in fact most things green they tended not to eat. The worrying stage then sets in, "How are they going to grow? They are not getting enough vitamins." After the worry stage, comes the neurotic stage......."Take them to see a specialist, they are not eating properly, it's not normal". 

Now, I am pleased to say that my children eat most things, vegetables included. The beetroot leaf börek is a good way to introduce leafy vegetables. Perhaps it's the purple veins that run through the leaves that save them from being the dreaded totally green vegetable. 

The beetroot leaf  börek is sometimes made with filo pastry but to keep meals healthy I make it without so I wouldn't really consider it as a pie, more of a starter or side dish.
It's a great shame that grocery stores in England cut off the leaves of the beetroot before they display it on sale. Such a waste.

The following ingredients I would estimate as a portion for 4.

3 bunches of beetroot leaves (approx 400g)

50g Feta cheese

100g of grated hard cheese (I use cheddar)

3 tablespoons of oil

1 egg

1 heaped tablespoon of flour

Wash the leaves thoroughly the night before to enable them to dry.

Cut off the stalks and chop. Place in a bowl.

Add all the ingredients together and mush them up in the bowl by squeezing with your hands.

Oil the bottom and sides of an oven dish and flatten down till 1cm thick. (I use a dish approx 30x20cm)

Place in the oven at 180c and bake until it starts to go brown on top.

Cut and serve.

We love eating this with a dollop of natural yoghurt.

If beetroot leaves are too difficult to find. This dish is just as tasty using spinach leaves.

Midye Dolma (stuffed mussels)

My son Dan is a Burgaz boy. He adores everything about the island.  I think what he loves most of all is the freedom. I found it difficult to allow him to walk to and from home around the island on his own but I knew that from a young age children walked about unaccompanied. Two years ago, Dan begged me to let him walk from the house to the club on his own. It wasn't far at all and I knew that he was confident and was familiar with the route. I told Amir to follow behind him just to be sure. Off Dan went with his swimming gear in his back pack, all happy, stroking cats and dogs along the way down the road with Amir following him like a detective. When I finished what ever I needed to do at home, I went to the club to join them. I walked round to where the decking area is by the sea as that's where we usually sit. I put my bags down and looked around for Amir & Dan. I could see two bottoms sticking up in the air. I walked over and saw that the pair of bottoms belonged to them. They were both kneeling down and peeping through the tiny cracks of the decking. I asked what they were doing and they said they were looking to see if there were mussels. Amir then borrowed Dan's goggles and dived down beneath the decking. So, I joined Dan with my bottom in the air to look through the gaps of the decking to see if I could see him swimming beneath us. He was no-where to be seen. Amir then re-appeared with a hand full of mussels to take home. He had gone to a different area where the boats are to collect them.
Being raised in a Jewish family I was not introduced to seafood. It was a big no-no at home. My Mother told me that seafood is very unhealthy and you could get food poisoning from it so it always worried me when Amir would buy stuffed mussels from the street sellers. I had the devil on one shoulder telling me "try it...try it" and the angel on my other shoulder telling me not to eat it. The devil spoke louder and so I tried one of Amir's home made stuffed mussels and I've been eating them ever since.

There is a saying in French that all the months containing the letter R (September-April) are the best months of the year to eat mussels.

800g fresh mussels

225g rice (not basmati or jasmine)

100g chopped onion

125g currents

1 level teaspoon black pepper

(Amir likes it quite peppery as the street sellers make but personally I would use less)

1 and half heaped teaspoons of cumin

1 and half heaped teaspoons of cinnamon

Quarter of lemon juice

2 and half teaspoons sugar

salt to taste.
oil

Drizzle oil in the bottom of a saucepan and blanch the chopped onions until slight colour change and soft.

Wash the rice well and place in the saucepan.

Add all the other ingredients, add water to 1cm above rice level and simmer until rice is cooked. 

Leave to cool slightly.

Wash the mussels well in a colander.

The messy part.....

Prise the mussels open with a knife but leave the top half connected to the bottom half. You need to discard the beard (the hairy part inside the mussel.) 

When all have been prepared in this way take a mussel and tear off the top half. Scoop up the rice mixture into the bottom part of the mussel and sandwich it together with the top half. Press down and with your finger wipe around the edge where rice has oozed out.

Place neatly around the saucepan.

Pour water over the top to dampen (you can measure about a finger width of water in a glass) place saucepan on a low heat and steam for approx 10 - 15 mins.

When cooled, store in fridge. 
Serve cold with a drizzle of lemon juice.

Use the top half of the mussel as your spoon to scoop out the filling.

Sorry to disappoint anyone who wanted to see a photo of our bottoms in the air!

Biscuit and Chocolate Pudding Cake

In the first few weeks of arrival to Istanbul I was probably at the height of gossip between Amir's friends and family. All wanted to meet me. Every few nights, Amir would tell me that we have been invited to someone's home. I quickly learnt to make sure I wore clean socks with no holes in as I would be expected to take off my shoes when entering in to some ones home. I would then be offered a pair of slippers to wear. I found it amazing that no matter whose home I visited everyone had a pair of slippers to fit. I looked around to see where  slippers of every size could possibly be kept but I could not see evidence of cupboards in the hallway large enough to store such a variety of slippers and sizes. I of course made every effort with my appearance when meeting Amir's friends and family for the first time and felt a little disappointed that I was forced to wear a pair of slippers that were very unattractive and didn't match what I was wearing.
Every home I went to was beautiful, simple and elegant, each piece of furniture looked like an antique to me and I was so cautious not to spill anything or leave any fingermarks on untouched glass. In my mind I questioned how tidy and precise all these homes were, no magazines lying around, no piles of paperwork in sight everything had it's place, even table cloths were artistically draped.
After the gossip had died down and everyone had met me on a number of occasions I started to notice something different about their homes, the chairs were not the same as I remember them to be, the sofas were not of the same colour and material as when I first saw them and then I found out why. Some Turkish people cover their furniture. Everyday, they live in their home without seeing the full beauty of their furniture as it is hidden underneath a cover. The reason for this is that with everyday life the furniture can be spoilt so to preserve its life, chairs and sofas are covered and only on the occasion of a special guest the covers are taken off . This bothered me a lot, especially at Sarika's home (Amir's Grandmother) her furniture was comparable to that in a museum, beautifully carved wood with regal style fabric was hidden under bland dark green covers. My argument was that she should enjoy looking at her furniture in all its splendour every single day. Perhaps, I am just as guilty at home in England but we do have an excuse, we have a large hairy Labrador living with us and I have gone to the extreme of even having a cover on top of the cover!
The recipe I have chosen to write about today is one that always impresses my guests, it gets a "WOW" when they see it. Just as I used to be when I was impressed as a guest myself. Little do they know what it is made from. When Amir's Mum first made it I could not understand what the ingredients were. I think this is referred to as the pyramid cake because in Turkish patisseries they make it triangular shaped. This is the fastest no bake cake ever, simply made with petit beurre biscuits and a ready chocolate pudding mix. Don't worry though, if you can't find the pudding mix in a shop I will give you the recipe at the end.

One packet of chocolate pudding mix

(This can be bought in Turkish supermarkets, any make is fine)

One packet of plain rectangular biscuits

(petit beurre is the type you can find in shops)

Milk (according to amount stated on the packet)

Follow the instructions on the pudding packet. It will usually be to empty the packet in to a saucepan and add milk, the packet I used today instructed to use 500ml milk.

Stir constantly until bubbling. Mixture will become thicker when boiled.

Leave to cool slightly, it will then thicken even more. Stir again.

Place your biscuits and pudding mix in front of you together with a long plate to serve on.

Spread pudding mix on one side of one biscuit, then place another biscuit on top as if to sandwich it. Then place upright on your serving plate until all biscuits have been sandwiched together. The remainder of the chocolate can then be spread with a knife all over the biscuits to completely cover.
Place in fridge to set.
EACH SLICE MUST BE CUT DIAGONALLY TO REVEAL STRIPES!

I made this one a few months ago and decorated it with strawberries. You can also place slices of banana in between.

This is the surprise. Cut diagonally across the cake and each slice will be served with stripes!

If you can't find pudding mix in the shops, here's the recipe:

For two packets of biscuits you will need

4 cups milk

2 tablespoons of cocoa powder

6 tablespoons of sugar

3 tablespoons flour

1 egg

1 packet of vanilla powder

Put all ingredients in a saucepan and heat. Keep stirring until the consistency is thick.

Leave to cool for about 20 minutes then you can sandwich the biscuits as above.

TIP: If your consistency is not thickening quickly enough  you can add cornstarch. It needs to be able to be poured but on the border line of plopping off of the spoon!

If you find your biscuits are not balancing upright you can lay them flat and create layers of chocolate / biscuit / chocolate etc.

Bananas are lovely to put inside if you are making it in a dish.

You can sprinkle the top with coconut or ground pistachio nuts.