This summer weather in Turkey reminds me exactly of my two summers spent in Sicily in the mid 90’s. Very hot. Very dry. Limited A/C, if any…and the smell of homemade cooking in every neighborhood. Those smells give you a great idea of what to cook, actually. In Italy, there is the smell of all things based on tomatoes; in Turkey it seems to me the smell is more based on red pepper paste, at least here in the southern part of the country where I am now. I visualize what my neighbors are cooking all the time, which is in part what helps me to think up my own menu day after day.
That said, I can never let go of the traditional tastes I grew up with and grew to love even more after visiting Sicily because the food there is that good. At least a few times a week there has to be some sort of pasta on the table and something to do with tomato sauce. Right now eggplants are plentiful so there is no excuse not to consume them, but they do have to be prepared just right to get the bitterness out of them, which can be a deterrent when you’re pressed for time.
I happen to be searching for traditional Sicilian recipes online since all of my cookbooks are still back in Chicago and I found one I just couldn’t stop thinking about until I made it- and then made it again- and again: Sicilian Eggplant Rolls. The flavor is simply delicious, rustic, earthy and so incredibly satisfying. If I was having a party, I would serve this up as an appetizer (although it’s a lot of work for an appetizer, but it really does have some pizazz in presentation).
Here’s how to make them.
First, get fresh, beautiful purple eggplant without any soft spots or wrinkles.
Once you’ve got your prized eggplants, be sure to make the tomato sauce ahead of time. Please don’t wait until the eggplants are cooked to do this- trust me. You will want to eat these as soon as they’re stuffed with the cheese, so do not miss the opportunity to eat these with the delicious tomato sauce- even if it’s all cold- they’re delish!
To make the tomato sauce, I use an unseasoned tomato puree that comes in a jar and then add minced garlic, basil, salt and a wee bit of sugar. Yes, sugar- to take out the acidity or bitterness of the tomatoes. It’s basically the only time I ever totally approve of using sugar in my cooking, but that’s just me. Use organic turbinado sugar, if possible.
Take the tops off and cut each lengthwise thinly, which may take a while if you’re using a knife. You can also use a mandolin for this (watch your fingers). You can’t use a food processor because you’d have to cut the eggplant in half and the pieces would be too short.
Now comes the thing you have to do to take the bitterness out of the eggplant. Please don’t skip this step because if you do and the eggplant is bitter, it really ruins the whole dish. To my knowledge, there is no way to really know how/if the eggplant is bitter prior to cooking and eating it. If you or someone you know has this information, please share it with me in the comments!
So the way to do this is to place the eggplant pieces in a colander and sprinkle them very generouslywith salt. Don’t worry- you’re not going to eat all that salt later. Move the pieces around with your hands to make sure all pieces are getting salted. Put a plate on top and a pitcher of water or something heavy on top of the plate to weigh them all down firmly. What is not shown in this photo is that you should have something underneath the colander because juices from the eggplant will come out of the bottom. I probably did that after I took the picture.
*By the way, my aunt in Sicily taught me this method over 20 years ago so she deserves the credit for teaching me this, which is now more of a well-known fact but that was way before anyone ever seemed to want to cook for themselves, and before cooking became trendy again- she was on to something.
You need to let the weighing down happen for at least 30 minutes. Sometimes I let it go way longer, but depending on the amount of eggplant that should be enough time for the three I cut for this recipe. Once the time is up, you’ll see that the eggplant pieces have ‘sweat’ out some water (i.e. bitter flavor) and you must dry them all up with a paper towel or cotton towel, to be more eco-friendly. This is a very important step, otherwise oil will be spewing at you when you cook them, PLUS what would have been the point of doing all that sweating if it isn’t wiped off?
Cooking chemistry makes so much sense when you think about it….
So, while you’re waiting for the eggplant sweating to happen, you can make your cheese mixture. This is where things got tricky for me because the original recipe calls for using ricotta cheese (for which I have a homemade recipe in the My Halal Kitchen cookbook, if you didn’t already know). In my world, things have changed a bit and the type of food ingredients I used to get aren’t as inexpensive or as easily accessible as they were in the U.S. when every local Trader Joe’s store had what I wanted and if they didn’t, someone else did (although usually of a lesser quality). Here in Turkey, things like Parmesan and ricotta cheeses are considered foreign, as they are imported and are a bit more expensive than locally made products. You can often find close equivalents, too, for both, which I have.
In this case, I used something called Suzme Peynir.Suzme means “strained” (i.e. thicker) and the word is used for yogurt as well as cheeses; and peynir means “cheese” and refers to all kinds of cheeses. There are several brands of suzme peynir available in all grocery stores and it’s favored because it’s soft, thick and goes well with anything you put on the table for the famed Turkish breakfast (kahvalti). I often use it as a topping for stewed vegetables and even pasta because it’s so nice and creamy. That also makes it the perfect candidate for a ricotta substitute- so then it hit me to use it in this dish.
Whether using ricotta or suzme peynir, add chopped parsley, salt and pepper to taste. Set aside (refrigerated) until ready to add to the eggplants.
Once the eggplants have finished sweating and are ready to saute, be very sure they are dry, piece by piece. Use a pastry brush or silicone brush to swipe each side of each piece of eggplant with the olive oil (that’s what the 1 cup is for). Do this instead of adding oil to the pan and frying. It’s less messy and they cook and brown more easily this way.
Once they’re doing being swiped with oil, heat the saute pan and proceed to brown each piece on each side. Set the finished pieces aside on a paper towel-lined plate to drain out any excess oil.
Once finished cooking all the pieces, they’re ready to be stuffed. Place each eggplant piece round side towards you and put a dollop of the cheese mixture on the end.
Roll up and away from you.
Roll until you can’t roll anymore, making sure they’re nice and tight. Use toothpicks to hold them in place.
If you don’t want to bake these, you can prepare your serving dish by pouring some of the finished tomato sauce (hot or room temperature or even cold) on the bottom of the serving dish, and place each roll on the plate.
If you plan on baking these, place each one (without the toothpick) on a baking pan or sheet and cook for 20 minutes at 300 degrees F.
These really are delicious hot or cold and I’ve had them both ways, sometimes straight out of the fridge because they’re that tempting. I do prefer baking them first because it really does set the cheese, but you don’t have to do that if time doesn’t allow or you simply prefer it that way. It is versatile enough.
This recipe comes from Derya Singhsumalee, a former teacher colleague of mine who is such a fun and interesting person. She is very well-traveled, is of Turkish ethnicity and married to a man from a Thai Muslim family. In the school lunch room we used to talk quite a bit about cultural diversity and, of course, food. She was very familiar with Sicilian cuisine having lived in Sicily for a short time during her life. I found her background fascinating and our conversations a great bonding experience between us. Recently when I saw that she posted this recipe to her Facebook page, I immediately asked her to share it with all of you, and she graciously obliged. Here you go- thank you, Derya!
My love of eating chicken wings began in college when I really got a taste of how wonderful they were- mild, hot and spicy and always with some sort of creamy dip and a side of fries. It’s the college kid ting to do, right? Well, the saucy wings weren’t the first kind I was exposed to, but the first kind I actually liked. My mom used to order the southern style fried wings that came with fries and gravy smothered on top, a sort of specialty in our small town’s tiny but popular mom and pop restaurant called Rainbow Kitchen. But as a kid, I couldn’t appreciate anything but the fries…
Looking back, it’s the stuff people crave now- totally homemade meals like mom used to make, reminiscent of the olden days when things really were farm to fork on a daily basis. It was also a time when people weren’t so wigged out by cooking with the raw product.
When you have a beautiful and clean product to work with, there should be nothing to get squirmy about, although wings should probably be cut in half (which I did not do in this recipe and wish I had) for ease of eating, having more bites available for more people and for the pure aesthetics of it, as wings look better cut in half.
I simply got carried away with this recipe and went full force preparing and photographing before even thinking about all that because it’s so easy to make, and so quick, that it’s just delightful to get right into the cooking and eating part.
All you need are a few things:
About 1 and 3/4 pounds chicken wings (that’s often how the packs come), one tablespoon of date vinegar (but you can use just about any other type of vinegar you like), one teaspoon of sea salt, 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper, and one packet of Saffron Road’s Tikka Masala Simmer Sauce (although it’s delicious with the Moroccan Tagine Simmer Sauce, too).
Make sure to use a good sea salt (coarse or fine) and a pungent black pepper. I know the Simmer Sauce has spice in it already and if you like your wings mild, my recipe will keep it that way with the addition of a tiny kick. If you like things hotter, add some chili flakes or chili powder.
Check out that gorgeous color of the Tikka Masala Simmer Sauce, which has no artificial color, additives or preservatives. It’s also gluten-free, low in carbs (only 3 grams) and calories (only 20). To top it off, it’s ingredients are non-GMO, which is not easy for food companies to do anymore.
Next, pour on the vinegar. I like to use either apple cider vinegar or date vinegar in this recipe, but you can liven it up with other types of vinegar you have on hand, preferably something dark. The Simmer Sauce already has some vinegar in it, but since we’re either oven-roasting or grilling these wings, the additional vinegar helps give the sauce a little more cooking liquid without liquefying the dish-basically so it doesn’t become one big mess that doesn’t stick to the chicken.
Add the salt and pepper.
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Mix it all together to coat the chicken well.
Alternatively you can do this in a bag instead of a bowl: simply place everything in a bag instead of ever using a bowl and shake it up. It’s easy to marinate for a bit this way, too, although there is no need for marinating the chicken in this recipe unless you want to do that.
Now here’s another alternative: You can either opt to grill or oven-roast these wings. You can also do a little bit of both stove-top grilling then oven roasting or use the oven the whole time. I’m giving you the recipe for all three at the end of this post, but in the rest of the post I’m going to show you how to oven roast them only. If you were to use the stove top or outdoor grill, be sure to crank up the heat nice and high before adding the chicken.
Otherwise, prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. You can thank me later about how much less the cleanup is.
Add the wings. Be sure to spread them apart nicely so they can roast evenly. The oven should be preheated to 375°.
Let them roast on one side, without turning, for 20 minutes. Crank up the heat to 425° for 15 minutes, then turn each one over. Continue roasting for another 15 minutes, or until nicely browned and fully cooked on the inside. Remember, chicken should read at least 165° F on a meat thermometer, away from the bone.
Looks like they’ve been grilled outdoors, don’t they? You can also do a bit of stovetop grilling first and then move to the oven to get this effect, but oven-only grilling will do the same if you crank the heat up to broil for the last five minutes of cooking. Not necessary, but it’s a nice effect.
Plate the finished chicken however you like. In this case, I added chopped cilantro, cut radishes and lime to the top because I planned to make tasty tacos out of the wings.
I’ve sort of adopted that, too. Just add tortillas, sour cream and salsa and you’ve got it together. In this case, though, the wings are great all on their own.
Can you believe a Simmer Sauce can help you do this so easily? What other Simmer Sauces by Saffron Road would you try that you think would be great on wings?
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post, however, all opinions and recipes are my own and not that of the sponsoring company.
I had no idea what a hit these pita rolls would be. They seemed so easy to make and with such a familiar taste to them, I didn’t even think they would be very interesting to other people. When I instagrammed making these several months ago, so many people were intrigued and wanted the recipe. I totally understand why now- they’re so so easy to make and don’t take too many ingredients to put them together. For people who don’t like tabbouleh or hummus (if they exist), you don’t even really have to put them in the rolls, but they definitely taste better with the two, in my opinion.
Here’s how it goes:
Start with the best quality ingredients you can find, as with all recipes.
The same goes for olive oil and vinegar (i.e. date vinegar or apple cider vinegar). Don’t skimp on the good stuff if you can afford it. There truly is no replacement for real olive oil and the flavor you get with a dark vinegar like date vinegar is unique so if you choose to de-glaze this dish with another type of vinegar (i.e white), it will vary a bit.
You may have questions on the vinegar issue as it relates to halal, I know. So, please visit the vinegar page for what I understand and go by with regards to how I select it. I know
Get a good quality tabbouleh or make it yourself, of course! Here’s a link to my Tabbouleh recipe if you decide to spend a lot of time chopping. It’s quite therapeutic, really.
If you absolutely can’t find the boneless cubes, you can also just get their boneless skinless breast tenders and cut them up, which takes all about 2 minutes for a pound of meat.
Start with a large saute pan and add salt if you’re using a non-stick or a non-cast iron pan. This helps prevent the chicken from sticking to the pan during cooking, which often happens with skinless meats. Add just enough for the recipe to avoid over-salting.
You’re welcome.
Add the oil to pan now gently heat.
When the oil is hot (not burning), add the chicken, freshly ground pepper and any additional salt you think. Cook over medium high heat.
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Let the chicken brown on one side then flip.
Flip again until they’re really nicely browned on all sides. You may need to stay right in front of the pan to do this, in order to avoid burning or pulling apart of any meat.
Now add the vinegar.
All at once. It will start to steam and evaporate just as soon as it hits the pan. Stay right in front of the pan to deglaze the oil and any scraps at the bottom of the pan with your spoon or spatula.
Keep doing this until all of the vinegar is ‘gone’- it’s really attaching itself to the meat.
It should look this beautiful by then, the deep dark color is due to the vinegar. Don’t worry if there’s a little oil left in the pan. That’s actually good because if you’re not eating this right away, you can store the chicken with this oil and re-heat in it so that it doesn’t dry out.
It’ll also give it a bit of a nice sheen.
This is not a greasy sandwich, but that extra oil is kind of nice if you want to add in the pita roll. We love it like that.
Those bite-size pieces are just wonderful, but you can always cut larger pieces if you prefer.
Here’s a video where I show how the same technique is done, although these chicken pieces are uncut (using boneless chicken tenders):
Now get out the hummus. This is a pre-made one, I know. That’s what makes it extra quick when you need things to be fast.
Take a heaping spoonful and spread it across the underside of one whole pita bread laid flat on a plate.
Now do one more heaping spoonful. It makes the sandwich more moist.
Next is the tabbouleh. Another ready-made version. I said I needed it done fast. But truth be told, I have at times made one thing homemade and store-bought the other. Whatever works for you.
Then, add as much chicken as you’ll like per sandwich. I like to divide the final mixture of chicken into fours so that I know I’ll have four evenly-made sandwiches.
Wanna roll? Or eat it open face? Well, you could do either one, really.
Let’s say we roll this time. Take one side of the bread and fold it completely over the ingredients lengthwise.
And, roll again.
Cut them in half, if you like, or just because you want to take photos. Everyone’s doing that these days….
I think we may find one day that there are more pictures of sandwiches and said pita rolls than there are of children in our families.
Chicken Noodle Soup is arguably a winter necessity because the flu is hitting a lot of people hard right now. On the local news here in Chicago, we’ve been told that area hospital emergency rooms are swamped with people being treated for the flu- heavy coughing and sneezing that they just can’t shake off without medical attention, yet flu season hasn’t even officially begun. In my house, I’m serving up this classic family recipe for chicken soup to strengthen the immune system and give ourselves a fighting chance against whatever is out there.
Like most people, I grew up eating chicken noodle soup as a get-well food. To this day, whenever I eat it, it reminds me of the times when I was completely sick and fighting off something that chicken soup seemed to knock right out of the park, as long as I kept eating it, which was usually the only thing I could stomach. (more…)
One of my favorite summertime recipes is for Buffalo Wings. The first time I ever had them was way back in college- it was the late night food of choice with friends- we didn’t have a care in the world about eating spicy food at that hour, or any food at all for that matter. It was quick, easy, inexpensive, greasy and just so so good…
Take the tops off and cut each lengthwise thinly, which may take a while if you’re using a knife. You can also use a mandolin for this (watch your fingers). You can’t use a food processor because you’d have to cut the eggplant in half and the pieces would be too short. 
