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In order to promote circulation sales, once in a week most newspapers in Turkey come with a supplementary booklet loaded with recipes by TV celebrity chefs. Sad but true! Turkey has witnessed worse; in the past, newspapers offered even non-reading related "things" to increase their sales. Among those were vacuum cleaners, radios, TVs, dinner sets, silverware, cameras, bikes, etc. Unfortunately people subscribed for months to certain newspapers not for their content, political views, or their columnists, but for the items those papers were offering. Compared to TVs and plates, recipe booklets seem less harmless since you need to "read" those recipes.

My mom had packed a couple of food magazines and those recipe booklets when they came to visit us last April. One of the booklets is by a TV celebrity chef, Emine Beder whose dishes I usually find too greasy, and recipes unexciting. However, I have to give her credits; her measurements are very peculiar and when followed strictly, recipes turn out as expected--no surprises.

I found her recipes after the move while unpacking. Flipping through the pages, I found this jewel among ordinary recipes. I changed the recipe here and there, but remained loyal to it in principle. The result was magnificent. I think I will give her recipes another chance.


























2-3 red onions (try to pick large ones--the recipe called for regular onions, I chose to use red ones)
1/3 lb ground meat (beef or lamb)
1/4 cup rice
1 1/2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp red pepper paste (if you cannot find it, use tomato paste)
1/3 cup crushed dried sumac
1 tsp dried mint flakes
1 tsp oregano leaves
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp or more crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup hot water
salt

- Cut the bottom parts of onions 1/4 inch and peel.
-Boil them until soft, but not too soft. Rinse and let cool down.
-Squeeze each one to get every single layer. You will be stuffing those layers. If slippery, use a clean kitchen towel to grip and squeeze.
-Wash rice in plenty water and rinse.
-Soak sumac in hot water for 15 minutes and drain. Save the water.
-Heat butter in a frying pan. Add pastes, spices, and salt. Mix well and cook for 3-4 minutes.
-Take the pan off the fire. Add ground meat, rice, and sumac. Mix well.
-Stuff onions with the mix and place them in a broad pot.
-Pour in sumac water.
-After it starts boiling, simmer covered on low for half an hour.
-Serve hot with crusty bread. We loved it, especially with yogurt.

Stuffed cabbage leaves come directly from the kitchens of the Ottoman palace. There are different versions of this dish: with ground meat, with olive oil aka vegetarian one, with chestnuts, with bulgur, with mussels, etc. Although stuffed cabbage leaves are, I must say, absolutely delicious with chestnuts and mussels, meaty one is still my favorite. The reason why I havent posted it so far is that theyre usually gone before I can take a picture. These are actually the last three of the last batch I made. It might seem hard to deal with cabbage leaves, yet they are very forgiving. So dont be scared to try.




























1 medium (leaning towards big) cabbage [Pick one that is not rock hard, but kind of soft when press on top, theyre easier for taking the leaves out)
1/2 ground meat (beef - ~80% lean)
1/2 cup short grain rice
2 medium onions, very finely chopped
1/3 cup chopped parsley
1/3 cup chopped dill
1 heaping tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp or 1/2 tbsp black pepper
1 tsp olive oil
1-2 tbsp butter
juice of half lemon
salt




























-Put ground beef, onion, rice, tomato paste, parsley, dill, black pepper, olive oil, and salt in bowl and mix well.
-Cut the 1 1/2-2 inches from the bottom/stem of the cabbage. Carefully try to take the leaves out one by one. [Check this site out for step by step how-to pictures]
-Boil some water with salt in a big pot.
-Boil the cabbage leaves 4 0r 5 at a time depending on how big a pot you are using for ~5 minutes flipping them over once. Take them out and place on a tray or a flat plate to cool down.
-Once the leaves cool down. Place one on a flat surface. Cut the big vein of the leaf out; it might be too stringy for rolling. If you have a very big leaf, cut it into two.
-Line the bottom of a pot with the cut out veins and the very outer leaves.
-Add 1 1/2 to 2 tbsp of rice and ground meat filling to one cabbage leaf, closer tot the bottom. Fold sides of cabbage over the filling. Roll it up starting from the stem end, it looks something like this. Repeat the same for the remaining leaves.
-Place rolled cabbage leaves in the pot lined with cut out veins and leaves in an orderly fashion.
-Chop butter in small pieces and scatter it on top. Pour lemon juice and hot water to cover the stuffed cabbage.
-Place a flat-ish plate on top of stuffed grape leaves so that they wont move around.
-Let it boil first on medium. Then cover and cook on low for 30-35 minutes.