This is the perfect fall meal; to me this is comfort food. The aroma transports me back to my grandparents’s kitchen. Whether it’s the peppers or the lamb I don’t know but something about this dish makes me happy – plus it tastes amazing too! …
Stews or Gjellë
Chili – A Ricardo Cuisine Recipe
It’s the perfect time for chili as the weather is getting chilly here in Ontario! Chili was one of my favourite meals as a kid, and for many years I have tried to perfect my recipe – and I finally got it! My children were complementing me on the dish, stating that it was better than the regular chili that I make. I guess you can say this recipe is a winner! …
Grandma’s Albanian Cabbage Stew – Mish me Lakra
This is my grandmother’s recipe for mish me lakra, which translates to meat with cabbage. I don’t like big pieces of meat in my stew so I make it with bite size pieces of tender stew meat. You can use beef or lamb, whichever you prefer. We are not big meat eaters, so I don’t add a lot; you may use 1 lb of meat, more or less, though I use less. You can also make this meatless if you wish.
Growing up, this was one of the dishes my grandmother made that I really enjoyed. I am happy to share this with you today!…
Patates Oturtma – Potato Stove Top Casserole
This dish is one of my sons favourites, since he was a little boy! It’s an easy dish to make using one pot, served with plain rice it makes a delicious meal. I usually make dishes like this in the late fall and winter, it just a comforting food that warms you right up! …
Green Beans Stew with Meat -Mashurka me Mish
Ever wonder what to do with your leftover roast beef, cooked stew meat, ground beef or lamb? I always add leftover cooked meat to stews or rice and make a whole new dish with it. You can always come up with a new meal with leftover meat. You can make this over the stove top, or bake it in the oven in a dutch pot or use a slow cooker. All methods work great, and I use all of them.
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Turlu
My first post of the new year! Turlu is basically the Balkan version of Ratatouille. I have other versions of turlu posted on the blog, they are all different recipes, this one is vegetarian and is such a delicious and comforting dish…especially in this cold frigid weather! …
Fennel Turkish Style – Zeytinyagli Taze Rezene
This is the only way I have tried fennel and I absolutely love it! Funny too cause I do not like licorice yet I love fennel surprisingly! It tastes and smells just like it! One of my best friends Hatice taught me this dish, it goes really nicely with plain yogurt on the side. My friend prepares this with stew meat, and it turns out so tender and yummy….I never have such luck so I use ground beef. I usually have cooked ground beef in the fridge to add to dishes like this. …
Green Beans with Olive Oil – Zeytinyagı Taze Fasulye
Green Beans with Olive Oil – Zeytinyagı Taze Fasulye in Turkish, is a simple and tasty one pot vegetarian dish. You can serve with rice on the side and plain yogurt, or add freshly grated garlic to the yogurt and season with salt; that goes really nice with this dish. …
Spinach and Orzo
Gjellë pronounced gel, means dish or food and gjellë me spinaq dhe klitharaq literally translates into dish with spinach and orzo. In Albanian cuisine we make a variety of different pot foods, everyone makes their own kind of food using a variety of ingredients.
You may have seen my spinach-and-rice post, this is similar but this is with orzo. My mom and grandma always make spinach and rice with veal or beef pieces with bones, but I am not a big fan of that. I prefer it without meat or with a little ground beef for lezet, which means flavour, or taste; it can have a variety of meanings depending on how you use it….
Turlu – Mixed Vegetable Stew
Turlu is a mixed vegetable stew in Albanian and Turkish Cuisine. Meat is added as well, either stew or ground meat and its optional you may make it vegetarian if you like.
Rice is served on the side along with yogurt for those who like it, my children do! Its a healthy stew filled with a variety of veggies, tasty too!
There is no real measurements for this recipe, when I go to the grocery store I just grab the fresh green beans and okra, so I checked my receipt to give you an idea of how much you need, and the green beans came to 0.365 kg and the okra came to 0.425 kg so both don’t even come to a full lb!
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