girlwithanearring

I'm not really used to the savoury pumpkin recipes and I had only tried it once as a soup at some restaurant, which I liked undoubtedly. But making a whole new recipe with sort of unfamiliar flavours is always a challenge. I don't like things going wrong or go to waste. To avoid any mishaps, I made a research on other recipes and think about it a lot to find matching ingredients. 

That's why I thought that starting with something easy and light was the best option. Like a toast and a salad for breakfast! And the result was amazing. The toast is both crunchy, starchy, a little sweet, a little sour, fresh. I realised that I had really underestimated pumpkin until the first bite. To my enlightenment, it goes well with so many different flavours. 

The salad. I'm not really sure if you ever had "purslane" before but please let me know. I'm curious. I personally love purslane both cooked and raw. It's a type wild-green with juicy and sort of sour taste when it is raw. When it's cooked, it's like spinach but fresher and that little bit sourness gives a kick to it. 

So the salad. I believe among all the options of greens in my hands, purslane was the best choice. With all its freshness, my favourite wild goodness balanced the starchy sweetness of the pumpkin. I recommend each recipe with a high score of 10 out of 10. 

Here go the recipes: 

with Arugula Pesto and Pickled Red Cabbage  

Pumpkin is sweet and starchy and it needs something fresh and a little sour in my opinion. So arugula pesto as a dressing would be perfect, I thought and I thought it right. With some type of soft and creamy cheese as a base and something sour like pickled red cabbage to garnish. 

ingredients (for 1 person) 

2 slices of baguette 

4 tbsp cream cheese (I used homemade yoghurt cheese) 

4-5 slices of pumpkin (approx. 15cm x 7cm, 1cm thick)

1 tbsp olive oil 

1/4 tsp salt 

1/4 tsp black pepper 

1 tsp lemon juice

for the arugula pesto 

1 bowl of arugula 

1/2 cup olive oil 

1 tsp lemon juice 

1/2 tsp black pepper 

1/4 cup parmesan 

1/4 cup walnuts 

1 tbsp pickled red cabbage to garnish 

In a bowl, mix 1 tbsp olive oil, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper and 1 tsp lemon juice. 
HOW TO MAKE PICKLED RED CABBAGE 

I'll give you a quick description of how I make this all the time. Cut the whole cabbage into four pieces and cut them into thin shreds like in the photo. In a big bowl, add 1 tsp salt, 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar and preferably with some gloves rub and squeeze these for 1-2 minutes. Then get a big jar, put all the cabbage inside you can press them and put more as much as possible. Then, fill the jar with apple cider vinegar, because you pressed and put a good amount of cabbage there is already little space left for vinegar. It shouldn't be drowning in it. 

Fun fact: we call red cabbage "purple" in Turkish and actually it makes more sense, it is purple.

As for the salad, I had some fresh purslanes lying there and why not use them? Added some fresh mints, couple of slices of mandarins, again pickled red cabbage. I use the salad as a side but you can also make it a main lunch choice. Then you can add some olives, chunks of some kind of whole fat white cheese ( I prefer Ezine), toasted bread cubes, and a boiled egg. Et Voila! That's a perfect lunch.

ingredients (for one person)

a bowl of purslane, mostly leaves and avoid the thick stems

1/2 cup of pumpkins, diced

1/2 orange or mandarin, sliced

2 tbsp pickled red cabbage

5-6 fresh mint leaves

1 tsp pomegranate sauce

1 tbsp olive oil

a pinch of salt

 

arugula pesto for dressing 

In a bowl, gently mix the diced pumpkins with 1 tbsp olive oil, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp lemon juice. 

Spread it on a baking paper and put on a small grill like I did or in the oven with 250C to roast.

Halfway through, take them out and stir so they can get roasted equally on each side. 

In the meantime, place the purslanes in a bowl and mix them with the red cabbage.

Cut the orange or mandarin slices into bite-size pieces and gently mix in with the purslane. 

When they are done, add in the pumpkins. Drizzle 1 tsp pomegranate sauce, 1 tbsp olive oil and sprinkle a pinch of salt. 

Just before eating it add 2 tbsp arugula pesto on top. 

bon appetit,

In Turkey, we have an intense snack culture. Each evening, after dinner, there must be a pot of tea "çay" ready on the stove and some "snacks" to accompany. But what we call snacks are nothing like "chips". They are usually nuts like walnuts, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, pistachios or dried fruits like grapes, raisins, apple slices etc. or traditional Turkish fruit roll sheets, fruit sausages. The list goes on. So the above-mentioned yummy and healthy goods are called in general "kuru yemiş" which translates to "dried snacks". You can find at least five "kuru yemiş shops" along the same street, easily. 

It is that popular and a whole other universe. I just wanted to give you the short illusion of the enthusiasm we have here towards "snacks". 

Heat the oven to 250C with fan.

Carve the pumpkin or pumpkins in my case, take the seeds out. 

Rinse and drain the gooey stuff as much as possible. 

Spread two layers of paper towel or a tea towel on the counter and pour the wet seeds on it. 

Dry them as much as possible. 

Put a baking paper on an oven tray and spread the seeds evenly. 

At this point, you can drizzle a tbsp olive oil and some salt and mix. I didn't. 

Roast the seeds until they start popping. I was actually wasn't expecting them to be popping. (See video above.)

Take them out and eat them warm.

You can use the green, huskless seeds in salads, on morning toasts or even in bread. 

Eggs with Caramelised Onions is a very old recipe that is famously known belonging to the Ottoman Palace Kitchen. We can also say it is the starting point for Menemen. It is said in the old recipe books that the onions must be caramelised over as low heat as a candle's fire and as slowly cooked as from dawn till dusk. Of course, I didn't caramelise the onions that long but I used the lowest heat possible on the stove. 

For this version, I wanted to add some fresh spinach leaves and roots to the onions and sprinkle some tulum cheese on top before serving. You can also add some mushrooms with spinach leaves but I wanted to make it simple this time. 

2 shallots, diced 

1 bowl of fresh spinach leaves with roots, chopped 

1 egg

1 tbsp butter

a pinch of salt

a pinch of sugar

1 tbsp of tulum cheese 

In a small pan or small casserole/güveç pot with a lid, melt 1 tbsp of butter and add the onions. Keep the heat as low as possible. Caramelise the onions by slowly and continuously stirring. When they are tender add the sugar and keep stirring until they are slightly brown and about to melt. If you don't use extremely low heat, onions will be burnt. Keep that in mind. 

After the onions are caramelised which won't take too much time because it's only two shallots, add the chopped spinach leaves and roots and fold together with the onions. 

Don't let the spinach melt too much, 2 minutes of folding would be enough. Sprinkle a pinch of salt, fold one more time and crack an egg. 

Close the lid and let the egg cook slowly over low heat, approximately, 3 minutes. Avoid overcooking the egg.

Serve it with a slice of bread and sprinkle some tulum cheese on top.