Mahmudiye

Recently I have developed interest in Ottoman Cuisine. Unlike traditional Turkish Cuisine, Ottoman cuisine is more like a fusion kitchen. The first recipe I want to share is called 'Mahmudiye' which is a chicken dish with honey. It reminded me some Asian recipes.

Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast (it is better if you use both leg and breast, but I only had breast at home)
• Butter or olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/2 onion
• 3-4 dried apricots
• 3-4 dried figs
• 1 plum or 2 prunes
• 1/2 ounce raisins
• 1/2 ounce almonds
• 5 grams of honey
• Basil
• Parsley
• Salt
• Black Pepper
• Oregano

Preparation

First boil chicken breast and then make small pieces out of it with your hands. Don't throw away the water.

Then chop figs, apricots, plum and onion. Put raisins and almonds in warm water and wait about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes take out the almonds and peel them.

Take a large pan and put some olive oil in it and after heating the oil add minced garlic and onions. Then add ingredients in this order: chicken, almonds and fruits and cook them in high heat couple of minutes.

Then add parsley, oregano, salt and basil and roast couple of more minutes and add black pepper and honey. Finally add warm water that you boiled chicken in it and after it boils reduce the heat and simmer about 10 minutes. You can serve it with rice pilaf, enjoy!
 

Cauliflower Pizza

I do not eat bread anymore, however I really miss pizza.So, I decided to make a healthy pizza with cauliflower and it turned out great!

Ingredients

For the base

• 1/2 cauliflower
• 1 boiled potato
• 2 eggs
• spinach (optional)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• parsley
• salt
• cumin
• red pepper
• black pepper
• oregano

For topping

• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• Salt,pepper,oregano
• Spinach
• Onions
• Pepperoni
• Grated mozzarella

Preparation

Steam and chop cauliflowers and mix them with chopped potato, eggs, spinach, parsley, olive oil and spices. Pour it into a baking pan. Bake it in 400 F preheated oven around 30 minutes. In the mean time to prepare the sauce mix tomato paste and salt, pepper and oregano and some water. Put the sauce on the cauliflower base. Add mozzarella, onions, spinach and peperoni. Broil it 10 minutes and your pizza is ready. It will have a better texture the next day. Enjoy!