Pumpkin soup for chilly days

This is one of our (and generally everyone's) favorite soup for especially very cold winter days. The recipe is here "Superb squash soup with the best parmesan croutons" by Jamie Oliver. And we made it with pumpkins instead of butternut squash (as they are from the same family of squashes!)

fried sage leaves, rosemary and pumpkins

We first fried the sage leaves until they are crisp as in the recipe. After that the vegetables (onion, celery, carrot, garlic and chili) and rosemary leaves are cooked in the same oil that we fried the sage.

After 10 minutes we added the pumpkin and the organic vegetable stock and simmered for about half an hour until the pumpkin is soft. Meanwhile we prepared the croutons from ciabatta slices with olive oil and parmesan.

soup is simmering

When the pumpkin is cooked through, we whizzed the soup with a hand blender (we left it slightly chunky).

And the soup is ready to be served with parmesan croutons and crispy sage leaves. We added a bit of cream as optional.

superb!

Cafe Market & Weekend Bakery at Galata House

18 Aralik 2011'de Galata House'da ilki duzenlenen Cafe Market & Weekend Bakery etkinliginin ikincisi 15 Ocak 2011 Pazar gunu olacaktir. LazyCook olarak bu etkinligin ilkine biscotti, elmali-cevizli kek, Vicdan'in kara keki, scones ve cevizli ekmek ile katilmistik. Bu pazar gunu ise biraz daha farkli tatlar ve cesitli sandwichler ile katilmayi dusunmekteyiz. Etkinlik ile ilgili basin bulteni asagidadir:

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Galata' da açılan ilk café olma özelliği taşıyan Galata House' ta 18 Aralık 2011' de ilkini düzenlediğimiz Cafe Market & Weekend Bakery etkinliğinin ikincisi için yeni tarihimiz belli oldu: 15 Ocak 2012 Pazar günü - saat 11:00-18:30!

Geçen sefer olduğu gibi Weekend Bakery' de ev yapımı ekmeklerle yapılmış leziz sandviçler, tatlı tuzlu muffinler, kurabiyeler, cheesecakeler, kişler, sıcak şarap, tabii ki kahve ve değişik çay karışımları tadacaksınız! Bu sefer Weekend Bakery' e gelen konuklarımızı 2. Kattaki piyanolu odada da ağırlama imkanımız olacak.
Bu ay Weekend Bakery' nin konuğu: ISTANBUL CUPCAKERY ve birbirinden güzel cupcake lerle hepimizi şımartacak :) http://www.istanbulcupcakery.com/

Tabii ki;
Tasarım t-shirtler, cantalar ve yastıklarla: OLI BASTIANI - http://www.olibastiani.net/
Vintage koleksiyonu ile Pınar Kılıç -  STYLEMATIQUE (www.stylematique.blogspot.com)
Şık ve narin takıları ile: MIKLA DESIGN - https://www.facebook.com/mikladesign
Polimer kil ile yaratılabilecek en ilginç şeyler ve özel tasarım ipad ve laptop çantalar ile: GUGIKO - https://www.facebook.com/killenmekguzeldir

Eğlenceli tasarım ürünleri ile: CALICO - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Calico/282059128500391?sk=wall

Ayrıca, her türlü CD, Plak, DVD, Kitap, Giysi, PS3, PS2, PC oyunlarının satılacağı: GARAGE SALE

Galata House 2. katta CAFE MARKET' te sizleri bekliyor olacak!

Sıcacık ve keyifli bir Pazar günü geçirmek için bizi ziyaret edin!

Etkinliğin facebook linki:https://www.facebook.com/events/187076228057914/

Galata House facebook linki:https://www.facebook.com/galatahouse
www.thegalatahouse.com

Ayse Bige Goktug

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Ilk Weekend Bakery etkinliginde hazirladiklarimizdan birkaci:

Artik bir LazyCook klasigi olan biscotti, Spiced Biscotti with Marsala Mascarpone

biscottis

Yagsiz Elmali-Cevizli Kek

Bu cok hafif elmali keki ilk defa yuzmeden sonra eve yururken yarim saatligine kitap-gazete okumak icin ugradigim Maya Cafe'de yedim ve sahibi Harika Hanim'dan hemen tarifini aldim. Ozellikle orada ictigim ihlamurun yaninda  (ve bir saat yuzmenin ustune) cok guzel gitmekte..

1 bardak seker ile 3 yumurta cirpilir. 1.5 bardak un, 1 cay k. kabartma tozu, 1 cay k. tarcin, 3 soyulmus ve kupler halinde kesilmis elma ve birkac avuc kirilmis ceviz karistirilir ve ustune yumurta karisimi eklenir. Kaliba konup yaklasik 45 dakika onceden 180 derecede isinmis firinda pisirilir. 

yagsiz elmali-cevizli kek

Vicdan'in Kara Keki

Bu kek'in ise yapimi biraz daha karisik (ozellikle ilk defa kek yapmaya calisan benim gibi bir LazyCook icin!). Ama sonuc bayagi etkileyici!

2 bardak un

1 paket kabartma tozu

- karistirilir, kenara ayirilir

4 yumurta (yumurtalar kucukse 5 yumurta)

1.5-2 su bardagi toz seker

- el mikseri ya da robotla iyice cirpilir (iyice derken 10 dakika sureyle cirptim), ustune

1 su bardagi sut 

1 cay bardagi sivi yag

1 paket vanilya

2 corba kasigi kanyak (ya da viski) 

2 corba kasigi dolu kakao

- eklenir ve cirpmaya devam edilir. Cirpma islemi bittikten sonra 1 bardak karisim kenara ayirilir.

hazirlanan sostan 1 bardak ayirilir

- Hazirlanan sos un karisimina eklenir ve karistirilir.

- Kek kalibina dokulur ve onceden 180 derecede isitilmis firinda 45 dakika pisirilir

diktorgen kek kalibi bu kek icin en uygunu. yukaridaki kaliptan daha genis olmasi tavsiye edilir

- Kek pistikten sonra disariya alinir, firin kapatilir. Daha onceden ayirdigimiz 1 bardak sos ortasi diklemesine yarilarak kekin icine yedirilir (burasi en onemli kismi) ve hala sicak olan (ama kesinlikle kapali) firina geri konur. 10-15 dakika sonra cikarilabilir.

uzerinde peri kizlari olan kek Weekend Bakery'nin diger muhtesem tatlilariyla

Ilki cok zevkli ve lezzetli gecen bu etkinligin ikincisinde bu pazar gorusmek dilegiyle...

tatli sofrasi @Cafe Market & Weekend Bakery

harika tuzlu muffinler 

ve degisik bir tat - balkabakli tart

Lasagna Days

Last week we tried two different versions of lasagna: one vegetarian - grilled vegetable lasagna from Gordon Ramsay's 'Cooking for Friends' and one classic meat lasagna - simple baked lasagna from 'Jamie's Dinners'.

First the tomato sauce for the vegetable lasagna: after heating the oil in saucepan, we added the onion, celery stalks, carrot, garlic and fresh thyme with some seasoning and cooked until the vegetables are soft. We then put the tomatoes and simmered for 30 minutes, stirring frequently until the sauce was thickened. We added a little bit of sugar here.

first the tomato sauce

In the meantime, we prepared the vegetables: we trimmed and sliced the eggplants and zucchinis, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned. We cooked them in batches on our red hot griddle pan for 2-3 minutes on each side (until they are lightly charred). For the red and yellow peppers: we cut them in half and grilled them again until they are charred, left to cool slightly, then peeled of the skins and discarded the seeds.

When the tomato sauce was ready, we added the basil and we blitzed them until smooth in the food processor. Here, we preheated the oven to 180 degrees and started to prepare the lasagna dish. First, we laid a thin layer of tomato sauce over the base, then the lasagna sheets and then sprinkled over a little parmesan. 

the thin layer of tomato sauce being laid over the base of the dish

We then arranged a layer of the vegetables, followed by a layer of mozzarella and a layer of tomato sauce. And we repeated this until we reached the top of the dish. 

a layer of vegetables

then the mozzarellas on top of the vegetables

and a layer of the tomato sauce

We finished with a layer of lasagna sheets spread generously with the tomato sauce and topped with a layer of mozzarella and sprinkling of parmesan. We baked for 30-40 minutes until the cheese topping is golden brown. 

The only setback with this one was we used dry lasagna sheets instead of fresh ones (as we cannot find fresh lasagna anywhere) and the edges of the lasagna was tough. For our next lasagna below, we put each lasagna sheet in hot water for a second before arranging them on the dish. And it really worked out. We should try to prepare lasagna sheets at home (we have never tried to prepare any dough yet!) but this method is a good alternative.

Ingredients (for 4-6):

300g fresh lasagna sheets (about 12)  - we used Barilla

75g freshly grated parmesan

3 x 150g buffalo mozzarella

a small handful of basil leaves

Grilled Vegetables:

1 small eggplant

1 large zucchini

1 yellow pepper

1 red pepper

olive oil to drizzle

few sprigs of thyme and rosemary

Tomato sauce:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 carrot, finely diced

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

leaves from a sprig of thyme

2x400g tins chopped tomatoes in natural juice

1 tsp caster sugar (optional)

a small handful of basil leaves

Jamie's 'Simple Baked Lasagna'

You can visit here for Jamie's recipe. For its sauce, instead of pork belly we used bacon and put a bit more minced-meat. And instead of butternut squash, we baked pumpkin. We cooked the sauce in our Staube iron-cast pan and it made a difference. We got some real good reviews on the table!

meat lasagna from Jamie