Recipes For Cooking

1 pack of peeled artichokes. Since I dont know, or rather dont want to know, how to peel artichokes, I usually buy them peeled and frozen from international or middle eastern stores. What you should be looking for is something like this:


1/2 pound green peas
2 big carrots, diced petite (or you can use a 1 pound mixed peas and carrots, frozen)
1 onion, chopped finely
1/2 cup olive oil (if its an olive oil dish, you cannot be stingy with olive oil)
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups of water
1/2 bunch dill, chopped





This is such a fancy looking dish, yet soo easy to cook.

-Mix onions, peas, carrots, sugar, salt, and 1/4 bunch of dill (were saving the other half to garnish) in a bowl
-Place the artichokes facing up in a broad pot, preferably a shallow one.
-Cover the artichokes with stuffing. Do not actually try to stuff them, just put the stuffing in the pot and cover the artichokes
-Add olive oil and water
-If you will use a pressure cooker, do everything the same. It doesnt matter if you put the artichokes on top of each other. The pressure cooker will not probably be broad enough. Then cook artichokes for 20 minutes first on high, then on low heat
-If its a regular broad pot, cover and cook on high heat for 5 minutes (or until it starts boiling), then on low for another 30-35 minutes
-Garnish with dill and do the finishing "stuffing" touches with a scoop on the plate

Just like all Turkish olive oil dishes, stuffed artichokes are best when theyre served cold. Even better the next day!

Ive been looking for pomegranate molasses/syrup for a long time to make tabbouleh (kısır). Finally I found a Lebanese one in an international market. Pomegranate syrup is an essential ingredient in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking. Its delicious as a salad dressing ingredient as well as a base for marinade. Now that I found it Ill use it more, but first I used it on black-eyed pea which both as a dish and as a salad is very common in the Aegean coast of Turkey.

2 cups fresh black-eyed peas
1 big onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red pepper, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped
1 bunch dill, chopped
1 tbsp sumac
1 tbsp dried mint flakes
1 tsp sugar
1 cup water

1 tsp pomegranate molasses/syrup or lemon juice

-Wash fresh black-eyed peas and boil them in 4-5 cups of water for 5 minutes. Drain and wash well.
-Mix all the ingredients except for pomegranate molasses in a broad pot. Bring to a boil and then on low cover and cook until peas soak water (approximately 30 minutes)
-Dress to your taste with pomegranate syrup before serving. It will give it a really nice sweet and sour flavor. If you cannot find pomegranate syrup, you use lemon juice.

If you want to have your black-eyed peas as a salad, all you need to do is to cook the peas until soft and wash them well. Skip sugar and onion from ingredients, instead add 1 bunch chopped green onions. Mix everything well in a bowl and dress with either pomegranate syrup or lemon juice.

This recipe with parsley and dill (my favorites) is perfect for Weekend Herb Blogging which was founded by Kalyn and is hosted by Scott of Real Epicurean this weekend.