White Beans with Meat served with Pilaf and Tzatziki, and Traditional Turkish Sesame Pastry

My awesomely fast social life has officially started to slow down since Sunday (yesterday :p) when most of my great friends had left for Turkey for their summer break. Now that I have so much time on my hands, I have decided to bring myself back to the kitchen and cook again. Boy have I missed cooking! I spent my entire Sunday grocery shopping, cooking and baking, and I feel sooo good right now.

(White Beans with Meat served with Pilaf and Tzatziki, and Traditional Turkish Sesame Pastry)

I have made some traditional Turkish dishes as I was craving for them and I wanted to share them with you. There are four different recipes involved so I decided to divide them into 3 different posts

Part 1: White Beans with Meat (Etli Kuru Fasulye) + My Mom’s Pilaf (Pilav) Recipes

Part 2: Cacik, or as our komsu (neighbor) calls it, “Tzatziki.” (Recipe by my brother.)
Part 3: Traditional Turkish Sesame Pastry (Kandil Simidi)

Hope you guys like them!

(White Beans with Meat served with Pilaf )

Part 1:

Etli Kuru Fasulye (White Beans with Meat)

Ingredients:

2 cans of white/butter beans

1.5 pounds of beef/lamb meat, chopped

3 medium size onions, chopped

3 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 dried red peppers, or 1 fresh Jalapeno pepper, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

Preparation:
(Makes 4 servings)

1. Sauté chopped onions over medium heat for 5 minutes.
2. Wash the meat and add them to the same pan as the onions and continue sautéing until the meat is soft.
3. Once the meat is cooked, stir in the beans, peppers and tomato paste. Add one cup hot water and salt. Simmer for 10 minutes over low heat.

My Mom’s Pilaf (Pilav) Recipe

Ingredients:

1.5 cups long grain rice
1 cup hot water

2 ¼ cups of chicken broth

2 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

Preparation:
(Makes 4 servings)

1. Cover the rice with hot water in a bowl, and leave it for about 10 minutes.
2. Over low heat, place the chicken broth, butter, sugar and salt in a pan and bring them to a boil.
3. Drain the rice and add it in to the pan. Close the lid and cook it over low heat, until the rice absorbs all the water.
4. Once the rice absorbs all the water, turn off the heat, place a paper towel on top of the pan to cover it and close the lid on top. Let it stand for 5 minutes. Stir and serve.
   
   
   Afiyet Olsun! Enjoy!
   
   
   For Part 2: Cacik Recipe check back Chic and Bubbly on Wednesday, July 4.