Zucchini with Rice in Olive Oil
In Turkish - Zeytinyagli Pirincil Kabak
4 medium zucchini - peeled; cut long ways into quarters and then chopped in half
1/2 onion, chopped in medium size pieces
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 small green pepper, chopped in medium size pieces
1 large tomato, chopped into bite size pieces
Olive oil
2-3 tbsp rice
Water
1 tsp sugar
Dill
Prep everything first - mince garlic; and chop pepper, and onion. Peel and cut the zucchini and sprinkle dill on top. Sauté the onion, garlic, and pepper together in olive oil. After a few minutes add the tomato and cook for 8-10 minutes. Add zucchini, rice, and sugar. Add water only if you’ll need it for the rice to absorb. Cover and let simmer until the rice is cooked.
Sprinkle a little more dill on top. Drizzle olive oil on top if you want. Serve at room temperature or chilled.
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Cooking Baklava presented a problem -- mainly that it sounded really difficult. I love to cook, but I’m not a baker. And I’m also not much of a dessert eater. So I had seen Baklava before, knew what it was, maybe had tasted it, but never even thought of cooking it. I found a recipe on food.com posted by MarieC. It was really and truly easy, and I followed her recipe somewhat closely. I couldn’t help but adapt it a little. Here it my version:
Easy Baklava
Ingredients -
1 (16 ounce) can refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
½ cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup honey
2 tsps margarine
2 tsps lemon juice
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Unroll crescent rolls and place half of them spread out in the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan. Pinch the sides up a little so the filler stays in. Bake for five minutes then remove from the oven.
3. In a bowl combine nuts, sugar, and cinnamon. Sprinkle mixture over baked crust. Put the remaining half of the crescent rolls on top. Score the tops of the dough to make a diamond pattern.
4. In a small saucepan, combine honey, sugar, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and pour half evenly over top of dough. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Drizzle remaining honey mixture over top of hot baklava. Cool completely and cut into diamond shape pieces.
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I served the zucchini room temperature; and made some shrimp skewers to go along with them. Dusty says that the zucchini dish is a stand alone entrée, but it seems more like a side dish to me. It was easy and tasty. And, according to my favorite food taster, tasted just like they make it in Turkey.
The Baklava was a huge success. It was really tasty. I had one piece and Dusty ate the rest. The recipe I adapted from called for either walnuts, pecans, or pistachios. I like walnuts, and walnuts sounded like the most typical to me. I suggest that you use a good quality refrigerated crescent roll to get a light, flaky crust.
