Traditional Aprakh (Wraps)

Before we start to this traditional family recipe I want to give you a great tip that I learned it from my aunt during summer I collect the fresh grape leaves and just line them on top of each other then wrap them with aluminum foil and put them in freezer bag and freeze them when I took them from freezer I have to be very careful because when they freeze they are very fragile so when you touch them you have to be very careful! and after you de-freeze them they are ready to use &  enjoy sunny summer taste!

 Are you ready to enjoy?

Organic grape leaves

1 cup organic rice

1/2 cup organic coarsely ground wheat

1 or 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1 tbs organic butter or ghee or olive oil
1 tsp pressed organic garlic
1 tsp sea salt
2-3 cups boiling water (you will need more or less water it depends of what type of rice and leaves you use)
For Top ( for 1 person)

1 large organic egg (optional)

1 tbs organic butter, ghee or olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup water

2 tbs fresh green garlic leaves diced very thin I don’t have fresh green garlic leaves so I used normal garlic cloves crushed.

You can use just rice or just wheat or as I do you can mix them.

Rinse rice and wheat.

Mix melted butter, yogurt, garlic and salt to rice and wheat mix them well.( I didn’t have enough yogurt at home so my mixture looks dry but normally should be runny and wet yogurt gives special flavor and character which is the specialty of this recipe.

Then as below you see the photos put some rice and wrap the leaves.

Line up them in pot the closure side should be faced down.

When you reach the last row if you have left over leaves you can cover the top of wraps or if you don’t have that’s fine.

Put pot on high heat.

Very slowly add boiling water.

Cover the lid bring to boil 20-30 min. or until the rice and wheat cooked well.
If you are using very big leaves yo can dived them into 2 pieces or just make big wraps my leaves were very small.

Now our Aprakh is ready carefully take each Aprakh and line it in plate.

For top
Put butter in pan until heated pour scrambled egg and stir fry put the crushed garlic and salt stir-fry then add boiling water boil it 1-2 min. it should be little water left when you put it over the
aprakh wraps.

Okay I know its worth it but isn’t it enough we wait… aaawww it smells garlicious!
Give me a moment please! I have to eat and sweep this I stand to much.

organic abu-annuch

This eggplant recipe was made a day after when I made eggplant mazza so you can grill your eggplants a day before but as you can see they get brown this time because I didn’t soak them in lemon juice and use them immediately anyway the taste is same just the color is darker. If as me you like to eat it simply with bread and yogurt with fresh mint or you can eat it with meat or rice as how you like. Just use your creativity!

What you need to get started is

1/2 cup organic eggplant (2 small or 1 big)

1 egg (optional)

1 tbs extra virgin olive oil

3 cloves of garlic

1 tsp sea salt

some parsley to decorate

Prepare the eggplants as same as eggplant mazza but don’t soak them into lemon juice use them directly.

Dice them finely or mash them (sometimes I like to cut them in small cubes you can do if you like).

If you use the egg first scramble the egg.

Heat the olive oil.

Put the eggs when they start to take shape stir them to create  small  pieces of eggs. (Like stir fried eggs)

Add eggplants cook them for 5 min.

Add salt and garlic cook 5 min. more.

That’s it it’s ready! it’s easy and quick for a delicious dish isn’t it?

Give it a nice shape decorate it with some parsley or herbs and enjoy!

Qrimothe

Do you like sweets made with sugar syrup like baklawa?

If yes!  I think you will gonna like this too it’s kind of doughnut but the taste and the texture is different we call this sweet Qrimothe.

I love Qrimothe but I try to not make them too often because they are so sweet and delicious to stop myself eating them!

Okey let’s start the batter

2 cups flour

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon-full instant yeast

1-1/2 cups water

1 egg

1 tablespoon of sugar

To Fry

1 or 2 cups oil (it depend on size of your pan)

For the Sugar Syrup

2 cups water

2,5 cups sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Let’s Do it! Do it Now!

In a bowl put flour, salt and make hole in center.

Add sugar, yeast ,water and egg.

Whisk them well.

Leave it for 20-30 min until it’s puffy.

For Sugar Syrup

Put sugar and water in a pan over medium heat.

Boil them until the syrup is thickened.

Add lemon juice and cool it completely.

To Fry

Put the oil in a deep pan over medium heat until it’s very hot.

With frosting bag or use plastic bag just cut from one corner of the bag small hole and squeeze batter in form of rings. If this is too hard for you.

Use this method. With a teaspoon take teaspoon-full (size of a nut) from batter and with help of another teaspoon slide the balls into hot oil but each time before taking the batter dip the teaspoon into hot oil to make more beautiful rounds.

shake carefully! the pan or with spatula turn the rings or rounds until they are golden brown in color.

Remove them from hot oil and still they are hot put them inside the cold syrup.

Soak them 10 min.

Serve them hot or cold.

Enjoy them with cup of hot tea, espresso or greek coffee!

(if you are using sugar in your tea or coffee try not adding sugar when you eating very sweet delicious things or just try some cinnamon stick instead of sugar)