French Onion soup... yummmm... :)

I was thinking for sometime to make a onion soup. Last couple of days have been very miserable and chilly in Glasgow. Then I decided to make warming and tasty onion soup. It is very easy if you never tried before. Only down point you have to chop a lot of onions which is about a kilo or two! But except that part everything is so easy, peasy. 

 First the ingredients you need for this soup:

This recipe serves 8-9 bowls

50gr butter
100ml Olive oil
1kg onions, thinly sliced (I used mix of red and white onions)
2 tbsp sugar
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 tbsp plain flour
250ml dry white wine
1.3l hot beef stock(could be substitute with chicken or veggie stock)
French baguette or any hard-crust bread 
140gr Gruyere cheese(or parmesan, cheddar cheese) finely grated

Melt the butter with olive oil in a deep saucepan. Then add onions and fry them for 10 minutes while the lid is on. Sprinkle sugar then keep cooking for another 20 minutes until they get caramelised. Give some stirring frequently and make sure the onions are not burned. 

Then add garlic and cook for a couple of minutes. Followed by flour stir well. Add hot stock and wine also salt and pepper for the seasoning and mix well again. Then let it simmer for 30 minutes. Your homemade onion soup is ready! 

For serving make slices from baguette or any hard-crust bread. Toast the bread slices either under grill or in toaster. Sprinkle some grated cheese on the top of toasted bread then grill until the cheese melted. Pour some soup into the individual bowls. Put the toasted and melted cheese bread slice on the top layer of the soup. Now it's time to taste. :) 

If you like you can sprinkle some fresh herbs or dried ones such as thyme, oregano or coriander while serving. Also when boiling the soup you can add couple of leaves of bay leaf. It will give beautiful flavour to your soup.

Enjoy it! :)

Turkish Coffee Cake

Generally when I have last minute visitors and have nothing available to serve at home with coffee and tea, my quickest solution is a homemade cake. The flavour of the cake can be different based on what I find in my cupboard. If I have some cacao generally marble cake it's my favourite and it's very easy to do. Just takes 10 minutes to prepare then 40-45 minutes to bake off.

If I have some dried fruits such as raisins, cranberry, apricot, candied orange skin generally mix up with a small amount of crushed nuts such as hazelnut, almond or pistachio and the result will be tasty nut and fruit cake. Or sometimes if I have some homemade marmalade such as plum, peach or orange just mix up into the batter. But other day just wanted to try something different and decided to make a coffee flavoured cake. First thought was which kind of coffee flavour I would use ? Would it be instant, espresso or Turkish coffee flavour ? Then I have decided on Turkish coffee flavour. The result was absolutely amazing. The cake was soft and the flavour was well combined. Although we tried just after freshly baked with our Italian guest and got an approval :) but following days the flavour became much better. I would suggest if you ever bake this cake just keep in the airtight container or cake/biscuit tin for a couple of days (if there is no cake monster in the house of course! :)) then try it. And anyone who wants to make this cake find the recipe below:

Turkish Coffee Cake

Heat your oven to 170C

3 medium eggs
200 gr sugar

Mix them well in a bowl. If you are using hand mixer mix the batter in low speed for 5 minutes. When the batter doubled in size add below quantity:

150ml olive oil
150ml milk
vanilla essence
450gr self-raising flour
50 gr Ground Turkish coffee

Mix them all in slow speed for another 4-5 minutes.

Pour couple of drop olive oil inside the cake mould and brush it every every corner. Pour the cake batter into the mould then put in the middle of the oven. Set the timer for 40 minutes first. Then check out when alarm went off with wooden stick or tip of knife if the batter is still sticky then put another 10-15 minutes more to bake. When it's baked well take out from oven and leave outside to cool down 10-15 minutes. During these period you can cover the cake with clean tea towel which will keep the top crust more moist. Then results will be like... 

If you can't find ground Turkish coffee the place where you live then substitute with ground espresso. 

Bon appetit! 

Chef Tulay :)

The very first supper event :)

Last evening I held a very first private supper club for a couple guests and was a great success! :) I have been told that the food was amazing and delicious. The theme was Greek food with Greek songs in the background. It's just created an atmosphere to be away from rainy, miserable Glasgow for a short while.  Everything was homemade except bread and drinks.

So my menu included:

Starters

Mezze plate - Tzatziki, Hummus and Melitzanosalata(Aubergine salad)

Olives

Greek Salad

Main course

Chicken cooked in the oven with a mix of spices and served with Bulghur pilaf

Dessert 

Sutlac (Turkish style rice pudding) served with ice-cream

The wine that accompanied the meal was 'Retsina Kourtaki' Greek wine. It is clear, pale to golden-yellow in colour. A delicate aroma of pine is left on the nose with similar after taste in the mouth. One of the most well-known Greek wines in the UK and easy to find at the big supermarkets chains and at wine shops.

Normally finalising part of a Greek meal would be a coffee but as our guests didn't want to be awake for the rest of the night, they preferred to have a cup of green tea instead. But also they gave a try to a small shot of 'Tentura' which is a liqueur traditionally produced in Patras,Greece since the 15th century. It contains alcohol, water, sugar, and fermented essences of cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and citrus fruits. It can also be added in espresso coffee, which is then called Caffe Corretto. 

So I am well satisfied for the success of the first event and excited for the future ones.

Chef Tulay