Here I am  with another Turkish traditional  recipe! Pumpkin Börek (pastry).  It's full with feta cheese and pumpkin mixture and garnished black cumin. You will love these crispy böreks which are made with paper thin pastry called Yufka. These cigar shaped rolls with cheese and pumpkin is very popular in my hometown. Traditionally the rolls are baked  in the oven; the result was very delicious with a bonus of being healthy.

Ingredients:

500 gr pumpkin puree


Small sugar/pie pumpkins provide the most flavorful additions to any baked dish or baked good and are great as a soup. These  are more tender and less stringy than the larger variety. Sugar pumpkins also have firm, sweet flesh compared to their big ones. Heat the olive oil, and sauté the onions and garlic until softened.
Halve the pumpkin, de-seed, place halves face down in a big pan with approx 2-3 water glass of  water but I prefer using homemade beef broth instead of water and added 1 water glass of milk. Finally add black pepper.  Cook over low heat until all the ingredients  are softened. Scrape out the pumpkin “meat” and then mash or puree as needed with mixer.

6 fresh yufka sheets

350 gr feta cheese, crumbled

1 egg
Salt and  black pepper to taste
½ glass olive oil
1 glass milk
1 teaspoon black sesame

Glaze:

1 glass milk
1/4 glass olive oil
1 egg
Mix the olive oil, milk and egg in a bowl.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 200C
Mash together the cheese and pumpkin. Season with salt and pepper.  However, if the feta cheese is already salty, you may wish not to add salt.

Layer the first layer of yufka  on flat dry surface  and brush with glaze which is  mix the olive oil, milk and egg.

Continue this for one another layers

Fold over the pastry from each side to seal in the mixture and then roll up like a cigar.

Wet the end of each pastry roll with water to seal. Grease the tray with a little olive oil. Brush the pastries with olive oil and egg mixture.

Sprinkle with black sesame seeds and bake until they are golden brown, about 25 – 30 minutes.

Zucchini with olive oil is one of my favorite dishes in Turkish cuisine. Dishes with olive oil have their own place in my mom's recipes. I am from Mersin which is a port on the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. So, my mom’s  recipes are  an authentic Mediterranean experience.

When the name of a dish ends with “with olive oil”, it means that “olive oil” is not used just for describing the type of oil in such dishes, but it is more like cooking and serving methods.
This dishes can be served cold or hot, but mostly in my hometown cold is preferred.

Ingredients

• 5 medium zucchini, finely chopped

• 2 medium onion,finely chopped, cut into 1/2" squares 
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

• 1 medium size carrot

• 1 medium capia pepper, finely chopped

• 4 ripe tomatoes cut in small chunks

• 3 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper 
• 5 teaspoon tomato paste
• 3 teaspoon pepper paste

• dill (in small quantities)

Instructions

Heat the olive oil, and sauté the onions and garlic until softened.

Add tomato and pepper paste over onion and garlic.

Add the carrots and continue sautéing. 

Add the zucchini, finely chopped and continue sautéing.

Add the capia pepper , finely chopped and continue sautéing.

Finally add ,tomatoes,  salt, black pepper, small amount of dill  and water if using, cook over low heat until all the vegetables are softened.

Cook over low heat until all the vegetables are softened. Take off the heat and let cool completely. 

 Serve with small amount of uncooked dill.