recipes: Stuffed long sweet peppers

Ingredients: minced meat 250 gr (beef or lamb), 5 small red onions, butter 2 tbsp, 2 long sweet peppers, Cumin 1 tesp, tomato puree 2 tbsp, parsley 2 tbsp, 2 dried chili peppers, cayenne pepper 1/2 tsp, pepper & salt, 3 tomatoes, plain flour 150 gr, lukewarm water, olive oil 2 tbsp, juice of half a lemon.

Turkish salad: slice 4 onions in very thin rings and cover with salt. Leave for 30 minutes and rinse with water. Slice the tomatoes, dry the onion rings with some kitchen paper. Put the tomatoes and onions in a bowl add the lemon juice, olive oil and some pepper & salt. Mix and put in the fridge.

Stuffed peppers: prick the peppers with a fork and blanch them for 2 or 3 minutes, drain. Take a bowl and add meat, tomato puree, 1 finely chopped onion, finely chopped parsley, chilies, cayenne pepper, cumin, 1 tbsp butter and some pepper & salt. Mix very well. Cut the top of the pepper and take out the seeds carefully. Fill the peppers with the meat mixture. Pre heat the oven on 200 °c. Take an oven plate and butter it. Lay the peppers on the plate and cover them with olive oil. Put into the oven for about 30 minutes. Turn on the other side after 15 minutes. Serve hot, you can put the peppers on a BBQ if you like.

Paratha: sift the plain flour add some salt and luke warm water and make a firm dough. Leaf for 15 minutes. Divide the dough into 4 balls. Flatten the balls and roll with a rolling pin until 2 mm thick. brush with melted butter and fold in halve, butter again and fold. roll very flat again and bake in a dry non stick frying pan for 2 minutes each side. Until they start blistering and turning brown.

recipes:aubergine with tomato (vegetarian & non vegetarian)

You can use courgette or sweet pepper instead of aubergine.

ingredients: Soy meat 75 gr, tomato 4 big ones, 2 small onions, olive oil, pepper, salt, 2 aubergines, 2 red chili peppers, parsley, stock, 1 cup of water, paprika powder, parsley

Boil the soy meat in some stock until soft (5 min.) and drain. Meanwhile fry the chopped chili peppers and onion until soft (in olive oil). Add the drained soy meat, a bit of pepper, salt and paprika powder fry for another 10 minutes. Now put in the peeled and diced tomato, a cup of water pepper and salt and let it simmer until the juice has evaporated. Take from the fire and add shopped parsley.

While frying, put the aubergines in the oven at 180°c until soft, drizzle with olive oil. Take a tajine and wipe it with some oil, put in the aubergines and slice then lengthwise. Fill the aubergine with the tomato sauce and poor the rest of the sauce around it. Close the tajine and let it simmer very slowly for another 30 minutes. Serve with bread or rice. Or as we do with Greek pasta.

Substitute the soy meat with minced beef or lamb if you like your meat. Or with beef sliced into small strips, if you try this, first fry the beef in hot butter for one minute on each side, take it out of the frying pan and let it rest until the tomato sauce is finished and everything goes into the tajine.

Cut the aubergines in four parts before putting them in the oven, if you want it to look like the picture.

You don't need a tajine, but you need to simmer it slowly in a closed pot or cooking pan.