Turkish Borek Appetizer (using Cookin' Greens)

I want to express my excitement for this product that I recently discovered, it's called Cookin Greens and it's basically all those good healthy greens that you should be eating but might be too intimidated to try, or maybe like me you're just too inconvenienced by the process of buying those large bunches of wet leaves from the supermarket and then having to shove them in the fridge somewhere and wash/chop/blanch whenever you have a moment in your busy life!

Who has time for all that? I'm sure those are some of the reasons that people are less encouraged to buy them regularly!  .... so you can imagine my excitement when I saw this bag of frozen greens on tv, I mean flash frozen greens which are at the convenience of your fingertips, just open the bag and throw it into soups, pasta dishes, casseroles, blanch, steam, make dip, whatever you fancy but you can at least sleep at night knowing that you've had your GREENS! Those greens that we keep hearing about as cancer fighting and probably the healthiest of all the vegetables.

I will be buying these, for sure! They are available at the organic frozen freezer in Metro, and Loblaws Superstore as well as other stores, check their site www.cookingreens.com for more details.   I think it's totally worth it because you're getting the healthy and fresh greens which you sometimes can't even get in the regular produce department.
I wanted to make something that is fun for parties so a Turkish borek was perfect, we make it regularly in our household and it's a hit with guests because it's crispy, delicate, fancy and vegetarian too but healthy all at the same time!  Normally we make it with spinach but adding the greens will just bump up the nutrition.  You can do it with just greens or greens and feta cheese.

Turkish Borek Appetizer  (using Cookin' Greens Designer mix instead of plain spinach)

Filling:


- 1 pack Cookin' Greens designer mix (it containers spinach, rapini, collards, onion, yellow wax beans)  I dumped it all into a shallow pan and picked out the wax beans then threw them back into the freezer for another use.

Blanch greens: Place in a pot with 1/2 cup water, pinch of salt and 2 cloves of garlic whole, steam for 5-10 minutes.  Strain the greens from the water really well and place into shallow pan.

Use the water for soup or just add some salt and drink it! It's healthy :)



- 1 cup feta cheese
- 1-2 tbsp lemon juice (optional)

Shell:
- 1 package phyllo from freezer, thawed overnight in fridge.

Batter, mix in a bowl:

- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup yogurt
- 1/2 cup olive oil (or melted butter) You can use another oil if you'd like.

- 2 eggs

Pinch of salt



Preheat oven to 350 F

Open phyllo package, lay the pieces flat.
Take 2 layers and place in pan, if the pieces are larger than the pan it's ok, crinkle them up a bit to make it fit.

Add a ladle or so of batter and spread over the phyllo layer, using hand make sure to cover all areas so the phyllo isn't dry.

Do another 2 layers, then batter, then another 2 and batter and another 2 then you would have achieved 8 layers.  No batter on the top here.

Add the greens, spread out.
Grate the feta with a large grater over top, sprinkle with lemon juice and begin with another 8 layeres, two at a time adding batter over top each 2 layers.  If you want them more crispy use less batter, you could have 2 ladle fulls leftover like me.

Score almost all the way through into long finger shapes or into squares, if making appetizers do them smaller.

Bake, and check in 35 minutes. Broil on top if needed for a golden layer (it boils in seconds so stay close to the oven)

Recipe adapted from this lovely video by Turkish Mother and Daughter duo cooking in the kitchen.

Enjoy!! :)
.. And there is no excuse when it comes to entertaining... I threw together this little party grazing station in seconds!!   Thanks to the mounds of stuff I collect from my favourite places like IKEA/ Chapters/Indigo and HomeSense as well as some small treats I had laying around (dry nuts/cookies, kettle corn)  it all came together.

Salmon Biryani

Chilly gloomy day again, not as cold as yesterday though but dull anyway. Mom came over early with plans to make biryani, thats pretty much the only reason I decided to get out of bed. Indian food is really exciting, and though I really don't have any indian/pakistani or south east asian roots (other than the fact I was born in Pakistan) my family make some good biryani, if I do say so myself.

The really great part of all this is that now we use the prepared spice mix which cuts time and allows us to enjoy perfect biryani everytime anytime, hooray!
Helping mom out in the kitchen we first began to mix all these ingredients into a large bowl:

- 8 thawed and chopped salmon steaks (cut into 2X2 inch squares with scissors)
- 1 cup cilantro chopped
- 6 cloves minced or grated garlic
- 2 tsp dried mint
- 1 heaping tbsp minced ginger
- 1 box Shan Chicken Biryani spice mix
- 1/2 cup packaged fried onions (or freshly prepared by frying 5 onions chopped thinly and turned in oil until golden)
- 1/3 cup plain tomato sauce
- 1 1/4 cup plain yogurt
- 3 tbsp oil

Mom Mixed the above gently with large spoon "so salmon pieces stay whole and do not break apart or mush together" she said. Then we covered with plastic cling wrap and set aside to marinade for 2 hours.

One hour through the marinated process she washed and soaked 4 cups of rice (scela or golden basmati) in a large bowl with cool water (rice amount indicated on spice mix package)
Cloves, pakistanti cardemum, cinnamon sticks.

After two hours are up she goes on to boil a large pot of water with some pakistani cardimum, cloves and a few cinnamon sticks along with the salt once the water reaches a boil. Straining the rice she adds it to the boiling water in the large pot.

1 19 oz can of lentils drained(or prepared homemade boiled black lentils)

1/2 cup thawed frozen peas (optional)

1/2 cup oil heated in small pot on the stove

1 cup hot milk (heated in microwave)

Meanwhile she spread salmon and spice mixture (masala) into a large lasagne pan (steel or glass) - strained lentils go nicely spread on top then the thawed peas.

Once the rice is boiled in the water for 15-20 minutes she scoops it out of the water with a slotted spoon and lays it on top of the mixture in the casserole dish, once it's all spread she lays the saffron on top and uses either food colouring or cumin and turmeric powder to create little coloured areas in the rice by dabbing the powder then spreading it with the back of a spoon in certain areas. Finally the hot oil is spooned evenly over the top and then the milk as well. It's covered with oven safe clingwrap then foil on top and set inside a preheated 350 F oven for around 40 minutes.
** Optional: sometimes we add a few whole hard boiled eggs between the rice and masala just before baking.

Meanwhile mom makes a yogurty sauce to go with it by thinning out the yogurt with a bit of water then adding a tablespoon of mint chutney from a jar.

I await impatiently for it to come out of the oven though it must cool down entirely or else as mom says "the flavours don't settle" so more waiting ... ... ..

FINALLY it's out and mom stires it a bit poking at the rice here and there while yelling "ready eat?" to my sisters in their room.

Now I'll be spending the rest of the day guzzling down tons of cold water!