Turkish cuisine:

The Turkish cuisine is very rich and has been influenced by history, tradition and culture like no other.  A great influence came from Asian, Persian and Arabian cuisine.

Here you may find a short summary of some typical Turkish recipes:

Cucumber with yogurt - Cacik

Cacik has a million different uses. Use as a dip for kebabs, pita dip, or eat it alone, it has the most fabulous flavour.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cucumbers, peeled and grated
16 oz. cold, plain yogurt
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon fresh mint
salt
olive oil

PREPARATION:
In a mixing bowl, combine cucumbers and garlic. Add salt to taste.
Mix in yogurt with wooden spoon. Transfer to serving bowl. Garnish with mint and drizzle olive oil on top. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate.

Eggplant Moussaka – Patlican Kizartmasi

1 large eggplant
200 gr. medium ground beef, cooked
1 onion, sliced
1 or 2 garlic cloves, sliced
1/4 red bell pepper, sliced
1/2 cubanelle pepper, diced
2 fresh green onions, chopped
4 tbsp crushed tomato
Salt
Pepper
1/2 cup sunflower oil

Peel the eggplant skin in strips lengthwise. Cut the eggplant vertically in 3-4 pieces, each about 1 inch thick. Then cut again horizontally, each piece about 2 inches long. Soak in water with a tablespoon of salt for about 30 minutes. Then dry with paper towels.

Pour the sunflower oil in a large skillet. Fry both sides of the eggplants until the colour turns medium brown. After frying, place the eggplants on a plate with paper towel to soak up extra oil. Meanwhile, cook the ground beef with the onions, tomato, garlic, salt and pepper. Then add the red pepper, cubanelle pepper and fresh green onions and cook for about 5-6 more minutes.

Lay out the eggplant pieces in another pan. Put the beef mixture over the eggplants. Pour half a cup of water on top. Cook on medium heat for 15 minutes covered with the lid. Eggplant Moussaka goes well with rice.

Baklava with Almond

Ingredients:
filo dough
1 1/4 cups butter
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
4 cups almonds
SYRUP
4 cups sugar
3 cups water
1/2 cup honey
1 stick cinnamon
6 whole cloves -- Do not use ground

Instructions:
Mix together first amount of sugar, cinnamon, and almonds. Lay the fillo dough out on a table.
Fillo dough will dry quickly, so you'll need to work fast.
On a medium-sized, buttered pan (you'll need to melt the butter) lay one of the sheets of fillo dough.
Butter it, and lay another on top of that. Continue until you have 5-6 sheets of dough on the bottom of the pan.
Then lay another sheet, and do NOT butter it. On that, put some of the almond mix, enough to cover it evenly, but not making a thick layer. Lay another sheet of dough, butter it, and then another, unbuttered.
On that place some almonds mix again. Repeat until all the mix is gone.
Fold in the dough that hangs from the side of the pan. Some of the edges will be dry, so just cut them and discard them. Continue layering the remainder of the fillo dough (about 5 sheets), making sure to butter each one and fold in the edges before adding the next one. (butter the folded in edges too!)
When you're done with laying the sheets of dough down, butter the top sheet very well, and sprinkle some water on it before you put it in the oven.
Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven, slice into desired shape, and pour over syrup.

Syrup Instructions:
To make the syrup, combine all ingredient in a pan, heat over medium heat until tick and syrupy, remove cloves before spooning over pastry.