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Mariel’s Benefit Party

Fri, 5 Feb 2010 15:53:01 -0600

A cyclist visiting from Chicago joined in for the New Year’s Eve Social Cycling event. After the event, when she was pedaling back home, she was hit from behind by a truck which ran away. She was immediately taken to a hospital and fought for her life for nearly a month.

When Keith called and asked me whether I would cook for this event, it was a no-brainer. I was happy to assist any way I could. I made kofte wraps (wraps with Turkish meatballs), mucver wraps, and a few other finger food that fellow cyclists could enjoy.

I was just glad that I was able to help in my little way.

American Short Fiction Reading

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 15:19:25 -0600

I was honored to donate some cooking to one of my favorite events: American Short Fiction’s Winter Reading. Check out their website! Here is the announcement:
Join us tomorrow night at 7 pm at Space 12 on the East Side for our Winter Reading Redux. We’ll have music by Aaron Sinclair, frontman of local band Frank Smith, plus readings by poet Farid Matuk, actress Maggie Wilhite, and fiction master Michael Noll. We’ll have free appetizers, provided by personal chef service Xen Kitchen. You can BYOB. You can enter a raffle to win some cool ASF swag. Most of all, you can support the magazine, hear some brilliant lit, and hang out with all of us for free! (Space 12 is located at 3121 E 12th St, near Airport.)

It was lots of fun and a lot of cooking. It was also a touch hard - cooking for 100 takes lots of time!

The menu included:
Zeytinyagli Sarma (vegetarian grape leaf wraps)
Etli Sarma (grape leaf wraps for meat eaters!)
Babaganush
Carrot Dip with Yogurt
Sigara Boregi (Turkish eggrolls stuffed with feta cheese and parsley)
Kofte (Turkish meatballs)
Mucver (fried zucchini, feta cheese, egg patties)

I am learning the crowd pleasers for the parties now. I got this thank you note:
I just wanted to drop you a quick note of thanks for the delicious food you provided for the ASF event on Friday. It was a big hit and we are all very appreciative of you and Xen Kitchen.

Cooking for Vincent’s Birthday Party

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:01:06 -0600

My good friends Sun and Alex wanted me to cook for their son Vincent’s birthday party. It was a great occasion. They chose a simple menu with lots of finger food and a couple of dips. The whole menu was:
Carrot dip with yogurt
Babaganush
Kizartma kofte (mini meatballs)
Sigara Boregi (you could call them Turkish eggrolls with feta cheese and parsley)
Mucver (fried zucchini, feta cheese, egg patties)
Fried chicken breast strips.

Yip, Lots of organic food fried in Turkish sunflower and olive oil. Especially the kids loved the chicken strips. That’s why I cooked something like 12 lbs of strips. They were laughing at me at Central Market when I was getting them.

But I think it all went well, because I got this in response:
The food was awesome! It was a big hit! Everyone took your card and wanted some more info. The kiddos had plenty to eat and we have some leftovers! Thanks so much for providing wonderful nurishing dinner for Vincent's birthday party.
It truly was a great experience for everyone!

Zeytinyagli Domates Dolmasi (Vegetarian Stuffed Tomatoes)

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:50:27 -0600

I love stuffed vegetables. In Turkish cuisine, you can find stuffed eggplants, zucchinis, bell peppers, and last and not least tomatoes.

Stuffed tomatoes are a big favorite of mine, second only to bell peppers. I like stuffed bell peppers because they contain the most stuffing among all, but stuffed tomatoes are the tastiest by far.

I usually eat the meat-rice stuffing. One can also cook with vegetarian stuffing which has rice as well, but it also contains lots of currants, pine nuts, and many many spices.

So, when one of my friends asked for the vegetarian version, I wanted to cook this dish again. And I have to admit, this was the tastiest ever. You should tell all your vegetarian friends about this.

Lamb Chops (Kuzu Pirzola)

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:24:10 -0600

I found this great butcher who serves organic (and halal) meat and I was so happy to hear that they also had lamb.

So, I got some lamb chops, marinated them overnight and grilled them. I served them over a bed of rice and with sarma’s on the side.

They were oh so delicious!

Manti

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:06:24 -0500

I have been wanting to cook some manti for a while, but I was kind of feeling lazy. In the end I had to wait for an order, and I cooked some extra for myself.

Manti basically Turkish dumplings stuffed with meat. They are boiled and served with some of its juices, topped with garlic yogurt and a butter sauce. On top, you add some mint and red pepper and it’s ready to go!

Manti is so popular and important in Turkish cuisine that there are restaurants that serve it only. And there is a good reason for that, actually. It is such a labor intensive dish that you do not want to have a chef in your restaurant spending all her/his day cooking it. But it definitely is a labor of love - and we do love our manti.

Party!

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 09:09:00 -0500

I invited around 30 or so friends over for some good company, good music, and good food. I tried to give some tasty dishes that people could comfortably munch on. The mezes that I prepared included:

Babaganus roasted eggplants with tahini and garlic
Havuc kizartmasi grated stir-fried carrots served with garlic yogurt
Izgara kofte meatballs
Mucver a squash “meatball” (100% vegetarian) made with cheese and egg
Peynirli sigara boregi feta cheese and parsley wrapped in yufka dough

We had a real good time, and all the food was gone. I was able to scrape off some babaganus later. And that was it.

Bamya (Okra)

Wed, 7 Oct 2009 10:34:20 -0500

When one of my friends asked for a new vegetarian dish, I asked her what her favorite vegetables were. One of the first ones that she listed was okra. Being a Texan she had eaten okra only as a fried side dish.

I offered to make her a Turkish okra dish. Like most dishes, it does not rely on additional gimmicks to increase the taste of it. It is just slowly cooked with olive oil and that makes the whole difference.

Vegetarian Sarma and Dolma

Fri, 2 Oct 2009 15:40:34 -0500

I cooked some veggie sarma and dolma for a dear friend and customer.

Well, this is the second time i cooked this dish for her. I usually do not cook the vegetarian version, so I wanted to make sure that it would taste fine. I cooked one set for her and it tasted not too bad, but it was not good enough to my standards. I didn’t want to waste good food, so I just gave them to her with a disclaimer.

The second time, it was really tasty so I charged her! I heard the drug pushers use the same method to get people hooked.. This is what I got in response:

OMG! Sooo [expletive]kin’ good!! thank u xen :)
btw, i gave a sarma to my boss + 2 co-workers and they loved them! ;-)

I love when people get excited about my food.

Vegetarian Dinner

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:11:52 -0500

I had some friends over to taste some new and a few dishes that I love cooking (and they love to eat). We had a great dinner and lots of fun. I was concentrating in delivering some cauliflower based dishes. What was on the menu?

Appetizers
Karnibahar kizartmasi: Fried cauliflower served with garlic yogurt.
Peynirli sigara boregi: Feta cheese and parsley wrapped in “yufka” dough.
Patates boregi: A kind of a potato casserole cupcake.
Soup
Mercimek Corbasi: Lentil soup
Entrees
Taze Fasulye: A green bean dish with tomatoes and onions
Karnibahar: Cauliflower stew.

We were totally stuffed by the time we were done, but all of us were able to squeeze in seconds. It was also due to the great dinner wine that my friends brought - with low alcohol content of 12 percent and a very light taste.

For the dessert course, we had some helva with our teas.