Foodbuzz

Poor Man’s Lentil

April 09th, 2006 | Category: Memoir/Meme/Misc., Turkish Cuisine, Vegetarian

Lentil

Back in the spring of ‘99, after endless days of house hunting, Ã–zlem and I managed to find a 3 bedroom flat in the foggiest and most depressing district of San Francisco, Richmond - on 22nd and Balboa - just a day prior to getting kicked out by our tenant, who looked like the Chinese twin of Joan Collins. Sick and tired of getting rejected because of our nonexistent credit history, we really did not mind that the house looked exactly like the ones we have looked at over the past 15 exhausting days.

Everyday was a deja vous. Same carpet, same layout, same kitchen cabinets, same tasteless linoleum flooring, etc. Up to this very day, we still suspect that every apartment owner starting from Masonic all the way to Ocean Beach hired the same grotty contractor, who decided to redo all these houses exactly the same way just so he can get an extra discount for his bulk orders.

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Tonight’s dinner

April 05th, 2006 | Category: Meat, Chicken & Seafood, Turkish Cuisine

I don’t always have the time to cook when I arrive home from work. And if there isn’t anything left over from the previous day, my choice for a quick & light dinner is usually a sandwich with cacik on the side. Tonight’s sandwich was smoked turkey with avocado.

Smoked Turkey and Avocado Sandwich

Sandwich & cacik

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Chocolate Ganache Tart

April 02nd, 2006 | Category: Baked Goods, Chocolate

As previously featured on my best friend’s oh-so-delicious blog Baking Fairy, here is the Chocolate Ganache Tart.

Chocolate Ganache Tart

The recipe belongs to Martha Stewart. As always, her recipe is right on target. Crisp almond based tart dough topped with to-die-for velvety ganache…

When you come across perfect recipes like these, the only way to personalize it and make it your own is how you present it. So I crafted a stencil, placed it on top of the ganache and sprinkled the cropped parts with powdered sugar. You should refrigerate the tart for the ganache to set completely (preferably overnight) so that the stencil does not stick to the ganache.

You can either craft your own stencil or use one of Martha’s clip-art templates. Each link will take you to another link with its respective pdf document. Just print the document, cut around the clip-art to fit the size of your tart shell and crop the image.

Important note: Before you apply the coating of powdered sugar, you must wait for the ganache to set completely in the refrigerator (overnight if possible; if not at least 4 hours) otherwise your precious stencil may disappear in a matter of minutes.