Festival Foods & Recipes

This week's recipe is 'Sesame Seed Biscuits', a popular Turksih biscuits.

More recipes and festival food pictures coming soon. We cook and taste each recipe before publishing it.

Sesame Seed Biscuits / Susamli Kurabiye (Turkish)

Ingredients (makes 20)

• 250 g plain flour
• 175gr unsalted butter
• 125g icing sugar
• 1 egg white
• 65g sasame seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 egg yolk + 1 tablespoon of water, lightly beaten for egg wash
• a 5cm cookie cutter
• a 3cm cookie cutter

Line a tray with baking paper. Whisk egg white and icing sugar using an electric mixer until creamy. Add butter and mix until well blended.
Preheat oven to 180C (350F).
Sift the flour and baking powder over the egg and butter mixture. Knead into a dough and turn onto a floured surface. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to a 4 mm thickness. Cut the biscuits using the larger cutter and make a hole in the middle using the smaller round cutter.
Brush biscuits with egg wash and sprinkle on sesame seeds. Place on lined baking tray and bake 20-25 minutes until lightly golden

Cheese and Corn Empanada (Mexican)

Empanada (Serves 4)

Dough Ingredients

• 2 cups plain flour
• 50 gr butter, cut into small cubes
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 1 onion chopped
• 30g butter
• 1 teaspoon of salt

Filling Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups of corn kernels
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 1 cup of grated cheese (Mozarella or Mexican cheese if available)
• 1 pobalano pepper, halved, seeded and finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 cup sliced scallions
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 2 tablespoons thickened cream
• salt and pepper to taste

To make the dough - Combine the flour, butter and salt in a food processor, mix for 30 seconds then add the water. Pulse until it forms a dough, let it rest for half an hour.
Gently melt the butter and oil in a pan. Add the onions and cook until transparent, add the corn. Cook and stir for a few minutes to blend the ingredients together and warm them trough. Add the salt, pepper, sugar and cream. Cook for 3 minutes. Add the scallions, cheese and parsley. Stir until everything is well combined.
Pre-heat the oven to 180C (350F). Line a baking tray with baking paper.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface making. Make small balls and roll them into flat round shapes (approximately 15 cm in diameter). Place about 2 tablespoons of filling along the centre line and fold over. Run a wet finger along the inner edge and seal the pastry by pressing along the edge with a for.
Place the empanadas on the lined baking tray and bake 15 minutes.

Mushroom Risotto (Italian)

Risotto Ingredients (Serves 4)

• 2 1/2 cups of warm vegetable stock
• 1/2 cup of white wine
• 1 cup of risotto rice
• 1 onion chopped
• 30g butter 40g parmesan cheese, freshly grated
• olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 450g mushrooms
• olive oil
• 40g shaved parmesan
• 1 tbsp chopped parsley

Clean and cut mushrooms into chunky slices fry until golden.
Prepare risotto - Bring stock to the boil in a saucepan and keep it at a simmer. Melt butter in saucepan add the onions and sweat gently for 2 minutes, then add the rice and stir with a spoon. Increase the heat slightly and continue stirring until the rice turns opaque. Pour in the wine, and stir once, then leave to cook until half the wine has evaporated. Add two-thirds of the hot vegetable stock, add salt. Stir once only after a few minutes to see if rice is sticking to the bottom of the pan. If it sticks, reduce the heat. Leave rice to cook for approximately 12 minutes, adding a little stock if necessary. The rice should be firm, almost crunchy. Add mushroom slices and spinkle parmesan cheese, stir gently. Add the rest of the stock and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Take the pan off the heat, covet the pan and leave for 6-8 minutes before serving.

Apfel Kuchen / Apple cake (German)

Apfel Kuchen Ingredients (Serves 6)

• 115g butter
• 115 caster sugar
• 225g self-raising flour
• 1 egg, beaten
• 8 drops almond essence
• Icing sugar

• 450g Bramley cooking apples
• 75g soft brown sugar

Peel and core the apples cutting them into thin slices. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F. Line a 20cm cake tin with baking paper. Melt butter and caster sugar in a medium saucepan, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Taking the pan from the heat, stir in the flour, egg and almond essence, stirring with a wooden spoon until a soft dough is formed. Divide the dough in half placing one in the cake tin, pressing it to cover the entire bottom of the tin. Layer the apple slices over the cake mix and sprinkle over the sugar. Finally, gently press the other half of the cake mixture in an even layer over the apples.
Place in the centre of the preheated oven and cook for about 45 minutes or until golden brown. Dust cake with icing sugar just before serving.

Stuffed Tomatoes with Feta Cheese (Greece)

Stuffed Tomatoes Ingredients (Serves 4)

• 4 medium-sized tomatoes
• 2 tbsp finely chopped scallions
• 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
• 1/2 cup finely crumbed feta cheese
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• 3 tbsp olive oil

Carefully cut tops off tomatoes. Using a spoon, scoop out pulp and seeds. Save pulp and discard the seeds. Coarsely chop the tomato pulp. Preheat oven to 350F. In a small bowl, combine tomato pulp with scallions, parsley, feta cheese, bread crumbs and olive oil. Spoon mixture into the hollowed-out tomatoes. Place tomatoes right side up in a baking dish and bake 20 minutes.

Crepes (French)

French Crepes Ingredients

• 125 g plain flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 (125ml) milk
• 4 tablespoons of caster/granulated sugar
• few drops of vanilla essence
• 50g melted butter
• 1 pinch of salt
• Extra butter to grease the pan

Add small knob of butter to a hot pan remove excess with wipe. Laddle enough batter to cover the base of the pan, cook until edges turn a soft golden brown, flip pancake and cook other side. Add filling and serve.
Sweet fillings: granulated sugar, jam, chocolate spread, lemon juice and granuated sugar, sugar and Grand Marnier. Savoury fillings include cheese and ham, cheese and spinash, eggs and mushrooms. Crepes are very versatile and can be filled with many cooked/ready to eat ingredients. Traditionally in France, apple cider is the drink served with crepes.

Gado Gado (Indonesian)

Gado Gado Salad Ingredients (Serves 6)

• 225g new potatoes, washed and halved
• 2 carrots, cut into sticks
• 115g green beans
• 1/2 small cauliflower, broken into florets
• 1/4 firm cabbage, shredded
• 200g bean or lentil sprouts

Satay Sauce

• 1 teaspoon blachan (shrimp paste), toasted on a piece of foil for 1 minute (or use fish sauce)
• 1 teaspoon tamarind paste
• 25 g peanuts, chopped
• 1 tablespoon palm sugar
• 1/2 stalk lemongrass, finely sliced
• 4 shallots, chopped
• 2 fresh red bird's eye chillies, chopped
• 125 ml coconut milk

Prepare the satay sauce. Put the toasted blachan (shrimp paste) in a blender, add tamarind paste, peanuts, sugar, lemongrass, shallots and chillies. Heat the coconut milk in a small saucepan to near-boiling point, then add to the blender and puree briefly to form a sauce.

Last updated 17 November 2010 - All rights reserved - All content & photographs copyright © Festiv Media 2010. Email info@festivmedia.com. All Photographs on this site were taken in Sydney, Australia.