Yasemin's Kitchen

Mediterranean Recipes with a Turkish Flair

Stuffed Dates

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                           Stuffed Dates

Here’s a sinfully decadent vegan dessert that is healthy at the same time.
Looks delicious and is always a party favorite as an appetizer.
It is very easy to make, no baking or cooking involved.

Ingredients:

  • 25 Medjool dates, pitted, halved
  • ½ cup almond butter (cashew butter, hazelnut butter, peanut butter, or any combination of mixed nut butter can be used in place of almond butter)
  • 1/3 cup pistachio meat, coarsely chopped

Directions:

  1. Cut pitted dates in half, set on a clean surface.
  2. Using a knife, spread almond butter on the dates, mostly filling the small crevice in the middle, about ½ teaspoon on each piece.
  3. Sprinkle chopped pistachios on stuffed dates
  4. Place stuffed dates on a serving plate, enjoy!

You can store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to a week. For best flavor, make sure you let it come to room temperature before serving.

Dates halved and pitted

 

Dates stuffed with almond butter

 

Sprinkle pistachio meat on stuffed dates

Variation: Dates stuffed with sesame paste (tahini) and topped with walnuts:

Dates Stuffed with Sesame Paste and Walnuts

Ingredients:

  • 25 Medjool dates, pitted, halved
  • 1/4 cup sesame paste (Tahini). This is sold in Middle Eastern grocery stores. It is most commonly used for making hummus.
  • 25 pieces of walnut halves or quarters

Directions:

  1. Cut dates in half, remove the pits, set on a clean surface.
  2. Using a knife, spread sesame paste (tahini) on the dates, mostly filling the small crevice in the middle. Do not use too much for it will run on the sides of the dates
  3. Place walnut halves (or quarters) on stuffed dates
  4. Place stuffed dates on a serving plate. Cover with plastic wrap, place in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes allowing it to set.
  5. Remove from the refrigerator when ready to serve. Enjoy!

Dates stuffed with sesame paste (Tahini)

Top the stuffed dates with walnut halves

Assorted Stuffed Dates

Rainbow Fruit Tower

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Rainbow Fruit Tower

 

Here’s a refreshing fruit dessert that looks appetizing and tastes heavenly.
It is easy to make, easy to serve. It makes a great breakfast/brunch dessert as well.
I’m very thankful to Gonul hanim for this wonderful recipe. Enjoy!
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Kataifi Balls with Pistachio Filling

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Kataifi Balls with Pistachios

Kataifi Balls with Pistachios (Fincanda Antep Fıstıklı Kadayıf)

Kataifi is a shredded dough that sort of looks like shredded wheat cereal. It is mostly used for desserts with syrup. Different kinds of nuts, fresh cream or even sweet cheese is used as filling making it a very rich, tasty dessert. Some versions are served hot, some served warm or at room temperature, all delicious regardless. Typically the dough is formed as two flat layers on a tray with filling in the middle. It is then cut into squares to serve. This one is similar- nut filling inside the shredded kataifi dough, however, since it is formed into balls before baking, it looks very presentable to serve.

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Walnut Stuffed Figs – Cevizli Kuru İncir Tatlısı

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Walnut Stuffed Figs – Cevizli Kuru İncir Tatlısı
I grew up in the Western part of Turkey. The region we lived in (Aydin) is famous for its figs. When I was a kid, figs were never sold in the market or stores. Most everybody in our town had fig groves. For those families like mine who were not farmers, your neighbors would send you baskets full of fresh figs almost every morning. They were huge baskets (or maybe I was little), lined with grape leaves at the bottom to serve as a cushion for the fruits, a layer of grapes on the leaves and figs on the top. They only pick the very ripe ones and so early in the morning that there would still be dew on the fruit.

Figs are very rich in fiber. For this reason I guess, adults used to warn us kids that if we drink too much water after eating figs, we would have diarrhea. Luckyly nobody ever listened to the advise. We did eat figs and drank water to our hearts’ desire, and of course, nothing happened.

Come winter, we had dried figs. Most evenings, for dessert, people used to eat dried figs with walnuts stuffed in them. I call them fig bombs. They are delicious though not exactly your low calorie snack.
Figs stuffed with walnuts: Fig Bombs!
My grandmother used to make this dessert with dry figs at least a couple of times every winter.
Ingredients:
  • 1 lb dried figs
  • 2 cups warm water to soak the figs
  • 1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 table spoon unsalted butter
  • Handful of walnuts for garnish (optional)
Directions:
Wash and drain the figs. In a bowl, let the figs soak in warm water for 30 minutes.
Put butter in a shallow pot. Heat the pot until butter melts. Spread the butter to the bottom as evenly as possible. Turn off heat.
Remove figs from water. Cut the tops. Open up a hole at the top. Fill each fig with walnuts. Place them in the shallow pot with the openings at the top.
In a separate pot, combine milk, water and sugar. Warm it, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Add the milk mixture to the figs. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat, let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat. Let it cool to room temperature. Transfer to a serving plate. Garnish with walnuts.
Dry Figs
Tops removed, ready to be stuffed
Coarsly chopped walnuts
Figs stuffed with walnuts
Stuffed figs cooking in milk-sugar mixture
Walnut Stuffed Figs – Cevizli Kuru İncir Tatlısı

Afiyet Olsun! Bon Appetit!

Chocolate Pudding with Tea Biscuits & Coconuts

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Chocolate Pudding with Tea Biscuits and Coconuts
This is one of my mother in law Nevzat Ari’s signature desserts. She added a twist to the good ol’ chocolate pudding by letting the pudding set on tea biscuits. She has a version of this dessert in her refrigerator almost all the time. Although she would mostly garnish it with coconuts, occasionally she would use grated pistachio nuts or walnuts as garnish on top. Sometimes she would make it in individual pudding dishes, but she would mostly make it in a large Pyrex dish as described below. Regardless, with so many grandchildren around, it moves quickly and before you know it, she is in the kitchen making some more. It is a very light dessert, especially if you use non-fat milk. You can experiment with using a bit less sugar if you like. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
  • 5 cups milk
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 heaping table spoons corn starch
  • 2 heaping table spoons cocoa powder
  • 8 oz (about 35) Tea Biscuits or Petit Beurres
  • 1 cup coconut flakes
You would need a heat resistant dish (Pyrex) approximately 14 in x 10 in.
Directions:
In a large bowl, combine sugar, starch and cocoa powder. Slowly add 1 cup of milk, stirring with a whisk to make it a smooth mixture. Set aside.
Milk, starch and cocoa mixture

Break tea biscuits into pieces, place them in the Pyrex or other heat resistant dish, making sure pieces are evenly spread.

Tea biscuit pieces placed in a heat resistant dish
In a large pot heat 4 cups of milk, stirring occasionally over medium heat. When it starts to boil, slowly add the chocolate mixture. Continue to stir until it starts to bubble. Remove from heat.
Slowly pour 3/4 of the pudding over the tea biscuit pieces in the Pyrex dish. Gently stir with a spoon making sure pieces are submerged in the pudding.
3/4 of the chocolate pudding poured over biscuit pieces
 Then add the rest of the pudding to the top, making sure the surface is even and smooth.
Chocolate pudding is spread over the biscuit pieces
 Let it cool to room temperature. Sprinkle coconut flakes over the set pudding. Chill in the refrigerator for at least ½ hour before serving.

Coconut flakes are sprinkled over the chocolate pudding
Cut into squares to serve on individual plates.

Chocolate Pudding with tea biscuits and coconuts

 

 Afiyet Olsun! Bon Appetit!

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Yasemin Ari

I love cooking, especially cooking with friends and family.

I believe that some of the best conversations take place around the kitchen counter... [Read More]