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

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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Mosaic Cake – Mozaik Pasta (no baking)

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Mozaic Cake – Mozaik Pasta
This is a light chocolate cake made with tea biscuits (or Petit Beurres). I use tea biscuits since they don’t have butter & are much lighter than Petit Beurres. This cake is easy and quick to make since no baking is needed. Mom’s original recipe called for one egg. If you have access to fresh, healthy eggs you may want to try it, but to avoid any risk, I deleted the raw egg from my recipe.
Ingredients:
  • ½ stick unsalted butter, melted
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ½ cup milk, warmed
  • 3/4 cup cocoa powder
  • ¼ cup walnuts cut into small pieces
  • ¼ cup pistachio nuts (optional)
  • ¼ cup roasted almonds (optional)
  • 12 oz (about 50 pieces) tea biscuits (or Petit Beurre), broken into pieces
  • 3 table spoons of light coconut flakes (optional). These are unsweetened, drier, smaller pieces compared to regular sweetened coconut flakes.
Directions:
Break the tea biscuits into small pieces, but do not crumble.
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except for the biscuits and the nuts. Make sure the milk is warm to avoid caking of the butter. Stir well with a whisk or a hand held mixer. Add broken biscuits and nuts into the mixture, stirring gently making sure the sauce covers all the pieces.
Place a large piece of plastic wrap on a flat surface. Spoon the mixture over the plastic, forming a long log. Wrap the plastic around the mixture, making sure edges of the wrap overlaps. It will look like a big salami. Gently squeeze from all sides. It will reduce to almost half of the loose log you started with. This will get rid of the air bubbles inside and the log will feel solid. Then roll the wrapped log to make sure it is a well rounded cylinder. You can also shape it as a triangle or square if you want.

Place the log in the freezer for at least 2 hours. When ready to serve, take it out, unwrap the log. Sprinkle coconut flakes on a flat surface (optional). Roll the log on coconut flakes. Cut into slices, place on a serving dish and enjoy! 

Broken Tea Biscuits
Butter, milk, sugar & cocoa mixed into chocolate sauce
Walnuts, pistachios and almonds
Biscuits and sauce mixed
Cake mixture placed on plastic wrap
Mosaic Cake log wrapped in plastic
Frozen mosaic cake rolled in coconut
Mosaic Cake slices

 

Afiyet Olsun! Bon Appetit!

Pistachio Helva with Ice Cream

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Pistachio Helva
Ingredients:

  • 1 cup of semolina (farina)
  • 1 stick of unsalted butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons ground unsalted pistachio nuts meat (I use my coffee grinder)
  • Vanilla ice cream (optional)

Directions:
In a pot, bring water and sugar to a boil, stirring occasionally. When it comes to a boil, remove from the
heat, set aside.

In a large pot, combine butter and semolina. Sauté the semolina over medium heat stirring slowly for about 5-6 minutes (should NOT turn brown). Lower the heat, slowly add the syrup, stirring constantly. It will thicken. Add 1/2 cup ground pistachio, stir until well blended. Remove from the heat. Cover the pot. Wait 10-15 minutes. Using an ice cream spoon or a melon baller, shape them into balls, place on a serving dish. Sprinkle remaining ground pistachios over them as garnish. Serve warm helva with vanilla ice-cream (optional).
Ground pistachios
Cooked helva
Melon baller used to shape this helva
Ice-cream scoop is used to shape this helva

Chocolate Balls with Pistachios & Coconut

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Here’s a great party favorite. They are bite size and go great with after dinner drinks too.
No cooking involved, just mix, roll and chill. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

  • 3 table spoons sugar
  • 3/4 cup orange juice
  • zest of 1 orange,finely scraped
  • 5 cups finely crushed Petit Beurre or Tea Biscuits (about 11oz)
  • 2 heaping table spoons cocoa powder
  • 1 stick (1/4 lb) unsalted butter
  • 1 cup coarsely chopped unsalted pistachios
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1 cup semi sweet chocolate morsels
  • 1/2 cup light coconut flakes (drier and smaller flakes)
  • 1/2 cup coarsely grated pistachio nuts’ meat

Directions:
Crush biscuits in a large bowl. I crushed them by hand, but you can put them in a large plastic bag and crush them with a roller or even with an empty wine bottle. It is OK to have small uncrushed pieces for when you add liquids they dissolve easily. I use Tea Biscuits instead of the Petit Beurre biscuits since they are lighter.
In a small bowl, combine orange juice with sugar. Mix well with a spoon until sugar dissolves.
Add all ingredients including the orange juice with the exception of coconuts and grated pistachio nuts to the large bowl. Mix well, chill in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes.

Melt chocolate over boiling water.

Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
Form the mixture in the bowl into small walnut size balls by rolling them between the palms of your hands. Use up all of the mixture to make all of the balls. Mine yielded a total of 50 balls.

Coarsely Chopped Pistachios for the mixture
Grated pistachios for the outside
Mixture formed into balls ready to be dipped in chocolate

Dip the balls in melted chocolate first, then roll half of the balls in coconut flakes and the other half in pistachio nuts. Place them on the cookie sheet. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before serving. You may want to place fancy party tooth picks to add a nice accent to these delicious dessert bytes.

Half the balls are rolled in grated pistachios
The other half rolled in coconut
 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]