Baba ganoush

Ate Baba Ganoush at Ataturk (a pretty good restaurant on Bussorah Street). Decided to try to replicate it. Unfortunately, doesn't taste like that version, but still decent quality.

If I were to make it next time, I'd use slightly less tahini and raw garlic to bring out eggplant taste more. When refridgerated, the raw garlic intensified. The tahini added a bit too much sesame taste to it - leading one consumer to say "I thought this was hummus" (another taster said she hated eggplant normally by implication saying the eggplant wasn't obvious.... uh ... ).

Used the recipe from : http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/02/the-best-baba-ganoush-recipe.html

Ekmek Bread

Made some ekmek bread using this recipe :
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/21106/ekmek-turkish-bread/

Works well. No completed product pic coz I forgot to take it, but it tastes good, with a mild sourdough taste. Served it to classmates in my leadership & teamwork class and they liked it.

The starter used in the recipe needs a modified instruction for our hot and humid climate (triangulated by searching for starter techniques in hot climates). You can feed the starter every half day, not one day. This means starting at the evening of the 1st day and ready to start on the bread on the morning of the 3rd day.

The starter was bubbling on the 3rd day and smelled weird, almost like old socks. But a search of the internet showed that starter can have strong, weird smells.

Beef Stew and my fav tomato sauce recipe

This marries my favourite tomato sauce recipe found at

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/09/the-best-slow-cooked-italian-american-tomato-sauce-red-sauce-recipe.html

With beef.

essentially, brown some bacon. Take out the bacon, then brown the beef. Then for the rest of the way, use the tomato sauce recipe. I also added a cup of syrah (may not have been necessary).