Recipes By Ingredient

About two decades ago I started to collect recipes, jotting them down in my very first recipe notebook. The very first recipe, written neatly with my then legible handwriting was called Banani, which...

This recipe for the most delicious crumb cake comes from my friend Sevinj in Baku. She learned how to make it from a cooking show back in Azerbaijan hosted by Shirin, a baker....

Spring is here and so is the spring holiday Novruz! A lot of holiday baking has been done by Azerbaijanis around the world to celebrate the arrival of spring on March 21st. Along...

If you, like me, love leafy greens and quiche-like bakes of all sorts, then Swiss Chard and Spinach Crostata with Fennel Seed Crust should be right up your valley, and you should make...

One of my favorite categories of dishes in the amazing Turkish cuisine is the borek category. Borek (börek) is a savory pie. There are tons of  borek recipes across Turkey. The regional varieties...

I’ve  been making these delicious quick cheese roll-ups for a very long time and they are always a hit in the household. As the name suggests, they take little time to make.  Yet,...

My spinach repertoire continues. This time I added a spinach salad I learned from my dear friend Asli. They came over for dinner the other day. The table was set… but I was...

After a dozen experiments with toppings for a fish fillet to bake in the oven, I am finally ready to announce the winner. It is butter-lemon-garlic topping. Very simple. Made with butter, garlic,...

In Azerbaijan, bughlama is the general name given to the dishes in which the main ingredient, fish, meat or poultry, simmers with minimal or no liquid added to it, typically along with fresh...

This is my first recipe in the Fish category. And I started with the king of Azerbaijani fish recipes – baked fish stuffed with walnuts. On joyful occasions such as the celebration of...

Nothing can beat an impressive loaf of crusty, rustic bread coming out of a home oven. Won’t you agree? I love homemade breads. Bread baking is one of my favorite kitchen activities, if...

A couple of years ago, when mom was visiting from Baku, I wanted to proudly demonstrate my new baking skills to her. She watched curiously, expecting difficult techniques and methods, but soon realized...

These days the family likes to hear “Dinner rolls are served!” more than “Dinner is served!” because they can’t get enough of homemade dinner rolls, especially when they are utterly, sinfully, ultimately good,...

Do you see yellow in the picture? I mean the beautiful yellow inside the slice of bread? Don’t rush to blame photoshop for this. The poor thing is not to blame (at least...

You’ve probably heard it before. Maybe you’ve said it to yourself about sponge cakes: “My cake didn’t rise a bit. It was one big gooey mess. Dense and tasteless. It rose in the...

If you ask a Turk living away from Turkey to name 5 foods he or she misses the most, chances are one of them will be simit. Some will also add cheese and...

I love baking rolls, especially those that garner me lots of praise and compliments (that’s how modest I am), and this is exactly  what mi amiga Marysol’s honey rolls have been doing for...

It´great that it is still October 29 here and I am not late to post my October challenge. It’s not 12 am yet:) Makes me feel like Cinderella for a day:) The reason...

The family just can’t get enough of pirojki or piroshki—hand pies stuffed with delicious  savory fillings, including mashed potato, sauteed ground beef, cabbage or green peas.  Pirojki are believed to have originated from...

Hi, I am back. And I am going to challenge you today as I did myself yesterday, cooking dushbere, Azerbaijani dumpling soup. It is my four-year-old daughter’s favorite, who loves this soup so...

Occasionally, I have major cravings for tandir bread, or tandoori bread as it is better known in the US. Nothing comes close to the taste of a freshly baked crusty bread coming out...