1.
Tarator
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Tarator, tarathor, taratur, or ttalattouri, is a soup, appetizer, or sauce found in the cuisines of Eastern Europe. It generally includes ground walnuts, garlic, and yogurt or tahini, and often cucumber, herbs, in the Balkans, it is a cold soup, popular in the summer. It is made of yogurt, cucumber, garlic, walnut, dill, vegetable oil, and water, local variations may replace yogurt with water and vinegar, omit nuts or dill, or add bread. The cucumbers may on occasions be replaced with lettuce or carrots. Turkish and Levantine tarator is usually a sauce based on tahini and it is often served with fish or fried seafood. Cypriot Greek, τταλαττούρι is not a soup-like sauce like Bulgarian tarator, the word is found in languages from the Balkans to the Levant, and appears to be of Bulgarian origin. In Bulgaria, tarator is a meze but also served as a side dish along with Shopska salad with most meals. It is probably the most popular dish in the hot summer days, sunflower and olive oil are more commonly used and walnut is sometimes omitted. Tarator is seasoned with garlic and dill both of which can be omitted if so desired, Tarator is a popular dish in Bulgaria. A salad version of tarator is known as Snow-white salad, also called Dry Tarator and it is made of thick yogurt, without water. It can be served as an appetizer or as a side to the main meal, in Albania, Tarator is a very popular dish in summertime. It is usually served cold and is made from yoghurt, garlic, parsley, cucumber, salt. Fried squids are usually offered with tarator, in Greece, a similar dish is known as Tzatziki. Tzatziki usually contains olive oil, dill, lemon juice in addition to the ingredients listed above, a similar dish in Iran is called ab-doogh-khiar which contains salt, basil, leek, mint, black pepper, raisins, and ice. In this style, sometimes dried bread chips are put in the dish just before serving, Tarator is a popular salad and dip in Serbia and Macedonia, it is also known as tarator salata. It is made with yogurt, sliced cucumber and diced garlic, in Turkish cuisine, tarator is a dip sauce generally eaten with fried fish and squid. The sauce includes white bread crumbs, walnuts, lemon juice or vinegar, salt, pepper, garlic, herbs, one Turkish version using the name, tahinli tarator, is a similar dish specifically containing tahin or sesame. In the coastal towns of Turkey, fried squid or mussels are almost always served with tarator sauce, in Syria and Lebanon, طرطور is made of Tahini, lemon juice, crushed garlic, salt and water
2.
Dipping sauce
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A dip or dipping sauce is a common condiment for many types of food. Unlike other sauces, instead of applying the sauce to the food, dips are commonly used for finger foods, appetizers, and other easily held foods. Thick dips based on cream, crème fraiche, milk, yogurt, mayonnaise, soft cheese. Alton Brown suggests that a dip is defined based on its ability to contact with its transport mechanism over three feet of white carpet. Dips in various forms are all over the world and people have been using sauces for dipping for thousands of years. Some types of dip include, Aioli, a mayonnaise flavored with garlic, ajika, a spicy, subtly flavoured dip in Caucasian cuisine, based on hot red pepper, garlic, herbs and spices. Ajvar, made from red bell peppers with garlic, found in Serbian cuisine Artichoke dip, some versions are served chunky, while others are puréed and have a smooth texture Baba ghanoush, a dip made from eggplant. It is popular in the Eastern Mediterranean and parts of South Asia, bagna càuda, a regional dish of the Italian Piedmont, it is composed of garlic, anchovies, oil and dairy, and is served with assorted vegetables for dipping. Barbecue sauce, a common sauce either tomato, vinegar, or mustard based, often used for grilled and fried meats, and french fries in the United States. Bean dip, dip made from refried beans Blue cheese dressing is made from mayonnaise, sour cream, yogurt, blue cheese, milk, vinegar, onion powder, dry mustard. It is commonly used as a dip for raw vegetables or buffalo wings, buffalo sauce, made from vinegar-based pepper hot sauce, is often used as both a coating for buffalo wings as well as a standalone dipping sauce for other foods. Chile con queso, a dip of melted cheese and chili peppers used in Tex Mex cuisine with tortilla chips, chili oil is used as a dipping sauce for meat and dim sum. Chocolate, a dip for various fruits, doughnuts, profiteroles, chutney, any of a wide variety of sauces with origins in the sub-continent of India, from freshly chopped herbs in yogurt, to bottled, spiced fruit mixtures. Used with snacks like deep fried samosas and pakoras, in India and Sri Lanka, it is also commonly served with dosa and idli. Clam dip, a kind of condiment for dipping crackers and chips, cocktail sauce, a popular dip for seafood made from ketchup or chili sauce and horseradish. Crab dip, a thick dip popular in Maryland usually made from cream cheese, curry ketchup, also called Currygewürz in Germany, is a spicier form of ketchup. Fish sauce, or nam pla, the fermented fish equivalent of soy sauce, used in southeastern Asian cuisines as a dip for snacks, fish paste or bagoong, fermented fish paste, used in southeastern Asian cuisines as a dip for rice dishes. Fondue, a cheese sauce, which rose in popularity in the U. S
3.
Soup
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Soup is a primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot, that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables with stock, juice, water, or another liquid. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids in a pot until the flavors are extracted, traditionally, soups are classified into two main groups, clear soups and thick soups. The established French classifications of clear soups are bouillon and consommé, other ingredients commonly used to thicken soups and broths include egg, rice, lentils, flour, and grains, many popular soups also include carrots and potatoes. Soups are similar to stews, and in some there may not be a clear distinction between the two, however, soups generally have more liquid than stews. Evidence of the existence of soup can be found as far back as about 20,000 BC, boiling was not a common cooking technique until the invention of waterproof containers. Animal hides and watertight baskets of bark or reeds were used before this, to boil the water hot rocks were used. This method was used to cook acorns and other plants. The word soup comes from French soupe, which comes through Vulgar Latin suppa from a Germanic source, from which comes the word sop. In 1765, a Parisian entrepreneur opened a shop specializing in such soups and this prompted the use of the modern word restaurant for the eating establishments. A1772 cookbook, The Frugal Housewife, contained a chapter on the topic. English cooking dominated early colonial cooking, but as new immigrants arrived from other countries, in particular, German immigrants living in Pennsylvania were famous for their potato soups. In 1794, Jean Baptiste Gilbert Payplat dis Julien, a refugee from the French Revolution, opened an establishment in Boston called The Restorator. The first American cooking pamphlet dedicated to soup recipes was written in 1882 by Emma Ewing, Soups, portable soup was devised in the 18th century by boiling seasoned meat until a thick, resinous syrup was left that could be dried and stored for months at a time. Commercial soup became popular with the invention of canning in the 19th century, doctor John T. Dorrance, a chemist with the Campbell Soup Company, invented condensed soup in 1897. Today, Campbells Tomato, Cream of Mushroom, and Chicken Noodle Soup are three of the most popular soups in America, americans consume approximately 2.5 billion bowls of these three soups alone each year. Canned soup can be condensed, in case it is prepared by adding water, or it can be ready-to-eat. Canned soup can be prepared by heating in a pan, on the stovetop or in the microwave, such soups can be used as a base for homemade soups, with the consumer adding anything from a few vegetables to eggs, meat, cream or pasta. Condensing soup allows soup to be packaged into a smaller can, the soup is usually doubled in volume by adding a can full of water or milk
4.
Hors d'oeuvre
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An hors doeuvre, appetizer, or starter is a small dish served before a meal. Some hors doeuvres are served cold, others hot, Hors doeuvres may be served at the dinner table as a part of the meal, or they may be served before seating. Formerly, hors doeuvres were also served between courses, typically smaller than a main dish, it is often designed to be eaten by hand. Hors doeuvre in French means outside the work—that is, not part of the set of courses in a meal. Appetizer is a synonym for hors doeuvre, starter is sometimes used to denote an hors doeuvre, sometimes to denote more substantial courses, known in Europe and North America as entrées. A small number of historians believe that the tradition may have begun in Russia. However, it may be that the custom originated in China, possibly coming through Steppes, into Russia, Scandinavia, France, the tradition may have reached Italy, Greece and the Balkan nations through Russia or Persia. Many national customs are related, including the Swedish smörgåsbord, Russian zakuska, Lebanese mezze, during the Roman Period the meal practice was to have two main courses which were supplemented before the meal with small amounts of fish, vegetables, cheeses, olives and even stuffed dormice. These would be served at the start of the known as either gustatio or promulsis. The Greeks called the appetizer course propoma, during the Middle Ages formal French meals were served with entremets between the serving of plates. These secondary dishes could be either actual food dishes, or elaborate displays, in the 14th century, recipes for entremets were mostly made with meat, fish, pork and vegetables. Along with this came elaborate silver and ceramic table displays as well as pièces montées, the entremets were placed between the other dishes within the main work of the meal. At about this time in the 17th century, smaller dishes began to be served by being placed outside the work of symmetrically placed dishes. These were known as hors doeuvre, Hors doeuvres were originally served as a canapé of small toasted bread with a savoury topping before a meal. In the French publication Les plaisirs de la table, Edouard Nignon stated that hors doeuvres originated in Asia and he went on to state that the French considered hors-doeuvres to be superfluous to a well cooked meal. Service à la française continued in Europe until the early 19th century, after the 19th century the entremet would become almost exclusively a sweet dish or dessert with the British custom of the savoury being the only remaining tradition of the savoury entremet. The style of formal dining changed drastically in the 19th century, some traditional hors doeuvres would remain on the table throughout the meal. These included olives, nuts, celery and radishes, the changing, contemporary hors doeuvres, sometimes called dainty dishes became more complicated in preparation
5.
Side dish
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A side dish, sometimes referred to as a side order, side item, or simply a side, is a food item that accompanies the entrée or main course at a meal. Side dishes such as salad, potatoes and bread are used with main courses throughout many countries of the western world. New side orders introduced within the past decade, such as rice and couscous, have grown to be popular throughout Europe. When used as an adjective qualifying the name of a dish, for example, a side salad usually served in a small bowl or salad plate, in contrast to a large dinner-plate-sized entrée salad. A typical American meal with a main dish might include one vegetable side dish, sometimes in the form of a salad. Some common side dishes include, Some restaurants offer a selection of side dishes which are included with the price of the entrée as a combination meal. In contrast, sometimes side dishes are ordered separately from an a la carte menu, the term may or may not imply that the dish can only be ordered with other food. French fries are the most common dish served at fast-food restaurants. The related phrase on the side may be synonymous with side dish – as in French fries on the side – or may refer to a sauce or condiment served in a separate dish. For example, a diner may request a salad be served with its dressing on the side, banchan, Korean side dishes Food pyramid In a basket Platter Greene, Janet, et al. Family Living, Simply Delicious Side Dishes
6.
Meze
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Meze or mezze is a selection of small dishes served to accompany alcoholic drinks in the Near East, the Balkans, and parts of Central Asia. In Levantine, Caucasian, and Balkan cuisines, meze is served at the beginning of multi-course meals. The word is found in all the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire, in Greece, Cyprus and the Balkans, mezé, mezés, or mezédhes are small dishes, hot or cold, spicy or savory. Popular meze dishes include, Mutabbal/Babaghanoush – eggplant mashed and mixed with seasonings, Hummus – a dip or spread made from cooked, mashed chickpeas Hummus with meat Falafel – a deep-fried ball or patty made from ground chickpeas, fava beans, or both. Tashi – Dip made from tahini, garlic, salt and lemon juice with chopped parsley garnish, souvlaki – Bite sized meat cubes, grilled on a skewer over charcoal. Stifado – Slow cooked beef stew with lots of onions, garlic, tomatoes, cinnamon, pepper, afelia – Diced pork marinated in wine with coriander seed, then stewed. Lountza – Smoked pork loin slice, usually grilled, dolma Vegetables like peppers, eggplants or courgettes stuffed with rice, chopped mint, lemon juice, pepper, minced meat. Sarma – Grape vine leaves, stuffed with rice, chopped mint, lemon juice, pepper, yogurt Tzatziki – Dip made from plain yogurt, chopped cucumber with finely chopped garlic and mint leaf. Tarama – a fish roe dip based on cured carp fish roe, mashed potatoes, in the traditional Istanbul variety of this dish, a substantial part of the roe must remain intact. Labneh – strained youghurt which tastes similar to cream or sour cream only more tart, there are vegetarian, meat or fish mezes. Groups of dishes arrive at the table about 4 or 5 at a time, establishments will offer their own specialities, but the pattern remains the same. Naturally the dishes served will reflect the seasons, for example, in late autumn, snails will be prominent. As so much food is offered, it is not expected that every dish be finished, eating a Cypriot meze is a social event. In the Balkans, meze is very similar to Mediterranean antipasti in the sense that cured cold-cuts, cheese and salads are dominant ingredients, in southern Croatia, Herzegovina and Montenegro more mediterranean forms of cured meat like pršut and panceta and regional products like olives are common. Albanian-style meze platters typically include prosciutto ham, salami and brined cheese, in Bulgaria, popular mezes are lukanka, soujouk, sirene, and Shopska salad made with tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, roasted peppers and sirene. In Romania, mezelic means quick appetizer and includes Zacuscă, cheeses and salamis, meze is generally accompanied by the distilled drinks rakı, arak, ouzo, Aragh Sagi, rakia, mastika, or tsipouro. It may also be consumed with beer, wine and other alcoholic drinks, Cyprus Brandy is a favourite drink to accompany meze in Cyprus, although lager or wine are popular with some. The same dishes, served without alcoholic drinks, are termed muqabbilat in Arabic, in Bulgaria, meze is served primarily at consumption of wine but also as an appetizer for rakia and mastika
7.
Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
8.
Strained yogurt
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Like many types of yogurt, strained yogurt is often made from milk that has been enriched by boiling off some of its water content, or by adding extra butterfat and powdered milk. In Europe and North America, it is made with low-fat or fat-free yogurt. In Scandinavia, particularly Iceland, a product, skyr is produced. Such dishes may be cooked or raw, savory or sweet, due to the straining process to remove excess whey, even non-fat varieties of strained yogurt are much thicker, richer, and creamier than yogurts that have not been strained. In western Europe and the US, strained yogurt has increased in popularity compared to unstrained yogurt, since the straining process removes some of the lactose, strained yogurt is lower in sugar than unstrained yogurt. It was reported in 2012 that most of the growth in the $4.1 billion US yogurt industry came from the strained yogurt sub-segment, in the US there is no legal definition of Greek yogurt, and yogurt thickened with thickening agents may also be sold as Greek yogurt. Strained yogurt contains a higher density than regular yogurt. The protein in strained yogurt is largely casein protein, in Armenia, strained yogurt is called kamats matzoon. Traditionally, it was produced for long-term preservation by draining matzoon in cloth sacks, afterwards it was stored in leather sacks or clay pots for a month or more depending on the degree of salting. In Albania, strained yogurt is called salcë kosi, after preparing yogurt from micro-cultured milk, it is drained in a cloth sack from few hours, to overnight. The water released from this process is called hir and can be used to preserve cheese or as a drink. Meanwhile the strained yogurt is used in many variation in the Albanian cuisine and is either plain or with added elements such as dill, garlic, cucumber, nuts. In the countries of the former Yugoslavia, strained yogurt made of milk has become very popular in recent years. It is usually labeled grčki tip jogurta and eaten on its own as a snack or dessert, in Macedonia its widely known as „павлака. In Bulgaria, where yogurt is considered to be a part of the national cuisine, strained yogurt is called tsedeno kiselo mlyako. Another similar product is katak, which is made from sheep or goat milk. In the cuisines of many Iranian, Baloch, and Turkic peoples and it is obtained by draining qatiq, a local yogurt variety. By further drying it, one obtains qurut, a kind of dry fresh cheese, Strained yogurt in Balochistan is called Sheelanch and is a vital part of the nomadic diet
9.
Cucumber
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Cucumber is a widely cultivated plant in the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae. It is a vine that bears cucumiform fruits that are used as vegetables. There are three varieties of cucumber, slicing, pickling, and seedless. Within these varieties, several cultivars have been created, in North America, the term wild cucumber refers to plants in the genera Echinocystis and Marah, but these are not closely related. The cucumber is originally from South Asia, but now grows on most continents, many different types of cucumber are traded on the global market. The cucumber is a vine that roots in the ground and grows up trellises or other supporting frames, wrapping around supports with thin. The plant may also root in a medium and will sprawl along the ground if it does not have supports. The vine has large leaves form a canopy over the fruits. The fruit of cultivars of cucumber is roughly cylindrical, but elongated with tapered ends. Botanically speaking, the cucumber is classified as a pepo, a type of berry with a hard outer rind. Much like tomato and squash, it is perceived, prepared. Cucumber fruits are more than 90% water. A few cultivars of cucumber are parthenocarpic, the blossoms creating seedless fruit without pollination, pollination for these cultivars degrades the quality. In the United States, these are grown in greenhouses. In Europe, they are outdoors in some regions. Most cucumber cultivars, however, are seeded and require pollination, thousands of hives of honey bees are annually carried to cucumber fields just before bloom for this purpose. Cucumbers may also be pollinated by bumblebees and several other bee species, most cucumbers that require pollination are self-incompatible, so pollen from a different plant is required to form seeds and fruit. Some self-compatible cultivars exist that are related to the Lemon cultivar, symptoms of inadequate pollination include fruit abortion and misshapen fruit
10.
Garlic
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Garlic is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, with a history of several thousand years of human consumption and use, garlic is native to the region between the Mediterranean and China, and has long been a common seasoning worldwide. It was known to Ancient Egyptians, and has used both as a food flavoring and as a traditional medicine. Allium sativum is a bulbous plant and it grows up to 1.2 m in height. Its hardiness is USDA Zone 8 and it is pollinated by bees and other insects. Allium sativum grows in the wild in areas where it has become naturalized, the wild garlic, crow garlic, and field garlic of Britain are members of the species Allium ursinum, Allium vineale, and Allium oleraceum, respectively. In North America, Allium vineale and Allium canadense, known as garlic or wild garlic. So-called elephant garlic is actually a wild leek, and not a true garlic, single clove garlic originated in the Yunnan province of China. A. sativum var. ophioscorodon Döll, called Ophioscorodon, or hard-necked garlic, includes porcelain garlics, rocambole garlic and it is sometimes considered to be a separate species, Allium ophioscorodon G. Don. A. sativum var. sativum, or soft-necked garlic, includes artichoke garlic, silverskin garlic, Garlic is easy to grow and can be grown year-round in mild climates. While sexual propagation of garlic is possible, nearly all of the garlic in cultivation is propagated asexually, in colder climates, cloves are planted in the autumn, about six weeks before the soil freezes, and harvested in late spring or early summer. The cloves must be planted deep enough to prevent freeze/thaw, which causes mold or white rot, Garlic plants can be grown closely together, leaving enough space for the bulbs to mature, and are easily grown in containers of sufficient depth. Garlic does well in loose, dry, well-drained soils in sunny locations, when selecting garlic for planting, it is important to pick large bulbs from which to separate cloves. Large cloves, along with proper spacing in the planting bed, Garlic plants prefer to grow in a soil with a high organic material content, but are capable of growing in a wide range of soil conditions and pH levels. There are different varieties or subspecies of garlic, most notably hardneck garlic, the latitude where the garlic is grown affects the choice of type, as garlic can be day-length sensitive. Hardneck garlic is grown in cooler climates and produces relatively large cloves, whereas softneck garlic is generally grown closer to the equator and produces small. Garlic scapes are removed to all the garlics energy into bulb growth. The scapes can be eaten raw or cooked, Garlic plants are usually hardy and not affected by many pests or diseases
