We enjoyed our first cooking class of the season! It was great to get together and get to know so many new faces! We made an Orzo salad and enjoyed it along with the rest of the food we had for lunch together. We are looking forward to making our next dish together on October 12th.

Our Baklava cooking class was a hit! This time we made a very different version of baklava than you are used to, we made Soybiet Baklava. This is a different type of Baklava because it has a cream filling and a whole walnut inside and is folded like a triangle. It was delicious and fun to learn how to make.

We had a great time at our 2nd cooking class!

This past Saturday the Greenville Turkish cooking class made a savory dish: Besamel Soslu Tavuk (Chicken with Bechamel Sauce) absolutely wonderful!

The Columbia Istanbul Cultural office hosted it's 1st Turkish Cooking class for a long time on Saturday, September 23, 2017 and the group was taught by Aysenur, Gulay and Pascale how to make Kisir, a bulgur wheat salad and a Root Beet Salad...it was very tasty. This is a great opportunity to have an authentic Turkish lunch right here in Columbia.

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Saturdays Cooking class was just delightfully yummy. Learning how to bake these wonderful cookies was delicious. The meal we had with them was equally.

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Our cooking classes have started again!

The first dish smelled incredible as it was being prepared by Ozge and Nevin. It's a dish called Moussaka. Eggplant, Potato, Ground Beef and Tomatoes plus spices make this spectacular. Who knew you could do such interesting things with Eggplant!

We all had quite a full lunch and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know one another.

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The Istanbul Cultural Center enjoyed it's final cooking class for the season. The women showed everyone how to make Lamb Shish Kebap. The Food was amazing as always and as a group that has gathered every month for the past 9 months it was a great meal to end with.

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Our cooking class on Saturday the 18th was quite exquisite. See this wonderful dish that was made? The display of it was so enticing and it was a wonderfully tasty dish. We had to show one of the tricks...layer the bottom of the pot with onions...this prevents the meat from burning, by cooking the onions first. Our classes are growing if you can tell by the pictures!

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The First Cooking Class was well attended by approximately 14 people! Everyone had a wonderful time learning how to roll stuffed collards and eat and enjoy them! Everyone had a wonderful lunch together before departing to finish their Saturday.

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March is International Month and the time we make Baklava. This year we made twisted baklava and had 21 Participants. It was absolutely delicious.

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The Greenville Istanbul Cultural Center Ladies hosted their second Cooking Class. The group made Biscuit cake, a very popular Turkish dessert. Along with it was a full Turkish meal and Tea. It was a wonderful group of people that came together to learn. We would like to thank Efie for coming to teach us how to make this great dessert with such a wonderful combination of ways to prepare it!

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The ladies started off their cooking class making Turkish Meatballs. Everything was wonderful and smelled amazing watching it all cook.

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The Istanbul Cultural Center hosted a wonderful cooking class that was attended by approximately 15 people. We learned how to season and grill Kebab and watched a powerpoint on different Kebabs throughout Turkey.

The group was treated to a real feast of Turkish foods as well, to compliment the Kebabs. The smell of the food cooking was delightful as you can tell by the amount of pictures that were taken!

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We had a great class on March 7th and learned how to make Sigara Boregi (Borek) Everyone had a great time tasting their handiwork and learning how to wrap the dough.

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Saturday, February 14th kicked off our new session of cooking classes for the Spring. The participants made a Turkish meatball dish called Sulu Kofte. The smells of the cooking were delightful and everyone thoroughly enjoyed their meal afterwards.

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The Istanbul Cultural Center hosted it's last Fall cooking class with a great group of people that came together to learn how to make Vegetables with Bechemel sauce.
Everyone had a great time tasting what the finished product is along with the rest of the dishes prepared for us. It made our gray and rainy day a good time to make new friends and try new foods.

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On Saturday November 15th a small group of cooking class students gathered to learn how to make the Turkish Dish Borek. Everyone enjoyed the learning and fellowship together while they watched, took notes and then partook of the finished product along with the other Turkish dishes that were being served.

We welcome you to come and join us at our next class.

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The Greenville office kicked off their Fall cooking class learning how to make Stuffed Grape Leaves.
Everyone took a turn getting their rolling technique down pat while being guided from 2-3 Turkish women that came to make sure that everyone understood how to make them. They were wonderful to eat!

We look forward to the rest of this seasons classes.

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Ingredients

Fillo dough, 2cups sugar, 2cups water, 2stick butter
1 cup walnut, 3 drop lemon juice
The Istanbul Cultural Center closed out the summer cooking classes with a well attended Baklava Class. Participants were able to help layer the fillo dough and butter along with the walnuts and learned how to cut it before baking. Everyone enjoyed the finished pieces and the rest of our lunch together.

Fall cooking Classes will start in September.

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Ingredients Crepe; 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon white sugar, ¼ teaspoon salt, 3eggs, 3cups milk, 2tablespoons butter, melted
Filling;
1cup peas, 3 carrots, 1 onion, ¼ cup vegetable oil, 2pound chicken breast, 1tablespoon salt, 1teaspoon red pepper, 1teaspoon black pepper
For Top; 2cup shredded mozzarella cheese, 2tomatoes, 3sweet peppers

The SCDF Greenville office cooking class enjoyed making a dish that involves chicken and vegetables inside a crepe! It was absolutely wonderful and I can tell you that the room smelled fantastic! The other dishes that accompanied it we equally as wonderful. This is a great opportunity to have an authentic Turkish lunch right inside of Greenville!

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Ingredients: 4 potatoes, 3 carrots, 2 cups corn, 2 cups peas, 1 cup wheat, 3 spring dills, 5 tablespoon mayonnaise 3 tablespoon plain yogurt

1 teaspoon red pepper, 1 teaspoon black pepper 2 tablespoon mint 2 table spoon salt

Ingredients :7 shredded carrots, ¼ cup vegetable oil ,4tablespoon mayonnaises, 2tablespoon plain yogurt, 1tablespoon salt

The Greenville SCDF office hosted another wonderful cooking class. The women made two types of salad...A Wheat Salad and a Carrot Salad. Both were accompanied by wonderful side dishes...including Baklava!!

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INGREDIENTS: 6 potatoes, 4 green onions, 3-4 tomatoes, 2 sweet peppers, 5-6 sprigs of parsley, 4 tablespoons of oil 3 tablespoons-of lemon juice 1 teaspoons of dried red pepper 2 teaspoons of sumac powder ½ teaspoon black pepper 1 and ½ tablespoons salt 1 teaspoon mint Dill

Our Summer Turkish Cooking Classes started off wonderfully. We made Turkish Potato Salad that has a wonderfully fresh, clean and crisp taste to it.

The highlight of the cooking class isn't always the dish that we are learning to prepare...sometimes it is all the wonderful side dishes that accompany it. We had a wonderful Yogurt soup that was made with Chick peas and Barley, Stuffed Turkish Peppers, Italian Pasta with Sauce made Turkish style and two desserts to choose from...or eat both...as well as fresh watermelon...and of course Turkish Tea!

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1 lb boneless chicken breast or thighs, in chunks
1 tomato, diced or 2/3 cup crushed tomatoes
1-2 banana peppers, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 tbsp canola oil
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp cumin (optional)
¼ cup hot water (optional)
1 tsp salt to taste

The Last of our Spring Cooking Classes went out with a bang! We had a total of 14 participants attend! We would like to thank the Greenville News and International Month for the publicity. All of the participants had a wonderful time learning how to cook the meal that presented and many are looking forward to signing up for the summer courses and voiced their opinions of what they would like to learn how to make. We would like to thank everyone for coming and making this a wonderful class with a great group of people! Thank you to Tugba and Hayriye for being such wonderful cooks!

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4 cups (1lt) milk
100 gr (1/4 lb) margarine or butter
15 tbsp sugar
10 tbsp durum semolina
1 tsp vanilla extract
Walnut pieces or cinnamon for garnish

he second to the last cooking class was a great class, everyone had a wonderful time. The women made Dessert with Milk, Sutlu Irmik Tatlisi, as well as many other dishes for everyone to partake of for lunch. As always Turkish Tea is also served! Please come and join us for the last class before we take a short break.

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1 1/2 cups dried white kidney beans (cannelloni beans. Great Northern beans OK, too), presoaked in water overnight
1 medium onion, cut in half lengthwise, then thinly sliced
a generous cup of fresh chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 medium tomatoes, chopped

The Women of the Greenville office held another wonderful cooking class teaching how to make Piyaz. A very simple and easy dish for even the novice cook. Everyone enjoyed the array of food that was brought for lunch afterwards.

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1/2 cup rice washed, drained
1 cup water
2 cups whole milk
8 tbsp sugar
1 egg yolk, whisked
1 tbsp corn starch, heaping
½ tsp vanilla extract
Cinnamon

cups bulgur wheat (fine or medium grade)
1 bunch green or yellow onions, chopped
juice from 1 lemon
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
3 tablespoons red pepper paste or tomato paste
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
red pepper to taste
boiling water / 3 table spoon olive oil

The Greenville SCDF office hosted it’s Turkish Cooking class last week and taught the group how to make Kisir, a bulgur wheat salad…it was very tasty, but the highlight of the entire class what the wonderful dessert that was made that seems to be everyone’s favorite! We always enjoy the meal after learning how to cook the food!

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Hummus: Hummus is a Middle Eastern food dip made from cooked, mashed chickpeas blended with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic. In Turkey, it is popular in Mediterian region, specially in Hatay. Hummus is very health food. It is high in iron and vitamin C and also has significant amounts of vitamin B6. The chickpeas are a good source of protein and dietary fiber; the tahini consists mostly of sesame seeds, which are an excellent source of complementing the proteins in the chickpeas.

The South Carolina Dialogue Foundation's Greenville Office hosted it's first Turkish Cooking Class, teaching the Turkish way of making Humus. The class even participated in a taste off of Tahini from Fresh Market vs Tahini we have in our Turkish store from Beirut. All participants had a great time learning about Turkish foods and cultures and the foods that were prepared at the end along with traditional Turkish Tea for all to partake of were a delight!

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Ingredients:

1 cup red lentil, washed and drained
1/3 cup rice, washed and drained
1/3 cup extra fine bulgur, washed and drained
1 onion, chopped finely
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp butter
4-5 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp dried mint
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 cups cold+6-7 cups warm water
1 tbsp salt to taste
Lemon wedges or lemon juice

Ingredients
FILLING:
1 tablespoon butter
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
8 ounces ground lamb or chuck
1 tomato, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon kirmizi biber, or combination sweet paprika and cayenne pepper
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh mint
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
6 piece Tortillo

For Nutella Ganache and Glaze:

1 cup (240 grams) heavy cream
200 grams bittersweet (%70 cocoa) chocolate, chopped finely
2/3 cup (200 grams) Nutella
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (150 grams) butter, cut into small cubes and softened
2 Package of Petibor Biscuit

Ingredients:
5 cup flour
1 egg
1 instant yeast
1 tsb salt
3 ,5 cup water
1 cup oil 1 Cup Feta cheese and 1 Parsley

1 cup yogurt
2 tbsp dill, finely chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, smashed/ grated
¼ tsp salt
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
For garnish: Radish / black olives