Kiymale Pide @ Turkish Minced Meat Pita

Pita as known by many  is as round flat bread with a pocket inside.

But in Turkey, the local pita known as 'pide', is a pizza like food with toppings.One can use Turkish wind dried beef, Turkish sausages, chicken, minced beef or lamb, cheese, potatoes and many other ingredients.

Bourma - AFF West Asian Pastry #3

Bourma is a rolled pastry made with kataifi/kunafeh.

Quite a challenge to make, haha.
I didn't want to deep fry in oil, but the original way, like how I ate it before, is in fried in ghee. Yummy!

Turkish Borek - AFF West Asian Pastries #2

Börek in Turkish language is any pastry made with yufka or commonly known as phyllo/filo. Borek comes in many forms and can be filled with a variety of fillings, but the traditional ones are usually spinach, cheese and minced meat.They can be either fried or baked. You can read about the different types of Borek here

The one I made today is kol böreği and it means 'arm borek' or arm pastry. It is rolled long and can be coiled or shaped into zigzags on the pan. I will go for coil as I like anything that resembles flowers.

Esh Al Bulbul @ Nightingale Nest - AFF West Asian Pastry #1

This month, AFF  brings you West Asia! A total of 19 countries in the group.
Most of us are more familar with the term Middle East, but because Egypt is not in Asia, that is why we cannot use the term Middle East but Western Asia of which includes Turkey as well.

Do visit Shannon's blog to read the introduction post. And don't forget to drop by Lena's for her round up!

Rosewater Shira for Middle Eastern Pastries

This syrup is essential to be used with Middle Eastern pastries.
It is meant to be thick and sweet. The lemon juice helps prevent crystallization and and the rose water adds some mild fragrance.

You can use orange blossom water too, but it's harder to find in Malaysia.

Weirdly, ants don't get attracted to this.

Rosewater Pastry Syrup

250gm sugar
200gm water
1 Tbsp lemon juice (strained)
2 tsp rose water

Put sugar and water into a saucepan. Cook it on medium heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves, and stop stirring. When it boils, lower it to medium low heat and let it simmer for 15 minutes, lid off. Put in lemon juice and rose water and let it simmer for another 2 minutes.
Let the syrup cool down before use