Jen Tucker: cookbook

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Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Sibel Hodge talks drama free Soup Opera. Yes, I said Soup Opera!

Sibel Hodge is back with second gluten free cookbook, and I give it two enthusiastic, GLUTEN FREE, thumbs up! We all get stuck in ruts with dinner ideas, right? I’ve found that especially true since my Celiac Disease diagnosis in 2004. Sibel doesn’t want you to reinvent the wheel, nor does she want you to track down rare ingredients. She gives you a fresh way to use what you might already have in your pantry, and will never be farther than your local grocer. I hope you’ll discover some new takes on old favorites, and take a chance and make some delicious new-to-you ones as well. Bon Appétit!

Mmm...

About A Gluten Free Soup Opera:

Whether you’re looking for a tasty starter, a light lunch, or a hearty dinner, there’s nothing quite like a nutritious bowl of soup. In the second book from Sibel Hodge’s gluten free cookbook series, A Gluten Free Soup Opera takes you on an international culinary journey, bringing you a delicious bowl of goodness for any occasion. All of the 30 recipes included are gluten and wheat free, and most also have dairy free and vegetarian/vegan options included.

Looking for a Christmas Day starter? Try Festive Chestnut Soup. If you’re running low on time, Butter Bean and Pancetta Soup or Greek Pork and Lemon Soup will take 20 minutes to cook. For a filling dinner, Rustic Leek and Potato or Hearty Lamb and Green Bean Soup fits the bill. African Peanut Soup, Moroccan Sweet and Sour Soup, or Chili Bean Soup are the ultimate in winter warmers. Pistachio Soup and Seafood Soup will impress your guests at a dinner party. And for a light lunch, choose Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup or Broccoli and Parmesan Soup.

A Gluten free diet doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice taste. Today it can be eclectic, vibrant, and adventurous. After cooking for her coeliac husband for over a decade, author Sibel Hodge gives you the ultimate in mouth-watering and healthy recipes, which can easily be prepared using ingredients from your store cupboard or local supermarket.

Who says gluten free cooking has to be boring?

Experiment. Eat. Enjoy!

Sibel's message for you:

Hello! A big Soup Opera welcome to you…

For those who don’t know me, let me tell you a little bit about how this book was born. Well, for starters, I’ve been cooking since I was about ten years old. Under the watchful eye of my nan, who was a fabulous chef, I developed a love of food that has lasted…let’s see…ahem, at least eleven years (yes, I can still be twenty-one in my head), and she taught me how to make mouth-watering meals from scratch. Now I want to pass that knowledge on to you.

I’m the author of thirteen other fiction and non-fiction books for adults and children, and in my spare time, I’m Wonder Woman. When I’m not writing or saving the world from dastardly demons, you can find me in the kitchen, cooking up a storm.

Being half Turkish Cypriot and half British, I was introduced to exciting culinary delights from an early age. When the rest of my mates were eating plain meat-and-two-veg dinners, I was tucking into Mediterranean delights of mousaka, meze, and pilavs.

Turkish people love to eat, therefore they love to cook! In the first cookbook in my gluten free/wheat free series, A Gluten Free Taste of Turkey, I combine my knowledge of tasty, easy-to-cook recipes with nutritious and scrummy Turkish food.

My love of Mediterranean food and the healthy Mediterranean Diet went on to spark my interest into a vast wealth of international dishes. Increasing your recipe bank means you can travel all over the world, and sample all kinds of cuisine, without ever needing your passport!

I’m also a qualified health and fitness professional, with a special interest in nutrition. We all live busy lives these days, don’t we? But that doesn’t mean we have to swap healthy, easy-to-cook, delicious meals for junky fast food. We are what we eat, and if we put rubbish in, it won’t be long before we’re feeling rubbish, too. I firmly believe that our ever-increasing health problems, diseases, and allergies are due to the chemicals, pesticides, and hormones that are pumped into our food and environment. I want to show you that healthy meals can taste great and be easily prepared.

I’ve been cooking gluten/wheat free since I met my hubby over a decade ago. When he first told me he was coeliac, I had a panic attack. I’d never heard the word before, and my first thought was that it meant he had some peculiar sexual quirk that I wasn’t going to like very much. When I finally discovered it meant he couldn’t eat gluten, which is found in barley, oats, wheat, and rye, I had an even bigger panic attack. Trying to find something in the supermarkets back then that didn’t include those ingredients was a nightmare. As well as being blatantly advertised, it’s often cunningly disguised as “thickener”, “stabilizing agent”, “shortening”, and “Ricin”. OK, I made the last one up, but gluten can have severe side effects for people who are coeliac or intolerant/allergic to it.

Maybe now would be a good time to let you into my little secret (stands up and coughs)… I have a serious soup fetish! There, I confessed! Whether it’s summer, winter, or spring, you’ll find me eating the stuff (sometimes in secret). I’m a regular soup-a-holic, and I know that I’m not alone in this little culinary foible. I mean, how can you not love a little bowl of goodness that’s so versatile? Whether you’re looking for a simple starter, a light lunch, or a hearty dinner, soup is the perfect dish every time.

So will you need any specialist ingredients or equipment for this recipe book? No! There’s nothing worse than buying a cookbook, reading through the recipes, and then banging your head against the kitchen worktop because you’ve discovered you need a particular blend of this, or an obscure jar of that, and you just can’t get hold of it. You’ll probably find most of the ingredients used in this cookbook already lurking in your store cupboard or, failing that, your local supermarket. Unlike when I first started cooking gluten free all those years ago, you can now find so much choice in gluten/wheat free products in the shops that you shouldn’t have any trouble getting hold of everything you need to create my tasty, international delights. The only thing you may need to pick up (if you don’t already have one) is a hand blender, and these are both easily available and cheap.

If you’re not coeliac, or sensitive to gluten/wheat, should you eat a gluten free diet? Well, many people are turning to a gluten free/wheat free diet because it can have many health benefits, including an increase in energy, better digestion and elimination, improving cholesterol levels and auto-immune disorders, controlling weight and bloating, and making you super attractive to the opposite sex (yes, I made the last one up again – just checking you were still awake). Whereas twenty years ago, a gluten free diet would be bland and boring, today it can be eclectic, vibrant, and delicious, and these are the dishes that I wanted to share with you in A Gluten Free Soup Opera.

The recipes included in this book should be used as a guideline because you know your taste buds better than anyone else does. If you want to substitute one ingredient for another that you like more, then go for it. This is how great recipes are born, and it’s all about making the food work for you. Wherever you can, please try to use organic ingredients. It’s kinder to the environment and animals, and it’s healthier for you.

The most important thing in cooking is to have fun with it, so experiment, eat, and enjoy!

Sibel XX

Recipe from A Gluten Free Soup Opera

Moroccan Sweet and Sour Soup

This recipe does exactly what is says on the tin – it’s sweet, it’s spicy, it’s sour, and it’s fun! Moroccan food is all about flavour and colour, and this dish is an explosion of both.

I’m using dried apricots here, and whenever possible try and get apricots that are naturally air dried, rather than those dried using sulphur or sulphur dioxide, which can cause allergies in some people. They will probably be darker in colour than the usual apricots, but the taste is the same and they’re healthier for you.

Did you know that as well has being a great source of dietary fibre and protein, chickpeas are also rich in folate, calcium, and manganese, plus they’re also low in fat, which is always a bonus! But if you don’t like chickpeas, substitute them for a can of beans like cannellini, borlotti, kidney, or black-eyed.

Ingredients:

· 1 onion – chopped

· 1 carrot – diced

· 1 red pepper – diced

· 1 green pepper – diced

· 8 – 10 dried apricots – chopped

· 4 cloves of garlic – crushed and chopped

· 2 inch piece of fresh root ginger – peeled and chopped finely

· 400 gr can of chopped tomatoes

· 400 gr can of chickpeas – drained and rinsed

· Juice of half a lemon

· 2 – 3 tablespoons of chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)

· 1 pint (approx. 2 ½ cups) of chicken stock/vegetable stock/water

· ¼ teaspoon of dried cinnamon

· 1 tablespoon of ground coriander

· 1 teaspoon of ground cumin

· ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg

· 1 tablespoon of tumeric

· 1 tablespoon of paprika

· ¼ – ½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes

· ¼ teaspoon of black pepper

· Salt to taste

· Olive oil for frying

Method:

1. Fry the onions and peppers until soft.

2. Add the other ingredients, except for the fresh coriander, and bring to the boil. Simmer for 35 – 45 minutes.

3. Stir in the fresh coriander and serve.

Serves 4 – 6

* Vegetarian/Vegan Options – Use vegetable stock

* Dairy Free

Thank you for sharing, Sibel! I love to love you!

Thank you, oh fab readers, for stopping by, and I just love you all to bits.

XOXO

Jen

Link to Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Gluten-Opera-Wheat-Cookbook-ebook/dp/B00BMR6356/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1362211266&sr=8-1&keywords=a+gluten+free+soup+opera

Link to Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gluten-Opera-Wheat-Cookbook-ebook/dp/B00BMR6356/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1362211317&sr=1-1

Link to B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1114740525?ean=2940016234281

Link to Apple:

Link to Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/291558

Link to Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=a+gluten+free+soup+opera

Link to elsewhere:

Author Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sibel-Hodge-Author-of-romantic-comedy-and-comedy-mystery-books/246194485016

Author Twitter: http://www.sibelhodge.com/

Author Website/blog: http://www.sibelhodge.com/

Goodreads author/book page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3517050.Sibel_Hodge

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Sibel Hodge talks Gluten Free Turkey

I am pleased as punch to welcome the über cool Sibel Hodge to Princess with a Pen today. She is a talented writer who has just released her first cookbook, A Gluten Free Taste of Turkey. I had a chance to preview this delicious book, and I have to tell you; this celiac has a newfound love for cabbage that’s sexy and it knows it. Please welcome my sweetie pie, Sibel!

Merhaba! A big Turkish-style hello to you all. I’d like to thank the fantabulous Jen Tucker for inviting me onto her blog today to talk about my new gluten free Turkish cookbook A Gluten Free Taste of Turkey…

I have dual Turkish Cypriot/British nationality, and although I was brought up in the UK, I now spend a lot of my time in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (it definitely beats the British weather!). My dad emigrated to the UK from Cyprus in the late 1950s when he was a teenager, and he went on to meet my English mum, so I’ve had the best of both worlds as far as cuisine and culture goes.

I’m the author of quirky romantic comedies, mysteries, and children's books (with the odd thriller thrown in), and in my spare time, I’m Wonder Woman! When I’m not writing or saving the world from dastardly demons, you can find me in the kitchen, cooking up a storm.

From an early age, I developed an interest in food and would spend hours in the kitchen with my nan, who was a fabulous chef. From about ten years old I was cooking the family dinner on a regular basis, and that’s when I learned that in order to cook well, you had to love and appreciate food.

During this time, I don’t remember seeing any ready meals or pre-cooked sauces in our house. Nan cooked everything from scratch, which actually prepared me well for when I met my husband, who just happened to be coeliac and needed to follow a gluten free diet.

‘I’m coeliac,’ he admitted sheepishly, just after I’d invited him round for dinner early on in our relationship.

‘Coeliac?’ I gave him an odd look, thinking he was trying to prepare me for some bizarre sexual quirk that sounded a bit dodgy.

Well, I breathed a huge sigh of relief, I can tell you, when he explained to me he had a disease that meant he was unable to eat gluten, not someone who wanted to dress up in lederhosen and be slapped with stinging nettles. Then I thought, unable to eat gluten? That must be really horrible, but how difficult can it be to cater for that? Well, not as easy as I first thought…

Gluten is found in barley, wheat, rye, malt, and oats, and is in most processed foods, so trying to avoid it in those days was a nightmare for a lot of people. A simple trip to the shops took hours as I scrutinized every packaged item looking at the ingredients. As well as being blatantly labelled, it’s often disguised as “thickener”, “stabilizing agent”, “shortening”, and many other things. I nearly fainted from shock because it seemed to be in everything, even the simplest of things like cereal and ice cream, and I didn’t want to accidentally bump him off with a gluten-laden knickerbocker glory (although, I must admit there have been several occasions over the years that I’ve seriously thought about it!). A gluten free aisle was unheard of back then, and he could only get gluten free bread on prescription, which was the consistency and taste of a thousand-year-old house brick. Great for renovating early nineteenth century manor houses but not so good for a nice cheese sandwich. Luckily, now there are hundreds of gluten free foods available in the supermarket and from specialist stores, which is great news, because wheat and gluten intolerance is on the rise.

Even if you’re not coeliac or gluten intolerant, many people are turning to a gluten free diet because it can have many health benefits, including an increase in energy, better digestion and elimination, improving cholesterol levels and auto-immune disorders, controlling weight and bloating, and making you super attractive to the opposite sex (OK, I made the last one up, but I bet it made you want to read on!). Whereas twenty years ago, a gluten free diet would be bland and boring, today it can be eclectic, vibrant, and delicious, which is why I wanted to mix my knowledge of tasty, easy-to-cook, and nutritious Turkish food with gluten free recipes.

Cue A Gluten Free Taste of Turkey, which is a mixture of traditional Turkish cookery, along with dishes that have a Turkish Cypriot twist to them, and my own creations. Our hectic and stressful modern lives mean we want food that not only tastes great, but is also quick to get on the table, and these are the kinds of recipes I want to introduce you to in this book.

Historically, Turkey has been a cosmopolitan melting pot of ethnic groups such as the Ottomans, Byzantines, and Persians. It’s bordered by Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and the Mediterranean and Aegean seas, so it’s no wonder that the food is a colourful fusion of traditions, countries, tastes, and deliciousness (I don’t care if that’s not a word since it describes Turkish food perfectly). Turkish cuisine is considered among the world’s best because of the variety of dishes, the use of natural ingredients, and a huge mixture of flavours and tastes. It’s also a very healthy diet, with lots of vegetables, grains, beans, herbs, olive oil, spices, and fruit.

While it’s fantastic that nowadays we can walk into a supermarket and find any kind of item from all over the world, whatever time of year, it does have its drawbacks. In order to cope with our food demands we’re increasing the amount of chemicals in our environment. Pesticides, bulking agents, hormones, chemicals that make a fruit or vegetable look a better colour, chemicals that increase the shelf life of consumables, and the over processing of food. All these things make our immune systems more sensitive and susceptible to problems, and affect our overall health, which is why intolerance to gluten and other allergies or insensitivities are on the increase. In a North Cypriot supermarket or market you’ll find fruit and veg that have grown in the shape nature intended, unlike a supermarket in the UK, where a tomato has to pass a tomato circumference test and be colour matched to a pre-conceived idea of what shade it should be, because shock horror, no one would possibly want to eat a tomato with a knobbly bit on it, or a potato that looked like a duck (I’ve found several of those in North Cyprus, plus quite a few in the shape of a heart, which is very cute!). Essentially, the Turkish diet goes back to the basics of cooking from scratch, with an emphasis on using fresh seasonal produce, with a lot of organic methods, just like our ancestors did for thousands of years.

Turkish and Turkish Cypriot people love to eat, therefore they love to cook! Hospitality is second nature, and you can’t visit any friends or family (or even strangers) in North Cyprus without being offered something to eat and drink. The sharing of food is almost as important as the preparation and the eating of it. It’s all about vibrancy, taste, enjoyment, colour, and yet at the same time, simplicity.

Cooking, like writing, is a creative expression. You can take an ingredient, add a dash of colour, a sprinkling of spice, a few drops of imagination, and a splash of passion, and it can turn into something truly amazing. And the fantastic thing is that you can make a dish completely your own by changing some of the ingredients. The recipes included in this book should be used as a guideline because you know your taste buds better than anyone does. If you want to substitute, say, parsley for coriander, or cinnamon for cumin, then go for it. It’s all about making the food work for you. Wherever you can, please try to use organic ingredients. It’s kinder to the environment and animals, and it’s healthier for you.

The most important thing in cooking is to have fun with it, so experiment, eat, and enjoy! And, as we say in Turkish…

Affiyet olsun! (Enjoy your meal!)

Sibel xx

Thank you for stopping by Sibel! You can find Sibel, her new book, and Sibel herself below. Thanks so much for spending time with us today!

XOXO

Jen

A Gluten Free Taste of Turkey is available to buy now in ebook format for Kindle from:

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Smashwords

Kobo

It's also available in paperback from Amazon.co.uk: and Amazon.com:

You can visit Sibel Hodge at her website!

Jen Tucker

About Me

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Sibel Hodge talks drama free Soup Opera. Yes, I said Soup Opera!

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Sibel Hodge talks Gluten Free Turkey

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