My Doña Elena® Turkish Cuisine Food Adventure!

Yesterday I went with my younger sister and her friend to a Doña Elena® food event. I was looking forward to it since the day I learned about it. They’re holding a cooking lesson every month introducing different cuisines. I heard that they’ve already featured the Moroccan and Greek cuisines, which I sadly missed. This month they introduced the Turkish cuisine and featured three Turkish dishes: Shish Kebabs, Turkish Couscous Salad, Eggplant Moussaka. They handed us a copy of each recipe. I must say that each dish is very, very, VERY delicious! Tasting Turkish Cuisine makes me want to go to Turkey. I’ll surely do that!

I took a photo of each dish so that I can show them to you. By the way, Doña Elena® is a brand name and they’re selling their products at the event, so you can buy any of their products there, or at any supermarket near you, actually.

Okay, now let me show you how the event went! ;)

At the entrance the very first things that will greet your eyes are an array of different kinds of cooking ingredients from canned red pimientos to fresh fruit juices.

They have olive oils made in Turkey, both for cooking and for salad. The one with a green packaging is for cooking and the red one is for salad.

Canned tomatoes; available in diced and whole. Made in Italy.

Canned red pimientos made in Spain.

Handmade pasta (handmade pasta is better than machine-made because it easily absorbs all the flavorings).

Spanish Sardines.

Fresh milk.

Fresh and pure fruit juice of apple and orange (they gave us a free taste of each one, you can really taste its pureness. It’s very refreshing!). Apologies for the photos. I thought I already took a photo of the Jolly Fresh® box but, oh well. Next time. =P

They’re serving some refreshments to the audience. It’s a sample of their Jolly Fresh® fruit juice. I got a taste of each flavor; the orange and the apple. It’s very good, and you know that you’re drinking healthy.

They gave us a copy of the recipe of each of the Turkish Cuisine they’re going to feature, so you can follow as they demonstrate (and if you like, you can try at home).

The Doña Elena's® resident chef is preparing all the ingredients.

They have a monitor where you can watch the procedures. They have a volunteer from the audience to help out. They also have a question and answer portion and the prices are the Doña Elena® products. Sadly, I didn’t win anything. =(

They prepared the Turkish Couscous Salad, first. This is just a sample, so the serving is really very small. Couscous is granulated pasta. It may be served in ways similar to rice. They put Doña Elena® diced canned tomatoes in it, some parsley, garlic, a little bit of bird eye chili, some grilled bell pepper, red wine vinegar and some salt and pepper. It is salad, so it feels refreshing.

Next, they prepared kebabs. Kebabs consisted of beef tenderloin, cherry tomatoes, onion, grilled bell pepper, marinated in lemon. You can also use lamb, which I prefer. You may also serve kebabs with yogurt, plain or seasoned, or true Mediterranean taste.

Lastly, is the Eggplant Moussaka. Although the three dishes are equally delicious, I liked the Moussaka best. The milk, cinnamon, nutmeg and tomatoes compliment each other, it's heavenly. I prefer a tad less cinnamon than was used in this recipe but it was still delicious!

They distributed small portions of each dish, just to give us a taste. It made us want to go home and make some more... ... ... that’s exactly what I’m going to do, soon.

This event was fun and I enjoyed it very much! There's going to be another cooking lesson next month. I wonder what cuisine they're going to feature next? Hmmm... I guess we'll soon find out. =)

At the end of the event, I bought two of their products. One is their canned diced tomatoes and the other is their red pimiento.

I'm going to use these in my next recipe, so stay tuned!