How to Make Elma Hosafi

Now, its time to make a delicious fast and simple desert, were going to make Elma Hosafi which is apple compote. Now you can make this with any type of fruit. I pick the apple because I think it goes great with our fish. And it’s really easy. All were going to need is two red apples, two cups of water, four tablespoon of sugar and half a teaspoon of vanilla.

So, I’m going to do first is just put my water in my pot over here. And then I’m going to show you how to cut our apples. Now as you could see, I cut one apple already and I slice them and leave them in water so they don’t turn color. And then I have peeled my second apple. And I just want to show how you are going to take out insides. So, you just want to slice them in the middle. Slice it again and then basically just peel out the heart. You want to take a peeler knife, peel it out and then cut in half. So, out of one apple you want to make eight slices.

Now we made fish today. So, every time when we are making a meal here at Turkish Cuisine, we always want to think of meals that compliment to each other, appetizers, and side-dishes. Now a lot of times when you eat fish especially in Turkey, you would never mix a dairy product with their fish. So, it wouldn’t be feasible to order a milk based desert like of what we had in Turkish Cuisine. So, usually if you are eating fish, you will always have either the syrupy based deserts or a fruit based desert. That’s why I picked the apple compote because it’s delicious. It’s a fruit and it’s sweet. And we love to end all of our meals with something really delicious and sweet.

Now this is also a called composto in Turkish. Which this means compote; it also means hosaf. And you can make this with anything. You can make it with apricots this is a very popular one. Strawberry is delicious and if you do it with the strawberries, you could always tap it off some vanilla ice cream. That’s always good. And what we like to do also is sour cherries which is called visne.

Visne is very popular in Turkish desert. You can get of visne ice cream or we even have a drink visne suyu which is sour cherry drink which is so delicious. It’s cruel. It’s actually criminal it’s so delicious. And I don’t know I haven’t seen sour cherries here too much but I always—every time I go to the Middle Eastern store I always get sour cherry preserves. It’s like a jelly and I put it on some cream cheese. And it’s just delicious. So, what were going to do is put our apples in the water. And you see its very simple desert. You can make this with anything, just water, fruit, a little bit of sugar and a little bit of vanilla. And were going to stand by this and let it come to a slow boil and we’re just going to keep watching it until our apples turn really nice and tender.

If you want just give it a really good mix. Now if you go to Turkey and you go to a restaurant and you get hosaf, you can get it like I said in all different types of fruit. And the special is your also try the ice cream in Turkey because that also you can’t find anywhere in the world. So, we’re just going to stand by this and then once this come to a boil, we’re going to lower our heat and just let it cook for about five to ten minutes or until the apple is get really nice and soft.

So, now it looks like our apples are nice and tender and we just going to give it a quick little taste and see how it is, it so sweet. My baby likes that one right? So, we going to get our serving platter ready and here were just going to use a good old fashion bowl. Now the vanilla, it gives that just extra kick that it needs. But if you’re making other deserts like with the strawberries or the cherries or the apricots, those have so much sweetness that you don’t even need the vanilla. I’ll just like to add the vanilla to the apple because it gives that extra kick. And when you’re choosing the apples, make sure you pick the red ones. Because the green one’s are little sour in taste and not going to go as good as a desert.

This is just a delicious, fast and simple desert. And we love fruit. In a Turkish home you will always find desert at the end of the every meal. Milk based or a syrup based desert, you will always have some arrangement of fresh fruit. Now this that you want to wait for room temperature before you serve and then you could just wrap it with some clear wrap and eat it cold. It’s delicious in any day or any night and as the perfect complement, the perfect ending to the rest of our meal.

So, here we are at the end of another delicious meal. We have made the patates koftesi or potato kofte, the kilic shish or sword fish shish kebab, a delicious cabbage salad, and Elma Hosafi which is the apple compote. Now you know we’ve made a lot of deserts here in Turkish Cuisine but if you didn’t feel like making this at home, you could always bought it in a local Turkish grocery store and pick up a box of desert. They have Pismanye or Lokum. Lokum is Turkish delight. It’s delicious. It’s made with pistachio nuts and rose water and dipped in confectioner sugar and you could always buy it by the box. People usually don’t make that at home. And if you go to Turkey, in fact when I do, we always buy boxes and boxes of Lokum. It’s great for when people come over and it’s great for us as well.

Now Turkish Cuisine has a lot of variety and we’ve been making a lot on the show, everything from the Palace Cuisines to that ones with a little bit of a modern touch. So, if you have questions or comments, email the show. We’re happy to answer it. Now, we are rich in culture and tradition. So, when you are cooking in your kitchen, make sure you’re enjoying what you are cooking because if you enjoy what you are cooking then you’re going to enjoy eating that much more.

I’m Jennifer Hayden and I wish you the best.