Well, I’ve decided to put some recipes from Turkish cuisine, and started with something I really love to eat: “cezerye”. Cezerye is like Turkish delight, but is made from carrot. It is not something you cook at your home, you usually buy these for the religious festivals. I’ve never made these jelly-candies before, and when I found this easy “cezerye” recipe today, I decided to try it.

Cezerye (Turkish Delight with Carrot)

adapted from a Turkish recipe

makes 9 pieces

Ingredients:

• 400 gr (14 oz) carrots, grated finely
• 200 gr (7 oz) brown or regular sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 100 gr hazelnuts or walnuts, chopped coarsely (optional)
• water (about 1 cup)
• coconut flakes (to cover)

Directions:

Put the carrots and sugar into a pan. Add water, and cook in medium heat, until the carrots start to melt and the mixture is thickened. In the recipe I found, it is written that “thickened” here means; when you take a piece from the mixture and round it between your thumb and your forefinger, it stinks to one finger only. Complicated!

Add the optional nuts to the mixture at this point. By using a plastic spatula, spread the mixture in a tray with parchment paper (I used a little box with foil). The thickness of the mixture should be about 1 cm (~0.5 in).

Allow the mixture to thicken more in the refrigerator for an hour.

Using a wet knife (to avoid the cezerye stick to it), cut 1 x 2.5 cm (~0.5×1 in) rectangles, and cover them with coconut.

Store the cezerye in the refrigerator.