Baked pumpkin - Zingata (winter).
Baked pumpkin according to a Turkish recipe from Aegean cuisine. This pumpkin is good served with yogurt-garlic sauce. Baked pumpkin is an excellent side dish for poultry and fish.
By the way, I already brought summer zucchini Zyngata. I served this pumpkin as a side dish with chicken thighs.

What you need:
Pumpkin (peeled) - 1 kg.,
Onions - 3 pcs.,
Garlic - 5-6 cloves,
Chili pepper flakes - to taste
Ground black pepper - to taste,
Flour - 1-2 tbsp.,
Tomato paste - 1 tbsp,
Water - 150 ml.,
Salt - to taste
Butter - 100 gr.

How to cook:
Peel the pumpkin, cut into slices, place in a baking dish.
Cut the onion into half rings, finely chop the garlic and place everything between the pumpkin slices and on top.
Sprinkle the pumpkin with black pepper, chili flakes and sprinkle with flour.
Place in a small bowl tomato paste, add water, add salt - mix everything with a fork. Tomato sauce pour pumpkin on top.
Place pieces of butter on top of the pumpkin.
Place the form with the pumpkin in a preheated oven at 180 degrees, bake for 1 hour, and at the end put under the grill for 5 minutes to get a beautiful golden brown crust.
Serve baked pumpkin with garlic-yogurt sauce.
Grate a little garlic into thick Greek yogurt (for piquancy), add salt to taste and stir.

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Grilled chicken thighs “in Italian marinade”

Juicy chicken thighs, marinated in “Italian flavors”, cook quickly and are eaten even faster!) An ideal lunch/dinner for weekdays, as this delicious food You will need a minimum of time. The only thing is that you will need to marinate the meat in advance, preferably a day before, in extreme cases - 6-12 hours. I marinate the night before and cook it the next day. You need to fry on a grill pan for 4-5 minutes on each side. While the thighs are roasting, you can bake vegetables for a side dish in the oven.
It’s best to immediately buy cut thighs - without bones and skin, they are a little more expensive in price, but considering that you will need to remove the bone, remove the skin and the time spent on this, it essentially works out that way.

What you need:
Chicken thighs (skinless and boneless) - 6 pcs.,
Olive oil (vegetable) - 1 tbsp.,
Dijon mustard - 1 tbsp.,
Lemon juice - 3 tbsp,
Sugar - 1.5 tsp,
Salt - 1 tsp,
Black pepper - to taste
Dried chili flakes - 0.5 tsp,
A mixture of Italian dried herbs (or replace with a mixture of parsley, oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary) - 2 tsp.

How to cook:
Wash the chicken thighs, dry them, and place in a large bowl. Sprinkle with chili flakes and Italian dried herbs and stir.
For the marinade, in a small bowl, mix with a fork until a homogeneous emulsion - olive oil, Dijon mustard (it is not as spicy and vigorous as our “Russian” one), lemon juice, salt, sugar.
Pour the marinade over the chicken thighs, mix well, massaging the meat.
Cover the marinated meat with a lid and refrigerate overnight, or at least 6-12 hours.
An hour and a half before cooking, you need to remove the meat from the refrigerator so that it comes to room temperature.
Heat the grill pan well and grease it vegetable oil and fry the chicken thighs on both sides for 4-5 minutes.
Serve immediately!

To prepare an unforgettable and aromatic dessert, you need to choose the right pumpkin; it should be bright orange when cut. It is advisable to choose honey pumpkin. First, you need to peel the pumpkin and cut it into small identical cubes and place them on a baking sheet in an even layer.

Then sprinkle with sugar and add clove buds, pour in a little water and cover with foil. Bake the dessert in the oven for 25 minutes, and then cool it. To make the Turkish pumpkin dessert look beautiful, before serving it should be placed in bowls and sprinkled with walnuts.

Another wonderful pumpkin dessert that is prepared in Turkey is called “Kabak Tatlisy”. It is prepared only from honey pumpkin, which is cut into large but thin pieces. They are placed in a pan in even layers, filled with water so that it slightly hides them.

Then you need to add sugar to taste, but for about 8 pieces, ½ cup is enough. Place the pan on the fire, bring the water to a boil and cook the pumpkin for 20 minutes. At this time, you can additionally add honey. The main thing is to ensure that the pieces do not become overcooked, but at the same time become tender and soft.

You may need to practice several times to get it right. How to prepare a pumpkin dessert so that it is fragrant and truly divine? The whole secret lies in the correct decoration and presentation. Pumpkin dessert is best paired with heavy cream or kaymak.

If you are in Turkey, it will not be difficult to buy liquid halva and pour it over the pumpkin. You can also sprinkle the dessert with chopped nuts or pieces of ice cream. Another Turkish option for preparing pumpkin dessert: for 6 kg of pumpkin, which is cut into small pieces, you need 3 kg of sugar.

The pumpkin should be placed on a baking sheet greased with vegetable oil, covered with sugar and left to infuse for 2-3 hours, during which time the vegetable will give juice. Then put the pan in the oven for a few minutes at 180 degrees. Before serving, pour tahine over the dessert and sprinkle with nuts.

A garden plot is a place where you want to relax in the hot summer. Decorative pumpkin shoots will decorate any garden. At the beginning of summer, bright flowers appear on them, and by mid-July, colorful fruits appear. There are many types of decorative pumpkin, which can be grown from seeds - and in the form of a mushroom, climbing pear. In our article we will look at one of the unusual varieties - Turkish turban.

Turkish turban - a plant with beautiful faceted leaves up to 2.5 meters long. Pumpkin flowers are bell-shaped, bright yellow, and quite large (10 cm in diameter).

The shape of the fruits resembles a headdress from Turkey, a turban or turban. They are miniature and colorful. One plant can bring up to 30 fruits.

The Turkish turban is growing rapidly. The stems reach 6 m or more (if they are not pinched). They quickly climb up a vertical support, decorating the garden and creating cool shade in the area.

Decorative pumpkin is drought-resistant and heat-loving. Reacts well to organic fertilizers. Shoots and fruits do not tolerate frost.

Seedling

In the southern regions of Russia, pumpkin seeds in mid-May planted in the ground. Decorative pumpkin grows quickly. In one season, it manages to grow and bear fruit with proper care.

At a temperature of -1, the sprouts die, so in regions to the north the seeds are planted as seedlings. In addition, the seedling planting method will accelerate growth and maturation.

Before planting, the seeds are soaked for an hour in warm water or in a growth preparation. Then the seeds are transferred to gauze and left warm for 2 days. There they sprout. Seeds are planted in separate containers of 500 ml each.

Soil for seedlings is needed fertile, loose and slightly acidic. To do this, take soil from the garden bed and mix it with:

• sod land
• sand
• humus

Before planting, the soil is disinfected with a weak solution of potassium permanganate to avoid the development of fungal diseases in the pumpkin.

The first week and a half, the sprouts actively stretch, and after that their growth slows down. Plants feed mineral fertilizers and manure, soil loosen and water.

Replanting a pumpkin is unacceptable; stress will destroy the fragile plant.

Two weeks before planting seedlings harden– take it out into the open air and leave for 15-20 minutes. Gradually increase the time to 2-3 hours.

Planting in open ground

In a month, when the sprouts appear 2-3 leaves, seedlings are planted in open ground. IMPORTANT. Next to the sprouts there should be a strong vertical support, for example a wall or arch, along which they will grow.

Turkish turban is a light-loving plant, variety it takes a lot sunlight . Before planting, the soil is dug up and fertilized with organic (manure or compost) fertilizers.

Prepare a hole for each sprout and water it generously. Sprouts from seedlings are planted in holes at a distance of half a meter from each other.

Pumpkin care

Decorative pumpkin - unpretentious plant. It requires constant abundant watering and loosening soil. When the first ovaries appear, the sprouts are generously fertilized.

In addition to loosening and weeding, gardeners sprinkle the soil around the sprouts sawdust or humus(mulch). This helps:

• fertilize the soil
• retain moisture
• maintain soil looseness
• prevent the spread of diseases from the soil to plants when watering or raining

Topsoil is important for pumpkins because of the structure of its root system. It has a long main root and many small roots that grow closer to the surface.

Mulched plants bear fruit more abundantly and are less susceptible to disease.

To make a “lush hedge” from a Turkish turban, gardeners pinch the top shoots when they reach a length of one meter.

The fruits are cut together with the stalk before the first frost, in September. Frozen pumpkins do not last long. To make them bright color not faded, after collection they are stored away from direct sunlight.

Application of fruits

From ripe fruits skillful hands capable of doing crafts for home decoration. Gardeners carve a pumpkin beautiful patterns and compositions, cover them with varnish. They are used to make jugs, cups and lamps.

Children enjoy drawing on the crust with paints. Using plasticine and old things, they make funny characters and cute animals.

Both adults and children can get creative together and assemble an autumn still life from pumpkins, spruce branches and fallen leaves that will remind you of a fruitful year.

Is it possible to eat decorative pumpkins?

The fruits of the Turkish Turban are edible.

As long as the skin on them is not roughened, they can be eaten and given to animals. Upper part– cap – suitable for making soup or stew, it can be boiled. Bottom part The fruit is full of seeds and is therefore not suitable for food.

Pumpkin fruit tasteless. They are more likely to please the gardener decorative decoration for the home and garden, rather than as a tasty treat on the table.

Diseases and pests

1. 1. Bacteriosis This is the most common pumpkin disease. Its main symptom is the appearance brown spots on the leaves. If the disease is not treated, it will infect the fruit with cankers. To prevent bacteriosis, gardeners spray plants with Bordeaux mixture. At the first signs of disease, plants are sprayed with a mixture of lime and copper sulfate. Affected and dead shoots are removed from the garden so as not to infect healthy ones.
   2. White rot. The sprouts are affected by a white coating and then rot. This happens when there is excess moisture. The source of white rot is marsupial fungus. Prevention of white rot - water the plants warm water. Dead leaves are cut off, and the cut area is sprinkled with activated carbon.

v Root rot. Affects stems and roots. The reason for its occurrence is cold water and temperature changes. To avoid this, the sprouts are cared for by being mulched. Affected plants are treated with a mixture of copper sulfate and zinc sulfate dissolved in water.

• melon aphid. A small (up to 2 mm) insect that causes pumpkin leaves and flowers to fall off. They get rid of melon aphids by spraying the affected plants with a decoction of wormwood or a solution of karbofos.

Growing a Turkish turban on a plot of land is simple and does not take much time. The effort spent on planting it will more than pay off. The variety is unpretentious. While it grows, it will delight you with its beauty for months. Its green mass will make the garden shady and cool in the heat. And the fruits of the Turkish turban are the source beautiful crafts, which will fill the house with comfort.

Turkish housewives very often use pumpkin in preparing various dishes. In one Turkish family I was treated to an unusual pumpkin dish. The taste was so unexpected that I didn’t immediately realize that it was made from an ordinary pumpkin. And the presentation surprised me. On a huge platter lay translucent orange pieces of pumpkin, drizzled with white tahini sauce and sprinkled with greenish pistachios. Such a riot of colors and tastes. I took the recipe for this dish as a basis and cook this dish quite often, giving up tahini and nuts. What is called - a simpler option. And when I treat guests to this dish, I sometimes replace the tahini and nuts with a mixture of lemon juice and honey. It turns out no less beautiful and tasty.
Let's prepare the pumpkin. Peel it and remove seeds and cut it into pieces.
Place the chopped pumpkin in the pan in which we will cook it later, and sprinkle with granulated sugar.

Leave the pumpkin for 3-5 hours so that it produces juice. It’s better to do this overnight and continue cooking in the morning.

Now we will cook the pumpkin in its own juice over low heat. When the pumpkin becomes soft, it is ready.

Place on a plate and let it cool. As I already said, you can sprinkle the pumpkin with nuts and top it with tahini, or replace the tahini with a mixture of honey and lemon juice, or you can eat it just like that, without any sauces. Believe me, it's very tasty!