Shole Zard

Shole Zard is a rice dessert made with water and saffron or a Persian vegan low-fat rice pudding.  Can also add nuts, cardamom and rose water.  A lot of time is spent standing at the stove so I was really happy that my mother-in-law did the cooking!  She made it for me a few times, but since she doesn't measure anything (and after I asked her to use my measuring cups she say everything is one cup)  I had to watch and remeasure everything she did.  The water to rice ratio is 6-1.

Shole Zard
feeds four
3 cups of water
1/2 cup rice
1/3 sugar
8 cloves cardamom (seeds only)
1/4 tsp saffron powder (or a few threads)
1 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Soak the rice for a few hours.  Drain and blend in a food processor until the rice is in lots of little bits but not a powder.  Place in a pot on med high heat and start adding the water 1/2 cup at a time.  Like making risotto but takes longer with more stirring. After the 1st cup of water add in the cardamon seeds. Use 1/2 cup of the water to dissolve the sugar.  Add the sugar water.  Keep stirring.  There will still be some little bits of rice but mostly it will turn into a thick paste.  Will take 30min or more in total.  Add the saffron powder and plate.  Use cinnamon and or nuts to decorate.  Eat warm or chilled.  I like it chilled with Mexican chocolate.

Rice and sugar... what baby doesn't love that!

Aash-e Dandoni Tooth Soup (Bean and Rice Soup)

This is my favorite food from when I was in Iran.  My mother-in-law made it for Joe's first tooth.  Its called Aash-e Dandoni or Tooth Soup. Everyone gave her a few beans to make it and then she handed out the soup.  I guess its a bit like Iranian Stone Soup only the empty bowls came back with gifts for the baby.   She is visiting me and I asked her to please make it for me again.   She said that all of Joe's teeth would fall out but since he just has baby teeth I said let them!

This soup in simple yet rich.  Just chickpeas, kidney beans, barley, lentil, rice and onion.  That right a vegan Iranian dish! I'm in heaven! The only spice is salt and pepper.   I couldn't ruin this lovely soup by adding again thing else.

Aash-e Dandoni
makes one pot
1 cup chickpeas (soaked overnight)
1/2 cup kidney bean (soaked overnight)
1/2 cup barley
1/2 cup lentils (could use mung bean soaked overnight)
1/2 cup rice
1 chopped and fried onion
salt and pepper

In a med large pot bring the chickpeas and kidney beans to a boil in about 3 cups of water, lower the heat and cover.  Cook for about an hour and then add the barley and lentils.   Cook for about half an hour and add the rice and fried onion.  Check and taste the soup as it cooks.  Adding water, salt and pepper when and as needed.  When everything is soft its ready.  This should be a very thick soup so keep and eye on it after add the rice so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot.

I think this would be really lovely in a crock pot.  Add everything in at once with boiling water to cover and let cook. 

The perfect cold weather bean soup.

Stuffed Peppers and Zucchini or Dolmeh Felfel and Kadoo

 In the past I've posted a Stuffed Cabbage or Dolmeh Kalam recipe the major difference between that recipe and this is my mother-in-law is visisting....that and she adds split peas. My mom would add raisins so I put some in too.

Stuffed Peppers and Zucchini
fills 4 peppers and 2 zucchinis

4 bell peppers
2 zucchinis
1 cup rice
250 gm ground meat
1 onion chopped
1/4 cup split peas
1/4 cup raisins
1 Tbs tomato paste
2 cups tomato sacue
salt, pepper, cumin and turmeric

1. Cut the tops off the peppers.  Clean out the seeds.  Slice the zucchinis in half and remove seeds.
2. Boil rice for 8 min.  Drain and set aside.
3. Brown the meat with the onion. Add salt, pepper, cumin and turmeric.
4. Mix the rice and meat.  Add the Tomato paste, split peas and raisins to the mix. Taste for salt and pepper.
5. Fill the peppers and zucchini and cover with tomato sauce.   Cover with foil and bake for an hour at 200c.

Feel free to just use peppers if you don't like zucchini.

I enjoyed cooking this meal with my in-laws.  I had some extra stuffing and I filled some cabbage. Which turned out to be my fav. 

Mint Dour or Mint Yogurt Drink

 In Iran Dour or yogurt drinks are really popular.  When I visited Iran  I had dour 2 or 3 times a day. I posted a plain dour  but here is a recipe my mother-in-law has been making  for Mint Dour in a 2 litre bottle.

Mint Dour
makes almost 2 liters

500gm plain yogurt (it needs to be a bit sour)
1 tsp dried mint
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 litres water

Mix yogurt with mint and salt.  Add water and fill bottle. Shake the bottle. It will make just under 2 litres.  Enjoy right away or after its had a stay in the frig. 

Kaleh Gonjeshki or Iranian Potato and Meatballs

My Mother-in-Law is visiting me and this is one of the new recipes she shared with me. She doesn't seem to measure anything so your guess is as good as mine.  

Kaleh Gonjeshki or Iranian Potato and Meatballs
Serves 4

For Meatballs
250 gm ground meat
1 grated onion
2  grated potatoes
salt, pepper, turmeric and cumin 

For Sauce
1 sliced onion
1/2 cup sliced potatos
1 Tbs tomato paste
water to cover
salt and pepper

Mix the meat, onion, potatoes and spices.  Form into small balls.  About the size of a ping pong ball. Fry in a little oil. Set aside in a pot. Fry the sliced onion and potatoes. Add the tomato paste.  Mix and cover with water.  Add to the meat balls and simmer for 15-20 min.  Enjoy with flat bread.

Zucchini Pancake or Kadoo Kookoo

I first had Kadoo Kookoo when an Iranian woman made it for me. She used zucchini, walnuts, mint and eggs to make her pancake.  Over the past two years I've played with her recipe and have added one small potato, flour, cumin and feta or goats cheese.  What I'm left is the perfect light lunch or even tart filling (if more eggs are added).

Zucchini Pancake or Kadoo Kookoo
makes 6 slices

2 cups grated zucchini
1 small grated potato
1 egg
1 Tbs flour
1 Tbs walnuts
1/2 tsp dried mint
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1 Tbs feta or goats cheese
salt and pepper
1 tsp oil for frying

Heat the oil in a pan on med heat.  Mix the the zucchini, potato, egg, flour, walnuts, mint, cumin, cheese, salt and pepper.  Pour into the pan to form one large pancake. Cook for about 5-7 min or until the bottom of the pancake is browned. Flip the pancake and cook the other side for 5-7 min or if you are like me and have trouble flipping large hot food than just finish cooking the pancake under the boiler.

7 Layer Olivia Salad

 Olivia a salad popular in Iran but it is from Russia where its called Olivier.  To me its like baby food mixed with mayonnaise...gross and far too rich.  A few weeks ago my mom told me about a deconstructed olivia that she was making.  It got me thinking what if Olivia was constructed as a American 7 Layer Salad?  But without the mayo because 7 Layer Salad is gross and far too rich too!

7 layer Olivia Salad
Makes on large Salad

1 kg of new potatoes boiled and sliced
2 large carrots shredded
1 cup of peas
1 cup of cooked chicken shredded
3 eggs hard boiled and sliced
2 pickels sliced
15 olives sliced
Salt and Pepper


For Dressing
1 cup Plain Yougurt
jucie from 1/2 a lemon
1 tsp sugar
salt and pepper

Mix up the yougurt dressing and season to your teast or use mayo.  Assemble the salad by layering each ingredent with 1/4 cup of the dressing between each layer of potatoes, carrots, peas and chicken.

Sabzi Polow (Herb Rice)

I have a secret. For the last few weeks we have been making our rice in a microwave. Sounds gross right? A few years ago I heard that you could steam rice in the microwave but didn't try it until my 20kg bag of basmati rice started to give microwave directions. Guess what? It really does work!

As it is summer and we have tons of fresh herbs growing I'm making Sabzi Polow (Herb Rice) using the microwave to steam the rice.
Sabzi Polow (Herb Rice)
Severs 4
2 cups of basmati rice
2 cups of washed and finely chopped fresh herbs (dill, coriander(cilantro), parsley, Iranian leeks (or spring onion)
salt
olive oil or butter

Bring 1 liter of water to boil in a pot (like you would for pasta). Salt and add the rice. Boil for 8min. The rice will be a bit soft. Drain and mix with chopped herbs in a microwave safe bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Poke some wholes in the plastic and microwave for 5-8 min. Our microwave is very week so it takes 8min.

One of the best things about making Sabzi Polow or any Iranian rice in the microwave is that you don't have add oil or butter. But if you will like to add a drop of olive oil or a pat of butter feel free to add it at the table. If you have extra herb why not make herb chicken?

Rhubarb Stew or Khoresht Reevaas

It is spring here and Irish rhubarb has hit the shops. All winter I have been waiting to make Khoresht Reevaas or Rhubarb Stew. In April I posted a recipe for Khoresh Baddemjaan (Eggplant Stew). This stew is almost the same, just make with rhubarb not eggplant.
Rhubarb Stew or Khoresht Reevaas
severs 4
1 chopped onion
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 cup of stewing meat (lamb or beef)
1/4 cup yellow split lentils
1 tsp tomato paste
1 dried lime
salt, pepper, hot pepper
1 tsp mint
1 tsp parlsey
3 stalks rhubarb

In a pot over med heat brown the onion in the oil and turmeric. Add the stewing meat and seal. Add the yellow lentils. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Stir in the tomato paste, drop in the dried lime*, salt, pepper, herbs and hot pepper if you like. Its a good idea to cut the lime in half. Put on the lowest heat and let stew 2 to 8 hours. Just make sure it doesn't dry out.
*Note if you do not have dried lime and or you don't like sour then you can leave out the dried lime as the rhubarb is sour.

Cut the rhubarb in 1 1/2 inch sticks. Drop into the stew for the last 5 min, so they soften but don't turn into a string mess.
I've made this stew 2 times this month, 1 beef and 1 lamb. It has a light fresh taste which is perfect for spring. We had our with rice.

Saffron Chicken or Joojeh Kabab

I guess you can't really call a whole oven roasted chicken a kabab? But this saffron marinade tastes great whether it is on a chicken kabab in Iran or a whole bird (or fish) in my Irish kitchen.
Saffron Chicken or Joojeh Kabab
Marinade for 2 small chickens, 8 kababs or a whole salmon
3 med onions
1 juice of a lemon
1 pinch of saffron
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs salt
1 tsp pepper
My mother-in-law would powder the saffron with sugar, but I'm lazy and have a food processor.
Peal and quarter the onions. Pop into a blender or food processor with the saffron and salt. Blend, stopping to push the onions down from time to time. Add the lemon juice, oil and pepper and blend some more. Marinade the chicken in the fridge for a few hours. *Note if you are using a whole chicken or fish make sure you spread some inside too.
If you made kababs then pop them on the grill and enjoy in no time (or more like 10-12 min). My small Irish chickens cooked covered for 2 1/2 hours at gas mark 9 (500f), but thats because my new oven doesn't get hot. 375f-400f should be fine if your oven is working, but if your chickens are larger then give them more time. The best part about roasting your chicken is that you get eat all the lovely golden juices. We had ours with rice.

Potato Pancake: with Fresh Rosemary

My mom could never make too many latkas (potato pancakes). There was always a fight for the last one. So the first time Saeid made me Kookoo Sib Zamini (potato pancakes) and it turned out to potato pancakes I could not have been happier. While my mom likes to add carrots and Saeid adds onion; I love fresh rosemary.
Potato Pancakes: with Fresh Rosemary
serves 2 as a meal or 4 as a starter
1 med large potato (med in the USA large everywhere else)
1 Tbs flour
1 med egg
1 tsp fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp of salt
pepper, hot pepper to taste
Oil to fry (2-3 TBS)

Grate the potato. Ring out any extra water in the grated potato. Mix the flour and egg with the potato. Add in the rosemary, salt, pepper and hot pepper.

Pour a layer of oil in the bottom of a med frying pan. Bring to a med heat. Shape the potato mix into pancakes with hands. Each pancake should use about 1/4 cup of the mix. Fry. Each side should be golden brown. It takes about 3min a side. Drain on a paper towel. Eat while hot or reheat on a low heat in the oven. Note don't rush the pancakes, the inside will be raw and the outside black!!!
There are lots of ways to dress these up (with cream cheese and smoked salmon, applesauce or ketchup). But make sure you save one for me!!!!

Khoresh Baademjaan- Eggplant Stew

Simple to throw into a pot and forget about, Khoresh Baddemjaan (Eggplant Stew) has big flavors. Salt/sour and if youare my mother-in-law spicy. The eggplant melts in your mouth. Wow this is one tasty stew.
Khoresh Baademjaan (Eggplant Stew)
severs 4
1 chopped onion
1 tsp oil + more for frying eggplant
1 cup of stewing meat (lamb or beef)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 cup yellow split lentils
1 tsp tomato paste
1 dried lime (or lemon/lime juice)
salt, pepper, hot pepper
1 eggplant

In a pot over med heat brown the onion in the oil. Add the stewing meat and seal. Add the turmeric and yellow lentils. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Stir in the tomato paste, drop in the dried lime, salt, pepper and hot pepper if you like. Its a good idea to cut the lime in half. Put on the lowest heat and let stew 2 to 8 hours. Just make sure it doesn't dry out. Note if you do not have dried lime add 1 Tbs lime/lemon juice 5 min before severing.

Before severing peal and slice the eggplant from top to tail. Can get 8-10 slices from 1 med eggplant. Fry the eggplant in oil until golden on each side. Sometimes I salt and remove extra water from the eggplant before frying and sometimes I don't use oil when I fry the eggplant. Oil and salt are yummy, so its up to you!

Place the eggplant on top of the stew for the last 5 min.

Enjoy with rice.

Adas Polow (Rice and Lentils): The Long Recipe

In my last post I gave my Cheater's Recipe for Adas Polow, which is great for busy days but the long recipe taste worlds nicer.
Saeid likes large brown lentils and I like small black/blue French lentils so I used both. Feel free to use any kind/mix of lentils you want. Note split red lentils work really well in the Cheater's Recipe because they cook so fast, but they cook too fast for the long recipe.
Adas Polow (Rice and Lentils): The Long Recipe
Serves 4
2 cups of basmati or long-grain rice
1 cup of lentils
1 Tbs + 1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of oil

1. Wash the rice, cover with water and add 1 Tbs of salt. Soak for 3 hours or more.

2. Wash the lentils and cover with 1 cup of water. Add 1 tsp of salt. Bring to a boil, cover and lower the heat. Cook for about 20 min or until the water is gone.

3. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the soaked rice (without the soaking water). (Cooking time of the rice changes with the amont of time the rice has soaked. The longer the soaking the shorter the cooking.) Stir the rice and water and let the water come back to a boil. When the each grain starts to dance in the boiling water its done. Or taste a few grains to see when its soft but still has some bite to it. Drain the rice. Note the cooking time should not be more the 3 min, mine is done around 1 min.

4. Add the oil to a rice maker or pot. Layer the rice and lentils. Place 1/3 of the cooked rice to the pot and add 1/2 of the lentils on top the rice. The finnal layer will be rice. Cover the lid with a clean cloth and steam the rice for 30 mim. If using a rice maker just use the normal rice setting. If using a pot use the lowest heat on the stovetop.
Saeid likes to top his Adas Polow with salty Irish butter. I'm all about Greek yogurt and raw spinach. Anyway you like it the fuffy rice and rice lentils make a lovely meal.

Adas Polow (Rice and Lentils): The Cheater's Recipe

Adas Polow or Rice and Lentils is the best comfort food in the world. I love making this dish so much that I will be posting the long way in my next post. But this if for cheaters!!!!

Adas Polow : The Cheater's Recipe
serves 4
2 cups of basmati or long gain rice
1 cup of lentil (I like the small French and Saeid likes the large green)
3 cups and 1 Tbs of water
1 tsp of oil
1/2 tsp of salt

Wash the rice and lentil. Place into a rice maker or pot with the water, oil and salt. If using a rice maker turn it on and let it cook. If using a pot bring the water to a boil over a high heat, cover and lower the heat. Cook for 25min or until the rice and lentils are soft.

My whole family loves this dish (even my little brothers). I love it on its own but its also great toped with fried onions and Greek yogurt.

BBQ Liver on top of the Wicklow Mountains

Saeid and I went to the Wicklow Mountain with friends to enjoy the wonderful weather and have a BBQ. The sun was setting before we found a spot in which to BBQ but view more than made up for the wait.
I like liver, but even if you haven't enjoyed liver and onions in the past give this recipe a go at your next BBQ. It cooks really fast and no Irianian BBQ would be complet without it.

BBQ Liver
feeds 4
1 single use BBQ
1 package of Lamb Liver (about 2 livers)
1 pack of flat bread
1 bag of washed spinach
salt, pepper
water

Find a safe place to light your BBQ. Once it heats up pop the liver on and add salt and pepper. Cook for 2-3mins, turning once. Enjoy inside a flat bread with some spinach. Yummy.
After we had this tasty sandwich we used the BBQ to cook longer cooking meats, (like hamburgs and steak). Then we put the fire out with water and took our BBQ home with us to bin.

Stuffed Cabbage or Dolmeh Kalam or Galumpkis

This is an Iranian recipe for Dolmeh Kalam (stuffed cabbage or galumpkis). Stuffing cabbage is not a new idea in the west and it is a great replacement for vine leaves. I have been able to find vine leaves in Ireland but would rather use Irish cabbage than imported vine leaves. If you have a dolmeh-yeh Barg-e Mow (stuffed vine leaf) recipe you like try it out with cabbage and let me know how it works.
Stuffing for 24 leaves
2 chopped onions
1/2 pound ground beef or lamb
1/2 cup of long grain rice
4 tsp tomato paste
2 cups of stock
1/3 cup dried herbs (I used partsly, mint and ghormeh sabzi)
2 tsp sugar
1/2 of a jucie of a lime
salt, pepper and hot pepper

Cook the onions and ground meat over med heat until the meat is brown. Add the rice and tomato paste and mix well. Add the stock, herbs, sugar and lime juice. Cook for 15 min or until the rice is starts to soft (but not cooked all the way) and the stock is gone. Check for salt, pepper and spice.

To Roll the Cabbage

1 white or green cabbage (I used savoy)
1 tsp oil
1 Tbs tomato paste or 1/2 cup of tomato juice

Pull the leaves off the cabbage one by one. Cut out the thick vane. Wash well. Cook in the microwave 2-3 min or boil for 1 min. The cabbage should be soft and foldy, but will not be as easy to work with as vine leaves.

In an oiled pot or rice maker place the biggest leave down to keep the rolls from burning.

To roll the leaves pull together the 2 sides from where the vain was. Cross them over to make a pocket. Fill with 1 or 1 1/2 Tbs of rice and roll. Place in the pot. The roll may try to unroll so fit the rolls in tight. When all the cabbage is rolled mix tomato paste with 1/2 water and pour over the rolls. Cover the pot and cook for 30-45 in a rice maker or on med low heat. The cabbage should be soft and the rice cooked. Add more water if its not.

Mezze with Falafels

The 2010 February Daring COOKs challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

For this challenge we had to make pitta and hummus using given recipe. You can find them on the Daring Kitchen website. I was not happy with the pitta recipe and felt the hummus called for too much lemon. I did love this Falafel recipe. I used soaked dried beans and Saeid fried them for me. Yummy!

Optional Recipe: Falafels - Recipe from Joan Nathan and Epicurious.com
Prep Time: Overnight for dry beans and 1 hour to make Falafels

1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water overnight OR use well canned drained chickpeas (7 ounces/100 grams)
1/2 large onion (roughly chopped, about 1 cup)
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped OR use a couple pinches of dried parsley (.2 ounces/5 grams)
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped OR use a couple pinches of dried cilantro (.2 ounces/5 grams)
1 teaspoon table salt (.1 ounce/5 grams)
1 teaspoon dried hot red peppers (cayenne) (.1 ounce/2 grams)
4 whole garlic cloves, peeled
1 teaspoon cumin (.1 ounce/2 grams)
1 teaspoon baking powder (.13 ounces/4 grams)
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour (1 ounce/24 grams) (you may need a bit extra)
tasteless oil for frying (vegetable, canola, peanut, soybean, etc.), you will need enough so that the oil is three inches deep in whatever pan you are using for frying

Directions:
1. Put the chickpeas in a large bowl and add enough cold water to cover them by at least 2 inches. Let soak overnight, and then drain. Or use canned chickpeas, drained.
2. Place the drained, uncooked chickpeas and the onions in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the parsley, cilantro, salt, hot pepper, garlic, and cumin. Process until blended but not pureed. If you don’t have a food processor, then feel free to mash this up as smooth as possible by hand.
3. Sprinkle in the baking powder and 4 tablespoons of the flour, and pulse. You want to add enough bulgur or flour so that the dough forms a small ball and no longer sticks to your hands. Turn into a bowl and refrigerate, covered, for several hours.
4. Form the chickpea mixture into balls about the size of walnuts.
5. Heat 3 inches of oil to 375 degrees (190C) in a deep pot or wok and fry 1 ball to test. If it falls apart, add a little flour. Then fry about 6 balls at once for a few minutes on each side, or until golden brown.
6. Drain on paper towels.

Note: I sometimes prefer to bake these so I can avoid the deep frying. I bake them on a nonstick pad (silpat or the like) at 325F (160C), just until they’re firm, about 20 minutes.

Smoked Mackerel and Dill Rice (Mahi Doudi va Shevid Polow)

We enjoyed our breakfast of smoked mackerel so much that went to Howth to buy some more. At the Wrights of Howth we got 3 wilded catch (France) for 10.50e.
While gutted the Mackerel still had its head, bones and skin. Not to worry it was so easy to de-bone (just asked our fisherman house mate).
Cut along the side of the fish, putting your knife between the top fillet and the backbone. Separate the the fish into two. Pull the head with the back bone off in one go. That takes care of most of the bones. The rest are easy to pick out.
We didn't heat the mackerel up, but just mixed it in with hot dill rice and mint and cucumber yogurt.