Salad Shirazi

Ingredients

• 5 Persian cucumbers (or 2 English cucumbers, the idea is to use seedless cucumbers)
• 4 round tomatoes
• 1 medium red onion
• 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
• 1 tbsp dry mint
• 1 tbsp oil (optional)
• salt & pepper

Method:

1. These three veggies are all you need for this salad! Here is the thing though, you have to small dice ALL of them and they have to be, give or take, the same size. Think of it as a Persian Pico de Gallo! Now let’s get choppin’!
   
   
   
2. Small dice cucumbers. Depending on the thickness of the cucumbers they can either be divided into 6 or 8 slices.
   
   
   
3. Dice onion…I didn’t use all of my onion as it was too much. You can see in the next picture the piece that I left out. You don’t want the onion to overpower the rest of the ingredients.
   
   
   
4. Do the same with the tomatoes. I would suggest doing the tomatoes last so that you don’t have to whip your cutting board dry after chopping them.
   
   
   
5. And Voila! Here they are all nice and chopped up!  Season with salt, pepper and add dried mint.
   
   
   
6. Mix well, cover and place in the fridge for 20 minutes. Make sure to taste the salad to make sure that there is enough salt.
   
   
   
7. In the mean time juice fresh lime.  Homeyra says that oil is optional for the dressing.
   
   
   
8. If you would like to add oil, then add 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.
   
   
   
9. Pour lime juice and olive oil over the salad. Mix well and refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.
   
   
   
   
10. Salad Shirazi can be served with any meal. YUM!
    
    
    

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Salad Olivieh

 Ingredients

• 3 medium large potatoes, cooked
• 3 eggs, hard boiled
• 2 cups shredded chicken
• 2 cups frozen peas and carrots
• 19 oz can of Persian pickles
• Dressing
• 2 cups mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 tsp  mustard
• 1/8 cup olive oil
• salt & pepper

Method:

1. First short cut: pick your favorite roast chicken. My local Albertson’s makes a delicious Lemon Basil roast chicken.  You can cook your own chicken from scratch, but the added flavor from the roast chicken is really good!
   
   
   
   
   
2. Removed bones and skin and shred chicken. Also give it a rough chop to make the pieces a bit smaller.
   
   
   
3. Small dice the eggs and pickles.
   
   
   
4. Dice the potatoes as well making them slightly bigger in size than the pickles and eggs.
   
   
   
5. Short cut two: Buy a bag of frozen peas and carrots.  In the traditional Salad Olivieh the peas and carrots should be cooked.  Mela informed me that the secret to a good Salad Olivieh is to not cook the peas. So I took this advice a step further and also saved the time spent on cutting the carrots. I just throw the peas and carrots in my salad raw, straight out of the bag.
   
   
   
   
   

   
   
   
   
6. Place all ingredients in a big mixing bowl.
   
   
   
7. In a different mixing bowl prepare the dressing by mixing mayo, mustard, lemon juice, oil, salt and pepper.  I personally have a love affair with Dijon mustard, but you can use regular mustard too!
   
   
   
8. Mix ingredients and dressing well.
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. Taste and check seasoning.  Cover and let rest in the fridge for a few hours allowing the flavors to come together.
10. Salad Olivieh is an excellent addition to your appetizers table, a great side dish, and a fantastic choice for a picnic.  It is also delicious in a sandwich form, either with pita bread or French baguette!

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Roasted Cornish Hens with Saffron

 I absolutely love roast chicken. I have several different homemade rubs that I use. One great tip that I learned a few years ago what to roast the chicken at high temperature.  You would think that the chicken would dry up, but every time the skin is perfectly roasted and the meat is moist and tasty!

Today’s recipe is super ease to make and the smell of it while it cooks will take over your whole kitchen and slowly travel through your whole home.  Once it’s ready every bite is packed with the taste and scent of saffron!

Ingredients:

• 2 Cornish hens
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp saffron treads
• 1 onion
• salt & pepper

Method:

1. Melt butter.  Take the saffron treads and rub them between your fingers and drop them in the hot butter. Let rest.
   
   
   
2. In the mean time wash the birds and pat dry. Slice the onion in big chunks, peal and crush garlic.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Rub the inside of each bird with salt.  Stuff with some of the onion and one crushed garlic in each.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Warm up the butter, which by now should have gone back to being firm.  Layer the bottom of a oven safe dish with the remainder of the onion and garlic. Flip the birds over so that they are breast side down.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Brush the birds with butter infused with saffron.  Season with salt and pepper.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Place the chickens on top of the onion breast side up.  Brush with the rest of the butter all over.  Season with salt and pepper.  Roast in 400° oven for 40 minutes or until cooked all the way through.
   
   
   
7. And the end what you get is a gorgeous colored roast bird that taste delicious!
   
   
   

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Saffron

 Saffron is used pretty extensively in Persian Cuisine. I love the smell of it and the beautiful deep yellow color that it gives rice as well as its delicate aroma.

Picture courtesy of FX Cuisine
There is a reason why Saffron is so expensive. Harvesting Saffron is no easy task. You get a little glimpse of it in the picture above taken by fellow blogger François-Xavier of FX Cuisine. I absolutely adore his blog and I am very sad that he doesn’t blog as often as he used to.  If you get a chance please go over and read about his adventure harvesting Saffron in Switzerland!!

This is how Persians usually prepare and use saffron in food. You have seen me do this before in pictures, but here is the step by step process.

This is all you need a mortar along with hot water.

I love this little little stainless steel Turkish coffee maker pot because I can use it to quickly boil up a small amount of  water for my saffron without having to use my kettle or a sauce pan.

In a mortar grind a pinch of saffron with a pinch of salt or sugar.  The addition of salt or sugar will make the process easier.

Place ground saffron in a small bowl and pour hot water over it. Make sure that you always use hot water as it helps release the aroma and works much better than room temperature water.

Stir well. Now you are ready to use the saffron in your recipe as needed.


If you don’t want to  bother with having to grind the saffron every time you use it, here are a couple of shortcut options.

Place ground saffron in a small spice bottle.

Add hot water to it and close the lid. Give it a nice shake.  Open the lid and let cool down to room temperature. Store bottle in the fridge and use as needed.

Alternatively, you can store your ground saffron in a small jar. I was given this jar by one of my aunts which came filled with ground saffron! I keep on reusing it as it is nice and small.

So there you have it! A couple of nice shortcuts to save time while cooking!

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Khoresht Gharch ~ Persian Mushroom Stew

 I only have one thing to say: I love mushrooms. Always have, always will. The day that I discovered Crimini and Portabella mushrooms my life became even better! With that said, I love Khoresht Gharch to no end. It really is yummy and super simple to make!


Ingredients

• 8 chicken thighs
• 2 medium onions
• 4 garlic cloves
• 24oz mushrooms
• 1 tbsp flour
• 2 tbsp brewed saffron
• 4 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 egg yolks
• oil
• salt & pepper

Method:

1. Small dice onion and mince garlic.  Saute in some oil until golden.
   
   
2. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Add to onion and cook for about 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Add 1/2 cup of water, cover, and cook on medium for half hour.
   
   
3. In the mean time clean mushrooms (see post How to Clean Mushrooms). Cut off the bottom portion of the stem and depending on the size of each mushroom either cut into four section or nine. You can use any type of mushrooms you like, personally, I absolutely love cooking with Crimini mushrooms, which are baby portabella mushrooms.
   
   
4. I personally like to use all of my mushroom, including the stem. I cut the stem off then quarter, or cut into nice pieces, the cap then slice the stems.
   
   
5. Saute mushrooms in a thin layer of oil until their juices come out. Allow for the juices to evaporate.
   
   
6. Add flour to mushrooms and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.
   
   
7. Add brewed Saffron and lemon juice to chicken and mix well. Then add mushrooms and continue cooking uncovered for about 10 minutes.  Beat egg yolks in a bowl and carefully taper in the egg yolks with a bit of the juices from the stew.  Add tapered egg yolks to the pot and continue cooking for another 15 minutes. Make sure to adjust seasoning if needed.
   
   
8. You will have a fantastic stew in just under one hour to serve over rice!

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