Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Quince Omelet

Recipe Source: Batmanglij, Najmieh.  Silk Road Cooking.  Mage Publishers, Washington DC, 2004 p. 125

I love quinces.  I love the way they smell, and the way that my refrigerator smells when it is full of quinces.  They aren't the prettiest of fruits when raw, but when cooked they make the prettiest syrups and jams and jellies and whatever.  They are generally sour, however, so most quince recipes rely pretty heavily upon large quantities of sugar.  Now, I personally don't have much of a sweet tooth and frankly at my size I don't need even more empty calories.  I've therefore been trying to find some tasty savory recipes for quince, and in order to do that I've needed to look east.  (This is not difficult.)  When my in-laws joined us for dinner the night before Thanksgiving I wanted to serve them something a little unusual but still decent.  They specifically requested something "light."  It seemed like the perfect opportunity to make this tasty treat, which is more like a frittata than an omelet if you ask me.  (And you did.)

I made a few changes to the original as you might well expect.  I substituted a parsnip for the carrot because I loathe carrots.  I hadn't any raisins OR dates, so I substituted dried barberries.  I also lacked pistachios, so I increased the quantity of almonds.  I added some garlic.  My notes strongly suggest that I added some cayenne pepper and cumin.  The result was actually very well received!  My in-laws enjoyed the dish and my husband also took great delight in it despite the presence of eggs.  It would probably be just about as good cold as warm - I reheated it, having made it the day before.

Quince Omelet (serves 4; approx. $1.12/serving)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound quinces, cored and thinly sliced

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 onion, thinly sliced

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 parsnip, peeled and thinly sliced

1/2 cup dried barberries, plumped

1 ounce almonds, chopped and toasted

4 eggs, beaten

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Equipment:

• Large skillet

1. Heat the oil in the skillet over medium heat.
2. Add the quince, lime juice and onion.  Cook 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add the parsnip, barberries and nuts.  Cook about 1 minute, stirring.
4. Spread the mixture evenly in the skillet.  Cook until the juices have evaporate.
5. Add the eggs and spices.  Stir, cover and cook over low heat until the eggs have set.
6. Serve.

Recipe: Celery Stew (Khoresht-e Karafs)

Recipe Source: Marks, Gi.  Olive Trees and Honey.  Wiley Publishing, Hoboken, 2005 pp. 237 - 8

Growing up celery wasn't exactly an important vegetable.  It showed up in chicken soup and in the Thanksgiving stuffing.  That was it and it never, ever occurred to me that it might be edible in other contexts.  I would see it along side things like buffalo wings and I would think, "Ah, a garnish."  As I got older I occasionally saw it on party platters near dips.  You know, the ones that never, ever got touched.  Celery was an afterthought, a joke.  I saw a very witty cartoon on the subject once which I shan't describe here, but it showed an awareness of the healthful properties of the vegetable.  As I got older still I found that celery, when dipped in the buffalo sauce from the wings, could make an acceptable vehicle for buffalo sauce.  I also learned that it went well with dips.  Then I tried an organic celery and found that celery is intended to have a flavor of its own and that flavor was actually kind of interesting.  Then, finally, I learned that in Iran they actually cook celery.  There it is treated like a proper vegetable, not like a garnish.

I've made a similar dish, a more traditional version of the celery stew, in the past.  This one comes from a different source.  This cookbook is an examination and exploration of Jewish vegetarian cuisine.  According to Jewish dietary laws, meat and dairy cannot mix on the same plate.  The result is a food culture with a respectable tradition of vegetarian and vegan dishes.  This is one such treat.  I served it at a recent Sunday dinner.  People were a little surprised to see celery so treated but they were willing to eat it, and the leftovers were eagerly taken home with people so I guess it was relatively successful.  (It also made a great companion to the Parsnip and Nutmeg Bread I served it with.)

I did make a few changes.  I reduced the amount of oil.  I used one regular onion but I also added a red onion to give a little more interest to the dish.  I increased the recipe because I expected a lot of people and because I had rather a lot of celery.  I added some garlic on general principles.  I combined parsley and cilantro instead of using straight parsley.  This I did because I don't actually like parsley.  I changed the mint for oregano because my husband is allergic to mint.

Celery Stew (Khoresht-e Karafs) (serves 8; approx. $1.57/serving)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 brown onion, chopped

1 red onion, chopped

6 garlic cloves, chopped

3 1/2 heads of celery, chopped (including leaves)

4 cups water

3/4 bunch parsley, chopped

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

6 tablespoons dried oregano

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

1/2 cup lime juice

Equipment:

• Large saucepan with lid

1. Heat the oil in the saucepan.
2. Add the onions and garli.  Saute until translucent.
3. Add the celery.  Saute about 5 minutes.
4. Add the water.  Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer about 30 minutes.
5. Add the herbs and lime juice.  Cook, uncovered, another 10 minutes or so.
6. Serve.

Recipe: Roast Chicken with Persian Stuffing

Recipe Source: Shaida, Margaret.  The Legendary Cuisine of Persia.  Interlink Books, New York, 2002 p. 177

A dear friend recently introduced me to a new "Mediterranean" market within a reasonable distance of my house.  There are no words to describe how happy I am about this.  The Middle Eastern market I had been using in Quincy seems to have closed and while the Greek market in West Roxbury is very nice it doesn't have some of the more unusual ingredients I frequently have to substitute out or omit altogether.  Now I can get verjuice instead of having to make it up.  Now I can get rue, although I still need to be very judicious about using it.  Now I can get barberries.  That brings me to this recipe.  I chose it for a recent Sunday dinner specifically because it contains barberries.  I now had barberries and I wanted to show off my new acquisition.

I made a few changes.  I couldn't find dried peaches anywhere at all so I used dried mango.  Perhaps they don't use mango so often in Iran.  I couldn't say.  I do know that I like mango, so I figured it was an okay substitute.  I doubled the recipe because we actually had a good-size crowd.  I omitted the basting step, which eliminated a few ingredients, reduced the cost per serving and made this a much simpler recipe to prepare.  I cooked it on the Big Green Egg, which had a lot to do with how I got away without basting it.  Finally, I omitted the walnuts because of my daughter.  I used breadcrumbs instead.

This stuffing was pretty amazing if I do say so myself.  Everyone seems to have loved it.  The recipe did prepare rather more than strictly necessary for the stuffing of the two chickens I used, but that was okay.  I was able to cook it up on the stovetop without a problem.  Now, Thanksgiving is in a week.  Maybe you've got a house full of relatives coming.  Maybe you're sick of your family's traditional stuffing.  Try this one out.  You will not be disappointed.

Roast Chicken with Persian Stuffing (serves 8; approx. $4.42/serving)

2 chickens

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

2 lemons, thinly sliced

6 tablespoons dried barnerries

10 slices dried mango

10 tablespoons dried sour cherries

2 ounces dried breadcrumbs

4 onions, diced

1 can tomato paste

Equipment:

• Large skillet or saute pan
• Aluminum foil
• Big Green Egg (optional - you can roast this in your oven, but it will be much better in the Egg.)

1. Preheat your Egg or oven to 325 degrees.
2. Rub the space under the chicken skin with kosher salt and black pepper to taste.  Slide lemon slices under the skin.
3. Heat the oil in the saute pan.
4. Add the onions and fry until golden.
5. Add the breadcrumbs.  Fry briefly.
6. Add the dried fruit.  Fry for another minute.
7. Add the tomato paste.  Mix thoroughly and set aside to cool.
8. When the Egg or oven is ready, stuff the chicken cavities with the stuffing.  If you have stuffing left over, set it aside.
9. Roast the chicken until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees.
10. Remove the chicken from the Egg and tent with foil; the internal temperature will continue to rise and the chicken will be thoroughly cooked when you are done.  Set aside for at least 15 minutes.
11. Meanwhile, if you have more stuffing than chicken cavities, transfer the stuffing to a deep saute pan or saucepan with a lid.  Add about 1/2 cup of water.
12. Bring to a boil, then clamp the lid on and reduce heat to very low.  Cook about 5 minutes.
13. Serve.

Recipe: Braised Sweet Dumpling Squash with Collard Greens

Recipe Source: Batmanglij, Najmieh.  Silk Road Cooking.  Mage Publishers, Washington DC, 2004 p. 190

I'm not a huge fan of squash.  It's generally just too sweet for my tastes.  That's unfortunate, because it's a local ingredient that is in season for much of the year around here.  It's also a very healthy food, so I'm really making an effort to enjoy it.  One way that I can make squash dishes more appealing to me is to combine the squash with something that I do like.  In this case, I combined it with collard greens, one of my favorite foods in the whole wide world.

The collards weren't included in the original recipe, of course, but that's okay.  I also used a sweet dumpling squash instead of butternut because I had one from our final farm share delivery.  I omitted the walnuts so the Fearless Baby could partake - she adores squash and I couldn't in good conscience serve squash and not include her.  I omitted the sugar for obvious reasons - if squash by itself is too sweet for me it certainly doesn't need added sugar!  I didn't have any prunes, but I had some dried sour cherries from another dish.  Sour cherries wind up in quite a few Persian dishes so I figured it was okay to add them here.

This dish was very well received by my guests.  I could have lived without it, but the addition of the collards made it at least tolerable.

Braised Sweet Dumpling Squash with Collard Greens (serves 8; approx. $0.89/serving)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon grond cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

2 onions, peeled and sliced

5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

1 sweet dumpling squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 2" pieces

3 tablespoons lime juice

4 ounces dried sour cherries

1 1/2 cups water

1 bunch collard greens, chopped

Equipment:

• Large wok

1. Heat the oil in the wok.
2. Add the spices.  Saute about 10 seconds.
3. Add the onions, garlic and squash.  Cook about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the squash is browned.
4. Add the water, lime juice, cherries and collards.
5. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer 15 - 20 minutes or until the squash is tender.
6. Serve.

Recipe: Cherry Rice

Recipe Source: Butcher, Sally. Persia in Peckham. Prospect Books, Devon, 2007 pp. 218 – 9

I originally intended to make this for a Sunday open house a while ago. Unfortunately I was vastly overcommitted that weekend and did not get to make the dish. You see, the recipe is kind of a time sink. The actual time spent working on the dish is minimal, but there is a lot of "simmer" time during which it is unwise to leave the house. I decided to serve it the next weekend and made it just before the lamb went bad.

The biggest change I made in this recipe was the cherries. The original called for sour cherries. I had no sour cherries. It was supposed to be sour cherry season but apparently none of my local markets got the memo because all they had were Rainier cherries. I could have used sour cherry jam but I just couldn't make myself do it. I've got so many (expletive) jams cluttering up my house right now that I just can't justify buying some in the store. Besides, jam involves sugar. I don't like sweet things. I decided to omit the sugar and use lime juice instead of water when cooking the cherries. The other changes were increased turmeric (also to counteract the sweetness of my vastly incorrect cherries), omitting the saffron (the turmeric had given quite enough color to the dish and would have overpowered the saffron, rendering it inert and expensive), using less lamb (because I miscalculated the dates on one of the packages) and using brown rice (because that's what I keep on hand.) The dish was delicious and yielded 7 cups of lamb stock that I reserved for another use.

Cherry Rice (serves about 20; approx. $1.15/serving)

1 package (approx. 2) lamb shoulder blade chops, bone in, chopped into small pieces with bones reserved

1 onion, chopped

2 teaspoons ground turmeric

Kosher salt to taste

1 stick butter

5 cups brown basmati rice

2 packages (about 1 ½ pounds?) Rainier cherries, stoned and cleaned

¼ cup lime juice

Equipment:

• 4 saucepans
• Strainer
• Bowls

1. Combine the lamb, lamb bones, turmeric, salt and onion in a large saucepan with water to very generously cover. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 1 hour 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, set the rice to soak for the same amount of time in clean cold water.
3. Meanwhile, combine the cherries and the lime juice in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the cherries are softened, then set aside.
4. Bring another saucepan of water to a boil.
5. Plunge the soaked rice into the boiling water. Parboil 8 minutes, then drain.
6. Meanwhile, drain the lamb into a bowl. You should have about 8 cups of lamb broth. Discard the lamb bones.
7. Melt the butter in the bottom of a very large saucepan.
8. Add about 1/3 of the par-cooked rice.
9. Layer ½ of the cherry mixture on top of that.
10. Follow with about ½ of the drained lamb mixture.
11. Repeat with another layer of rice, then cherries, then lamb, finally topping with the remaining rice.
12. Pour about a cup of lamb stock into the pot.
13. Cover and cook over the lowest possible heat for a little over an hour.
14. Invert the saucepan over a tray and serve.

Recipe: Kohlrabi Borani

Recipe Source: Kremezi, Aglaia. Mediterranean Hot and Spicy. Broadway Books, New York, 2009 pp. 88 – 9.

Many years ago I joined a CSA program. I was really, really dissatisfied with it. The food was of very poor quality – I mean, I don't need my food to be all that pretty but rotten and wormy just annoys me. Furthermore, there was absolutely no inventory list provided with the box of vegetables and not all of the produce consisted of things one might find in the local supermarket. I'm an adventurous eater with a wealth of resources to draw on, but I need at least a little something to go on. One of the strange, alien vegetables was this thing that looked vaguely like a Klingon turnip. I had no idea what it was and neither did anyone else that I knew.

Later I left that job. I started this blog. I learned that the Klingon turnip was in fact a kohlrabi. Of course I never saw kohlrabi in the supermarket, but it kind of stayed in the back of my mind as a personal challenge. I would find kohlrabi and I would make something tasty from it.

A few weeks ago I took the dog for a walk at a local farm. That's right. The site used to be the estate of some wealthy New Englander and now it's a park. The people who run this site manage a small farm. It is a nice farm and they have a little farmstand on site. This particular week I found my quest was likely to be fulfilled. There was not one kind of kohlrabi but two: purple and green. I bought one of each and contemplated what I would do with my treasure.

What I wound up doing was re-making the beet borani dish I made for the Fourth of July and bringing it north for the big medieval event. This is not a period recipe and I have no idea as to whether or not kohlrabi is period, much less period to the part of the world from which we get borani. Borani, however, is named after a Persian queen from very early in the medieval period, so I decided it was appropriate enough to serve. It was quite a hit.

Kohlrabi Borani (serves about 30 as a side dish; approx. $0.35/serving)

1 bunch (about 5) green kohlrabi

1 bunch (about 5) purple kohlrabi

1 bunch dill, chopped

½ bunch marjoram, chopped

5 cloves garlic, crushed

2 cups toasted walnuts, chopped

4 cups Greek yogurt

Equipment:

• Large saucepan
• Sauté pan with lid
• Large bowl

1. Separate the kohlrabi bulbs from the greens. Dice the bulbs. Wash and coarsely chop, but do not dry, the greens.
2. Bring a saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil.
3. Add the diced kohlrabi bulbs and cook until tender. Drain.
4. Heat the sauté pan.
5. Add the kohlrabi greens. Reduce the heat, cover and allow to steam for about 4 minutes. Shake the pan a couple of times during this period to prevent burning.
6. Combine all the ingredients in the large bowl. Mix well.
7. Refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving.

Recipe: Beet Borani

Recipe Source: Kremezi, Aglaia. Mediterranean Hot and Spicy. Broadway Books, New York, 2009 pp. 88 – 9

The good news is that you've probably seen the last of the strawberry recipes, at least for this year. The bad news is that it doesn't mean the end of pink things. In this case, our friends decided to host an impromptu party on July 4^th. By "impromptu" I mean they called at 11 for a 1 PM start time. That was fine, it was informal. Of course we couldn't make it right away, since we'd been away all weekend and had much to do around the house, but that gave me time to make this dish and let it chill for a while before heading over. Unfortunately we missed most of the dining, but we did wind up getting hungry later on in the process and ate it then. I'm so glad we got to serve it because it was such a hit!

I made a few changes to the original recipe, as usual. I used a head of green garlic from our farm share for the regular garlic. I omitted the jalapenos because we were serving folks who don't handle spice well – one of the dinner guests things black pepper is a little too much heat for him! I changed the walnuts for pecans since I used them for another recipe and I added some fresh Greek oregano to the dill because I had it and it smelled good while I was thinking about the recipe.

Beet Borani (serves 8; approx. $1.66/serving)

1 bunch beets, cleaned, with their greens

½ bunch dill, finely chopped

5 sprigs of fresh Greek oregano, chopped

1 head green garlic, bulb only

1 cup toasted pecans

4 cups Greek yogurt

Kosher salt to taste

Equipment:

• Medium saucepan
• Sauté pan with lid
• Large bowl

1. Fill the saucepan with salted water and bring to a boil.
2. Add the beets and cook until tender.
3. Meanwhile, chop the greens. Wash but do not dry them.
4. Put the greens in the sauté pan. Place over high heat.
5. Cover and cook 2 – 3 minutes. The water clinging to the leaves will steam the greens until they are wilted.
6. Remove from heat. Drain both the greens and the beets. Let them cool.
7. Mix the remaining ingredients in the large bowl.
8. Add the vegetables and more salt, if desired.
9. Chill at least 3 hours and serve.

Recipe: Split Pea and Lamb Stew (Khoresht-e Ghemieh)

Recipe Source: Shaida, Margaret. The Legendary Cuisine of Persia. Interlink Books, Brooklyn, 2002 pp. 107 – 8.

Our Sunday open houses are very weather dependent. Usually I wind up making mostly side dishes while my husband handles the main meat course on the Big Green Egg. The thing is, my husband is made of sugar. He does not do rain. Ever. Usually the open house is an outdoor affair, so if it rains on Sunday the open house is cancelled. One recent weekend though involved mostly indoor activities, so I had to come up with a meat dish to serve. I sent my husband out to procure some sort of meat and told him I'd figure out what to do with it when he came home. He came home with lamb, which is always my preference anyway, and when I took inventory of my kitchen I found I had enough ingredients to make this.

I made a few changes of course. I used bone-in lamb stew meat because that's what I had. I increased the onion because onions are super healthy and I added some garlic because garlic is good. I increased the turmeric (because I like it) and I added a little bit of cumin also because of personal preference. I hadn't any dried lime powder. I thought I had, but it isn't in the cabinet anymore. I omitted the potatoes at the end because I didn't have any. I increased all amounts because I was serving a lot of people.

The result was a pretty darned tasty stew if I do say so myself. People certainly seemed to enjoy it while eating!

Khoresht-e Ghemieh (serves 8; approx. $1.69/serving)

3 pounds (approximate) bone-in lamb stew meat

3 cups yellow split peas, washed

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 onions, diced

3 red onions, chopped

1 tablespoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 can tomato paste

8 dried limes, pierced

Kosher salt and grains of paradise to taste

Lemon juice to taste

Equipment:

• Dutch oven

1. Heat the oil in the Dutch oven.
2. Add the onions and garlic with a pinch of kosher salt. Fry until golden.
3. Add some of the grains of paradise with the turmeric and the cumin. Sauté a few seconds.
4. Add the meat. Fry until brown.
5. Add the tomato paste and split peas. Fry briefly – very briefly, since burning the split peas will ruin both the dinner and your pot.
6. Cover generously with water.
7. Stir, cover and simmer 20 minutes.
8. Add the limes with salt and lemon juice to taste. Simmer until the meat is tender and the split peas soft.
9. Serve.

Recipe: Artichokes with Pearl Onions and Potatoes

Recipe Source: Batmanglij, Najmieh. Silk Road Cooking. Mage Publishing, Washington DC, 2004 p. 175

Spring is not here. The lake still looks deceptively frozen. There are still heaps of snow in various parts of the neighborhood. It is still cold out. However, I can say with confidence that spring is on its way. Most of the snow in our yard has receded, and if the grass is a little on the yellow-and-brown side it is at least visible. We can access our compost heap. I can walk the dog in the neighborhood without ice shoes. In celebration of this fact I decided to make a few dishes featuring spring ingredients. Our growing season can't be said to have really started around here but at least it is a break from fennel and winter squash.

The author of this book gives an Athenian origin for this dish and it is indeed very similar to a very popular Greek artichoke dish. The author herself, however, is from Iran and there are some distinctly Persian touches in the recipe that I personally find endearing. The most glaring is the lime juice called for instead of the ubiquitous lemon juice. I'm not sure that I've seen saffron in a whole lot of Greek savory dishes either, although it's not unheard-of. I made a few changes as I usually do. I used baby artichokes because they cut down on prep time. I changed the order of a few things. I reduced the amount of olive oil and I used half of a giant turnip instead of carrots. I added a few spices and I omitted the olive oil drizzle at the end. Ultimately I think we both enjoyed this dish, although my husband seems to have gotten more out of it than I did. (He loves artichokes. I don't really see the appeal myself but to each her own.)

Artichokes with Pearl Onions and Potatoes (serves 4; approx. $4.61/serving)

1 package baby artichokes, prepped, halved and soaked in acidulated water (9 artichokes.)

2 tablespoons olive oil

10 ounces pearl onions, peeled

½ large turnip, peeled and cut into matchsticks

8 new small potatoes

1 package frozen lima beans, thawed

1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt

½ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon coriander

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 cups water

½ cup lime juice

1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 2 tablespoons water

¼ teaspoon saffron dissolved in 1 tablespoon hot water

½ cup chopped fresh dill

Equipment:

• Large, deep sauté pan with lid

1. Heat the oil in the pan.
2. Add the onions, turnips, potatoes, lima beans, artichokes, salt, pepper, cumin and coriander. Sauté for a few seconds.
3. Add the water and lime juice. Bring to a boil.
4. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.
5. Add the cornstarch mixture, saffron mixture and dill. Cook another 15 minutes.
6. Serve.

Recipe: Squash and Lentil Casserole

Recipe Source: Ramazani, Nesta. Persian Cooking. Ibex Publishers, Bethesda, 2000 p. 88

I made this as a side dish. I fully intended for this to be a side dish. Unfortunately for me, it did not want to be a side dish. I served it when a friend came over for dinner. We all had seconds of this delicious dish and we didn't even make a dent in it. The original recipe says that it serves five. That might be true if, perhaps, the "five" means five divisions of the armies of Xerxes. Fortunately, it freezes well. I can reheat it and serve it as a vegetarian main dish or another side dish as often as I'd like.

I made a few changes, which you expected. I substituted olive oil for the butter because olive oil is healthier. I used acorn squash instead of butternut, and so I used the equivalent weight which turned out to be more acorn squash. I used red split lentils because that's what I have the most of and I added five spice powder and Aleppo pepper to the dish.

Squash and Lentil Casserole (serves 10; approx. $0.50/serving)

2 onions, sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups red lentils

2 ½ acorn squash, peeled and sliced

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 teaspoons kosher salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

¾ teaspoon five spice powder

½ teaspoon Aleppo pepper

Equipment:

• Large sauté pan

1. Heat the oil in the sauté pan.
2. Add the onions and sauté until browned.
3. Add the lentils and water to cover. Simmer 20 minutes.
4. Add the squash. Simmer another 20 minutes.
5. Add the remaining ingredients. Serve.