Khoresh Badejan

Yeah, we still don't know how to pronounce it; but the chicken was fantastic.

With the recent surge of fresh veg that we have had access to, Emma and I felt that we should make a dish that could showcase the beautiful variety available. After pouring over the many delicious meals in the cookbook we eventually found one that would be perfect for our showcase.

We then descended upon the Lon & Rachael garden in search of the goods (we were hoping to have pictures to accompany this but our camera is currently on strike or something). From the garden we were able to procure:

4 Vibrant Red Tomatoes
2 Green Bell Peppers
2 White/Yellow Bell Peppers
2 Fat and Happy Eggplants

Also included were some tasty items that we will be using in future dishes. It was a very good trip to the garden. We want to give a big shout out to Lon & Rachel for providing our veg.

Making the dish was pretty straight forward, we decided to use chicken breast for our meat and olive oil in place of sunflower oil. As the ingredients cooked the only thing either of us could say was, YUM! As the dish started to come together we lamented the absence of our camera. However, as luck would have it, one of our good friends did have a camera so we lured him to our house with talk of tasty food. He took our pictures and we all enjoyed our first attempt at Persian cuisine.


The meal was fantastic. All of the flavors came together in an unexpected but tasty way. The dish itself is pretty easy to make and can make you seem really impressive to your friends. We highly recommend Khoresh Badejan.

Notes about the dish:

Chicken breast was not the optimal choice here. The legs and thighs would have been juicier after all was said and done, but the breast was by no means a failure.

You can salt and pepper this thing all you want. The flavors just get better.

DON'T FORGET THE CINNAMON! :-D We almost did, luckily we caught it in time. Cinnamon adds such a great element to the dish and it was nice to see it not used in a dessert.

Leftovers are great. The flavors have even more time to meld with the chicken.

Spinach Empanadillas

Having served the people of Spain for 2 years on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Michael knows Spanish food. And was unimpressed with puff pastry for an empanada, tapa or no tapa. (Michael editorial note: As all clear thinking individuals know, true empanada is Galician empanada.  All other forms are merely pale imitations).  So he made up his version of traditional empanada dough:

Mix together:
1 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
2/3 C warm water
1/2 C extra virgin olive oil
1 egg
2 tsp salt
2 T melted butter OR 2 T water

Add 3 1/2 C of flour, 1 cup at a time. Stir until flour is incorporated. Knead until elastic and smooth. Let rise one hour. Then roll out to about 1/8 " thick:

(Michael editorial note: this is enough empanada dough to make a cookie sheet sized empanada.  Should anyone actually want to try that let me know and I will give you the recipe and cooking times)

He made the filling as listed in the recipe and we used a mug to cut out circles of dough. Jacob, of course, was our helper-boy. Stuff, crimp, repeat. We then brushed them with an egg wash.

Bake at 350F for 20 minutes. Listen to Jacob chant: "Jacob eat.  Jacob eat."

They were delicious.  They have the official Jacob seal of approval; he even ate eyes into them to match what he thought looked like a mouth.

Yum.

Ditto.

Chicken with Lemon and Garlic...

We made...the exact same thing.

So this blog post doesn't count. Except that we took a picture.

So, yeah. Yum. :)

Chicken with Lemon and Garlic

When we first got the cookbook we were so excited we went ahead and made something almost immediately. So this is a "practice" post from our archived files for your enjoyment.

This is the first recipe that caught my eye, mostly because I was hoarding the cookbook and wouldn't let Emma see it, but it was delicious!

(Even if the picture doesn't show that because the camera was dying.)

We had it with a brown lime rice (thanks to some leftover limes from Tasha's reception), but in retrospect a long grain white or jazmine rice. We didn't try the hot lemon wedges, but they look good in the book!

It was very delicious and easy. Emma's friend who was there loved it and immediately wanted the recipe.

(p.188)

Tanzanian Fried Fish

A few weeks ago, Kristin got a text from our friend Stef asking if we liked catfish. Turns out Stef's uncle had been at a fundraiser where they had a stocked pond for kids to fish out of, and when the event was over, they were going to throw out the fish! So he filled two coolers with dozens of catfish, and a few hours later, we found ourselves at a catfish filleting party.

Frying the marinated, floured catfish pieces.

Simmering spinach, onion, coconut milk.

The only time previous I can remember having contact with a fresh fish was at another stocked pond before I was 10 years old, when I stood by as Dad did a quick cleanup of a fish we caught there. Catfish have some pointy barbs to steer clear of, and really tough scales—that have to be ripped off to get to the meat. Kristin got pretty good at that. I was on gutting duties. One of our friends there is from Hawaii, and he showed me some good techniques for getting some nice clean fillets.

At the end of the night, we had 5 freezer bags of fresh catfish fillets.

So we've been looking for fish recipes! This one sounded interesting—especially the blend of spices used for the fish, including cinnamon. Kristin started the fish marinating about an hour or two before I got home (still at church, as usual), and blended up the spinach. Then we fried (making sure the oil was hot enough before we added the fish; my most common mistake in frying fish is adding it too early, and the fish soaks up the oil instead of cooking in it. (Ideally, as I understand it, the oil quickly crisps and cooks the breading and the outside of the fish, sealing it so that the inside is actually steamed from its own moisture.)

It turned out delicious. The coconut paired surprisingly well with the spinach and fish, giving it a smooth and nutty taste. This would probably work just fine with any type of firm, white fish.

Chickpea and Spinach Pancakes

And by pancakes, they mean crêpes.

Perhaps not the most representative meal to start this blog off with, in that I don't know how closely we followed the original recipe. But these were delicious and hearty. Kristin is a master of the crêpe. The first one never turns out, but the following ones always end up amazing. A torn half-sheet of paper towel separates stack of finished crêpes nicely.

The filling of onions, chickpeas, and spinach was very straightforward. The key element for the whole thing is the white sauce—and our one complaint was that the sauce was kind of bland. I would recommend making sure it's well seasoned with salt and pepper.