Lentil-rice mix
Posted: 17 February 2012 Filed under: Lentil-rice mix, Uncategorized | Tags: adas_polow, food_photography, lentil_rice, main_dish, mixed_polow, vegan 6 CommentsThis is another popular and hearty “mixed polow” usually served with fried or roasted chicken (or ground beef) and considered a casual and convenient dish. Well, I make it in a quite presentable (read fancy) way, without any kind of. Even before I realized how protein rich and nutritious lentil was, I always thought the dish is a perfect vegetarian meal and found it quite hearty on its own. So, my version of “adas polow” is meatless yet simply fancy!
Ingredients (serving 4): Rice, 3 cups. Green lentil” 1 ½ . Onion, 1 big, thinly sliced. Dried seedless raisin ½ cup, washed and dried. Oil: 4-5 tbsp. Turmeric, ¼ tbsp. Ground saffron, 2 teaspoon (1 soaked in 1 tbsp. of hot water for half an hour) salt, pepper and water as needed. Read the rest of this entry »
7 healthy foods (Told you these foods were good for you!)
Posted: 3 February 2012 Filed under: 7 healthy foods, Told you these foods were good for you!, Uncategorized | Tags: adas, anaar, antioxidants, booteh_recipes, doogh, food_photography, Healthy_foods, huffingtonpost, kale, Kefir, Lentil, poegranate, quinoa 3 CommentsI recently came across a very interesting health food article in Hoffington Post entitled “7 of the Healthiest Foods You Should Be Eating But Aren’t” The article made it to Digg’s first page for a complete day. It focuses on “seven of the healthiest foods — the power-packed foods filled with good-for-you vitamins, minerals and disease-fighting phytochemicals – that [most people] aren’t eating: Kale, Pomegranate, Quinoa, Kefir, lentil, Sardines, and Oatmeal.
What made this article particularly interesting to me was the fact that over the past few months I had highlighted the goodness of these food items (5 out of the 7 of them) and provided at least one recipe for each! Well, proud as I am for my health conscious weblog, I am going to review all those recipes, while quoting some their benefits. Please read the rest of the entry at the end of the Persian text! Read the rest of this entry »
Doogh
Posted: 30 January 2012 Filed under: Beverages, Doogh, Uncategorized | Tags: booteh_recipes, doogh, food_photography, yogurt_drink 3 CommentsDoogh is a popular, yogurt-based drink in many parts of the Middle East. It is made at home simply by beating plain (ideally over 2% fat) yogurt until soft and then diluting it with flat or carbonated water.
We Iranians often add a pinch of salt, black pepper and powdered dried mint. Some say doogh has a rejuvenating effect especially when taken with ice – a popular summer hit, while others believe drinking too much doogh makes you drowsy – pleasantly so, I would add! In any case, doogh has great nutritious values and it best goes with rice and meat kebab- be it barg or koobideh type.
Pomegranate rediscovered
Posted: 25 January 2012 Filed under: COZY CORNER, Montreal related, Uncategorized | Tags: anaar, food_photography, pomegranate 1 CommentIn 2006, Marsha Mehran published her first culinary fiction called “Pomegranate Soup” – It is a charming, fairy tale like story of three Iranian sisters who settle in a remote village in Ireland; start their cozy restaurant and in no time conquer the heart of the initially-skeptical villagers through their unique Persian beauty, warm hospitality and most important of all the strain of mind-blowing and heavenly-smelling Persian foods, side dishes, soups and desserts.
The title of the book was cleverly selected to give an air of exoticism – which represented the essence of the book. That’s right, up until a few years ago not so many people in the western world were familiar with pomegranate as a fruit, let alone as a soup’s substance! Well, things have changed dramatically since then. …
Homemade Yogurt
Posted: 22 January 2012 Filed under: Homemade Yogurt, Uncategorized | Tags: booteh_recipes, food_photography, homemade_yogurt, maast 3 CommentsMaking yogurt at home sure saves me money, tastes wonderfully fresh, and benefits the environment. But the main reason I do it is that it makes me so incredibly proud of my creation! Try it a few times and you’ll know what I mean!
To make yogurt from milk, basically you ferment milk with specific types of bacteria – a long process involving several steps, but extremely easy and fun. First off, you need to have a “starter” which could either be commercial starters available in health food stores (with complete usage instructions imprinted on them), or a small amount of a store-bought natural plain yogurt. If you go with the latter, as I always do, check the yogurt’s label and make sure it contains “live” bacteria. The fresher the yogurt, the better your homemade yogurt will turn (don’t use a yogurt close to its expiry date). Also, note that once you make yogurt at home, you could put a small amount aside for the next batch and repeat this cycle for 5-6 times. After that, you would probably need to buy a new container of plain yogurt. Start with a small amount of milk/yogurt (suggested in this recipe) and once you get a hang of it, increase the amount in proportions. Here are the materials you need:
Mixed quinoa with zucchini
Posted: 15 January 2012 Filed under: Mixed quinoa with zucchini, Uncategorized | Tags: booteh_recipes, food_photography, gluten free, Healthy_foods, quinoa, salad, side_dish, Zucchini, Summer dip Leave a commentI recently saw a cook book with some 200 hundred recipes for quinoa! I am going to buy it soon, but from what I figured out by skimmed through, it looked like a combination of white red and black quinoa would go with absolutely anything you could imagine: be it salads, side dishes or main dishes , with fried and grilled meat, chicken and fish.
All I want to say is that quinoa is good for your health. It is pretty and it knows no limit! I already posted the most basic type here. And what I am about to share is something I learned from my sister, tried successfully and served as a side dish with grilled salmon. The combination was just wonderful. Read the rest of this entry »
Everything about Aash-e reshteh
Posted: 2 January 2012 Filed under: Everything about Aash-e reshteh, Uncategorized | Tags: aash-reshteh, booteh-recipes, food_photography, kashk, Persian_noodle_soup, vegeterian 3 CommentsAash-e reshteh, conveniently, if not accurately translated as ‘noodle soup’, is known to all Iranians inside and outside the country despite looking and tasting quite unfamiliar when produced by a bevy of different cooks.
It is so popular that it’s not only made routinely as a family meal, it has also been chosen as the aash to mark more than one special occasion. One would spend a whole day preparing, cooking and distributing aash-e reshteh to ‘send-off’ a family member on a long or important trip. Traditionally, aash-e reshteh is also made and served at a chaharshanbeh soori get-together–the festivity held on the eve of the last Wednesday before the Persian New Year. Nowadays, many Iranian cities have seen aash-e reshteh travel from the home to the street corner, joining the long list of popular street foods served through window slots in disposable bowls. Read the rest of this entry »
A multinational breakfast!
Posted: 26 December 2011 Filed under: Jams, Yogurt and fruit/veg based, KITCHEN, for recipes, Uncategorized | Tags: brunch; breakfast, food_photography 2 CommentsA “multinational”, fancy breakfast, inspired by an advertisement poster, and perfect as Holidays brunch. Mine features baladi cheese cut in a way to allow stuffing (finely chopped tomatoes and parsley), and topped with soaked walnuts; two different types of hard cheese, one with apple jam and the other
with cucumbers; sunflower bread, fresh orange juice, apple and fig – the later mainly for visual effects!
Yalda, Winter solstice/شب یلدا
Posted: 20 December 2011 Filed under: COZY CORNER, Memories & Events, Uncategorized | Tags: food_photography, music, special_occassion_food, winter_solistice, yalda 2 CommentsOn the eve of the winter solstice, Iranians gather to celebrate Yalda and bring this longest night of the year to dawn by reciting Hafez or Sa’di poems, or listening to the stories of a wise grandparent. They do this while eating off-season fruits historically believed to invoke the divinities and secure the protection of the winter crop.
I vividly remember celebrating Yalda nights back home, because I felt so well fed on those nights, not on the spiritual foods of the poetry-reciting elders, but on the watermelon and pomegranates we had gone out of our way to find Needless to say, Yalda is well and alive among Iranians in diaspora as another rope to cling on to the far away home and culture. This song below, called “zemestoon” (winter) is one of my most favourite songs of the 70s; it is about bare gardens and trees and a lonely lover in the winter, accompanied by a beautiful clip of old Tehran in winter. Happy Yalda 2011 everyone!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BiJa2HWgso&feature=related 
Tea rules & rituals (Iranian Style)
Posted: 17 December 2011 Filed under: Jams, Yogurt and fruit/veg based, Tea rules & ritual!, Uncategorized | Tags: bevarage, food_photography, Persian_tea, tea 6 CommentsTea is the national beverage in Iran! It is an essential part of the breakfast and any type of gathering. As such, there are certain nonnegotiable rules about the preparation and the drinking of tea.
Here are some: 1. Real tea is black tea. Green, white, yellow and oolong teas are to be experimented with, but must never replace black tea. 2. Preparing tea involves the steeping and simmering (dam kardan or steaming) of loose, processed tea leaves. Teabags are quick fixes, and good only when you are feeling too down to treat yourself properly, or when you are obligated to serve an unwanted visitor. 3. One should sip tea from small, delicate glasses called estekan that allow one to see its translucent mahogany color while relishing its flavor. Read the rest of this entry »
My Caldron 