Far From Home

I must confess that the hard part about writing a cook book (beside the fact that I'm not the best writer) is MEASUREMENTS!  I have never used measurements in my cooking before.  I eyeball everything personally and taste as I go along.  Even trying family recipes is hard... For example, I call my sweet grandmother and ask her for one of her recipes thinking "in order to get her EXACT recipe, I need EXACT measurements."  She has never used measuring cups or measuring spoons, so the conversation usually goes like this:
Me: How much do I use?
Grandma: about this much (showing with her hand).
Me: How much is that exactly?
Grandma: use your handful, but a little less.

Not very helpful as you can imagine!  Her hanful and my handful will give different measurements.  The same goes with her techniques - there's no timing perse.  She suggests you watch it, stir it, and so forth until you have the desired look.  "Will that be 15 minutes or an hour?"  My aunts have been so blessed to live near her to actually see how she does her magic in the kitchen.  And I have been taking advantage of this opportunity by calling them to get the information I need.  Oh trust me, one recipe that I was supposed to watch, stir, smell, etc., took about 2 hours BUT so worth it.

The more challenging part about measurements (in my household) is of course when I ask my husband for his opinion on the level of salt, pepper, etc.  He and I seem to have different tastes recently!  Perhaps I shoud stop using him as my guinea pig.  The idea is to get the recipes tried out and tested enough so the flavors are appealing to everyone, not just the members of my household.

That being said, I am still learning when it comes to measurements.  I do hope that you will try the recipes I post and send some feedback :)

Love and Marriage

As you remember, I mentioned that my lovely hubby traveled a lot for work.  He would normally leave on Sunday nights and return on Thursday nights.  You can imagine how psyched I would be to see him.  I looked forward weekends like a lazy kid in school.  Since he ate out most of the week AND I had home-cooked meals most of the week, we tried to compromise while he was around.  Naturally, I was ready to head out, but he wasn't.  So, I was able to showcase what I could put together from the farmers' market.  There were moments that I would work on a 5 to 7 course meal menu for us - I just needed an excuse!  This would typically start with a soup, salad, appetizer, main course, some sort of a side dish or two, dessert and finally fresh fruit.  Yes, it was very time-consuming, but what else did I have to do?  Plus it was also my therapy.  This routine continued on until I got pregnant with our first child.

Today, after having two children, I have no time to even prepare a 2-course meal!  Thanks to my picky toddlers, there is just no energy left to plan a nice dinner for ourselves.  That being said, I have learned to simplify and come up with fast, easy dishes that can be prepared once the kids are in bed.

It's already 76 degrees today.  In New York, we jump from winter to summer.  Days like this, we spend most of our times outside either in the park or at the playgrounds.  Once we get home later this afternoon, I have two very dirty and hungry kids to deal with.  So, I will share with you what I am making for dinner.  This recipe requires some advance preparation, but don't worry once you do the prepping, you leave it in the fridge until you are ready to cook it.  It will take 5-7 minutes of your time.  You can spare that, can't you?

This dish is my interpretation of a very time-consuming Persian dish, Fesenjoon, that takes lots of time to prepare and cook.  Since I love the flavor so much BUT don't have that kind of time, here's what I came up with.

Roasted Pom Chicken

Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts - boneless and skinless
1/4 cup Pomegranate molasses
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper powder
2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
pinch of ground saffron
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Combine all the ingredients (except salt, olive oil and walnuts) in a Pyrex measuring cup and mix well.  Place the chicken breasts in a Ziploc bag and pour half of the mixture over them.  Let the air out, close the bag and make sure that all of the pieces all covered with the marinate.  You can leave it in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours up to overnight!  When ready to cook, take the chickens out of the fridge until they are at room temperature.  Preheat the oven at 350 degrees.  Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil and pour the olive oil over it.  Place the chicken breasts over the olive oil and sprinkle salt over them.  Place in the oven for 40-45 minutes.  Apply the other half of the marinate to the chicken breasts every 15 minutes with a brush while in the oven (this will keep them moist).

Once you take them out of the oven, cover with another piece of foil and let sit for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, toast the walnuts.  Then cut the breasts in small slices, put the walnuts over them and serve over your favorite salad or vegetable.  You can also prepare a sandwich which I recommend using Labné as a spread on your bread instead of Mayo - it will be a great compliment (trust me).  You can also use pomegranate molasses for your salad dressing.  Treat it as a vinegar and if it is a little too thick, you can either add a little water or vinegar to make it thinner - add a little salt and pepper and it is DELICIOUS.

Roasted Pom Chicken with Baby Arugula Salad



نوش جان = Bon Appetite

  

When I Was Just a Little Girl

Growing up, I was surrounded by such great cooks in my family.  Cooking was and is a huge part of Persian/Iranian culture.  My grandmother, mother, aunts and just about any woman I knew growing up, took cooking and entertaining very seriously.  There was a lot of love that went into preparing, cooking and entertaining.  Yes, I was a lucky girl growing up.  I remember sitting at the kitchen table doing my school homework while my mother was washing, chopping, cooking and setting up.  It is one of my fondest memories...

I was 17 years old when I moved to the U.S.  This is when I moved in with my father and his wife at-the-time. 

(A little background story: my parents divorced when I was about 3 years old.  My father moved back to the U.S. - where he had grown up - shortly after.  My mother had the custody and so I was raised by her while she never re-married.)

I must say that my father was and is a great cook as well.  He has owned many restaurants in his life - both in Iran and the U.S.  Even, my mother always said that he was a very good cook and that she learned a lot of techniques from him - especially, meat related.  So, you can imagine that once I moved in with him, I was exposed to a different level of cooking.  He was running his own restaurant at the time and soon after, I found myself working there.  This was a great experience for me.  I was exposed to dishes that I wouldn't normally order: calamari steak with lemon-butter sauce.  YUM!  I miss that dish.  It's amazing how much you can learn about food by working at a restaurant when you are not even in the kitchen!  I learned from people's orders, complaints, send-backs and so forth. 

Once I moved away for college, I was spending sometime with my uncle and his wife who - by the way - are the most foodie people I know to date!  My uncle was the one who gave me my first glass of Champagne.  He was also the first guy who took me clubbing when I was under age (shhhh).  That being said, you can only imagine how much this couple loved life, entertaining, celebrating AND cooking.  Shout out to both of them whom I miss so much.  I can honestly say that I learned a lot from them - on many levels.  In my mind, they were the ideal couple.  Since I hadn't grown up with that (remember, parents divorced at a young age, blah blah...), they had become my role models. 

It wasn't until later when I had graduated that I met some wonderful friends in my neighborhood who also loved food as much as I did.  By this time, I was an engineer at a General Motors in Indianapolis.  I was cooking at this time, but hadn't expanded my horizon much. We always had dinner parties and enjoyed hanging out for silly reasons (like Sex and the City episodes on Sunday nights).  One of the guys in our group was an executive chef.  Understandably, the bar was set up high for these dinner parties.  You felt like you had to show this guy how well you could cook and if he liked it, GREAT.  If he actually complimented you, you felt like a rock star!  Fortunately for my mother, he always loved her meals and she got the best compliments from this stud.  But one thing that he always said was "PRESENTATION."  "You can prepare the best dish, but if your presentation is not great, you cannot have a winning dish."  It's very true.  Don't you think? 

Unfortunately, life wasn't always fun and delicious!  Shortly after moving to New York, my beautiful mother - whom I was so close to - was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  It was a very aggressive tumor and even the surgery and radiation weren't enough.  She lost her life to this deadly tumor 10 months after the diagnosis... روحت شاد  = Rest in Peace

Fortunately, I spent the last 3 months of her life with her.  These were the most rewarding moments in my life and I learned so much about myself and my mother.  I was also just a newly-wed then.  To make matters worse, I lost my job (at this small PR firm) upon returning back home!  This was truly the low point of my life (not that I loved this job or anything - NO!  But this wasn't the right time to be job-less!).  I needed distraction and motivation.  My husband was also traveling a lot for his job.  "What am I going to do with myself now?!  This is going to suck!"  Since I was also new to New York, I hadn't made very many friends either!  After few days of being sick, jet-lagged and depressed, I decided to drag my butt out of bed, force myself to get dressed and out the door.  I started walking from our Upper East Side apartment all the way to Union Square where I discovered the Farmer's Market.  This made my day :)  I just love that area, the shops, restaurants, the energy and now the farmer's market.  I'd pick up a few things from the market and head back home to prepare a dish with my fresh organic ingredients.  I found that the only time that I wasn't thinking about my mother or any problems was actually when I was actively in the kitchen preparing and cooking.  All I was focusing on was cooking!  "Wow - I found my therapy!" 

Cooking had become my savior!

Like a Virgin

As a first time blogger, I'm not so sure how this whole thing really works!  I was talking to a friend the other day who suggested that I should blog about what I'm trying to do.  I took her advice and set up my blog page.  Not so fancy, but I hope to spice it up as times passes.  Who really reads blogs?  I, personally, have only followed one which I find very funny and frank.  Perhaps, that is why people start reading blogs - not to mention, to get away from their daily routine.

I've been thinking about writing a cook book for a while now.  I mentioned it to my husband and a couple of close friends.  Luckily, everyone was on board and very supportive.  I told them about my ideas and what this book was going to be about.  So far, everyone is very excited and has promised to purchase a copy!  My plan is to share with you what I experiment in my kitchen and what recipe might end up in my book.  So, please feel free to try them out.  I will appreciate feed backs of all kinds - negative and positive.  After all, you might be my future follower.  I am trying to simplify Persian cooking and make the cuisine accessible to all levels of chefs and ethnicities, using very few steps, simple/easy-to-find ingredients and finally fast and easy meals that can be served as either a main dish or an appetizer.

I look forward to a fun and delicious journey with all of you.