Celebrating Nowruz

If you are at all familiar with Iranians and their cultures, you might know that our new year is just around the corner.  We celebrate our new year, Nowruz, the first day of spring.  Nowruz is the most important holiday in Iran. 

Preparations for Nowruz begin in the last month of winter.  During this month, Persians do a major spring cleaning around the house to start preparing for Nowruz.  The also purchase new clothes to wear for the new year and purchase hyacinth and tulip flowers.  It is customary to buy at least one set of new clothes. On the New Year's Day, families dress in their new clothes and start the twelve-day celebrations by visiting the elders of their family, then the rest of their family and finally their friends. On the thirteenth day families leave their homes and picnic outdoors.  

Another tradition for Nowruz is to make and serve sweets and baked goods. On this blog, I plan to do just that!  There is so much to our new year and I cannot possibly cover all the food and sweets, but will share a home-baked sweet that tastes like home.

Baklava Cake

4 eggs – whites and yolks separated

1 cup sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1 ½ cup ground unsalted almonds

1 ½ cup flour

1 tablespoon ground cardamom

1 tablespoon baking powder

4 tablespoon milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  .  Sift the flour and the baking powder in a bowl and set aside.  Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until it turns white and forms a peak.  Add sugar and mix on medium speed.  Add vegetable oil and mix.  Add the egg yolks and mix again.  Then add the ground almonds while mixing, and then add the flour, baking powder and cardamom.  Add milk and mix again.  Using a heat-proof glass baking dish (13 by 9 inches), grease it with a cooking spray.  Pour the batter in the baking dish and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let the cake cool.

Syrup:

1 ½ cup sugar

1 cup water

2 tablespoon rose water

In a small sauce pan over medium heat, dissolve the sugar in water.  Add the rose water.

After the cake has cooled off completely, pour the hot syrup over the cake, making sure the entire cake is soaked by the liquid.

Optional:

2 tablespoon ground pistachio to sprinkle on top of the cake

 Baklava Cake

Traditionally, they cut this cake diagonally to create small bite-size diamond shapes so that it’s easy to serve and also enough to go around.

Happy Persian New Year to all who celebrate.

هر روزتان نوروز نوروزتان پیروز

 

Grandma's Famous Meat and Potato Patties

Times have really changed since I was a kid growing up!

I feel as we get older, families are becoming smaller AND farther away from one another.  Growing up, I was the only child being raised by a single mother.  I remember taking the school bus after school to my grandmother's house where I spent my most afternoons until my mother got off work to pick me up.  I have such great memories from those days.  My grandmother was the kind of person whose house was open to ALL - neighbors, family members, friends of my aunts, uncles and so forth.  There was never a moment that no one was visiting.  I just loved the fact that it felt like a surprise to see who was stopping by that afternoon and possibly staying for dinner.  So naturally, my grandmother would be cooking something.  One of the common dishes was her famous meat and potato patties.  They were so good, so delicious that I couldn't wait for them to land on a plate!  She would make so much of them that there was enough to go around as well as to take home.  Those days were awesome.  There are moments that I wish I could create the same childhood memories for my kids.  Unfortunately, nowadays we not only live in different states, but even different countries! 

The following recipe is my grandmother's recipe that takes me back to my childhood.  Thank you grandma for being YOU, being a second mom and an amazing cook :)
 

Meat and Potato Patties

2 lbs baking potato (3 large potatoes) – cooked, peeled and grated

1 lb ground beef

1 medium onion – peeled and grated (make sure to drain and discard the liquid)

2 eggs

2 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

½ teaspoon turmeric

¼ teaspoon saffron powder

1 cup vegetable oil for frying

Beat the eggs in a small bowl.  In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients (except for the oil) and add the beaten eggs.  Mix well using your hands (you may want to put gloves on for this) until it’s a smooth, pasty mixture.  Using a large ice cream scoop, scoop out the mixture into your damp hands (so that the mixture won’t stick to your hands) and form a ball, then flatten them into a 3-inch round patties.  Heat some of the oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Gently place the patties on the skillet and brown them on both sides for about 3-4 minutes on each side.  Add more oil when necessary as you continue.

 Frying Patties

This recipe makes about 22 patties.  Serve hot or at room temperature.

These patties are great with salads or any yogurt dish - Spinach Yogurt from June 7th.  They also make great sandwiches using a pocket pita with a side of sour pickles.  You can also serve them as an appetizer for your next part.  I served them with the Persian Coleslaw from May 5th and they were a great compliment. 

Patties with the Persian Coleslaw

Trust me, I tried finding ways not to fry these, but frying is what makes these patties taste AMAZING.

I hope you will enjoy these patties.  Have a wonderful weekend!