Heatwave and Watermelon Salad

Couldn't be happier that my kids started summer camp this week.  What a relief!  So, for the past three weeks with school year coming to an end, I was busy with my kids' end of school year events, plays, picnics,"graduations," and even days off here and there.  Everyone's schedule was off, including me.  I missed my Pilates workout for 3 weeks in a row and I wasn't able to blog as much as I would've liked.  My kids had a week off last week before starting their summer camps this week.  So, I was the sole entertainer/tour guide for a whole week.  I must tell you that it's no easy task to go around town on public transportation with 2 toddlers and different personalities.  Not to mention the bathroom trips with my newly potty-trained little girl...  My son who is the older one - and almost never had any tantrums growing up - suddenly had the most tantrums compared to my daughter who is the younger one (and always has tantrums).  It truly was a treat...  I got a sense of what it would be like to have a teenager around the house.  So you can imagine how much happier I am sending them off to a place where other people get to entertain them for a few hours and I trust that they will be much happier spending their days with other kids.

Yes, I am no super mom - just a regular mom.

With the heatwave slowly making its way to north east, I have already started lecturing my kids about drinking lots of water and staying out of the sun.  I don't know about you, but I tend to lose my appetite on hot days and start indulging on cool treats: ice cream, sorbet, Popsicle and so forth.  However, my favorite thing to have on a hot summer day is watermelon!  I just can't get enough of it.  Frankly, I think it is the best summer snack or even a meal.  It has a high water content, yet sweet enough to get you going.  Not to mention that it cools you off too.

Some fun facts about watermelon: Did you know that watermelon is a good source of vitamin C?  Well, it's true.  Watermelon rinds are also edible and contain many hidden nutrients but most people avoid eating them due to their unappealing flavor.  I remember one of my aunts used to salt the rinds and eat them - she claimed they tasted very good.  Watermelon is also diuretic which means it elevates the rate of urination.  So, please avoid eating watermelon on long car rides - just a little advice!

One of the hot summer day meals in my household growing up was feta cheese on flat bread, served with watermelon and fresh herbs.  Still, to this day, you might meet a Persian who suggests this dish when it's hot outside.  I personally never liked the idea of mixing sweet and savory and only slowly trying to have an open mind about this mixture!  I just thought that you don't mix your salty with your sweet.  First, you have your meal, then indulge in something sweet afterwards.  Chocolate covered peanuts make no sense to me, nor do chocolate covered pretzels and so forth.  But that's just me.  I am starting to actually see more trends of mixing sweet and salty.  Suddenly caramel with sea salt is all the rage.  Granted, it tastes good and it's an interesting combination, but c'mom it's not all that exciting!

So, the recipe for today is inspired from the mentioned meal above with my little twist.  It's sweet and savory all in one plate!

Watermelon Salad

Watermelon – cut into small ½” thick triangle wedges

1/3 cup feta cheese – diced into small cubes

1/4 cup toasted pistachio nuts – shelled

1 tablespoon fresh mint – washed and julienned

1 teaspoon mint syrup

Flat bread or Lavash bread (optional for the carb lovers)

Please note: the measurements are not critical for this recipe.

On a large plate arrange your watermelon slices.  Add the feta, mint and toasted pistachio nuts.  Drizzle the mint syrup over them.  Serve immediately with or without bread.

 Watermelon Salad

Happy 1st day of summer :)

Grandmother's Infamous "Omelet" on Father's Day

With Father's Day being around the corner, one always tries to think of special things to do and special dishes to make.  In my house - except the kids of course - we are major meat eaters.  To make matters more complicated, we are also very picky when it comes to quality, taste and preparation.  You can also say that we can get a little competitive!  I have come to realize that most men like to make their own meat dishes - this includes my lovely hubby of course.  I think there was only a handful of times that I succeeded (in his eyes) making him his favorite cut of steak.  Now that he has his own smoker and dual gas/coal grill in the backyard, I'm not even going to try to come up with a "meat" dish for this father.  I have decided to prepare a special breakfast for him.  I call it a breakfast since in Iran we didn't have brunch.  You can translate it to whatever you'd like.  I am a huge fan of brunches now, but for the sake of keeping the Persian tradition, I called it a breakfast.  This breakfast is something that my grandmother used to prepare for us, not only for breakfast but also for a quick and tasty dinner.  You can easily prepare this dish with your little ones.

Grandmother’s Omelet

2 hot dogs – sliced ½” thick (preferably skinless)

1 small onion – peeled and finely diced

2 small tomatoes – washed and finely diced

4 eggs – beaten

4 tablespoon of milk

¼ teaspoon sea salt (or less depending on the saltiness of the hot dogs you are using)

¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Bread of your choice

In a medium non-stick pan, melt the butter then add the onions.  Sauté the onions over medium-low heat until they are soft and translucent.  Add the tomatoes and mix well.    Add the sliced hot dogs and sauté with the mixture for another 3-5 minutes.   

 In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and milk with salt and pepper, then add to the mixture in the pan.  Mix well and allow for eggs to form.  Be careful not to overcook the eggs.  Take the pan off the heat.  Serve hot with your favorite bread.

Grandmother's Omelet

A Persian breakfast is traditionally served with sweet hot tea.  So basically, you brew your black tea and when you want to drink it, you add about a tablespoon of sugar to it.  I figured I can add a little twist to this tradition...  So I thought the best compliment to this breakfast is iced tea with my mint syrup and freshly squeezed lemon juice.  You can use either green tea or any kind of black tea (i.e. Earl Grey or Darjeeling) for this purpose.

Here's how you make the syrup:
Start out by making simple syrup.  Boil 2 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar together in a sauce pan, until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture starts to boil.  Add about a bunch of washed mint to infuse the syrup and let it simmer.  You don't want the mint to turn so dark because it will give syrup a bitter taste.  Just watch and stir every now and again.  Then take the mint out.  You should be able to smell a minty mixture in your sauce pan.  Let cool and pour in a glass bottle then store in your fridge.  You can keep this in your fridge for about a year.

I poured this syrup in an ice tray with a mint leaf in each one and froze overnight.  I also noticed that they will NOT exactly turn into ice cubes since the sugar content is high - they are soft and sorbet-like.  You can scoop out these cubes by using a small spoon.  Add a couple of these cubes to your iced tea with freshly squeezed lemon juice.  You or HE will love it.

Mint Syrup and Ice Tray

Have a wonderful Father's Day weekend.

 .روز پدر مبارک 

Now That May is Over...

Hello lovely blog readers.  It has been a month since I wrote or even got inspired... Despite the fact that month of May was filled with some happy occasions like Mother's Day and my wedding anniversary, it was also a sad month for me!  Unfortunately, my life became short of one exceptional human being... I will always remember her endless love and kind words.  I will forever cherish the memories I had with her.  I was lucky to call myself her granddaughter. Farewell to my beautiful grandmother.  May you rest in peace.

As some of you already know, I was very close to her.  Being the first grand kid,  I got to spend a lot of quality time with her.  She was a huge part of my life growing up.  I remember my mother used to drop me off every morning at my grandmother's house and the school bus would then pick me up from her house and then drop me off after school till my mother would come from work and get me.  I have such fond memories of those days... she was always in the kitchen cooking some amazing dishes and most times things that I loved.  I consider myself extremely lucky to have had that opportunity and wish my kids could have too!

As you can imagine, it has been very hard for me to blog or even share recipes with you as it was a reminder of my Grandmother.  It also seemed that my kids were off from school way too often in May!  Someone once told me: "The more you pay for a school, the less they go!"  I am really starting to feel that now that I have 2 in school. School is almost over and I have a week to entertain my little ones before they both start summer camp.  In New York, unless you have a summer house or know of someone who does, you end up signing up your kids at various summer camps and allow others to provide entertainment on hot summer days.  Clearly, we are on the latter category.

I will make this blog short, but want to remind you all of an older blog that was one of my Grandmother's specialties - Saffron Rice Pudding.  I hope you enjoy this dish as much as we all do.

Stay tuned...

Cinco de Mayo Gone Persian!

So here we are... celebrating Cinco de Mayo.  Did you know that this holiday is NOT Mexican Independence Day?  It is however a celebration held on May 5th in the United States and in Mexico (primarily in the state of Puebla) where the holiday is called El Dia de la Batalla de Puebla which means The Day of the Battle of Puebla.  The date is observed in the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride.  Well, that was your history lesson of the day and... you are welcome ;)  Gotta love Wikipedia.

If you know me personally or have read my previous posts, then you know how much I love Mexican food.  I call it the happy food since it always puts a big smile on my face.  I have been thinking about this post a lot and wondered what I could possibly make that could be consumed for this occasion yet keep the integrity of my Persian blog!  Persian foods are not necessarily spicy, they are stew-like and mostly served with rice.  There are however some dishes that can easily be turned into tacos, wraps, sliders and so forth and will be absolutely wonderful.  So I decided to manipulate a favorite dish and make tacos just to see... 

It's one of those things... when in doubt, roast some part of a chicken or just a whole one in the oven!  Well that being said, we have come up with so many different ways to do so just to change things up a bit since one can easily get bored in our household!  AND here we are again, creating a new one for a Mexican-inspired dish.  The great thing about this dish is that not only it's easy to make, but also a figure-friendly one.  You can also prepare and serve this dish with your favorite seasonal vegetable as well as rice or couscous.  I also decided to create a light salad to "sprinkle" on top of these tacos without losing our Persian self!

Saffron-Lemon Chicken Tacos

1 large chicken breast cut in 2 halves – boneless and skinless

1 medium onion – thinly sliced

¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/8 teaspoon saffron powder dissolved in 2 tablespoons of water

½ teaspoon sea salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

½ teaspoon Coriander seed

Small flour tortillas

1 avocado – thinly sliced

Preheat oven at 375 degrees.  In a heat-proof baking dish, lay the sliced onion and the chicken breasts over it.  Mix all the other ingredients in a small bowl and pour over them.  Place in the oven and roast for 30-35 minutes until they are fully cooked.  While still warm, shred the breasts by forking them.  Mix with the roasted onion and the remaining of the juice in the dish.  

 Saffron-Lemon Chicken

Romaine/Radish/Mint Salad

1 head of romaine lettuce – washed and finely chopped

5 small radishes – washed and thinly sliced

1 tablespoon of fresh mint leaves – washed and finely minced

Dressing

¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice

1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon sea salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and toss.  Make the dressing in a separate bowl, mix well and add to the salad.

 Romaine/Radish/Mint Salad

Place the flour tortillas and add some of the chicken mixture to them.  Top them with sliced avocado and the romaine/radish/mint salad.

Saffron-Lemon Chicken Tacos

I just had these for dinner and they are amazing!  I hope you will enjoy them too.

Have a super Cico de Mayo!

Party On Food Lovers - It's Our Blog Anniversary

Can you believe this?  It's been a year since I started this blog!  Wow, where has the time gone?

Soooo, happy first blog anniversary to me!

Frankly, I thought I would have my cook book project all ready to go already!  It is a little disappointing that I don't, but from what I have learned, these things take a lot of time to put together.  A really good friend of mine, introduced me to another fabulous friend of hers who had written a book years back.  We were all chatting over coffee one morning when this lady was "making me aware" of how crazy this project can get.  Yes, my first reaction was to panic at first, but after talking a little more she gave me a handout of few "guidelines" for cook books.  She - apparently - had attempted to write a cook book and worked with a publisher who had provided some handy information.  I was so grateful to have met her and to get her insights AND so thankful for the sweet gesture.

This has really gotten me to think about my book on a whole new level:
- How do I want it to look?
- How many recipes do I want to put in there?
- Do I outline and add different sections for different categories or just focus on sweet and savory?

There's just so much to think about... It can get quite overwhelming!  How do people write and publish books all the time?  Also, more than a handful of friends have suggested that I go with e-publishing since some were quite unhappy with their publishers and felt that not much was being done for them!  Well, I have no problem with that as long as I know WHAT I'm publishing.  I do realize that I should probably hire/consult with a graphic designer for the cover, layouts, fonts and so forth.  Also need to have some killer pictures since they speak a thousand words.  Let's face it, we all know my pictures have not exactly been the best you've ever seen or perhaps they have...

The good news is that I have friends in both fields.  One is an Art Director whose taste I absolutely love and adore.  The other is an amazing Photographer who teaches photography and runs her own business.  The bad news however is that they are both VERY busy and it's going to be a whole other challenge to get them involved in my project, but I am going to be optimistic and hope for the very best :)  Let's take one step at a time, huh?

Here's another news: I have officially joined Pinterest after being on the "wait list!"  Can you believe this?!  I actually had to send a request to be added and they put me on the wait list for 24 hours before letting me sign up!  I figured - since I am still shy about having a Facebook page for my blog - this could be a perfect stepping stone for me to gradually get my blog noticed.  Look at it as a marketing device.  Let's see what happens.  Keeping fingers and toes crossed ;)  I must say though I think Pinterest is such a genius idea.

Anyhow, enough talking, let's celebrate.  I decided to make some sweets for the occasion so that we can have with a bottle of champagne!

Chocolate Covered Candied Orange Peels

Peel of one large orange

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup water

1 tablespoon rose water

½ cup semi-sweet chocolate

Thinly slice the orange peels.  Put the peels in a small sauce pan and cover them with enough water.  Bring the mixture to a boil then let it simmer over low-medium heat for about 30 minutes.  Drain the water and repeat it again.  This process will take the bitterness out of the peels.

Heat the water and sugar in a small sauce pan.  Once the sugar dissolves, add the rose water.  Let it simmer until it starts thickening.  Add the orange peels and allow simmering until it starts bubbling and the orange peels are completely coated.  Once the liquid is reduced by about half of what you initially started, you can take the peels out and lay them on a wax paper.  Allow to cool until they start hardening – like candy.

Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl by creating a double boiler (set the bowl over a pot of simmering water).  Dip the candied orange peels in the chocolate until 2/3 of it is completely covered with chocolate.  Lay them flat on a sheet of wax paper.  Set aside for 2 hours until firm.

 Choc. covered candied orange peels

Have a wonderful weekend.

Cheers - به سلامتی

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!