Nouruz Birthday Combo

Nouruz, the Persian New Year, is celebrated on the first day of spring. It's not often I do something special for it, but my husband's birthday falls around then as well. After wondering what to do for his birthday cake, and getting a little inspiration from the kids, I decided to pull out the stops and have a Persian-themed meal and dessert.

For the meal, I made a version of Khoresh Ghormeh Sabzi: lamb stew with greens. And beans, but I left those out. My recipe uses dill and cilantro, and is one of two similar recipes I found written on scraps of paper in my first cookbook binder from when I learned to cook in college. Apparently, prior to this week I'd made it exactly once. I generally go to the tomato based basic Khoresh which does not have the greens. I also made boorani (spinach and turmeric with sour cream or yogurt), and Zereshk Polo, rice with barberries that have been slightly candied with saffron. For the first time, I tried to make tadiq with bread rather than rice or potatoes, it didn't come out well at all, so apparently that's a thing I need to work on. 

Dessert was a baklava cheesecake. I used a honey cheesecake recipe which is literally just cream cheese, honey and eggs, and made a crust of two layers of baklava in the springform pan. After pouring in the cheesecake, I put another two layers of baklava on the top, and baked it at 325˚ for 30 minutes and 350˚ for 35 minutes. Likely it could have used another 15-20 minutes as it was a little soft in the middle. When the cheesecake came out of the oven I immediately poured rosewater syrup on it and decorated it with more of the sugar and almond mixture and then some dried rose petals.

We've spent most of the week working through the leftovers. I'm not sure why, but many Persian dishes taste even better the second day. These were no exception!

Cheesecake and baklava layers, mmm

A Flurry of Cooking

At yesterday's farm share there were more tomatillos than usual so I got enough to make another half-batch of tomatillo salsa which I made this morning before I have to go to work. Nothing too exciting there, I suppose. What was more exciting is that last night I made karaage which is Japanese fried chicken. The recipe came from when the elderchild and I took a cooking class over the summer. Basically, you cut up chicken thighs into pieces, marinate them in soy, garlic and ginger, and then dredge them in cornstarch and flour and deep fry them. It was terrific, even if I didn't have the "right" mayonnaise for a dipping sauce. 

To go with the chicken, I made dango, which are balls of rice flour that are boiled, put onto little skewers, and then seared and topped with a sweet sauce. We'd had these at a yakitori place in Tokyo and remember them fondly. They're sort of like dinner mochi, I guess. I even let the youngerchild manage the blowtorch to sear them before serving. 

Lastly, we had chilled blanched green beans with a sesame dressing. There were no leftovers. 

Daifuku

My rice flour finally arrived from Amazon so I spent a little time today making daifuku: red bean filled mochi balls.

You make the mochi by cooking rice flour with sugar and water and this can be done in the microwave or by steaming the mochi.

I probably rolled the mochi a little too thinly because I made 18 balls, not 12 as the recipe indicated. The difference is visible in the picture: the ones that are darker have a thinner mochi layer and the others were made after I rolled out the scraps again and so were thicker. The thicker layer is desired. Even so, they're easy and tasty!

I also made another batch of the Anpan today using the sourdough starter again. I still need to figure out how to get them to fluff more when they're baking. Today's batch was proofed for an hour, the recipe suggests half that time but I'm thinking they might even need to be proofed for longer. I still have plenty of red bean paste so I'll try again another time. 

Overboard

Or is it...over-bored?

Today I decided to finally tackle the azuki bean paste I wanted to make several years ago when I learned how to make it from a friend. I guess I bought a lot of beans because now I have about 9 cups of it in the freezer, waiting to be made into various things. My first plan is a type of sticky rice dumpling like I did before with sesame filling but this time will use red bean.

Internet searches have given me more ideas: red bean buns, taiyaki (for which I would have to buy molds), daifuku (Japanese mochi sweets), red bean cookies, ice cream, popsicles, and so on. I don't think I have enough glutinous rice flour to make a huge amount of daifuku but I plan to order some.

Making the paste is relatively easy. After boiling the beans to a mashable consistency, you add a cup of sugar per 2 cups of dry beans, and a little salt. I ended up using the immersion blender to make it smooth.

Mixed Fowl Stock and Soup

Winter season canning has begun!

I needed to get all the bones of chickens and ducks out of the freezer so the other day I threw them ALL (3 ducks and 3-4 chickens) into my lobster pot and added 12 quarts of water. Once the stock was made I set it aside and took all the residual meat off the bones and saved that as well. Today the stock was skimmed, warmed back up, and 14 pints were canned in the pressure canner. I was running fairly low on stock so it's good that I made so much. This way, since it's duck and chicken together, it'll add a richer taste to whatever I'm making.

The rest of the stock, all the meat, and some vegetables from the fridge were combined to make a variation of Turducken Soup. This time, I added about a cup of turkey stock which was still in the fridge so I can technically call it Turducken but just barely. I added 2 small leeks, 2 parsnips, 7 small carrots, 1 rib of celery, 1/2 red onion, and half of a small can of tomato paste, plus wild rice, salt, pepper and bay. I may or may not can this as I'm running out of pint jars. If we don't eat most of it today, maybe I will just save the rest for when I'm working this week. 

Even More Christmas

Last night a larger subset of our family got together for gift giving and dinner. There were 10 of us in total, and we had a lovely afternoon of appetizers and presents. Then for dinner I roasted a beef tenderloin, Mom made baked stuffed shrimp which we baked after the tenderloin came out of the oven, and I made Persian rice. Apparently, I had not yet made Persian rice after I got my new pots, which are thicker, so my usual timing to make tadiq didn't work out, and the tadiq did not form properly. At least the rice tasted good! I guess I'm going to have to practice.

For dessert, I made individual trifles from this recipe; it was fun to assemble everything in wine glasses but it definitely took up too much space in the fridge....

It was great to get together with my family, some of whom live far away so we don't see each other often enough. Merry Christmas!

Gooduckey Soup

Finally, I had all the ingredients amassed to make this soup! Usually it's turducken but this year we also had a goose, so I could play around a bit. Yesterday I made the turkey stock - two gallons of stock. Don't judge.

Here's the ingredients for this year's batch of poultry wonderfulness:

2 leeks, sliced

6 ribs celery, chopped

1 package each of portabella and shitake mushrooms, sliced

12 ounces oyster mushrooms, sliced

4 cups turkey meat

2 cups each duck meat and goose meat

1 cup wild rice

1/2 cup farro

4 quarts turkey stock

2 quarts duck stock

2 quarts goose stock

salt, pepper and tarragon to taste

Once the vegetables are sautéed, the meat and stock were added to the pot. This was brought to a boil and then simmered for at least 30 minutes. After that, the rice and farro were added and continued to simmer until done, about another 30 minutes. Super easy, as long as you have everything ready to go.

Now I have 14 pints of soup in the canner, and at least 3 more quarts in various containers in the fridge and the freezer. I can use the non-canned stuff for lunches at work over the next week and gradually start to dip into the canned ones later. 

Once these are done, I will can the rest of the turkey stock. Eight Nine(!) pints worth. 

Series of Small Dinner Parties

We haven't done this in a while: have company for dinner more than once a week. Last night Lisa came by and we had grilled chicken marinated in yogurt, plus zereshk polo which is Persian rice with barberries. I have never gotten the tadiq to do this so well before. It just fell out of the pot, with all the rice in a pot-shaped disk. The difference is, I think, that I added some oil to the butter before I put the rice in. The barberries we brought back from Halifax. I'd never seen the right kind of berries around here so I bought enough to last me for years. Barberries are super tart and have to be cooked with a little sugar before steaming in the rice.

Tonight with another friend we had the grilled octopus I've been marinating for a few days. I used this recipe from Hunter Angler Gardener Cook and it was so delicious! It was served with homemade bread, baba ganoush which I made this afternoon, the marinated fava beans from the farm share, and roasted summer squash. To round out the theme, our guest brought Lebanese pastries which are like baklava but round with pistachios in the middle. Like these.

Another Full Day

After spending a large part of the day at the Museum of Fine Arts to see the Dutch Painting Exhibition (Rembrandt,Vermeer and contemporaries) we got home around 4 pm or so. At that point, I made the turducken soup. Here's this year's recipe:

2 quarts each duck, turkey and chicken stocks

3 leeks, sliced

2 ribs celery, diced

1 cup diced carrots

12 oz. each oyster, portabella and shitake mushrooms

duck and turkey meat

1 package wild rice

salt, pepper and thyme

While this simmered, I canned 14 pints of duck stock and 3 pints of turkey stock. Since I can only fit 14 jars in my canner, that took roughly two hours as I had to do two batches. Now I have 11 pints of turducken soup in the canner which will take about another two hours all by itself. We ate more of the soup for dinner and I have about 3 quarts left in the fridge for this week. It's already 9:30 pm; the kids don't have school tomorrow but I do. At least I got a chance to study while the stock was getting canned.

Belated Mother's Day Post

Really, I'd post more often if I could get to the computer.  The 8 year old has discovered Minecraft.

Hope everyone out there had a happy Mother's Day!  I had a chance to make the dinner I'd planned to make 3 days prior but was just too tired:  nettle risotto and steak.  What I found out is that nettles, when picked and stuck in the fridge, dry out a little.  However, they rehydrate nicely when you blanch them.  Also, you can touch them in their dried-out state.  I'd picked them last Wednesday, but with one thing after another, they kept getting ignored.....  This risotto included chopped up shitake mushrooms.  I'm trying to find the best mushroom to go with the nettles, so far I think oyster mushrooms are best.  So this round was:

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup chopped shitake mushrooms

2 T. butter

1 c. arborio rice

4 cups stock

1/2 cup blanched, chopped nettles

butter

parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

The garlic, mushrooms and rice were lightly sautéed and then I started adding the stock, 1 cup at a time: 2 cups chicken stock and 2 cups vegetable stock, stirring frequently.  At the third cup of stock I added the nettles, all chopped up.  Once all the stock was absorbed, I added another tablespoon of butter and about 1/3 cup parmesan cheese.  All the recipes say to serve the risotto right away, but I find that if I leave it on the stove, off the heat, but covered, it gets even creamier so it seems better to wait a little.  It also solves the problem of making sure everything is ready at the same time.

Wild Greens Risotto

A few days ago I peered out a window at the hospital and found, in a courtyard, some very large greens.  I thought they might be curly dock but when I got a closer look, they weren't.  But, what were they?  I spent a bunch of time with my iPhone app and also various pictures on the web, and wikipedia, and finally felt confident that they were a form of wild lettuce, Lactuca canadensis.  I picked a huge amount and also some large dandelion leaves.  When I got home, 12 hours later, I washed it all, separated the dandelions, and blanched everything.  The dandelions were frozen, as were some of the wild lettuce, and I saved a cup of them for tonight, when I had time to make a risotto.

The recipe comes from Hunt, Gather, Cook and originally called for nettles, but the author (Hank Shaw) said any kind of wild green would do.  I bought some oyster mushrooms to add in.  To make the risotto I sauteed the mushrooms, some shallots and garlic in butter and then added a cup of Arborio rice and a teaspoon of salt.  When everything was coated in butter, I added a cup of stock and brought it to a boil, then let it simmer and absorb.  I gradually added a total of 4 cups of stock (2 turkey and 2 chicken) plus the greens.  When all the liquid was absorbed I added some more butter and about half a cup of grated parmesan and let everything meld together.  This was served with a pot roast.  My husband declared this risotto on par with anything he's ever had in a restaurant.  And he loves risotto!

Lobster Stock Paella

Remember how I made 14 pints of lobster stock about a year ago? Well, I haven't forgotten. They've just been sitting in the pantry, calling to me, saying, "When are you going to USE us?" I just never got the energy to do anything with them. Bisque? Risotto? My sister suggested paella would be easier, so I threw together this recipe:

1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups long grain rice (I used basmati)
7-ounce jar roasted red peppers, chopped, juice reserved
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground saffron
1 pound shrimp, shells removed
1-2 cups chopped green beans

Sautee the onion and garlic in olive oil in an oven-proof pot. Add the rice, peppers and juice, and saffron. Add 2 pints of lobster stock and bring it to a simmer for a few minutes. Remove from heat, arrange the shrimp on top, then add the beans. Cover and bake at 450 for 30-40 minutes, until the rice is done. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Mmm! Now I only have 12 more pints to use up.

Too Much Rice

I had intended to make chicken and rice soup. I seem to have made, quite by accident, chicken and rice casserole. This is what happens when you get distracted by the TV and knitting while cooking and when you add too much rice to something. After all, if 2 cups is good, 3 must be better, right?

Wrong!

Today's recipe: 2 frozen chicken leftovers (bones and some meat) plus 8 pints of water, simmered with kosher salt, pepper, bay and thyme.

4 pints of chicken stock were processed, 20 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure.

The meat, the rest of the stock, 5 more pints of water, were added to chopped leeks, celery and carrots which had been sauteed lightly in olive oil. More salt and pepper, and some sage. Simmered for about an hour then the 3 (should be 2) cups of rice were added. When I got back to it about 20 minutes later, all the liquid was absorbed and the "soup" filled the pot. I added about 4 more cups of water and more salt, and processed 6 pints of this mixture. 75 minutes, 10 pounds of pressure. We'll have the rest for dinner.

There is a lot of it.

Day O'Frustration

We've all had these days, right?

This weekend I had plans. The kind of plans that involve cooking a lot of unrelated things all at the same time because I have lots of different things on my mind. Today's plans revolved around canning soup, making bread, and making cookies. All double batches, mind you.

The only thing that worked as planned was the soup. Somehow I killed the yeast in the bread and the loaves didn't rise, and we ran out of brown sugar for the cookies and the texture was off - probably partly due to using regular sugar and molasses in the place of the brown sugar, and partly due to the "light butter" that has replaced my usual butter blend in the store. NOT buying that again. It's lousy for tadic, too. I couldn't salvage the bread but the cookies are at least edible, even if they don't look the same.

Here's the soup recipe:

Beef, Broccolini and Rice Soup
1 thick slab of prime rib
1 package stew beef & bones
2 leeks, sliced thinly
2 shallots, minced
5 ribs celery, diced
2 cups chopped cooked broccolini
1 package crimini mushrooms, sliced
kosher salt, pepper, bay, thyme
Worcestershire sauce (about 1 T.)
1 large can whole pack tomatoes in puree (about 3.5 cups)
17 cups water
3-4 cups of rice

I browned the stew beef, shallots, leeks and celery in oil and added the tomatoes, water, Worcestershire sauce and spices. This simmered for about an hour and then I removed the bones. I added the prime rib, cubed, and the broccolini and mushrooms. After about another 30 minutes I added the rice, cooked it through, and then canned it. This yielded 14 pints, the maximum the pressure canner holds, and 1 bowl for later. Processed at 10 pounds of pressure for 75 minutes.

They all sealed. That's one food thing that went right. After all that work, we ordered a pizza for dinner.