Sep 19
A very yummy Persian potato salad! This dish is a good appetizer for a party, can be eaten as a snack with crackers, or can even be put into bread for a sandwich. The ingredients listed below make enough to last one person a couple of days, or even feed a group at a gathering. You can always increase the amount of ingredients used to make more, or decrease to make less.
Salade Olovieh
Ingredients:
2 skinless/boneless chicken breasts
1 small onion
turmeric
salt/ pepper
Mayo
4 - 5 medium to large potatoes- boiled
3 - 4 hard boiled eggs
green peas
pickles - chopped up
shredded carrots (optional)
Directions:
In a pot with water add the chicken breasts, slicked onion, salt, pepper, and turmeric to the chicken and cover the pot to allow it to cook for approximately 30 minutes on medium heat. Once cooked set it aside to cool. Once the chicken has cooled down you will shred it up and add to a large mixing bowl (you can use a knife to cut and shred the chicken up).
After the potatoes are boiled in a pot with water they will be ready for you to mash up. You can use a grater or just a masher to mash them up. Once the hard boiled eggs are ready you can also use the grater to shred it. Add these to the large mixing bowl as well. Then add the green peas, chopped pickles, and if desired shredded carrots. I typically don’t add shredded carrots to my Salade Olovieh. Also, I usually use dill pickles, unless I happen to have Persian pickles (from the Persian grocery store) which are much tastier!
Mix all the above ingredients together, add salt and pepper. Finally, add a desired amount of Mayonnaise and mix well. Some people like lots of mayo, while others like less … completely up to you. I add enough to get everything to stick together. Then when I pour the contents into a dish, I will cover a thin layer of mayo on top of the Olovieh.
Tagged with: Carrot • Chicken • Eggs • Green Peas • Mayo • Pickles • Potatoes
Sep 17
This is the Persian recipe for Khoreshte Gheymeh, which is a stew that is poured over rice and has tiny cut up pieces of stew meat (gooshteh gheymehee) –hence the name of the stew! 
Gheymeh
Ingredients:
.5 lb Stew meat- cut into very tiny pieces
1 medium onion - chopped up
1 large potato
1 cup yellow split peas
oil
salt/pepper
turmeric
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 dried lime (limoo amani) and/or dried lime powder (I used 1 dried lime and a tad bit of the powder)
lemon juice
liquid saffron (optional)
Directions:
In a medium or large pot, saute the onions until tender and then add the cut up pieces of meat. Note: you can use more that .5 lbs of meat, but I typically use small amounts of
meat. Stir the meat and onions, then add turmeric, salt, and pepper. After a few minutes of stirring everything and allowing the meat to cook a little add 1 1/2 to 2 cups water. At this time you can add the dried lime and/or the powder, the tomato paste, and some lemon juice. Cover the pot and leave it on medium heat.
In a frying pan add a bit of oil and put it on medium - low heat. Wash the split peas and then drain the water. Add the split peas to the pan and saute them a bit. If you skip this step and add the split peas to the stew before they are slightly sauteed in oil they will become mashed up and not hold their form. Once you have cooked them for about 5-10 minutes, pour them into the pot and stir in with the rest of the stew. Take the temperature of the pot down to a medium-low heat after about 15 - 20 minutes (after you add the split peas). I also added some liquid saffron to the stew at this time.
Now you will need to chop up the potato french fry style to prepare it and set aside. I did this and placed them in a bowl and rinsed them then soaked them in water. I added salt to this water as well. This way the color of the potatoes wouldn’t change and I could fry them when my stew is almost done. Once you fry the potatoes you can set them aside until 5 minutes prior to taking the stew off the stove. If you throw the fries in too early they will make the stew watery. I usually set some of the fries aside to decorate on top of the stew once I have poured it into a serving bowl. Note: instead of fries you can buy the shoe string potatoes at the grocery store and use those.
The amount of ingredients listed above is enough to feed 4-6 people (possibly more).
Tagged with: Beef • Limoo Amani • Potatoes • Saffron • Split Peas • Tomato Paste
Sep 15
This is a stew that goes with rice (polo) and is mainly made up of many green vegetables.
Ingredients:
Ghormeh Sabzi
1 package green onions (chop off the green parts in place of tareh)
2 packages parsley
1 package cilantro
A few leaves of Spinach (Optional)
(Use more greens if you are making a larger pot, this amount should be good for 4 people)
1 medium onion - finely chopped up
salt/ pepper
turmeric
1 (or more) limoo amani (dried lime)
limoo amani powder (in place of dried lime, or with it)
Lemon Juice
1 cup dry kidney beans or 1 can kidney beans
stew meat (desired amount - I try to use half a pound) - Can also use lamb instead of beef
Shanbalileh (Fenugreek Leaves)
Directions:
Saute the chopped up onions in oil until slightly changing color. I typically cut my stew meat into smaller pieces (not too small though as is done for Gheymeh). Once the onions are ready I add the meat and stir, then I add my salt, pepper, and turmeric powder.
I usually have already prepared my greens and chopped them up a bit in my food processor. Sometimes to save time I have already prepared packages and placed them in the freezer for the day I decide to cook something with them. Fresh is obviously always better. So I now add my chopped up greens and saute them a bit with the meat. Many Persian Recipes require vast amounts of oil, in fact most people also saute the greens in oil then add it to the pot. I try to make my Persian dishes a little healthier by not drenching everything in oil. Its up to you if you want to cook the greens a bit in oil in a frying pan then add it in, or just do as I did and add it to the meat.
After a minute or two of the greens being mixed with the meat I add 2 to 3 cups of water. I also add the limoo amani and a little bit of the powder. I then added the kidney beans (that I pre-soaked for a few hours) and some lemon juice. Now one thing that provided that wonderful aroma for Ghormeh Sabzi is Shanbalileh!! You don’t need to add much, maybe a teaspoon or a little more than that.
I leave the pot on Med. heat the entire time, but towards the end I will take down the temperature a bit. I let it get to a point where the greens are cooked, and the stew is not too watery.
Serve with rice and maybe some salad Shirazi and/or Yogurt (maast).
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Tagged with: Beef • Cilantro • Green Onions • Kidney Beans • Parsley • Sabzi • Shanbalileh • Spinach
