Dec 18

If you want to eat something light and tasty that is void of rice I would definitely recommend Kotlet-e Morgh. You can eat it plain or with bread and its very filling! It tastes good hot or cold!

Kotlet e Morgh

Kotlet e Morgh

Ingredients (4-6 people):
4 skinless/boneless chicken breasts
2 large onions
2 large potatoes
3-4 eggs
turmeric
oil
salt/pepper
plain bread crumbs

Directions:
Chop up one of the onions and fry in oil in a large pot. Add turmeric, salt, and pepper to the onions then add the chicken breasts (you can cut them up or leave them whole). Cover the chicken with water and cook on medium heat for 45 minutes (or until fully cooked). After the chicken is cooked take the pieces out and place on a plate to cool down.

Using a food processor (or a blender) you will further shred up the chicken. Once it is cooled down place all the chicken pieces in the food processor then empty the shredded chicken into a bowl. Add the remaining onion to the food processor too (you should cut the onion up into smaller pieces first). Make sure to squeeze out the water from the onion (as much as possible) before adding it to the chicken in the bowl. Peel the potatoes, chop them up into smaller pieces and add them to the food processor as well. Then add the potatoes to the bowl.

Add some plain bread crumbs (approximately 3 tablespoons), salt, pepper, turmeric, and 3 eggs to the contents within the bowl. Mix all the ingredients well and make sure to really mash the ingredients together. You want the mixture to stick together, so if needed add another egg to help with that if you feel 3 were not enough. I only used 3 eggs and really mashed the mixture well tell it stuck together real good.

Heat up oil in a skillet. Pour some plain bread crumbs into a plate. Form a round ball from the mixture and coat it in bread crumbs then flatten it out in your hand (it will form an almost oval shape). Place the Kotlet in the frying pan and then form another until there is no room in the pan. Allow each Kotlet to become a nice golden brown color and then flip them over for the top to fry as well. Keep repeating this process until all the Kotlet-e Morgh mixture is finished and each Kotlet is fried.

Note: you may choose to use ground chicken breast, but I think the taste is far better when you actually cook the chicken first, then shred the chicken.

Serve with bread, other condiments (ie, tomatoes, pickles, lettuce, ketchup…), or eat it plain.

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Dec 01

This is a simple and tasty Persian dish that can be eaten alone or with bread. I will say that some people chop the eggplants up a bit different, and some even mash the eggplants up a bit, but I like to cut the eggplants into circles. If you are using very tiny eggplants (ghalami) then you may prefer to cut the eggplants up into strips instead of round circles.

Kash e Bademjan

Kash e Bademjan

Ingredients (2-4 people):
1-2 large eggplants
approximately 1 cup Kashk (thick whey) –can be bought in Iranian grocery store, or international store
1 medium onion
1 - 1 1/2 tablespoons tomato Paste
2 tablespoon fulls Dried Mint
oil
salt/pepper

Directions:
Peel the eggplants and cut them up into circles (with a thickness of approximately .5 cm each). Rinse the cut pieces and add some salt to the eggplants. Heat oil on the stove (medium-high heat) in a frying pan and fry the eggplants until golden (both sides need to be fried). If you can’t fry all the pieces in the frying pan at once (which may be the case) just set the fried eggplants aside on a plate until they are all done.

Mix the tomato paste with 1/2 cup hot water. Add pepper and salt (as desired) to the tomato paste and water. In the same frying pan, or in a different one, add all the eggplants and pour the liquid mixture over all the eggplants and cover the pan. Allow the eggplants to cook for 10-15 minutes on medium heat.

Peel the onion and finely chop the onion up into pieces. Fry the onion in oil until golden then set aside. Then fry the dried mint in oil as well. After you place the eggplants in a serving dish pour the Kaskh over the eggplants and sprinkle the onions and dried mint over them. Its ready to be served.

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Nov 12

Shami is very similar to Kotlet (in my opinion anyhow) and is pretty good eaten alone or with bread. The most popular Shami is Shami Aarde Nokhodchi, which as its name implies is mainly made with chickpea flour. I typically buy the chickpea flour from International or Persian grocery stores.

Shami

Shami

Ingredients (for approximately 16 -18 patties):
approximately 1 lb ground beef
300 grams chickpea flour
1 medium onions — both need to be grated
1/2 teaspoon Baking soda
salt/pepper
1 cup cold water
oil

Directions:

Shami - Mixing the ingredients

Shami - Mixing the ingredients

In a bowl mix the grated onions with some salt and pepper. Dissolve the baking soda in 1 cup cold water and then add it into the bowl and mix the contents. Add the aarde nokhodchi (chickpea flour) and the ground beef into the liquid mixture and using your hand thoroughly mash the contents up. If the mixture seems to dry you can add some more water.

Shami - frying

Shami - frying

Add oil to a frying pan and heat it up (set stove top to medium heat). Take amounts (tangerine sized) of the mixture and form into a round ball, then flatten into a round shape in your hand. Form a small hole in the center and then place in the frying pan. Once one side is fried and has a golden brown color, flip the Shami (patty) over and fry the other side as well. Repeat process until all the patties are fried.

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