Oct 29
Sabzi Polo ba Mahi is a rice with greens that is typically served with mahi (fish). Obviously everyone uses different types of fish, and depending on where you live you probably don’t have all the types of fish you would like to have.
Sabzi Polo ba Mahi
I made Sabzi Polo ba mahi and have explained the ingredients I used below. For the fish I used Tilapia, which doesn’t take long to cook at all. You can use another type of fish. Halibut is pretty good and if you have access to buying Mahi Sefid (white fish) its pretty tasty too.
Ingredients:
3 cups rice — rinse your rice and soak it for an hour or more before cooking it. Add salt to the water you are soaking the rice in.
Sabzi (greens) — I used a combination of parsley, cilantro, green onions, and dill.
Tilapia –allow it to thaw out if it is frozen before cooking
lemon juice
salt/pepper
garlic powder
flour
eggs (optional)
Directions:
Chop up the parsley, cilantro, green onions (only the ends where it is green, this is in place of tareh), and dill (if using fresh dill). I use a food processor to chop it up.
For the rice, you will bring a pot of water to boil and then add your chopped up greens first and after about 5 minutes add the rice (after draining the water it is soaking in out). Once the rice boils (about 5 minutes) you want to use a strainer to drain the water. Add a half cup water and some oil to the pot and return it to the stove top on a medium-high temperature. Add the rice (now with sabzi) back to the pot and cover the lid with a towel and place it over it. You want to allow it to steam and then turn the heat down to a low temperature. You can allow it to stay on the stove top over 30 minutes. Again the longer it stays the crispier your tahdigh (crispy rice bottom crust) will get. Note: if you are using dry dill don’t add it until you are adding the rice back into the pot with the rest of the sabzi.
For the fish that is served with the Sabzi Polo, first heat some oil in a frying pan. Pour some flour in a bowl or plate and add salt, pepper, and garlic to it then mix together. If you like you can put an egg or two in a different bowl and mix it as well, then you would dip your fish into the eggs then into the flour. For Tilapia I didn’t use eggs, instead I dipped the fish into the flour and coated it on both sides then placed it in the frying pan. Like I mentioned above it doesn’t take long for Tilapia to cook, so make sure you keep an eye on it. Place the lid on the frying pan if you like to allow it to thoroughly cook. Flip it over after a couple a minutes for the other side to fry a bit too. After the fish is done frying you can add some lemon juice to it.
Serve the Sabzi Polo with the mahi.
Tagged with: Cilantro • Dill • Eggs • Flour • Parsley • Sabzi
Sep 30
This is a aash (soup) one of my friends recently made for a gathering. It is from the Kurdish regions of Iran, and is basically a local Kurdish soup called Dokhawa.
Aash Dokhawa
The ingredients below are enough for a large pot.
Ingredients:
1 package parsley
2 packages cilantro
1 package dill (shevid), or half a cup dried dill (shevid khoshk)
.5 litre (16 oz) plain yogurt
1/2 cup rice
1/2 cup Barley (jo) –this should most likely be a pearl barley or other quick-cooking barley. I couldn’t find the exact meaning of balghooreh jo, but I assume its a more processed form of Barley (i.e, pearl Barley)
1 egg yolk
6-7 cups water
salt
Directions:
First whip the yogurt with the egg yolk so that chunks will not be formed when you mix it with the water. Add the egg yolk and yogurt you have whipped to the water and then add all three contents (egg yolk/yogurt/water mixture) to the pot you plan on using. Wash your greens (mentioned above) and chop them up only a little bit, do not chop them up too much cause they need to be fairly large. Add the greens, some salt, the rice, and the barley to the pot. Then allow the contents in the pot to come to a boil. After it boils bring the temperature down to a medium / medium-low and allow the contents to cook for 30-40 minutes.
Tagged with: Barley • Cilantro • Dill • Eggs • Parsley • Rice • Yogurt
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).
12 people like this post.
Tagged with: Beef • Cilantro • Green Onions • Kidney Beans • Parsley • Sabzi • Shanbalileh • Spinach
