Tag: Cooking

Veggie Black-Eyed Pea Appetizer Recipe by Khashayar Parsi

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How do you make staying healthy easy? Focusing on what’s good to eat (rather than what isn’t) helps me. So does collecting wholesome recipes that are simple and delicious.

My husband welcomes challenges, nutritious cooking included. (Enjoy more of his recipes here and here and here and here and here and here.) Here’s a favorite dish that family and guests love…

vegetarian cooking
Hungry for something wonderful?

Veggie Black-Eyed Peas Appetizer

Ingredients

  • 1 medium onion
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil
  • 1 zucchini
  • 1 head garlic
  • 2 teaspoons turmeric
  • 1 1/2 cups black-eyed peas
  • 1 cup dried maitake mushrooms
  • 1/2 cup walnuts
  • 1/4 cup cheddar cheese
  • 4 cups water
  • 1/2 cup white rice
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • olives
  • crackers
Vegetarian Black-Eyed Peas Appetizer garnished with olives
Olives brighten up Vegetarian Black-Eyed Peas Appetizer

Instructions

  1. Coarsely chop onion.
  2. In a medium sized pot, sauté it in coconut oil until golden.
  3. Coarsely dice zucchini.
  4. Add zucchini to onions and sauté another five minutes on medium heat.
  5. Mince garlic.
  6. Add garlic to the pot with turmeric and sauté two minutes.
  7. Add black-eyed peas, mushrooms, walnuts, rice, cheese, and water. Bring to boil.
  8. Lower heat to medium and simmer for half an hour.
  9. Once fully cooked, coarsely grind with an immersion blender (which is a little easier to control) or mixer. Tip: if mixture overcooks and becomes too dry to blend, add water 1/4 cup at a time until it can be emulsified without becoming watery.
  10. Let cool.
  11. Spoon into large bowl.
  12. Garnish with Olives.
  13. Serve with crackers.
Vegetarian Black-Eyed Peas Appetizer is tasty on wholewheat crackers.
Vegetarian Black-Eyed Peas Appetizer is tasty on wholewheat crackers.

Serves 8-10 people.

Do you prefer cooking or eating out?

Sticky Toffee Pudding Anyone? by Viola Bleu

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Voila! Viola’s sticky toffee pudding.

Rev up your baking gear! Fellow blogger Viola Bleu’s recipe has me licking my fingers in anticipation.

Apparently, it was so delicious that it got eaten before Viola could photograph the final plated dish.

Never fear. Here’s a video of cooking superstar Nigella making it for Christmas.

And here’s a video of a cook who makes me admire how she doesn’t apologize for how the final sticky product makes it hard for her to talk.

Now on to Viola’s great post…

IdeasBecomeWords

As the dish went in the oven, I admit the ingredients could have looked more appetising. But this is the truth of the process; sticky toffee pudding before its glory on the plate, and the gunky sweetness which sticks to the back of your teeth. This photo is the real life part of the fantasy which will be the portion covered with cream, dribbling down across textured contours of sponge and jagged rocks of dates. Real life is the seven selfies you take before the one which is finally chosen for public scrutiny. That one becomes the fantasy. The image of what we ideally want ourselves to be.

In fact I had to bring it out again, because I forgot the components of the sticky bit. Dark muscovado sugar, unsalted butter and some boiling water … all sprinkled, dabbed and poured over the top before cooking commences. (That looks even…

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Book Review: Najmieh Batmanglij’s Persian Cookbook

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It’s the start of Spring and with it Persian New Year, the time of year that is among the happiest everywhere in the world. A time brilliant with hope, promise, and gratitude for overcoming the year behind us. Yeah! We have survived! All people can peacefully celebrate!

“New Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies,” by Najmieh Batmanglij


“New Food of Life,” by Najimieh Batmanglij celebrates the past that brought about her marvelous food. Her book promises to keep Iran’s most sensual art alive. She packs in love in all of its forms. Within these pages lie poetry, tapestry, childhood memories, and practical advice on how to make these recipes your own.

Persian 'tadig,' crunchy rice.
Persian ‘tadig,’ crunchy rice.
Persian 'miniature' style painting of picnickers.
Persian ‘miniature’ style painting of picnickers.

Colorful ‘miniature’ style paintings and lyrical poetry are interspersed among photos vivid enough to make me feel the aromatic steam on my nostrils as I experience crunchy rice (tadig), mountains of grains, pots of stews, platters of desserts, with all manner of drinks, staples including pickle and yogurt making instructions, and mixes for seasonings.

Platter of fresh herbs, feta, and nuts.
Platter of fresh herbs, feta, and nuts.

Without my husband, I might never have tasted simple elegance at its most sublime. Here Batmanglij features a splendid heap of fresh herbs that can include mint, fennel, parsley, watercress, and sweet basil. Alongside it, real feta cheese (not the miserly crumbled sort), and nuts soaked in brine.

Persian 'Lubia Polo' green bean stew with rice.
Persian ‘Lubia Polo’ green bean stew with rice.

Tea gets its own chapter — marvelous Persian tea that’s best appreciated by eyes and nose from clear glasses that highlight color and scent.

Persian sweet fritters.
Persian sweet fritters.

Batmanglij accomplishes much in this singular book! There’s illustrated explanations of holidays and traditions.

Persian poetry and painting.
Persian poetry and painting.

Even a list of her mother’s interpretation of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ foods — hot and cold, not to be confused with the dictionary definition of these words. In this case, they’re more akin to Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine interpretations of how they affect the body, not merely the taste buds.

This book is for anyone who loves globetrotting via food and anyone who loves a Persian.

Batmanglij has other cookbooks for all ages.

Happy bread-day! Notes on a fave baking book

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Happy bread day! Today I baked a fabulous loaf for my family that was as simple to make as it was delicious!

Bread in 5 Minutes book cover

Tango gatherings are social in the best way, including food-wise. When a dance mate brought a yeast-raised loaf still warm from her home oven and described how easily she’d baked it, I ran to get the book she’d gotten the recipe from.

“The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery that Revolutionizes Home Baking,” by Jeff Hertzberg, M.D., and Zoë François, lives up to its subtitle.

The authors provide gourmet recipes and lots of glossy food porn. Their panettone is now a family favorite!

In my Iran-born husband’s family, one is either “noon-ee” or “polo-ee,” meaning either bread loving or rice loving. Bread lover that I am, before this book, I tried yeast breads and always failed to produce anything better than bricks.

Not so with these recipes!

Jeff and Zoë's panettone
Jeff and Zoë’s panettone

For the panettone, instead of the fancy wrapper on this photo here, I line the ceramic pot from my electric crock pot with parchment paper, add the dough, and bake (without the electronic mechanism) in a conventional oven. For the first half of the baking, I leave it covered, and for the remainder, I remove the lid.

Crock Pots I use for bread and panettone
Crock Pots I use for bread and for panettone

The yeasty fragrance of baking perfumes the entire house. What a marvel to hear a loaf hum, whistle, and crackle a steamy tune as it cools, and then to bite into crunchy, chewy goodness!

Jacques Pepín put it best when, on one of his cooking shows, he said nothing can compete with fine artisan bread slathered with pure butter.

Here Jacques bakes his own no-knead bread…

Caveat: “…Bread in Five Minutes…” might mislead — actually, the dough takes five to ten minutes to mix. Then it must rise for a couple of hours. Baking times varies according to recipes.

Note: This is from a book review I wrote for Jeyran Main’s book reviewing blog.

What’s your fave cookbook?