Part of my interest in some of the places I'm going to originated with food. As a result, as I travel around, I'm hoping to pick up some tips to improve my own cooking and spice up the rotation of meals I generally cook. In the spirit of this, I asked my best friend's mum, Mehri, to teach me an Iranian dish.
As with most wonderful cooks, she doesn't measure ingredients. So bear with my estimations/lack of estimations and missing steps/over-complication of steps. I think the rule to remember with this recipe is experimentation :) Alter amounts to suit your own tastes.
Iranian Chicken/Walnut Curry
Curry Ingredients:
Onion ~ 2 cups
Chicken ~ 2 cups
Walnuts ~ 2 cups
Turmeric ~1 t
Salt ~ 1 t
Chillies ~1/4 t
Cracked Pepper ~1/4 t
Powder from dried unripened grapes/or tomato paste
A cinnamon stick
Canola oil
Butter
* Large Disclaimer. Throughout the cooking, more spices were added regularly to taste. This was just the starting amount, and I would taste and add as you go.
Rice and potatoes Ingredients:
Basmati Rice ~ 2 cups
Saffron 1/4 t
Salt
A couple potatoes
Canola oil
Instructions for curry:
1. Fry onion in pan with some canola oil
2. Once soft, add turmeric. Then add a couple of cups of water, the salt, chillies, cracked pepper, cinnamon stick
3. If you have pomegranate fruit paste or fruit leather, add some of that. Otherwise you could use juice of some kind.
4. If you have it, add the powder from dried non-ripened grapes (tangy) a substitute could be tomato paste or lemon juice or both.
5. Let simmer and cook down.
6. Cook chicken in butter
7. Use food processor to chop walnuts/blend till as smooth as you can be bothered (Mehri did this for ages)
8. Add to the simmering onion broth
9. Put chicken and broth/curry into a pot and let simmer until ready to serve (consistency of curry)
Instructions for rice and potatoes:
1. Put basmati rice in a container, and use lukewarm water to wash the rice, removing the starch.
2. Do this several times.
3. Once the water runs clear, leave the rice to sit in a container with a several cups of lukewarm water and several tablespoons of salt.
4. Let sit for at least a half an hour, but could be overnight.
5. Boil water in a pot.
6. Add the salt water and rice to the pot
7. Boil the rice. Leave slightly undercooked.
8. Remove rice and let stand.
9. Take a 1/2 teaspoon of saffron and mix it with a half a cup of boiling water. Let stand.
10. Slice several potatoes into 1 cm wide slices.
11. Put oil (quite a lot) into the bottom of the rice pot and heat up.
12. Add the potatoes.
13. Let cook, until the potatoes get a whiteish sheen. Turning over.
* At this point, you can turn the whole thing off if the rest of your food isn't ready, or you can continue.
14. Add the rice
15. Make a hole (like a volcano) in the middle of the rice so that steam can circulate.
16. Let cook on medium for 30 minutes. Turn down if needed.
17. Let cool for awhile, or if everything else is ready, plunge the pot into cool water in the sink, this makes the potato not stick to the inside of the pot.
18. When you're ready to serve, put the rice and potatoes onto a large platter, and pour the saffron water over the top to colour the rice and give it flavour.
* A good side dish could be roast vegetables or salad.
Yum!
Thanks to the Taghavis for the wonderful dinner :)
As with most wonderful cooks, she doesn't measure ingredients. So bear with my estimations/lack of estimations and missing steps/over-complication of steps. I think the rule to remember with this recipe is experimentation :) Alter amounts to suit your own tastes.
Iranian Chicken/Walnut Curry
Curry Ingredients:
Onion ~ 2 cups
Chicken ~ 2 cups
Walnuts ~ 2 cups
Turmeric ~1 t
Salt ~ 1 t
Chillies ~1/4 t
Cracked Pepper ~1/4 t
Powder from dried unripened grapes/or tomato paste
A cinnamon stick
Canola oil
Butter
* Large Disclaimer. Throughout the cooking, more spices were added regularly to taste. This was just the starting amount, and I would taste and add as you go.
Rice and potatoes Ingredients:
Basmati Rice ~ 2 cups
Saffron 1/4 t
Salt
A couple potatoes
Canola oil
Instructions for curry:
1. Fry onion in pan with some canola oil
2. Once soft, add turmeric. Then add a couple of cups of water, the salt, chillies, cracked pepper, cinnamon stick
3. If you have pomegranate fruit paste or fruit leather, add some of that. Otherwise you could use juice of some kind.
4. If you have it, add the powder from dried non-ripened grapes (tangy) a substitute could be tomato paste or lemon juice or both.
5. Let simmer and cook down.
6. Cook chicken in butter
7. Use food processor to chop walnuts/blend till as smooth as you can be bothered (Mehri did this for ages)
8. Add to the simmering onion broth
9. Put chicken and broth/curry into a pot and let simmer until ready to serve (consistency of curry)
Instructions for rice and potatoes:
1. Put basmati rice in a container, and use lukewarm water to wash the rice, removing the starch.
2. Do this several times.
3. Once the water runs clear, leave the rice to sit in a container with a several cups of lukewarm water and several tablespoons of salt.
4. Let sit for at least a half an hour, but could be overnight.
5. Boil water in a pot.
6. Add the salt water and rice to the pot
7. Boil the rice. Leave slightly undercooked.
8. Remove rice and let stand.
9. Take a 1/2 teaspoon of saffron and mix it with a half a cup of boiling water. Let stand.
10. Slice several potatoes into 1 cm wide slices.
11. Put oil (quite a lot) into the bottom of the rice pot and heat up.
12. Add the potatoes.
13. Let cook, until the potatoes get a whiteish sheen. Turning over.
* At this point, you can turn the whole thing off if the rest of your food isn't ready, or you can continue.
14. Add the rice
15. Make a hole (like a volcano) in the middle of the rice so that steam can circulate.
16. Let cook on medium for 30 minutes. Turn down if needed.
17. Let cool for awhile, or if everything else is ready, plunge the pot into cool water in the sink, this makes the potato not stick to the inside of the pot.
18. When you're ready to serve, put the rice and potatoes onto a large platter, and pour the saffron water over the top to colour the rice and give it flavour.
* A good side dish could be roast vegetables or salad.
Yum!
Thanks to the Taghavis for the wonderful dinner :)
