Persianized Tarte Tatin

Mmmmmm. Tarte Tatin. But with a Persian twist. This Thanksgiving I was inspired by one of my favorite bloggers, My Persian Kitchen, who introduced the concept of Persianizing. I normally make the a praline, crumble-topped pumpkin pie and an apple caramel pie for Thanksgiving, but this year I wanted to go the French route and make a tarte tatin. Really you can’t go wrong with a tarte tatin. It’s not only so tasty, but it is elegant and beautiful. One of the great things about tarte tatin is that it only calls for one crust, so you have enough pâte brisée — a beautiful butter crust –  to make two whole tarts.

Well after making my first tarte tatin of the season, I was inspired as I said. And this was the result…

I hope you find a little time to make this sometime this holiday season. I guarantee it’s worth much more than the very minimal effort required to bake this beauty.

Ingredients:

Pate Brisee:

  1. 2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
  2. 1 tsp salt
  3. 1 tsp sugar
  4. 2 sticks (1 cup) of cold butter, cut into small pieces
  5. 1/2 cup of ice cold water

Apples:

  1. 2.5 medium sized baking apples (I used Braeburn)
  2. 1 cup of sugar
  3. 2 tbsp water
  4. A splash of lemon juice
  5. 4 tbsp of butter, cut into small pieces
  6. 4-7 cardomom pods
  7. A generous pinch of saffron

To make the tarte tatin, you will first need to make the pâte brisée. This needs to chill for at least an hour, so you may want to make this the day before.

  • To begin, put the flour, salt and sugar in a food processor and pulse for a couple seconds to really get all the dry ingredients sifted and well-incorporated.
  • Add the butter (make sure it’s very cold) and pulse for about 10 seconds until you have a coarse meal.
  • Turn on the food processor and slowly stream in anywhere from 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of the ice water until the dough just holds together. Make sure you don’t over process.
  • Remove the dough from the processor and use your hands to form it into a ball.
  • Divide the ball of dough into 2 equal halves, forming each half into a disc.
  • Wrap each disc of dough in plastic wrap and put them in the refrigerator for at least one hour. Overnight is best if you can swing it.

When the dough has been chilling for at least an hour, you can start making the  caramelized apples.

  • Preheat your oven to 425F.
  • Generously butter a pie plate.
  • Using a mortar and pestle, grind up the cardamom into a coarse powder and grind the saffron with a pinch of sugar into a powder. I like to leave a few strands of saffron unground. They look so pretty adorning the apples when all is said and done.
  • Peel the apples and core them then cut them into 6 pieces each.
  • In a small saucepan add the sugar, water and lemon juice and put it on high heat. You’re going to want to bring this to a boil, stirring all the while.
  • Once the sugar is boiling, add the saffron and cardamom and continue stirring on high heat until the mixture is a nice medium-colored caramel. You want it to be the color of a nice clover honey.
  • Remove the sugar from the stove and pour it into the pie plate. Working quickly, add the 4tbsp of butter on top of the sugar mixture, making sure the pieces are distributed evenly.
  • Then take the apple pieces and arrange them round-side down (this part is very important to get the right look) in the pie plate. I like to put all of the pieces in a circle going around the perimeter of the pie plate with a slightly larger, more round piece in the center.
  • Now, it’s time to roll out the dough. First lightly flour your surface.
  • Take one of the discs of dough and put it on your surface. I like to let it rest for just a minute or two to make it easier to work with.
  • Roll the dough out into a circle that is about 1/4 inch thick and large enough to cover the pie plate.
  • Gently pick up the dough and place it on top of the pie plate, making sure the entire plate is covered. I like to cut the edges of the dough so that the dough is a nice round the exact size of the pie plate.
  • Put the tart in the oven for 25 minutes, until the crust is a nice golden color.
  • While the tart is in the oven, get a platter on which you want to place the tart and have it ready. Also, make sure  you have a baking dish with a bit of a lip handy. When you flip the tart, the caramel is going to splatter all over the place. Trust me on this. You’re going to need something to catch the stuff.
  • When the tart is done, pull it out of the oven. Make sure you have some silicone mitts or something else good and sturdy to protect your hands for this next part.
  • Place the platter on top of the pie plate and quickly and carefully flip the tart. You should probably do this over the baking dish to catch all the caramel that is going to ooze off your plate.
  • Pry the pie plate very carefully off the tart. I use a pair of tongs in one hand and an oven mitt on my other hand. The sugar is very hot, so please be very careful at this point. Also, you will need  to restrain yourself for just a bit until the tarte tatin cools down just a little.

It is best eaten when warm, but not so warm that it will scald your mouth. Wait about 20-30 minutes, and you should be good. A little vanilla ice cream can’t hurt the tarte either. In fact, I highly recommend it. And there you have it — Persianized Tarte Tatin. Nooshi jan!

2 Comments

zahra, December 3rd 2009 | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Competition in the Kitchen, Food + Fitness

5 O'Clock at the Oasis

I’ve never been much of a sleeping-in type, but I do like to get an extra hour of sleep in the mornings whenever I can. If I’m really feeling lazy, I might even sleep until 8:30am on the weekends. Decadent, I know. Try not to judge.

Until recently, this has been fine with Azita. She didn’t seem to be much of a morning person. I mean once she wakes up, she wakes up with a bang. There’s usually a shriek and some wall-climbing involved, and occasionally there’s some rolling around and attempts at hurling herself off the bed. It’s just that getting to that point used to take a little while and lots of grumbling. She still hates that moment when the lights go on after we wake up. This morning, she sat straight up, squinted her eyes at the light, let out a somewhat screechy whine, and bent over so her face was buried in the mattress. Two seconds later she was lounging on her baba’s lap batting her eyelashes at me from across the room.

Really, she can go from whiny to adorable in 2 seconds flat. But I digress. The point of all this is that Azita likes to sleep in a little usually, and we’ve been pretty happy about that. But this week she’s taken to starting the wake-up process at 5am. She kicks a little. Moves her head from side to side. Flops her body around. About half an hour later, she’s up and at it with her antics which, while cute, are frustratingly annoying when even the sun hasn’t woken up from it’s nightly slumber.

Now for the past 4 or 5 months, basically ever since she started letting anyone else other than me hold her for more than a few minutes, I’ve been taking an hour a day for myself to work out. Roger is so kind as to amuse Azita for that hour, and I do the same for him when I’m done. This time really is necessary, not just for our physical health but also for our mental well-being. And, it’s the only way we’re both going to finish melting away the baby poundage, which is also a necessity since we’re both vain (and it’s healthy and stuff). The issue is that 1) by the time we pick Azita up from daycare I’m so starved for some time with my baby that it takes some serious effort to pry myself away from her for that hour, and 2) by the time we both finish working out, feeding Azita, giving her a bath and so on, it’s about 9pm. And, we’re not really liking the eating of dinner at 9pm.

So, for months now I keep saying that I’m going to get back to my former, pre-baby habit of waking up at 5:30 in the morning to workout. Thus far it hasn’t happened. Until this week that is. It seems Azita has my best interests at heart, because it’s pretty easy to wake up at 5:30am when a baby is shrieking in your ear and playing pattycake with your face. Since she’s pretty determined once she’s set her mind to something, I’m pretty sure I’ll be in tip-top shape within the month.

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zahra, October 23rd 2009 | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Food + Fitness, Parenthood + Childhood

Iron and Oil

Azita had her 9-month well baby visit on Monday. I went in to this appointment fully expecting the doctor to say she’s growing really well and oh look, she’s crawling and cruising and doing all sorts of other things a little ahead of schedule. Great!

Well, things didn’t turn out so great. I mean, true, Azita is hitting all her milestones ahead of schedule. But, I’ll admit that it took me by surprise when I found out that Azita had gained just under a pound total in the past three months and has suddenly dropped from the 50th percentile in weight to the 10-25th percentile in weight within such a short time. Honestly, I’m still reeling a little from all of this. What did I do wrong?

I know Azita has been a bit finicky lately. She usually refuses food and sometimes refuses a bottle. I just didn’t know she wasn’t gaining weight. But now that I think about it, it should have struck me as a little weird that the newest member of her daycare — a 4 month old — is bigger than her.  And that’s where the guilt is really coming from.  How could I not notice this?

In the end it’s not really that big of a deal. I’m adding some formula powder and a little bit of oil to all of Azita’s food, and I’m taking the 45 minutes it takes for every meal to make sure she actually eats something. Really, it does take that long. She is a master of elusion, this one. So, I know she will be ok, and I’ll pay a little more attention to her growth from now on.

But then last night I come home to a message from her doctor. It turns out Azita’s CBC on Monday wasn’t normal either. My baby is anemic. Seriously. What happened to the doctor’s appointments where she got her vaccines and the doctor checked off all the good boxes? I know that anemia can be serious, but I also know that it isn’t really a huge deal if you treat it. After all, I was also anemic as a baby, and I grew up to be perfectly healthy.

It’s just that now I have to spend my days trying to get my baby girl to ingest iron and oil. Not exactly what I thought I’d be doing at this stage of her life. Boo hoo. Woe is me.

But enough whining already.  She’ll be all right, and it’s worth it. I mean, I get to come home to this every day:

Azita_playpen

2 Comments

zahra, October 15th 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Parenthood + Childhood

Vegetarian Split Pea Soup

Roger had a root canal yesterday, and prior to that he’s been suffering from a killer toothache. So, his diet has consisted basically of foods the same foods Azita is eating — i.e., anything soft and mushy or pureed. To help ease his growing hunger pangs, I made a batch of my vegetarian split pea soup last night. Let me tell you that this soup is so quick and easy to make that I spent all of 10 minutes prepping it just before I worked out in the evening, and it was done by the time I finished my workout. And, it really hits the spot. It’s something we could eat for any meal  (I’ve even had it for breakfast, but I’m weird that way) and feel thoroughly satisfied.  Since last night, Roger has received a few requests for my recipe, so here it is.

Of course, my version of this soup has none of the usual pork products that typically go in it. Now that the air has taken on a permanent chill, you may want to make this on a cold, dark night when you need something easy for dinner. The bonus is that it is very budget-friendly. Nooshijan!

Vegetarian Split Pea Soup

Makes 6-8 hearty bowls.

Ingredients:

  • 1 160z bag dried green split peas
  • 1 medium yellow onion, diced
  • 2 carrots, diced
  • 2 stalks of celery, diced
  • 1 red bell pepper (or any other color that strikes your fancy), diced
  • 1 medium sweet potato, large dice
  • 1 medium white potato, large dice
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1 Knorr’s Vegetable Boullion cube
  • 6 cups water
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 1 tsp Black Pepper

Directions:

  1. Heat up a tablespoon of vegetable oil  in a soup pot on high heat.
  2. Add the onion, carrot, celery and bell pepper to the pot and saute until the onions are translucent and everything else is soft.
  3. Add the potatoes and sweet potatoes to the mix and saute for another minute or two.
  4. Add everything else to the pot — split peas, water, bouillion cube, turmeric, salt, and pepper — and stir.
  5. Bring the mixture to a boil then reduce the heat to low-medium (I usually put the stove on 3 out of 9) so that the mixture is simmering.
  6. Let the soup simmer, stirring every 15-20 minutes or so, until the split peas have disintegrated and are mushy — about 45 minutes.
  7. Serve while still nice and hot. Tastes great with a couple dashes of hot sauce.

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zahra, October 14th 2009 | Tags: , , ,
Posted in Competition in the Kitchen, Food + Fitness

Khoresht-e Fesenjan Veggie-Style

Ladies and Gentlemen, as promised, here it is…a vegetarian version of one of my favorite Persian dishes — Khoresht-e Fesenjan. This dish typically consists primarily of chicken cooked in a pomegranate and walnut sauce, so it wasn’t the easiest thing to make veggie. However, I think the star of Fesenjan is the fragrant sauce, so this dish is still soul-satisfying despite the lack of chicken. And, there’s lots of satisfaction going on with this dish, since it makes 6 hearty servings (or 4 if you get a little piggy like Roger and me). Nooshijan!

Vegetarian Khoresht-e Fesenjan

Ingredients

  • 1 large yellow onion (I like using Vidalia)
  • 3 cups of walnut halves or pieces
  • 1 large butternut squash, cubed (should be about 4 cups when cubed)
  • 3/4 cup of pomegranate paste/syrup
  • 1 tsp of saffron
  • 2 tbsp of advieh
  • Salt
  • 4 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 4 cups of warm water

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Toss the butternut with 1 tbsp of vegetable oil and place it on a baking sheet. Bake the butternut squash for 30 minutes or until soft and slightly browned.
  3. Set the squash aside.
  4. Place the remaining 3 tbsp of vegetable oil in a large saucepan on high heat.
  5. Slice the entire onion very thinly.
  6. When the oil is heated up, put the onion in the oil and brown the onions. Make sure to stir every few minutes so the onions don’t stick to the pot. You want the onions to be really good and brown.
  7. While the onions are cooking, put the walnuts in a food processor and pulse until they are well ground. They should have the appearance of a coarse flour.
  8. Add 1/4 cup of the pomegranate paste to the walnuts and pulse until well-mixed.
  9. When the onions are brown, add the butternut squash to the pot and mix.
  10. Then add the rest of the pomegranate paste, 4 cups of warm water, and the walnut mixture. Stir very well, making sure that the walnuts are well-incorporated with the water and pomegranate paste. At this point, the mixture will be a light chestnut brown color and will be very slightly watery.
  11. Using a mortar and pestle, grind up the saffron with a pinch of salt (kosher salt works best). Then add the saffron and the advieh to the mixture.
  12. Bring the mixture to a boil then turn the heat down to low.
  13. At this point, I would taste a little of the sauce. Does it taste a little too tart for you? If so, add a couple tablespoons of sugar. I personally like my fesenjan a little bit on the tart side so I never add sugar (especially since the butternut squash adds a little extra sweetness), but many people prefer this dish with a touch of added sweetness.
  14. Cook for about 45 minutes or until the mixture looks very thick and a darker brown.
  15. Serve over basmati rice.

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zahra, October 10th 2009 | Tags: , , ,
Posted in Competition in the Kitchen

Vegetarian Deliciousness to Come

I’ve received lots of intriguing requests for vegetarian versions of different meat-based foods. One recipe — chili — has been tackled already. Hope you find time to try it out. While it seems like a lot of ingredients, I’d like to think that many of them are already in your pantry, and don’t be fooled by the length of the post. My chili is actually a very fast dish to prepare. You really do all the work up front, and that only takes 20 minutes. I timed it.

Anyways, your requests will not go unanswered. The test kitchen is now open, and I plan on coming up with recipes for the following in the next couple months:

  1. Chuck Roast with Potatoes and Carrots: Note that there is no real way without an industrial food laboratory for me to make a big hunk of meat. However, I believe I can replicate some of the flavor and texture of this dish with some vegetable protein and lots of wholesome veggies and flavorful  spices.
  2. Khoresht-e Fesenjan: I had one request for a vegetarian version of a Persian dish from My Persian Kitchen. One of my favorites is Khoresht-e Fesenjan, a delicious dish that is made of ground walnuts, pomegranate syrup, and chicken (or some other type of poultry). I usually make this at home just substituting cut up Quorn cutlets for the chicken, and it tastes delicious and satisfying. However, I’m going to try to do this dish without the meat substitute. We’ll see what the test kitchen turns out. I’ll say that Khoresht-e Bademjan ties with Fesenjan as my favorite, so you’ll probably see that sometime soon as well.
  3. Red Snapper Chowder: I’m really intrigued by this request, because it’s hard to make vegetarian equivalents of seafood dishes. There aren’t that many options out there. However,  seaweed is food from the sea and therefore I will attempt to impart some sea flavors using a seaweed based broth. I’m excited to come up with something for this one, as it really is quite the challenge. Thanks for the suggestion, Michelle!

2 Comments

zahra, September 21st 2009 | Tags: , ,
Posted in Competition in the Kitchen

Spicy Chocolate Chili

I’m working on a vegetarian version of a dish I actually have never heard of before — chuck roast with potatoes and carrots.  I know, I know, who hasn’t heard of chuck roast? Me. That’s who. But I have heard of kaleh-pacheh, and I bet most of my readers haven’t. So there. Stay tuned for a vegetarian version of that recipe (chuck roast, not kaleh-patcheh), and thanks to Holly and James for the suggestion. In the meantime, I’m tackling another recipe request from one of Roger’s friends, mostly because I have a tried and true recipe that I’ve refined over the years. Ladies and gentleman, introducing Zahra’s Spicy Chocolate Chili. You may never want chili made with dead animals again. At least, that’s what Roger says.

Zahra’s Spicy Chocolate Chili

The flavors of this chili are inspired by a mole. The recipe calls for stout beer, but you can substitute more vegetable stock for that if you object to the beer. It is just as tasty.

Ingredients:

  • 1 large yellow onion (a Vidalia works particularly well), diced
  • 2 large carrot stalks, diced
  • 1 stalk of celery, diced
  • 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2 large red (or any other color) bell peppers, diced
  • 1 serrano chili pepper, finely diced
  • 1 large (22 oz or so) can of diced tomatoes
  • 2 cups of frozen corn
  • 1 14.5 oz can of dark kidney beans (black beans also work really well)
  • 1 box of frozen boca burger crumbles (or 1 bag of Morningstar burger crumbles)
  • 4 cups of vegetable stock
  • 1 can of stout beer
  • Dry Spices:
    • 2 oz of unsweetened baking chocolate, grated
    • 1/4 cup chili powder
    • 1/4 cup of cumin powder
    • 1 tsp of cayenne pepper (more if you like the spice, as I do)
    • 1 tbsp of paprika
    • 3 tbsp of cocoa powder (the unsweetened kind for baking)
    • 3 tsp salt

Directions:

  1. Add a couple of tablespoons to the bottom of a large poton high heat. I like to use my giant Le Creuset Dutch oven, but you can use any large soup pot.
  2. We’re going to start with a mirepoix of sorts (the ratios are a little off). Add the onion, carrots, and celery to the pot and saute until the onions are translucent and start to brown a little at the edges.
  3. Add the serrano chilis, bell pepper and garlic and saute for about 3 or 4 more minutes, until the peppers start to get a little soft. Make sure you keep the mix moving so the garlic doesn’t burn.
  4. Add the vegetarian burger crumbles and mix well. Stir until the crumbles are no longer frozen. This only takes a few minutes.
  5. Take all of the dry spices, except for the grated baking chocolate, and add to the mix. Stir well for about a minute until all of the vegetables and veggie crumbles are well-coated, then add the vegetable stock.
  6. Add the corn, beans and tomatoes and bring the chili to a boil.
  7. Once the chili mixture is boiling, add the grated baking chocolate and bring the heat down to a simmer (low-medium heat). Stir well to make sure everything is well combined.
  8. Simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring every once in a while to make sure the ingredients don’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
  9. When the mixture has gotten really thick and much of the liquid has evaporated, add the can of stout beer (or the equivalent amount of vegetable stock). Stir in the liquid and cook for an additional 15 minutes, at least.
  10. You can now eat the chili, or even better, turn the heat to the lowest setting possible and leave the chili on the stove for another hour or so. The longer you leave it, the more concentrated the flavor.

I serve this up with the following accompaniments in bowls and let everyone serve themselves directly from the pot (it makes the whole chili eating experience more rustic): 1. fresh salsa, 2. Greek yogurt, 3. grated cheddar cheese (soy cheese works well), 4. cilantro and/or flat leaf parsley, 5. tortilla chips. I also usually add some hot sauce, and often bake up some cornbread from scratch.

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zahra, September 19th 2009 | Tags: , , ,
Posted in Competition in the Kitchen, Food + Fitness

Competition in the Kitchen

I love cooking. As a child it was one of my (and my sister’s) many chores, and when I say “many” I mean that in the most extreme sense of the word. My sister and I were basically responsible for maintaining our entire household. We did it all — cleaning, laundry, ironing, yard work, and cooking. When I was a child I used to say that when I grew up I would get rich and hire people to do all of the housework for me. All of it that is, except for the cooking.

I love cooking so much that I really have seriously considered making it a career. I look forward to the weekends partly because I actually have time to cook more elaborate meals. I secretly love to throw parties mostly so I have an excuse to cook an insanely large amount off food. I also watch way too much Food Network, especially any show that also appeals to my competitive nature.

Iron Chef (even the American version) and Top Chef are two of my favorite shows. The fast-paced cooking. The creativity. The interesting ingredients. They all inspire me when I’m in my own kitchen. I love to create, and I have a lot of opportunity to do so. As a vegetarian who also happens to love cooking and eating Iranian food and other ethnic cuisine, I spend much of my time in the kitchen figuring out how to make vegetarian versions of dishes that usually feature meat.

This brings me to the point of this post. I’m always up for a challenge, and I’d like to challenge my readers — all 2 of you — to challenge me. Tell me your favorite meat-based dishes, and I’ll come up with vegetarian versions of the recipe and post them in a new section of the blog entitled Competition in the Kitchen to be launched with the first recipe in the next couple weeks.

I look forward to being challenged. By the way, I haven’t gotten rich yet, unfortunately, so I’m still stuck with the chores (at least the ones Roger doesn’t do, and he does a lot — I’m lucky).

6 Comments

zahra, September 17th 2009 | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Competition in the Kitchen, Food + Fitness

What is Khoresht anyways?

I think the question most people will have if they stumble across this blog is “What the hell is catfish?” Kidding, obviously.

Many places in the United States can now boast diverse culinary offerings, from more ubiquitous Mexican cuisine to perhaps the less common Ethiopian or Malaysian. Iranian cuisine falls pretty squarely on the less common side of things. While common in the D.C. area, where I have resided my entire life, and in much of California, not many American cities have an Iranian restaurant. So, I assume that most people haven’t heard of khoresht.

There are two primary mainstays in the Iranian diet — rice and khoresht. What is khoresht? If I had to compare it to something more well-known it would be to an Indian curry or a slightly more soupy Thai or Chinese stir-fry. It’s basically a thick stew that is served over rice. There is a khoresht for every palate — from Khoresht-e Bademjan (an eggplant and tomato stew) to Khoresht-e Fesenjan (a chicken stewed in ground walnuts and pomegranate syrup). If you haven’t tried khoresht, I highly recommend it. They are worth their preparation time for sure.  Check out the lovely My Persian Kitchen for some great, authentic recipes for khoresht and other yummy Persian delights.

1 Comment

zahra, August 12th 2009 | Tags: , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized