Daube de Mouton

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to cook and perhaps cook somethings that you have made before. However, this rule never applies to this household. There is a big competition between the husband and the wife (Bobby and me) to show off our cooking skills. As Bobby offered to make Pecan Pie, for the first time, I also offered to make a Lamb Stew.

In order to decide which Lamb Stew to make, I didn't bother to go back to my previous recipes. I opened my very new Julia Child book and went through the recipes. Then I found it: "Daube de Mouton" and J'étais en amour.

 The result was unbelievably good, but there are some things that I wish I knew before starting (Note to self for the next experiment).


First, the timing in the recipe is really for an expert. For an amateur like me, it took twice as long. I had to make double the amount in the recipe as well. 


I did marinade the Lamb over night. In the morning, I started preparing the tomatoes and mushroom. The recipe is for Beef and Julia says to do the same for lamb. For some reason, I still cannot imagine eating bacon with lamb, so I did escape the bacon layers.Also, the recipe says to add beef stock, I wish I didn't have some lamb stock prepared, since I didn't have that I poured Veggie stock in it.

 

 As you can see, the pan was too small for my stew. So you might be able to picture the mess that it made in my only working oven. 


After 2 hours of cooking in the oven. My stew was only half done. Still missing a flavor. So I tried adding a bit of tomato paste to a small amount of stew to see if that works. And Hallelujah! It was sent from heaven, by Julia herself!

On Thanksgiving day, I skipped the oven and poured the whole stew in a big Pot and let it simmer slowly for 2 more hours. God that was the best stew I ever had in my life. I didn't have any leftovers to bring home after the party:-)


If you do have the book of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", go to the meat section, the recipe is on page 322.

Pies with Paula

Paula was kind enough to come over to our house and teach us how to make our own pie crust. I have no shame to say that I have no talent in baking. I think I actually scared Paula.

The Pie dish that I bought was too big and too deep, so it was a big challenge to put the crust in it.

 

It was a complete silence ...

  

And Done....

And here is the crust all set for the filling :

Then While I was making cookies out of the left over dough, Bobby and Paula made pumpkin pie filling. 

Time to leave her in the oven for a little while... while I watch Dirty Sexy Money

And now we are ready for Thanksgiving!

Seasoning Shelf

So I went out and looked through the antique store in our down town and finally got the shelf that I had in my head. It is wood, chipped and just perfect. Just the way I wanted it. There was only one problem. The walls in America are not made from bricks. You can actually cut through your wall with a knife! A KNIFE! And we call those four walls Home! Anyways ... So to keep my shelf on the wall I have to make sure it is not too heavy. After playing with some ideas, I finally agreed to look for tins at antique stores.

 

I went to Luccett and bought 4 tins. When I came back home I found out that they were tins to store tobacco. Oh well, I washed them couple times and lined them with food safe papers. Now I have my very own seasoning rack.

Poached Eggs

Last Saturday was my first brunch hour at Palio. As the whole menu was completely unfamiliar to me, I just preferred watching closely and try to remember all the steps. I couldn't wait for an order for Eggs Benedict to come in. And finally my prayers were answered. Juan Carlos (he calls himself JC) made the poached eggs and it looked to simple to do.

Lettuce topped with Poached Eggs, Cranberries and Croutons. Dressing was a mix of
Lemon Juice, Wine Vinaigrette and Olive Oil.

On Sunday, for lunch I came up with this salad. Well, it is not a salad that you would eat everyday, but it is the salad that you come up with when you can barely wait to make poached eggs. And not only 1, but 4 and no broken yolks!

آش ماست

Aash is a very thick soup that we usually eat in Iran when the weather is cold like now. Ash is very traditional specially when someone leaves country or town for a long time. They make the aash after they are gone and usually the family or friends throw a party for that. I made this aash simply because I miss home and even now thinking about it I am on the verge of crying. I am far away from home and I miss every single bit of it. My mom usually makes this dish for us in winter. It is by far my favorite. Eating it here all the way across the world from home made me travel back in time to 15 years ago sitting in our cute kitchen in Tehran at the round table with my brother eating aash.

I used the recipe from Najmieh's book, but I also was on the phone with my mom so she gave me some good tips. Najmieh says that the aash is ready an hour after you add the last ingredients, however, to me aash is ready whenever it smells right. So for us it took 2 hours on a very low temperature an let it cook slowly.

 

 This is after I added the chick peas, lentil and rice. I don't like the Basmati Rice here. It just doesn't taste like home.

Now I added chopped Parsley, Dill and Green Onion. Since working at Palio I have become an expert in chopping Parsley or onion. Danny showe me the trick. Before it would take me for ever to do either, now it takes couple minutes to have it all ready:)

While I was waiting for aash to get ready I made some tea to just make the whole theme right:).

And it is ready.  This kind of aash you usually eat with yogurt! Well I did forget making mints to top the aash with and decorate, but imagine my impatience after waiting hours for this deliciousness to be ready.

My Life in France

How to Make Pasta From Scratch

I haven't tried it yet, but this looks very easy

Video

خورش قیمه

I made this stew from "The Food for Life" by Najmieh Batmangilij.

The stew it self wasn't as hard, the challenging part was to add the sour additions, Lime and lime powder. I never know how much sour is too much! I love it all.

 

Then I made some french fries to top the stew with it.

 

I also made my Grandma's specialty dish, Havij Polo. Which is sweet and we used to eat these two together.

 

Meanwhile, my friends came over to visit and kept me occupied until lunch was ready:)

Eggplant Parmesan

This one is a result of my hard work at the restaurant. Saif shared his recipe of Eggplant Parmesan with me. I used our slicer for the first time and yes, I sliced the top of my finger and my nail off! If you think that I gave up that very second then you don't know me. Bobby helped me wrap it up and I continued on slicing!

The trick is the layers. Eggplant, Tomato Sauce, Cheese and Chopped Basil! Now you can have different layers as you go.

کوکو ماست(Yogurt Quiche)

Last night I did it again. I walked in the kitchen from our garage, coming back from work. Set my purse on the couch and took my shoes off, put the apron on and started.

I think I just did it to ease my mind and relax. So I decided to make this Quiche with Yogurt from Food of Life by Najmieh Batmanglij. It was so easy! I added all the ingredients as Najmieh says in her book. Due to the Hurricane Irene passing NOVA, our local grocery store ran out of Green Onions. Now do not ask me why, because I am still confused! So I added chives instead. I used to think that Chive is spicy, but that wasn't the case in this dish.

 

Now it was time to put it in the oven and just sit and wait very patiently. After 30 minutes, I had my plate filled with Green Salad topped with croutons and Cranberries. I cut myself a piece of this yummy quiche and enjoyed it with a glass of Cabernet wine.

خورشت مسماع بادمجان

I decided to make an eggplant stew the past weekend. With all the Hurricane preparation going on, I couldn't find any eggplant. So I got one normal eggplant, 2 Japanese and the rest were zucchini. I followed Najmieh Batmanghilij's recipe in "The Food of Life" Book.

So at first I made my stew with chicken. The mistake that I made was that I didn't follow her recipe too close so I added more water than needed. That caused the stew to be a bit blend.

Then I fried the eggplants and zucchinis exactly as she described in her book.

Then put everything in a Pyrex and covered with aluminum foil and put in the oven.

The result was fantastic, I only wish that I wouldn't put so much water in the stew.

First Step

Last Saturday, we invited our family to our home for dinner. As I promised, I made a persian stew called Khoreshte Karafs (Cellery and Beef Stew) from Food of Life. Sort of a sour stew with green color. My mom usually makes it with Tomato paste, but I just followed Najmieh's steps. 

Obviously I wanted to treat everyone with some of the dishes that I learned at Palio as well. So I made Gnocchi with tomato and mozzarella along with Rissotto Balls. 

It was a fantastic dinner and a fabulous night with our family. 

New Mission

Life is all about missions and new goals. I had to set mine before it was too late. I am going to have a Catering Business in a near future. My specialty cuisine will be French and Persian food. To get there I will need to master both cuisines. So I am going the Julie's project. First starting with Persian, I will make every single food that my mom and Najmieh have to offer. Then I will go one step further and I will practice Julia Child. I will post all the updates. Now the plan is to make one or two dishes every weekend. With my work hours these days, I barely have time to even sleep!

My New Job

I got a job, or I am in the process of making it secure! At the Italian Restaurant in Leesburg, the name is Palio! I can go all summer during the week and learn from the Chef. The chef is 6 feet tall has broad shoulders, long hair, mustache and possibly tattoos. I won't make him mad, that is for sure!

Pita Bread

Couple weeks ago I made my own home made Pita Bread.  It was a really nice and warm gift to take to our friends' house for dinner while it was all windy and snowy outside. I am completely in love with Julia Child. All I do is that I follow her steps and I trust her . 

All I did was watching this video couple times and then I tried my best to do the same. I don't have the right equipment to bake it in the oven, but I did bake it on the pan which turned out really good! 

At first I didn't think I would be able to make a pocket for it! So after the first one was made I split it  and I couldn't believe my eyes! My Pita Bread had a pocket! Here is a Picture:

I was jumping up and down and dancing (I think Ballet) in my kitchen!

Go watch the video and make your self one nice warm Pita Bread:)

Julia Child's Pita Bread

The Start

Today I decided to close my Facebook account and start a new blog and talk about my cooking experiments. Here I will share recipes, I will talk about the yummy dishes and funny memories!

I'm liking my new blog!