I have no idea what i made. Yesterday i was talking to Mojtaba about Persian food and i was like damn i should make some Persian Food. I usually do the generic saffron rice but i wanted to play with some spices today. I went through a bunch of different spices and smelled them and tasted them to see if they fit into what i thought of Persian food. Well at the end i came up with Allspice, Cloves, Cumin and Cardomom seeds. It worked out great but i have a feeling they all had similar flavors. I don’t know if that’s suppose to be a good thing or a wasteful thing.
I first preheat the oven to 400F. I didn’t really take pictures of everything this time but basically i made a dry rub of all the spices (minus the shell of the cardamom) and also some fresh peppercorns and salt. I have a spice grinder which is one of the best things i’ve ever bought. I put the dry rub all over some chicken thighs and then let it sit for a while. I then browned the skin of the chicken and then put it aside. I used the left over oil and threw in a bunch of sliced onions. I added some more of the rub mix to the onions. Then i threw in basmati rice, and some blanched almonds. I really like eating basmati with almonds. After tossing it for a while i poured the water to cook the rice. I then put the chicken back in. I grinded a small pinch of saffron with sugar and then melted it in some hot water. This brings out the most of the saffron. After the water in the rice has boiled for a little i poured in the saffron mix. I swished the water around once and then threw it with the top on in the preheated oven. I let it stand for like an hour. I took it out cut up some roma tomatoes. I took out the chicken and then mixed up the tomatoes with the rice. The nice thing about this is that you get a nice crust of rice on the bottom that isn’t burnt but when you stir the rice the crust comes off and you get a really nice crunch with the almonds and rice in the rice. That’s basically it. You can try it and see how it goes. But it was really good. Next time i make it i’ll take pictures. This time it was really just a test.
Ok so i actually made this on Friday but i got lazy and didn’t write this up! Now i’m not lazy and writing this part of the adventure up.
Soooooo…… let’s just say you need a brain to cook…. I didn’t have my brain hat on so i forgot that the recipe i was using was for 4 people and i wanted to make only 2 people’s worth of the sauce. That means that you should cut all the ingredients for the sauce in half. What it doesn’t mean is leave all the ingredients the same but only use half the Pomegranate Juice!!!! So yea…the sauce was missing a little pomegranate flavor… I believe if i did use all the pomegranate the sauce would of been awesome. (I tried adding some juice at the end and it did taste a lot nicer) Anyways the meat did turn out really nice. I really liked the herb crust that searing it created. It all cooked really nice except for the little messup with the sauce. I will retry this recipe again to make the sauce right…
Anyways here the pics of the ordeal
The ingredients were
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 3/4 teaspoon ground coriander
- 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 pork tenderloin
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup plain pomegranate juice (here is where i messed up)
- 3/4 teaspoon cornstarch (use the water to mix the cornstarch first or else you’ll get clumps)
- 1 tablespoon water
- 2 teaspoons Sherry vinegar
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
So first off you want to mix the cumin, coriander, cinnamon, pepper and salt together to make a nice spice rub. Then rub it all over the pork loins. Make sure it’s covered all over nicely. Then heat up a pan with the oil at around medium/medium-high heat. Throw the pork on there and sear it until it’s ready. You should use a thermometer and get it to 145F but i did it around 10-15 minutes or so. Then take the pork off the pan and let it sit aside and juice up. Pour out the fat from the pan and then add the pomegranate juice to the pan. Let the pomegranate juice reduce to about 2/3 cup and then whisk in the cornstarch in water mix. Mix it and let it boil for about a minute or two. The sauce will thicken a lot. Take off the heat and then add the sherry vinegar and butter. You can sieve the sauce to make it a finer sauce but i didn’t do it. Season the sauce with salt and then serve and plate. I added some pomegranate seeds just for a nice look. You don’t have to do that. There isn’t much of a difference :). I had the pork with green beans and red potatoes. Just a simple boil and chill.
So today i felt like noodles. I was actually going to make lamb chops but i didn’t really feel like doing it. The recipe i wanted to do takes around 45-1hr total. Maybe this weekend but not today. So anyways i went ahead and did the Sirloin Steak with Bok Choy and Noodles. I kinda threw whatever i had together to make this so i didn’t really follow the recipe as it should be. But it still came out good and tasty. I got the Baby Bok Choy from the Farmer’s Market because it looked really good and it was cheap! I’ll be there tomorrow for shizzo! I need to get some more Daikon and Red Radishes and maybe track down some fresh herbs. Hopefully this time i don’t forget the pears so i can make that nice spiced pear dessert.
Here are the pictures of today’s little feast
So the ingredients for this were
- 1/2 Red Onion thinly sliced
- A decent sized Sirloin Steak (enough for me at least)
- A chunk of ginger peeled and sliced thinly
- 1 Red Chili Pepper sliced thinly
- 2 bunches of Baby Bok Choy
- 1 Package of Cellophane Noodles
- 2 teaspoons of Ground Cumin
- A bunch of Shiitake Mushrooms sliced into thin slices
- 1 Cup of Chicken Broth
So basically this is really a simple and quick thing to do. Boil some water and then pour the water over the Cellophane Noodles and set aside for a while. Then season the Sirloin steak with the cumin, salt and pepper and rub olive oil all around. Then heat up your pan/pot really hot and throw in the steak. I kinda didn’t wait and threw in the sirloin steaks before the pan was super hot. So you should sear the outsides of the steak but mine wasn’t really seared more like browned. But after you do that to all the sides of the steak throw in the red chili peppers, ginger and red onions. Let that sizzle a little and move around the pot so the flavors all get mixed together. After a while throw in the Bok Choy, Shiitake Mushrooms and the Chicken broth. (If you happen to have Chicken Stock it would be even better but most don’t have it on hand). Then drain the Cellophane Noodles and put them into the pan/pot and the Stir! Stir! Stir! all around so everything gets the goodness. Take out the Sirloin Steak and slice it into nice slices. Put the noodles into the bowl and then put the meat on top. Bon App! Quick and Easy!
