Home Cooking = Mom's Persian Chicken with Yogurt, Raisins, and Almonds

Usually when I go home dinner it something we come up with at the last minute. Don't get me wrong, it's always tasty, but it's still some sort of creation we make with leftovers. When I went home for spring break though, my mother told me she was going to make my favorite Persian chicken dish - and boy did she deliver...

Why do I love this meal so much? Because it is a) easy b) inexpensive and c) full of flavor

We used to use chicken legs, but my mom has switched over the thighs. A little dark meat never hurt anyone; feel free to use chicken breasts if you want, but it probably won't be as juicy.

Fry off one sliced onion until it is golden.

Sear the thighs in a skillet with turmeric, pepper, salt, and cardamom, cinnamon, and a little cumin. Add the onions and set aside.

Fry the almonds and raisins. Set aside.

Combine 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt and 1 cup sour cream with a pinch of salt. Taste to be sure the sour cream flavor is more prevalent and add more accordingly if you have to. Set aside.

Place the chicken mixture in a Pyrex dish and pour in about a cup or a half cup of boiling water. This creates a juice for the chicken to cook in. Cover with the sour cream mixture. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 300 for about 15-20 minutes. The chicken is essentially already cooked, so you just want to give everything time for the flavors to meld together. Take out and put the almonds and raisins over it, along with another fried onion - this time fry it till it is pretty dark.

Serve over rice!!!

*Note: this is the chicken component to a Persian dish called Shirin Polo, or sweet rice. It is traditionally served at happy occasions, like weddings. You serve the chicken alongside rice that you have covered with sweet carrots and more fried almonds (or pistachios) and raisins. To make the carrots, fry about 1 bag of pre-julienned carrots in grapeseed oil. Add salt and 1/4 tsp cardamom and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. And continue frying till the carrots have just a little crunch left. Put this over the rice, then add the nuts and raisins.

Quinoa - the golden grain

Well, technically, it's a seed. A very tasty, nutty seed. And, unlike rice, kind of hard to burn and make too dry or overdress because it literally absorbs whatever you put on it.

My Aunt is very much into health foods and she made this for me when I went back to Michigan. She's always sending me the latest news on what's been shown to have the highest protein content or what's fighting cancer, etc. So after watching her prepare a yummy salad with quinoa as the star, I promised myself I'd try and find some here in Virginia. True to my word, I picked some up at Trader Joe's last week and have since been stuffing myself silly with the following recipe. It's super simple, extremely healthy, and quite addictive.

I've also included some additional ideas of things you can serve with the quinoa, but it is a wonderful light lunch or dinner by itself. The inspiration was originally a Greek themed meal, but after looking in the fridge I realized this salad brings together a traditional Persian appetizer: curly parsley, shards of feta (French), radishes, and pita. I didn't have radishes, but I think they'd add the perfect bite.

Quinoa with Cucumber, Avocado, Tomato, and Parsley

What You Need

1 avocado, cut into medium chunks

1/2 of an English Cucumber, scoop out the seeds and peel off the skin if it's too tough, diced

1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, cut in half

4 oz feta cheese, cut into medium-small dices

juice of 1/2 a lemon

about 1 cup chopped curly parsley, stems removed, rinsed well

2 cloves garlic, chopped

pepper, salt

3 Tbs olive oil

2 cups cooked quinoa (so 1 cup dry - it basically doubles in size)

Cook the quinoa by adding the grains to a pot and adding twice as much water. Bring to a boil, cover, turn down the heat to a simmer, and let steam for about 15 minutes or until all the water has been absorbed. Fluff it with a fork. It should still have a little crunch to it.

Mix all the veggies in a bowl, add the herbs and dressing, then the cooked quinoa.

Eat immediately or save for leftovers - you might need to add more dressing the next day because it'll absorb overnight, most likely.

Now, you can adjust any of those amounts as needed - the salad was pretty chunky which is how I like it, but you could easily stretch your dollars by adding more quinoa. This recipe feeds about 4 people.

Serve with chicken - all I do is thaw the chicken and arrange it on a sheet pan lined with parchment or aluminum foil. The trick to not over-oiling the chicken (I HATE losing my good olive oil to the tray instead of the chicken), is to first pour the oil into a soup spoon and then use the spoon to spread the oil - this way there isn't any mess. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, sage, and oregano. Cook at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes for tenders and longer, maybe 30 minutes, for chicken breasts.

I served with this little yogurt dipping sauce recipe, also Persian-inspired.

Mix about 1 cup of Greek yogurt with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Chop about 1/2 a cup of curly parsley (use the rest of the bunch you used in the quinoa dish). Next, add about half a chopped cucumber and stir it all together. Serve on top of the chicken or the salad.

Persian Gata Bread

Ok, every since I was born our family would drive to Toronto to see my mom's family who lives there. And this, by extrapolation, meant the following: Persian supermarkets!!!!!!!!! Now, y'all don't even know how in love I am with ethnic markets. But being half Persian, I am particularly in love with the ones of my own culture because it means I get a chance to stock up on all the things I can't get elsewhere.

It's been years since I've been to Toronto, but my mom went with her sisters about a month ago and brought me back my FAVORITE things ever: Sweet Bread. Sweet bread, as I have called it since I was about 3, is actually called "Gata" Bread, but I changed the name in my youth because, well, it tastes sweet. I like it much more than the traditional flat Persian bread with sesame seeds, but my mom strongly disagrees: everyone has their preference suppose.


Why and I bringing this up now, a month after receiving my little surprise? Well, because I wisely threw it in the freezer for a time when I was missing home and needed a sweet treat. See, Sweet Bread is kinda like gold to me...


Other amazing this to do in Toronto is hit up Lawrence street and try "Friends" Persian restaurant. They have the best Persian eggplant in the world. And if you keep driving, there is an enormous Persian supermarket (well, enormous in the ways of ethnic markets) where they make homemade Persian sandwich ice cream bars. If you've never had one, let me explain: you take two of those vanilla wafery cookies and in the center there is saffron infused ice cream with chunks of crystalized cream. It is amazing. Gosh, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. They're easy to make, come to think of it. Yes, this is one for the blog - it's going on my list.


So what makes Gata so good: the filling! It's like marzipan, except doesn't taste like almond. But the constancy is about the same -more crumbly maybe. It's basically sugar and butter mixed and layered in between two pieces of dough, but in loaf form. Argh...it's hard to explain: here's a picture:





I found a recipe here but I haven't tried it and there's no picture, but maybe I'll try it sometime. Probs not, though, because a) I like going to Toronto to visit my family and b) it's waaaay easier to just buy about 10 loaves and freeze them till the next trip ;)

Persian Coutlets...the recipe you've been waiting for

Coulet has been in my family for years. I remember my grandmother making them in her kitchen when I was a very small girl. You have to eat them right off the griddle, while they still have a nice crust on them. But cold is fine, too. We usually wrap them in pita bread with a little yogurt or onion and cucumber. Greek yogurt is best. And if you want, try adding a few shards of French Feta. And just fry any leftover potato bits - wasting is not an option with something this good :)



The recipe is really quite simple:


1 onion, grated - keep the juice
1 pound ground beef - a lean kind
3 to 4 grated potatoes
1 egg
ground cornflakes (for breading)
salt, pepper, garlic powder, turmeric

Boil the potatoes and grate them into a bowl

Grate the onion into the bowl as well, keeping the juice because that's where a lot of the flavor comes from

Add the meat and spices - normally, we add a Persian spice here, but the recipe is fine without it

Add the egg and mush everything together with your hands (or a fork)

Form into patties and roll in cornflakes seasoned with turmeric and salt and pepper

Fry in olive oil until they turn golden brown - because of the turmeric they will turn pretty dark when they fry, but be sure they don't burn!