Persian (Food) Night!

Wow. Daniel's first blog post ever = too soooooo many views. (Excellent job, lover!) 

Who knew? I'm glad he gets to write half the updates on here now. Assignment-PASSED! :) 

So, as usual, I was lying awake last night wondering what to eat for dinner today. Weird a little bit much? I literally lie awake sometimes dreaming about what to cook up and experiment with next in the kitchen. It's a very obsessive (probably semi-unhealthy) relationship with food. I probably should've chased a career in the kitchen as a chef, baker, etc, etc, but then it'd be work and not fun anymore, right? At least I have Daniel who's willing to eat all of my food, and I'm pretty sure he lies when it doesn't taste good, because he's just THAT nice! (what a sweetheart. gosh. I KNOW!) 

Anyway, after mentally organizing my food calendar, I decided to cook up Persian food for dinner. 

YUMMMMMM. 

I love, LOVE, LOVE Persian food. 

I mainly was craving the white basmati rice with saffron and sour cherries dish with kabobs (I wish I could hoard this stuff. Like stash it in a giant burlap backpack, connect it to an IV, and absorb that shiz, but that'd be sort of psychotic...I think?) 

Seriously, though. My background on cooking Persian food is insanely minimal. Taking this into consideration, I decided to visit my local Trader Joe's (Gotta keep my Middle Eastern cooking skills authentic with the TJ, ya know?) Well, it was either Trader Joe's down the street or driving 23.5 miles to the nearest Persian Market. Again, I love Persian food...but I decided to make do with TJ's---mainly to save the environment one market trip at a time. GO ECO-FRIENDLY GREEN! Peace, love and joy <insert hippie slogan here> YAY!

My initial idea was to make the white basmati rice, cucumber yogurt dill sauce (or is it technically a salad??), beef for the slow cooker and....some sort of vegetable dish to keep it healthy. Unfortunately, my trip to TJ's was a major super duper fail and they lacked the beef chuck roast that I needed for my 5 hour slow cooker. SO---instead, I opted for a meat I haven't liked since my last trip to New Zealand. 

Lamb Loin Chops. 

(Barf, barf, gag, gag, super gaggy gag, and maybe another barf.) When I went to NZ a couple years back..I realized that their overabundance of sheep = feed all the tourists as much lamb steaks as possible. (No veggies, no fruit, just little lamby medium rare, bloody, bloody lamby steaks.) It might have actually been one really poorly prepared lamb steak that I had that really sent me over, and to this day...confirmed my dislike for this type of meat. BLAGH. However, since I'm such a considerate soon-to-be-wife (6 months left to go, woohoo!), I thought I'd treat Daniel to these small lamb steaks (one of his faves) and attempt to reinvigorate my once-many-moons-ago-love for lamb.  

I first started by preparing all my materials for my crockpot (nothing screams tenderoni like cooking meat for 5 hours on LOW!)

They are quite exquisite looking pieces of meat, at least.

I thinly diced a large onion, threw in some diced garlic, smothered my lamby chops with a yogurt/paprika/salt n' peppa mix and laid them altogether in a harmonious bed of happiness.

Umm...not sure if I seasoned this right since I pretty much made it up...but looks about right.

 Next, I prepped my cucumber yogurt sauce/salad (still unsure as to what it technically is qualified as...will maybe, probably google it later if I get bored enough) 

For the record, these cucumbers are called "PERSIAN Cucumbers". Way to stick to the recipe. Go me!

The dried herb mix was from the Persian market that Daniel's mom gave me some time ago. It smells DELICIOUS, and any Persians out there can correct me if I'm wrong..but I think it's called "Sabzi(sp???)" which is a mix of yummy scented herbs.

I threw my yogurt mixture in the fridge to marinate, and started on the rice! I literally debated for a good five minutes at TJ's whether or not to go with white basmati rice (om nom nom nom) or brown basmati rice (meh.) I really do not like brown rice. Like---at all---ever. BUT, since we're going on this silly thing in a couple weeks (our cruise in the Caribbeans Islands), I figured I'd make some sort of ditch effort to be somewhat health conscious. 

The rice was a complicated process. I'm STILL not sure if I even did it right---truth be told. 

I started off by boiling the basmati rice on high heat for about 5 minutes, and peeled and diced a few potatoes into about 1/4" thickness. 

SUPER STARCHES GET IN' MAH BELLY!!!!!!!!!!

 

Lightly sear the potato slices (salt & peppered, of course.)

 Pile on the cooked brown basmati rice from before into a "pyramid" shape, and after steaming for 30 minutes, flip over onto a serving platter....and VOILA!

Beauty, ay?

Final Dinner: Basmati Saffron Rice with potatoes, lamb chops and cucumber yogurt side.

Leek pictured with a delicious dressing. 

And friends, that's that. Next up, time to watch 'No Reservations: Paris'. AHHHHH, I die. 

Goodnight! :)