Vida: Persian Pofak Sweetness from Home

By bam on May 7th, 2011 No Comments »

How can some­thing so sim­ple, wal­nuts coated in egg and sugar, be lay­ered with so much mean­ing? From Christmas in Iran to the German chef who taught this Vida to become an expert in Persian pas­tries, Vida’s story demon­strates that when it comes to food, noth­ing is sim­ple. And the more tex­tured the his­tory, the more deli­cious some­thing becomes.

Check out Vida’s video with her daugh­ter in law Vanessa, who together, make del­i­ca­cies like these at their infa­mous Toronto bak­ery Shirini Sara Pastry Shop.

There are 2 tra­di­tional pofaks, Pofak Zard and Pofak Sefid

Pofak Zard are Walnut halves coated with egg yolk - Zard means yel­low in Farsi and Pofak Sefid are Walnut halves coated with egg white — Sefid means white in Farsi.

Both are Gluten free. They are sold at Shirini Sara ” under the names Yellow Walnut flow­ers” or “White Walnut flowers”.

Pofak Zard

Ingredients

  • 3 egg yolks
  • 100g icing sugar
  • 1/2 tea spoon liq­uid vanilla or 1/2 bag of vanilla sugar
  • 1 tea spoon of rice flour
  • 200g unshelled wal­nuts , cut in small pieces (about half an inch)

Directions

  1. In a blender, com­bine all the atop ingre­di­ents except the wal­nuts. mix for 5–10 min­utes until you get a very light shiny yel­low batter.
  2. Stir in the wal­nuts and mix grossly with a table spoon.
  3. With the help of a tea spoon, lay the mix­ture on an oven tray. Each pofak should be about 1/2 inch to 1 inch large.
  4. Heat oven to 350°C and cook the pofaks for 10 min­utes.  the nice light yel­low colour should barely change  (Just the time for the egg yolk to cook)
  5. The result should be crunchy, enjoy!

⇪ Posted in Apron Strings, Guest Posts, Recipes from Videos.

Darshanie: Chicken Curry Adds the Spice

By bam on May 7th, 2011 2 Comments »

Chef, writer and activist Joshna Maharaj says that grow­ing up her mom Darshanie’s Chicken Curry was “like every­one else’s Kraft Dinner”–a meal that was sim­ple to pre­pare and so became a fam­ily din­ner sta­ple.  While the two diverge on aspects of how this curry should be pre­pared, they exem­plify how recipes evolve from gen­er­a­tion to generation–family to family.

Check out the video and watch some fam­ily magic unfold

Ingredients:

  • 3 tbsp veg­etable oil or ghee
  • 4–5 fresh (or dried) curry leaves
  • 1 green chili, sliced in half lengthwise
  • 2 tsp cumin seeds
2 yel­low cook­ing onions, finely chopped 
2 tbsp minced gar­lic 
1 tsp minced gin­ger  
1 ½ tsp cayenne
  • 2 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tbsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • Salt and freshly ground pep­per to taste
  • 2 lb bone­less skin­less chicken, such as breasts and thighs
  • 1½ cups pureed tomatoes
  • 1 tbsp garam masala
  • Finely chopped fresh corian­der to garnish

Method:

  1. In a heavy bot­tomed saucepan, heat the oil or ghee to high.  Add cumin, chili and curry leaves and stand back!  Once the splut­ter­ing has sub­sided, reduce heat to medium high, add the onions and fry for about 4 min­utes, until they turn a rich golden brown.
  2. Add the gar­lic and gin­ger and sauté to cook. Mix in the cayenne, ground corian­der, cumin, turmeric, salt and pep­per. Sauté briefly to cook and combine.
  3. Increase the heat to high and add the chicken pieces.  Toss to coat with onions and spices, and fry for about 5 min­utes or till the chicken is well coated in the masala and lightly browned.
  4. Add the toma­toes and mix well.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover and sim­mer for about 15 min­utes or until chicken is well cooked.  Sprinkle in the garam masala, cover again, and con­tinue to sim­mer for about 10–15 min­utes to allow the aroma to blend well in the curry.  The longer this sim­mers on low, the bet­ter the flavour will be.   Taste and adjust salt and chilies as necessary.

Serve hot, gar­nished with corian­der leaves and lime wedges.


⇪ Posted in Apron Strings, Food, Guest Posts, Recipes from Videos.

Nadia: Making Molokheyyah and Creating an Intentional Family

By bam on May 7th, 2011 No Comments »

Nadia and Maryem (a mem­ber of Nadia’s inten­tional fam­ily) make Molokheyyah over the phone together. While ancient Egyptians found less high tech ways of shar­ing their fam­ily recipe there’s no doubt that the dish that is as rich in antiox­i­dants as it is in super­sti­tion. Check out the video of Maryem and Nadia mak­ing Molokheyyah and mak­ing fam­ily together and watch the recipe unfold.

Ingredients:

  • 1package of frozen chopped Molokheyyah
  • 1 liter of water
  • 1 head of gar­lic peeled
  • 1 onion for broth
  • 1 red onion finely chopped
  • 3 car­damom seeds
  • 1 chicken
  • 1 large can tomato juice
  • ½ lbs. of butter
  • Salt
  • Dried crushed corian­der seeds
  • Cumin pow­der
  • Rice
  • White vine­gar
  • Pita bread

Directions

  1. Take half of the gar­lic and 2 tea­spoons of salt in a mor­tar and pes­tle until it is a smooth paste and mix with a gen­er­ous amount of cumin powder.
  2. Melt 1/3 of but­ter in a saucepan and add paste and fry on medium heat.
  3. Once it is thor­oughly fried, add large can of tomato juice.
  4. Once it has come to a boil, let to sim­mer [the longer you can leave the sauce to sim­mer the bet­ter, at least until, fat rises to the top and cov­ers sauce].
  5. In a large pot, place a lit­tle olive oil and the car­damom seeds and chicken, Fry for a few min­utes then add 1 liter of water and onion on medium-low heat.  Once chicken is cooked, remove the chicken from the broth, and place the chicken in the oven to brown.
  6. Now you have your broth.  Remove car­damom seeds from broth.  Place 1’2 gar­lic with 2 tea­spoons of salt again in mor­tar and pes­tle until it is a smooth paste.
  7. Add a gen­er­ous amount of dried crushed corian­der seeds.
  8. In a fry­ing pan melt 1/3 of but­ter and add paste until it is thor­oughly fried, then add this to broth.
  9. Add Molokheyyah to broth and leave on low heat until you fin­ish prepar­ing the rest of the meal.  Do not boil the Molokheyyah.
  10. Make rice to accom­pany the dish.
  11. Finely chop red onion add to the dish and cover with white vine­gar and add warm Pita bread.

Mix these ingre­di­ents in any way you like:

Wonderful on a cold day.


⇪ Posted in Apron Strings, Recipes from Videos.

Ivanka: Cabbage Rolls (Sarma) and Cheese Pie (Gibanica) for the Generations

By bam on May 7th, 2011 No Comments »

The fact is, a fam­ily that cooks together, stays together.  Watching Ivanka make cab­bage rolls that her  grand­daugh­ter Violet rolls is a liv­ing tes­ta­ment to how recipes pass through gen­er­a­tions. From Serbia to Toronto, those cab­bage rolls tell a story of new Immigrants set­tling into their new life and the meld­ing of old and new world traditions.

The cheese pie was also delec­table, but I think that had some­thing to do with the butter.

Check out the video of Ivanka mak­ing Cabbage Rolls with her family.

Cabbage Rolls (Sarma)

Ingredients

  • 1 head of pick­led whole cab­bage (about 40 leaves)
  • 1 kilo ground pork
  • ½ cup olive oil
  • 4 onions, finely diced
  • 2 medium car­rots, finely diced
  • 4–5 gar­lic cloves, minced
  • 1 cup uncooked rice, washed
  • 1 tbsp ground paprika
  • 1 tbsp each salt and pep­per (or to taste)
  • ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
  • 4 bay leafs
  • smoked pork, cubed (back bacon is good)

Directions

  1. Heat oil, sauté onions .  Add gar­lic and car­rots and con­tinue to sauté over medium heat.  Add meat until browned.  Add salt, pep­per, paprika and rice, con­tinue cook­ing for 10 min­utes.  Remove from heat and mix in parsley.
  2. Prepare a large stock pot by putting a rack in the bot­tom of the pot.  Taking one cab­bage leaf at a time, fill with meat mix­ture and roll tightly.  Layer into the bot­tom of the stock pot.  As you layer the rolls into the pot, scat­ter with bay leaves and the cubes of pork.  Continue until all the leaves and meat are used up.
  3. Fill pot ¾ full of water and put on the stove­top on medium high until it boils, and then reduce heat to medium for 4 hours.  Monitor pot dur­ing cook­ing to not boil over or dry out.  If more water is needed, add boiled water.

Cheese Pie (Gibanica)

Ingredients

  • 1 pack­age Filo leaves pastry
  • ½ kilo feta cheese
  • ½ kilo pressed cot­tage cheese
  • 6 eggs
  • 1 tsp bak­ing soda or ¼ cup of club soda
  • ½ cup milk (optional, if needed)
  • 200g of but­ter, melted

Directions

  1. Crumble cheeses and com­bine.  Mix in eggs (reserv­ing a bit of egg for the egg wash on top) and bak­ing soda.  If mix­ture is too dry, add milk.
  2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  3. Butter the bot­tom of a casse­role dish.  Layer filo leaves, brush­ing but­ter between each layer.  Every third layer, sprin­kle cheese mix­ture.  Continue until dish is full or you’ve run out of cheese mix­ture.   Brush your left­over egg on the top layer of filo.
  4. Bake for 15 min­utes, then reduce heat to 350 and con­tinue to bake for another 30 min­utes, or until top is nicely browned and the sides are a lit­tle bubbly.

⇪ Posted in Apron Strings 2010, Guest Posts, Recipes from Videos.

Zahra’s Zereshk Polo

By bam on May 5th, 2010 No Comments »

This dish is not only deli­cious it’s beau­ti­ful. Zahra grids her Saffron in a cof­fee grinder before mix­ing it with water and pour­ing over the chicken. This makes the whole dish vibrant orange. When topped with the rice, dec­o­rated with pis­ta­chios and dried bar­ber­ries, the Zereshk Polo looks like a work of art. While it feels like a shame to dig in, the taste is worth it. When Zahra served it to us, the del­i­cately flavoured chicken was falling off the bone. Yum.

Ingredients:

  • 500 grams of Basmati or long-grain rice
  • 1/2 of a chicken
  • 75 grams of cook­ing oil
  • 50 grams of butter
  • 50 grams of dried bar­ber­ries (zereshk) (Other dried red berries like cran­ber­ries would work as well)
  • 1 tbsp of sugar
  • 1 medium onion
*
  • 1/2 tea­spoon of Saffron
  • Salt
  • Black pep­per

Continue »


⇪ Posted in Apron Strings, Apron Strings 2010, Recipes from Videos.

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