Random Spots

My eagle-eyed husband spotted this super cool Chevy Nova from the 1970s with a Texas license plate (in addition to its legit Iranian one) cruising the streets in Pardisan. So random, right?

And here's a random, quick video my husband made of the tasty treats and nicely decorated cakes you can find here, even in the small grocery stores. 

He knew I'd want to see those SPONGEBOB CAKES, OMG!

POMEGRANATES

My husband’s friend gifted us with several pomegranates, which are the favorite native fruit of Iran. I really did not know what to do with them all. I don’t like to eat the arils (seeds) alone, but my husband does so he ate some raw. 

And with the juice I was able to squeeze from the pomegranate, we drank a bit (it was sharp and sour, refreshing) and then I mixed some of it into this yogurt sauce I had made for breakfast. 

Yogurt-pomegranate sauce with cucumbers and tomatoes, potato & pea stuffed bread, omelette, olives, walnuts and pistachios, pomegranate arils, and tea.

ROSE WATER

Remember this GORGEOUS bouquet of roses my husband gave me for my birthday? 

I hate to see flowers die, so I decided to make some rose water from the petals. 

Just put the petals in a pot and cover with water, 

boil for a few minutes until the petals resemble cooked red cabbage. 

Then strain the water into a jar or spray bottle. The water can be used to freshen up a room or in your hair or on your skin. Voila, pretty rose water!

ON THE TV

Spotted Disney's CARS on the tv here. It was nice to see a familiar family favorite film ...in FARSI. 

RANDOM SPOTTING of HALLOWEEN

Remember in an earlier post, 40 Halloweens, I wondered if Iranians knew about or celebrated Halloween? I was surprised and tickled to see that there was some mention of it as I saw in a PressTV video about Iranian chocolate. I think this is in a shopping mall in Tehran:

Well, that's all the random spots of random spotting for now. Thanks for reading! 

Alavi Park

A couple of weeks ago, before it became cold here, we went to a lovely park near Qom. It is called Alavi Park. Its family atmosphere and well-maintained large grounds created a very happy experience! Families sat on picnic blankets and ate, flew kites, and rollerbladed. Young fresh-faced couples sat together under elegant trees and flowers, others walked and talked, while still others used the many grills to cook up some yummy smelling BBQ. Babies crawled on the clean ground.

Full of so many families enjoying a sunny day at the park, it did not feel crowded at all. I did not take any photographs of the people because I did not want to invade their privacy. Instead, here are some shots I took of the scenery, full of various trees, plants, and flowers. 

Here are a few maps to demonstrate the park's location in Iran

A few rides in the distance

If you’re ever in the area, I definitely recommend this peaceful spot. (And I know this is a terribly anti-American thing to say, but it was nice to be in a public park without dogs drooling, panting, sniffing, and relieving themselves all over the place). 

And here are two videos from that day. The first is the drive there, and the second is us strolling through the park:

Thanks for reading and keeping in touch. 

Good Gravy!

After Halloween, I knew I'd be missing all those cooking shows in America that focus on Thanksgiving recipes. I don't think the traditional food served on Thanksgiving is that great, but I do enjoy the cozy warmth of the holiday season in the U.S.  Weeks pass, and then all the sudden it's Thanksgiving in America. What?

 I feel conflicted about it since its origin story is so whitewashed, but I do enjoy seeing online photographs  of everyone's dinner table set up all pretty and full as they sit with their loved ones. And the challenge of trying to make a large amount of food for one dinner is always interesting. I've tried it only with chicken since I've no reason to cook an entire turkey.

So of course there's no Thanksgiving season here in Iran. There's no talk of pumpkin spice anything! I was missing the ambiance of it so I asked my daughter to draw me a ThanksgivingY picture. Here it is, isn't it amazing?! And isn't she lovely? MashaaAllah. I put it on the fridge to make me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Anyway, on the day of Thanksgiving, I just used some leftover chicken and rice to create a pretty table setting of my version of MORGH POLOW. All that green stuff is called SABZI, herbs. It's a mixture of a variety that I'll talk about in another post. Iranians eat them raw just like this. Maybe they trim the stems and chop into smaller bites, but I didn't. And I just threw a whole radish on the plate for color, sliced it up later.

I had some left over crispy potatoes and crispy rice bits so added those here as well along with the steamed white and saffron-tumeric rice tossed with ZARESHK (barberries) and green chilies. 

Oh! I made some good ol' American style gravy. I love gravy. Recipe at the end.

My husband's plate.

Get a good look at that good gravy...

I wasn't in the mood for chicken or rice so I ate some leftover potato stuffed bread with raw herbs.

I ate some of it before remembering the gravy. "Gravy would go good with this," I thought. So I added some. Ok, I added A LOT. Yum. 

For the gravy I used 4 tablespoons butter, melted it, then slowly added 4 TBLS flour. Then added some homemade chicken stock until I had the right consistency. Then added some milk. When it looked like gravy--good, good gravy, I turned off the medium flame heat and added salt and pepper. 

Anyway, of course I have a million things to be grateful for as do most of us. Alhamdulillah. Not just on Thanksgiving, but everyday hooray. Later, Turkey. 

Irani Eats

In the below photograph is a sample of the type of meal (lunch in this case) that the Howza students receive everyday. It is given in a Styrofoam box with another plastic container of fresh herbs (looks like mint, NANAW in Farsi). My husband brought his home so I took it out and plated it to look prettier. So there’s eggplant, chicken (MORGH), rice (CHELOW), tomatoes, and yellow spilt peas (LAPEH). I’m guessing it’s a type of BADEMJAN (eggplant) SABZI (HERBS) dish, but not sure which one in particular. Not bad for a school lunch, yum! Other types of meals include fish and beef, but always with sabzi that are usually meant to be eaten raw, no dressing! By the way, this is all information I’ve gathered online, not by true experience. #NotTrying2beIranian

I’m in no way a food snob in the sense that I don’t proclaim to be an expert or even “very good,” at any cuisine, and if I don’t have the correct ingredient for a recipe, I don’t sweat it much. But I do want to learn the specifics of some basic Iranian dishes so that hopefully, inshaaAllah, when I’m an old grandmother living back in the West, my kids will tell their friends, “Come to my house for Sunday dinner, my MODAR (mother) makes Iranian style food!” Yes, these are my dreams.

So I had some chicken and potatoes so I searched for an Iranian recipe that included those ingredients, which led me to the Persian potato salad called Salad Olivieh as it's known in Iran (apparently originating in Russia by Lucien Olivier). Now, it’s not just a potato salad, or a chicken salad, or an egg salad—it’s a combo of all 3!

But first! I’m going to prove my #NoFoodSnob, #NotTrying2BeIranian status. Had some pancakes but no syrup, the kids didn’t want to eat them, so I made a pancake cake for my husband using grape jam and walnuts and pistachios as garnish. Yummy to me. Look how cute it turned out:

So, anyway, back to the salad olivieh. I used the 2 recipes found here to make my salad:

http://www.mypersiankitchen.com/salad-olivieh/

http://persianmama.com/salad-olivieh-persian-chicken-salad/

I didn't have the traditional carrots, so I used diced tomatoes. Those are pickled cucumbers, known in Iran as KHIAR SHOOR. The ones I got were sour with a softer texture than American crisp pickles.

Ingredients for my Persian Salad, Salad Olivieh

Oops! Don't forget the boiled eggs! 

Mixed up and seasoned with salt, pepper, cumin, and turmeric.

Slather the entire thing with some MAYO!

Make it look PRETTY PRETTY!

Or serve it up in some vegetables.

Scoop it up.

SO, there you have it. So far you know you'll be having ZERESHK POLOW with MORGH and TAHDIG as shown in my previous post, Tahdig: Tragedy and Triumph, and SALAD OLIVIEH when you come over to my house one day in 20 years for my Sunday dinner inshaaAllah.