So many other things can come to mind. But... will we ever stop socializing in person? I don't think so. As much as many will agree that this forced staying at home has been nice and relaxing as our pace has dramatically slowed down, being with people, hugging them, laughing together, sharing a meal or a drink, I think will not changed. Maybe we'll think twice before drinking out of the same bottle or double dipping that chip in the shared sauce pot, but we won't stop going out for a meal or meeting for a drink at the pub.
So, it was a real pleasure for me to be able to invite a friend to dinner. BorDom (Boris - under guidance from Dominic for sure) had just relaxed some restrictions and we were now able to have two households getting back together. So my bestie Kristiane came over to partake with Eric and I on what turned out to be an Iranian food feast!
I did some digging to pick some dishes that best represented the flavors of the country but I wanted to stay away from the usual kebab... but what became immediately evident is the strong presence of two ingredients: roses (water and petals) and saffron. I love both so it was a pleasure to use them. I have now decided that rose water makes a great snack or light dessert when added to fat free Greek yogurt as well (maybe with a couple of pistachios too...).
I wanted to prepare a little more than just one starter, one main and one dessert and there are so many ideas and recipes out there for Iran that choosing was really the hardest part. It's a little sad to think that a beautiful and large country with such a rich historical importance is in such a mess right now. Even sadder to think that the toddler in chief in the US and his corrupt cronies have made things much worst in the past few years. Not to mention the final straw with the COVID. At dinner we discussed whether we'd like to visit... there is the danger factor to account and I very much doubt I'd go now but I've seen photos of the cities and of the countryside and I certainly hope that things will calm down enough before I'm too old to travel. I'd love to go there to visit.
But back to the dinner, there's a lot of ground to cover here so better not spend too much time in wishful thinking...
I started with a pre-dinner cocktail, a Persian Cantaloupe drink. In Iran it would be a mocktail but I spiced it with a little gin to make it a bit more interesting. Turned out that I also shouldn't have cut down on the amount of sugar since cantaloupe is a bit bland when grated and mixed with water. Eric felt it wasn't really tasting like melon and Kristiane felt it was rather bland and needed more punch (alas perhaps I should have put more gin or more sugar). But it was refreshing enough for a warm summer evening.
As starter, I prepared (or rather delegated this to Eric to make) a Mast Esfenaj, a Persian yogurt and spinach dip accompanied by Barbari, Iranian bread. The dip was nice (definitely healthy since we used zero fat yogurt) but a bit too heavy on garlic which was a bit overpowering. The bread had a nice texture and a nice crust (but I was shocked by the fact that it has 6 teaspoons of yeast and 2 teaspoons of baking powder) and I made enough to last us for a week (the recipe is for four loaves).
As a second starter, I made Kuku Sabzi, a Persian herb-stuffed frittata with walnuts and rose petals). Thanks to the fact that for once I didn't cut the amount of grease, I was able to actually turn the frittata out of the pan after cooking without it breaking apart. I think it looked really pretty. Both Eric and Kristiane liked the combination of flavors and the texture and Kristiane also commented that it had a nice sweet and salty combo flavor (maybe because of the rose petals? Or perhaps the cilantro/parsley combination? there was no sugar).
The main course was a bit scary to make and frankly I think if I had spent more time reading the recipe I probably wouldn't have made it. The Tahcheen-e-Morgh (baked saffron yogurt rice with chicken) took more than 4 hours to prepare from start to finish but I was really proud of the results. Again, I wasn't parsimonious with the use of butter so it came out of the baking tray beautifully (but not at first try...).
Both Eric and Kristiane (and yours truly as well), loved this dish. Kristiane said she absolutely adored the crispiness of the rice crust (amazing what butter and rice cooked in the oven would deliver!) and Eric said he would have liked a bit more chicken but discovered a new love for barberries (which none of us had ever had before and were part of the topping). Interestingly he thought it was a bit too crunchy (proof that you can't please everyone with the same thing).
As an accompaniment to the rice dish, I made (again delegated to Eric) a Shirazi salad, a fresh combo of tomatoes, cucumber, onion and lots of parsley dressed with a lime vinaigrette. It is the kind of healthy dish that is refreshing in the summer; Kristiane again loved it as it was a flavourful salad, Eric thought it was a bit too heavy on lime. But it went well with the rice.
Finally the dessert. And like all well done meal, there had to be something that was short of disaster. Or perhaps not even short. I made a rose and saffron almond cake which turned out to be raw and very doughy. I think problem number 1 was the fact that I couldn't find almond flour so resorted to using ground almond mixed with some other gluten free flour. What was perhaps supposed to be a marzipan was, well, don't know how to describe (as Kristiane put it, it was a strange texture and very clingy to the mouth). Both Eric and Kristiane felt it had too much cardamon and that was all you could taste. Naturally, I liked it very much... but I love marzipan (and amaretto which wasn't in the cake but it is made with almonds).
As I had a guest, I also prepared a goody bag! For it, I prepared rice cookies that were just crumbly enough (hello, enough butter??) and I will make again. We ended up eating all the ones that weren't in the goody bag... Sweet and enough to compensate for the dessert fiasco. The recipe said it's enough for 90 cookies but it must mean that I made them too big (but they were really two-bites size) so not sure if they were supposed to be the size of M&Ms perhaps??
The second item in the goody bag was supposed to be a brittle but I messed up... Instead of making new syrup, I used the leftover I had prepared for the dessert and just like the dessert, the texture was all wrong. It was like some very chewy toffee texture not at all crunchy. I loved the sweet and salty flavor though and it was a great drunken munchie at the end of the meal... not loved by your dentist, I'm sure!
It did look really pretty (before you attempted to take a piece off that is... pull and pull and turn and pull!)
Here is the overall menu with scores and links to the recipes:
Overall Meal: 6.4
So that was our Saturday evening. Lots of food, no counting calories or points and a lovely time to be had by all. Here's to getting together in person again! Let's hope that things will not revert to terrible and we'll all be locked in again.
Next time we move to K. I've already done all J countries... but K pones a dilemma: should the Koreas be the next (Korea, North. Korea, South) or should those be N and S? I think I will go with N and S... so we skip to Kwait.
Stay tuned!
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