Category: Book Club

02
Dec
2014

Tasty Reads 2 – Persiana – Sabrina Ghayour

Persiana – Sabrina Ghayour

Confession time. I have a massive girl crush on Sabrina Ghayour, author of Persiana. Not in some weird way, I just want us to be friends, maybe even best friends. Mainly so I could go round to her house and whilst we chatted about boys and bras, she could make me all the gorgeous things in this book. I would bring wine. Then I could sleep over and we could put curlers in our hair and have a pillow fight.

This book. OMG, this book. Opening this book was like falling in love. Seriously. The photography is amazing. This is hard core drool worthy food porn. Persiana is my easily my favourite cookbook of the year; it may well become my favourite ever (sorry Nigella, I’ve got a new bestie…)

Recipes marked to cook: 75

Yep, pretty much all of them.

I actually feel bad I haven’t made more things from it. Paleo got in the way. but as at 30 November, this is the tally.

p10 Broad Beans with Garlic Dill & Eggs (made)

Loved it. Except for double podding the broad beans which took forever!!! Tried it with edamame and it was not so good. Sadly, looks like I will be double podding for some time as this was amazing.

p12 Aubergine Chermoula
p15 Yogurt with Cucumber, Garlic & Dill / Cacik
p17 Marinated Feta
p20 Yogurt, Cucumber & Mint / Maast O Khiar
p33 Turkish Feta Pasty Cigars / Sigara Borek Peynir
p35 Salt Cod Fritters
p36 Pistachio Feta Dip
p38 Safavid-Style Beef Pastries

p41 Baked Eggs with Feta, Harissa, Tomato Sauce and Coriander (made)

Loved the flavour combination! This is pretty much my ideal meal. One dish. Eggs, Cheese, tomatoes, chilli.

p45Lahmacun (made)

This one didn’t do it for me. I like meat on my pizza to be quite chunky and even though I did not chop the meat through as much as Sabrina recommended it was still too paste like for me. Use this same mix and make tiny little meatballs to scatter over the top of the pizza base and you’d have a winner from me. On the other hand, he really liked it.

p46 Spiced Lamb Kefta
p48 Spice Salted Squid
p53 Eastern Style Focaccia
p55 Persian Flatbread / Naan Barbari
p60 Persian Bejewelled Rice / Morassa Polow

p 63 Persian Basmati Rice / Chelo (Made)

I love a claypot rice and this is very similar. Mine didn’t work out exactly as per the picture but I think it was an ok first attempt. And Sabrina does say even the experienced cook sometimes needs a bit of luck to pull this off.

Sabrina’s:

Mine:

p65 Rice With Lentils and Crispy Onions / Mojardara
p68 Spicy Prawn Rice / Maygoo Polow
p72 Lamb Biryani

p78 Spiced Vegetable Soup (Made)

Delicious!

p83 Persian Saffron Chicken, Fennel and Barberry Stew

p85 Chicken, Walnut and Pomegranate Stew / Khoresh-e-Fesenjan (Made)

This photo does not do justice to this delicious dish. Either in how good it tasted or how pretty it was. Sorry. But take my word for it. This was really good!

p88 Lamb Shank, Black Garlic and Tomato Tagine
p91 Persian Dried Lime, Lamb and Split Pea Stew / Khoresh – e – Gheymeh
p93 Seared Lamb and Apricot Stew
p94 Lamb, Butternut Squash, Prune and Tamarind Tagine
p96 Pomegranate Soup With Meatballs / Ash-e Anar
p99 Seafood and Saffron Stew
p104 Saffron and Rosemary Chicken Fillets
p109 Ras el Hanout Chicken Wraps
p110 Harissa and Preserved Lemon Roasted Poussins
p114 Saffron and Lemon Chicken / Joojeh Kabab
p117 Lamb and Sour Cherry Meatballs
p119 Mechouia-Style Lamb Leg with Cumin Dipping Salt
p120 Spiced Rack Of Lamb With Pomegranate Sauce
p122 Turkish Adana Kofte Kebabs
p125 Tray- Baked Rose Petal Lamb Chops With Chilli And Herbs
p127 Lamb and Pistachio Patties / Fistikli Kebap
p128 Spice Perfumed Shoulder of Lamb
p130 Seared Beef with Pomegranate and Balsamic Dressing

p135 Cod in Tamarind, Coriander and Fenugreek Seeds (made)

Cod in Tamarind, Coriander and Fenugreek Sauce

I made this during my weeks of Paleo. I just left out the flour and pinch of sugar from the original recipe. I don’t think the flour made much of a difference except for maybe bringing our the turmeric colour in the sauce, but my sauce was very tamarind tangy. Which I love. Even when I was a little girl, when my mum would make a curry I would dip a spoon in the tamarind and just eat it straight off the spoon. If you’re not equally minded, add the sugar! Also, we don’t have cod so I used monkfish. I loved this!!!

p136 Prawns With Sumac, Coriander, Lemon and Garlic
p138 Citrus Spiced Salmon
p140 Belly Stuffed Rainbow Trout / Mahi Shekampor
p143 Scallops And Shaved Fennel With Saffron, Honey, & Citrus Vinaigrette
p144 Za’atar Cod With Relish
p147 Bandari Monkfish Tails
p150 Blood Orange and Radicchio Salad
p152 Barley Salad With Griddled Broccoli and Za’Atar

p154 Radish, Cucumber and Red Onion Salad With Mint And Orange Blossom Dressing (Made)

Lovely!!! Fresh and Zingy!

p157 Puy Lentil And Quinoa Salad With Lentil And Sumac
p160 Tomato Salad With Pomegranate Molasses / Gavurdagi Salatasi
p163 Turkish White Bean Salad / Piyaz
p173 Chicken And Artichoke Salad With Yogurt Dressing
p176 Fennel And Apple Salad With Dill and Pomegranate Seeds

p178 Shirazi Salad (Made)

Totally Yum!!!!

p181 Red Rice Salad With Barberries, Grilled Vegetables And Toasted Almonds
p183 Fattoush Salad

P184 Chargrilled Aubergines With Saffron Yogurt Parsley and Pickled Chillies (Made)

The very first thing I made and one of my favourite things ever!

p186 Date And Tamarind Sauce
p193 Harissa Marinated Asparagus
p198 Butternut Squash With Pistachio, Pesto, Feta and Pomegranate Seeds

p201 Turmeric and Cumin Roasted Potatoes (Made)

I could not find the photo’s of these. They were pretty good though!

p204 Za’atar Roasted Squash With Spiced Yogurt And Pickled Chillies

P209 Spiced Carrot, Pistachio and Almond Cake With Rosewater Cream

OMG. One of the best things I have ever eaten. I got so giddy over this cake I tweeted Sabrina to tell her about it. She didn’t tweet back so maybe that best friends thing is a non-starter. However, in a year of good cakes, this and the Amanda Hesser Almond Cake are standout winners. This is how good this cake is….I cut some slices of this to take to work and I started eating the crumbs. Then I had a piece, Then another. I had three pieces of carrot cake for breakfast that morning and I am completely unrepentent. It’s that good. Also, the most compliments I have ever received from the work crew about my baking.

You MUST make this! Sorry for the shitty photo though. Too busy shoving this glorious thing into my face to take anything decent.

p210 Baklava
p216 Pistachio and Lemon Shortbreads
p217 Strawberry and Pineapple Carpaccio with Basil And Mint Sugars
p221 Cinnamon and Citrus Almond And Pastry Cigars
p223 Eastern Mess
p226 Pistachio, Honey And Orange Blossom Ice Cream

p229 Pistachio Rose And Rasberry Madeleines (Made)

Superb!

p232 Syrup Poached Apricots With Walnuts and Clotted Cream

I am so looking forward to cooking so much more from this!!! Let me know what you like on the list and I will cook it sooner!

You can find the recipes for a few of the things I have cooked and some on the list here:

The Guardian Persiana Recipes

If you have Persiana or you cook any of these recipes please let me know how they turned out, I would love to see them! And let me know if you love this book as much as I do!

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21
Nov
2014

Paleo Diary – Part 1

categories: Bacon, Book Club, Eggs, Kale, Paleo

Dear Paleo Diary,

As a group we decided that our December book club option would be “healthy”. We had three options to choose from – a gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free dessert book – yeah I know…why bother right? The second was tempting. It was a book espousing the benefits of the alkaline diet. I was utterly sold on the health benefits then I read that the book was endorsed by Victoria Beckham. I refuse to take recipe endorsements from someone who looks like they haven’t eaten in the last 15 years, so, the only choice for me this time round was Paleo

Plus, I have a teeny tiny secret crush on Pete…just try take a deep look into those baby blue eyes and tell me I’m wrong. Bad move. You would have had a much better chance to point out that the mouthwateringly super delicious kebab he’s holding is made from beef heart. Yecchhh…

Come back Posh Spice, all is forgiven.

Then again, he has lovely white teeth too.

So, via a process of reasoning that was basically…I’d rather eat the pages of the book..posh spice…you’re hot…I’m going paleo. And in the words of those modern-day philosophers George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley

If you’re gonna do it, do it right”

I’m doing this all the way. Two weeks of paleo meals should be enough for me to judge the book and the diet. And you know paleo should be easy, it’s meat and veggies right?. Which is pretty much what I already eat. This is going to be great!!!! I can’t wait…

One Week Ago

Dear Paleo Diary,

You don’t mind of I call you Pete do you? It makes feel like I’m actually talking to you. Ok, now I don’t want to sound like some whiny little bitch right from the start but I thought this was supposed to be meat and veggies.

So how come I have just spent a small fortune buy a ton of stuff, some of which I had never ever heard of?

Buckwheat
Linseeds
Slippery Elm Powder
Chia Seeds
Maca Powder
Pau D’arco Capsules
Goji Berries
Cacao Powder

They refused to sell me the magnesium chloride I needed for the cashew turmeric spread. They said they sell it as bath salts and they could not condone me eating it.

WTF Pete? Seriously. What? The? Fuck?

And for the love of hopscotching Jesus:

Macadamia Nuts
Almonds
Cashews
Pine Nuts
Pepitas
Sunflower Seeds

Do you have any idea how much all that is going to cost? And that’s just for the muesli.

If I turn over the next page and you tell me I also need to buy quinoa, I’m going to find you and punch you right in your pearlywhite teeth.

Twice.

Once for the quinoa. Once for calling your daughter Chilli. Can we all just get over the foodie people naming their children after ingredients? They’re children. Not recipe inspirations.

Bastard.

Saturday.

Dear Pete,

My shopping bill for the week is DOUBLE what is normally is. But my seeds and nuts are soaking for my muesli and crackers.

I’m on top of this.

I did buy another book on Paleo because I found your breakfast and work lunch options a little limited. Also, I looked into making some of your cultured or fermented vegetables. They take a minimum of two weeks to ferment so that’s not happening. I have some kimchi in my fridge. That will have to do.

Getting worried. How will I survive without my basic food groups – cheese, chocolate and chickpeas? What about booze? Is that Paleo? Surely those cavemen were fermenting something? And now we come to one of the problems I am having with this Paleo diet thing. Everyone seems to have their own idea of what is and isn’t allowed.

A couple of sites I looked at were kind of ambivalent about alcohol. They were a little bit like…well, you really shouldn’t but if you feel you must then some choices are more Paleo than others. Other sites? Absolutely forbid it.

Same with bacon.

Really, annoyingly same with the buckwheat which is now soaking for my crackers and muesli….

Bastard.

Sunday

Pete, you gobshite,

I already hate this. And it’s only Day One. Woke up dying for a cup of coffee.

Coffee is another one of those yes / no / maybe items on Paleo.

I had bought almond milk for my muesli so I was good for the dairy.

Turns out coffee with almond milk and no sugar sucks. Bye bye coffee, it was fun knowing you.

I put my crackers in the oven, where they needed to cook for 6-8 hours and tootled off to Body Balance class. BTW – they looked disgusting. Overnight they had gone all gelatinous and gloopy. See the photo above.

Back from Body Balance and quite hungry. However, my crackers still have another seven hours to cook and don’t get me started on the muesli.

Breakfast

A slice of ham
Half an avocado
A peach.

The muesli is a hot mess. Pete, you say to dry the soaked nuts and seeds with paper towel or a dish cloth. Problem is, the chia has gone all to jelly and sticks to everything Eventually I decide to put the nuts in the oven with the crackers to dry them out,

Lunch

A slice of ham
Half an avocado
A handful of almonds.

3:00pm

The crackers are done and they are awesome. The muesli ingredients are still wet. Decision time. I can cook some Paleo muffins from the other book so I will have something for breakfast tomorrow.

But then the nuts will need to come out of the oven because they need to cook at 50º. And the muffins need to cook at a normal temperature.

4:00pm

Nuts out, muffins in. If sounds like some vague sexual innuendo so be it. I’m too hungry to care.

5:00pm.

The muffins are good. Well they would have been, if I could have tasted them. I ate the first one so quickly I burnt all my taste buds off.

5:30pm

Have started making the Lamb Harira which will be my lunch for the next few days. Quelle surprise the buckwheat needs to soak overnight and the soup needs to cook for four hours.

NOT. FUCKING. HAPPENING.

The buckwheat is going to soak for considerably less than that. At which time it will be added to the soup. According to some websites I shouldn’t even be eating it anyway. The only reason I’m even bothering with it is that I had to buy it specially so there is no way I’m not using it.

10:00pm

The harira is ready. It’s a bit more like a stew than a soup, I think the buckwheat sucked up some of the liquid. Tastes pretty damn good though. Mind you, a wet paper bag would taste good about now.

11:00pm

The m****er f***king muesli is still not dry.

I’m fed up and I’m going to bed.

Best thing I’ve eaten all day was the muffins. And they came from the other book.

Bastard. I hate you. And your baby blue eyes.

PS. They say one the side effects of the Paleo diet is a certain crankiness. Thank goodness I haven’t experienced anything like that and I am still my sweet and sunny self.

Have a fabulous week. And eat some cheese and hummus for me!!!

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[yumprint-recipe id=’9′]

Two Weeks Ago

31
Oct
2014

Book Club October Update: Slow – Valli Little

categories: Book Club

I didn’t want my Tasty Reads books to be something I only used for the book club meeting. So I set myself the challenge of cooking the recipes I liked the sound of even after we had had our meeting and discussion. This is where I will keep a tally of what I have cooked to date and what is left and what I thought about what I made.

August Selection – Slow: Valli Little

RRP – $19.99

Recipes in book: 60

Recipes marked to cook: 34

Cooked to date 12

Reason/s for Choosing

We only arrived back from holiday ten days before the Book Club meeting. I am a fan of Valli Little and Declicious Magazine and knew, without even looking through the book that there would be lots of things I could and would make.

Recipes Chosen

p6 Braised Beef Cheeks With Salsa Verde
p10 Steak with Wild Mushroom Sauce

p16 Chinese Braised Beef (made)

This wasn’t great, I will probably not make it again.

p20 Oven Baked Lamb Curry (Made)

I liked this. It was very tasty and easy. He didn’t like the rice being cooked into the dish.

p22 Lamb & Apricot Tagine
p24 Massaman Curry Lamb Shanks
p28 Lamb En Croute

p30 Radicchio and Gorgonzola Risotto (made)

This was Deeeee-licious. Tasted much better than the photo looks! I have always been a bit scared of radicchio – i thought it would be too bitter for my taste. I loved it!

p32 Deconstructed Lasagne (made)

This was average. I wouldn’t make it again. Not sure what happened to the photo. Maybe I didn’t take one.

p36 Macaroni Cheese with Truffle Oil
p44 Meatballs with Heavenly Mash (who can resist anything called Heavenly Mash?)
p60 Roast Chicken with Pan Roasted Romesco
p62 Roast Quail with Split Pea Dhal
p64 Oven Baked Thai Chicken Curry
p66 Moroccan Chicken with Olives
p70 Massaman Roast Chicken

p72 Chicken with Butter Bean Puree and Crispy Chorizo (made)

This was really good. I am now in love with white bean puree!

p 74 Fish Pie

p80 Salmon Poached in Olive Oil and Vanilla (made)

Certainly the weirdest dish in the book. I was strangely ambivalent about it. He LOVED it…apparently the best salmon he’s eaten in ages! There’s possibly an element of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” about both of our responses.

p82 Mussels in Cider (made) – Loved them!

p84 Fish Tagine

p86 Thai Style Tomato Soup (made) – Super!

p90 Spiced Carrot and Lentil Soup (made)

The Carrot Soup for People who hate carrot soup. This is going on high rotation!

p92 Cauliflower Cheese Soup

p100 Eggplant & Chickpea Curry (made)

No photo. Probably because I didn’t like it.

p102 Baked Mushrooms with Pine Nuts & Feta
p104 Pumpkin, Goat’s Cheese and Onion Marmalade Jalousie
p106 Twice Baked Souffles
p110 Mushroom & Potato Tarts
p116 Bagna Cauda with Baby Vegetables
p118 Instant Fondue with Roast Vegetables

p120 Autumn Rosti with Hot Smoked Salmon (made).

Yummy! See Post here.

p122 Warm Barley and Mushroom Salad with Taleggio (made).

Soooo disappointed with this. It was quite expensive to make and despite lovely tasty ingredients such as taleggio was fairly tasteless.

Warm Barley & Mushroom Salad with Taleggio

p124 Deep Fried Brie with Sweet Chilli Sauce

Twelve down, 22 to go.

As you can probably tell I am enjoying this book. I also really like that in most instances the food resembles the picture in the book!

So tell me…what is left on the list that you like the sound of?

Have a great week!

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