Banana Chocolate Pudding Parfait, Milk Free Comfort in Glass

Chocolate and banana is a winning combo any day.

Dunno about you, but the recent events in the Middle East, combined with the relentless weather we’re having here in New York City, make me want to crawl under the covers and hide, preferably with a delicious, comforting dessert in hand.  Alas, hibernating isn’t really an option for me, or for most of us, I imagine.

But we CAN have a luscious dessert every now and then when we desire escapism. As my English Lit prof used to say, “Why the hell NOT?”

Maybe a chocolate cherry trifle made with leftover chocolate cake?

Or how about a creamy, dreamy pudding parfait? Yeah, sounds good to me right about now. Plus, it’s the perfect excuse to bust out my parfait glasses. But. . .

Making pudding from scratch certainly not my thing. In the immortal, hyperbolic words of my friend Denise, it “ruins my life.” Yeah, safe to say that custard making and I don’t get along. Ugh, I simply hate making custard. It always breaks or curdles on me, and frankly, I have limited patience for endless whisking, or for recipes that take too much time.

Avocados are the surprise ingredient in the easy, fast, chocolate pudding element of today's recipe. Vegan chocolate pudding? Yes, it does exist, and it's easy to make.

Luckily, when in the mood for something custard-y, I’m not above using instant pudding and have figured out, via my blogging friends, a fast, healthy way to make a chocolate pudding that involves nothing but the blender and a few ingredients you likely have on hand already: avocados, cocoa powder, bananas, a bit of liquid, and sweetener. It’s a pudding that’s actually quite healthy. It’s full of good fats from the avos and chocolate is healthy in moderation. (Yes, you read right: avocados and chocolate, so read on!)

The bananas in the chocolate pudding give it sweetness, so go easy on the added sweetener (taste as you go).

Milk Free Banana Chocolate Pudding Parfaits with Cardamom

Ingredients

• Banana pudding mix (3.5 ounce box; check ingredients for milk if this is a concern)
• Coconut milk in the amount prescribed by the pudding box directions (usually 2 cups)
• 2 teaspoons cardamom powder (optional)
• 2 small, ripe avocados or 1 large avo
• 1 medium banana
• 4 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• Sweetener, options include: agave, maple syrup, date syrup, simple syrup. (Start with a Tablespoon and add more to your taste as needed. If using liquid stevia, start with a drop or two, then work your way up as needed.)
• Chocolate chips or shavings for garnish (optional)
• Fresh banana slices for garnish (optional)
• Whipped topping for garnish (optional; use non-dairy if you’re staying milk-free)

Directions

1. Make banana pudding according to package directions, adding 1/2 of the cardamom powder to the mixture as you blend. Place in the fridge to chill for at least 5 minutes while  you make the chocolate pudding.

2. In a blender, place flesh of avocados, chunks of banana, cocoa powder, remaining cardamom powder, sweetener (if using), and a splash of coconut milk or water to help things blend. Now blend until smooth. Add more cocoa powder if you need to thicken. Thin it out with liquid if needed. Test for sweetness, and add more sweetener if needed.

3. Make sure banana pudding is set and “scoopable” with a spoon. Once it’s set, in a decorative parfait glass, layer puddings in alternating layers, starting with chocolate pudding first (it is denser than the banana pudding). End with a layer of banana pudding, then top with garnishes of choice, if using. Settle in under the covers or on the nearest couch, and enjoy.

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Visions of Sugarplums: Saffron-Infused Persian Sugarplums

Persian Sugarplums. These are simple and can be made quickly with any dried fruits and nuts you have on hand.

Merry Holidays, everyone! Does anyone really know what sugarplums are? What confection, precisely, is that Sugarplum Fairy in The Nutcracker dancing for anyways?

Turns out they’re balls of dried fruits and nuts, sometimes with spices added in, perhaps coated in powdered sugar. Well, besides sounding Christmasey, this all sounded very Persian to me. So I tooled around online, found some simple sugarplum recipes, and tweaked them to add a Persian twist. Voila!  Beautiful, tasty, festive holiday treats.

Simple to make, tasty, and these goodies actually taste better as the days go on. Time in the fridge give their flavors time to meld.  They’re plenty sweet, but perhaps a nice change of pace from all the cookies you might be enjoying lately.

 

These easy to make sugarplum are fast to prepare, and excellent with a cup of perfectly brewed hot tea.

Saffron-Infused Sugarplums

Prep time: 20 minutes or less, depending on what method you use to prep your fruits and nuts

Yield: Approximately 20 balls

Note: You can play around with the proportion of fruits to nuts, the types of fruit and  nuts that you use, and the spices. This recipe is extremely flexible.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of slivered almonds
• 1/3 cup pistachios, shells removed
• 2 cups of mixed dried fruit. (I used Mariani’s mixed fruit, a blend of tender fruits I get at Costco, which includes apricots, plums, peaches, pears, and apples)
• 1/2 c cup dried sour cherries
• 1/4 cup honey (if vegan, use a vegan friendly option like molasses, agave, etc)
• Pinch saffron dissolved in about a tablespoon of hot water
• 1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice blend or Persian Spice Blend (Advieh)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
• Shredded coconut flakes and/or confectioner’s sugar for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Chop nuts into pieces, either via hand, crushing them with a rolling pin inside a bag, or use a blender or food processor to pulse once or twice to chop the pieces.  Chop or food process/blend the the fruits as well. Remove fruit and nut mixture from food processor or blender (if using), and set aside in a bowl.

2. Add honey to another bowl. Infuse honey with saffron and hot water, and then add in the pumpkin pie spice or Persian spice blend and vanilla (if using). Mix well.

3. Combine honey mixture with fruit/nut mixture, and mix very well.

4. Use your hands to form this mixture into balls. (Mixture will be very sticky. Keep a dampened cloth handy to wipe down your hands periodically). Roll in confectioner’s sugar or coconut flakes, if using. Refrigerate in an airtight container and enjoy at your leisure.

 

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and wishing every one of you a fantastic 2011!

 

 

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Chocolately Holiday Cookie With a Persian Twist

In my world, no holiday is needed to enjoy chocolate, but the holidays sure are a great excuse to do just that. I posted this recipe last year, almost exactly a year ago, in fact. It stands the test of time, and it’s worth sharing with everyone again.

Like many of you, I’ve hardly had time lately to eat a cookie, much less bake them. But my plan is to carve out some time this weekend to make some of these dreamy, delicious, chocolately drops of goodness.  Thankfully, the recipe is simple.  You’ll be impressed at how the flavors of chocolate, cardamom, and sour cherry play off of each other.

Enjoy and have a fabulous weekend!

Note: Adapted from  a recipe in the December 2009 issue of Body + Soul Magazine. Photo to the right by Stacey Young.

Chocolate Drop Cookies with Sour Cherries and Pistachios

Prep time- 15-20 minutes

Cook time- 8 minutes Max

Yield: 5 dozen (or slightly less if you like cookie dough as much as I do)

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (I used pastry flour, and it worked perfectly)
• 1 scant teaspoon cardamom powder
• 3 egg whites (save the yolks for another use. Perhaps for a custard or for feeding a pet)
• Small pinch of salt
• 2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chunks or chips, melted and cooled (If you are avoiding dairy, check the ingredient list to make sure there are no milk products in the chocolate chips/chunks).
• Generous 1/3 cup chopped, dried sour cherries
• Generous 1/3 cup toasted pistachios plus approx. 2-3 Tablespoons more for garnishing tops of cookies
• Generous 1/3 cup chocolate chips or chunks, NOT melted

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa and flour and cardamom powder.

3. With a hand mixer, or a stand-up mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and salt at medium speed until frothy. (You’ll see bubbles). With the mixer running, slowly add in the confectioners’ sugar. When all of it has been added, raise the speed to high, and beat until the egg whites are the consistency of marshmallows. Now beat in the vanilla.

4. Reduce the mixer speed to medium, and beat in half of the melted, cooled chocolate. Then beat in half of the cocoa-flour mixture, scraping the sides of the bowl to incorporate all ingredients. Repeat with the rest of the chocolate and cocoa-flour mix. Stop the mixer.

5. By hand, gently fold in the cherries, pistachios, and chocolate chips or chunks. Let sit until thick enough to scoop, about 5 minutes.

6. As dough sets, prepare parchment paper and place on cookies sheets.

7. Now it’s time to scoop the cookie dough onto the cookie sheets. Scoop by the level teaspoonful. Leave about an inch in between cookies. Try to keep the cookies the same size to ensure they cook evenly.

8. Garnish cookies with whole and/or pistachio pieces. Looks so festive and pretty!

9. Bake 6-8 minutes, until cookies are a bit cracked on the outside. (I personally like my cookies on the soft, moist, and chewy side, so 7 minutes was plenty of time for mine in my particular oven. If, like me, you prefer softer cookies, remember, they might look slightly undercooked when first taken out of the oven).

10. Remove from oven and let cool. This is the part where recipes always say to cool the baked goods on a wire rack. Well, I don’t own any wire racks, so mine just cooled on the sheets, and no one’s complaining.

Approximate Nutrition facts from Body + Soul Magazine:

Note, my version is probably a bit more caloric, due to my heavy hand with the cherries, pistachios, and also due to the fact that I added in extra chocolate chips Hey, it’s the holidays! :

Per cookie:

30 Calories

1 gram protein

4 grams carbohydrates

1.5 grams of fat (0.7 saturated)

0 grams of fiber

 

Updated to Add a BONUS: Fun Weekend Contest. Win a $50 shopping spree on one of my favorite sites, iherb.com . Stop by Love Veggies and Yoga, one of my favorite blogs, to find out how.

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Stuffed Baby Eggplants with Sour Cherry Pomegranate Sauce

Baby eggplants stuffed with lean ground chicken, pine nuts, scallions, and walnuts. Topped with a warm sour-cherry pomegranate sauce.

Maybe I”m too easily amused, but a trip to the farmer’s market is one of the highlights of my week. I’m quite obsessed with farmer’s markets, really. To the point that I’ll always try to hit up the local markets when I travel. It’s a cool way to get a feel for a city or town. The vibe, the people, the types of food that grow there. It’s informative, fresh, and chill.

Mini eggplants at my neighborhood farmer's market. A steal at $1.50 per pound.

Right now, eggplant is in season in my corner of the world. In particular, those precious baby aubergines, with hues ranging from lavender to deep purple. They were just begging me to buy them and stuff them silly.

Full disclosure moment: Today’s recipe is a total riff on something Joumana of Taste of Beirut did recently.  Her Eggplant in Walnut and Pomegranate sauce was too tempting to pass up. The first time around, I honored her recipe and it was fabulous. Then I decided to experiment and make a meat-stuffed eggplant with a sour cherry pomegranate sauce.

Fairytale eggplant, to the left. Yes, they're really called that. These petite beauties are delicious stuffed.

The eggplants are left unpeeled, then baked, and finally stuffed with a mixture of ground chicken, ground walnuts, scallions, and pine nuts. Then they’re sauced with a simple mixture of sour cherry preserves (or juice), pomegranate paste, and chili pepper. It’s a meal that’s satisfying without being heavy, and it’s pretty darn good for you too.

So thank you, Joumana and to my local farmers market for providing the inspiration for today’s dish.

So delicious, so healthy!

Stuffed Baby Eggplant with Sour Cherry Pomegranate Sauce

If you can’t find small eggplants, you can use bigger eggplants instead. Adjust cooking time accordingly. Sour (tart) cherry or pomegranate juices/jams can be used interchangeably for the sauce. Good to know in case you don’t have easy access to one or the other.

Ingredients:

• 24 baby eggplants
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 2/3 pound of ground chicken (can use turkey, lamb, beef if you prefer)
• 1 Tablespoon Arabic spice blend
• 1 Tablespoon sage
• 2 Tablespoons za’atar (optional)
• 1/2 bunch of scallions, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or even grated
• 1/2 cup ground walnuts (optional)
• 1/4 cup of pine nuts
• 1 Tablespoon tomato paste
• Salt and pepper to taste

Sour Cherry Pomegranate Sauce

• 2 Tablespoons sour cherry preserves OR 1/2 cup tart cherry juice
• 2/3 cup pomegranate juice
• 1/2 dried chili pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
• pinch turmeric

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425. As oven preheats, wash and pat dry baby eggplants. Line your baking pans or dishes with foil. Place baby eggplants on baking sheet or dish. Do not overcrowd. Bake for 30 minutes on the middle oven rack, testing for doneness at 25 minutes.

2. As eggplants roast, make filling. Warm olive oil in a skillet. Once it’s shimmery, add chicken, breaking up the ground chicken as you move it around the pan. When chicken is approximately half cooked (you’ll be able to tell parts of it are still raw), add in spices, including za’atar, if using,  plus scallions and garlic. Cook chicken until done. Next, add in scallions, pine nuts, ground walnuts, and stir. Add in tomato paste and splash of water if mixture is getting dry. Stir again, taste, and adjust seasoning to taste. Cook another minute or two more, then turn off heat.

3. Remove eggplants from the oven. With a fork or knife, test for doneness (fork or knife should slide easily through the eggplants). Place eggplants in a safe place and allow to cool.

4. As the eggplants cool, make the sour cherry pomegranate sauce. Simply mix all of the ingredients together, and cook over a LOW heat for 5-10 minutes, until desired consistency is reached. (If you want the sauce syrupy, feel free to cook for more than 10 minutes).

5. Now split each baby eggplant down the middle. Stuff each with a spoonful of the chicken mixture. If you have leftover scallions, use them for garnish. Or garnish with fresh chopped parsley. Spoon sauce over eggplants, plate, and enjoy!

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Summer’s Bounty Quick Veggie Curry

A quick snap of the quick veggie curry I enjoyed for dinner recently.

So you guys know that I mainly focus on Middle Eastern cuisine here on this blog, with an emphasis on Persian food and also Arabic food of the Levant region. Or, if you’re new to this blog, now you know 😉

That being said, a little bit of curry never hurt anyone. So let’s take a detour, just for today. Today’s quick curry is fast, fresh, and useful. Useful? Yes, especially if you have an abundance of summer vegetables around and you’re wondering what the heck to do with them all.

That’s exactly what happened to me recently. A friend hooked me up with not one, but two big batches of organic farmer’s market veggies. Verdant emerald zucchini, sunny yellow squash, lavender hued eggplants, ruby red sweet peppers, and more. I was grateful, excited, and nervous, all at the same time, because I wanted to make excellent use of the goodies, and not let anything go to waste.

Eggplants were part of the haul of fresh summer produce gifted to me.

I made a few dishes–grilled veggie subs, pesto with pasta and fresh veggies, chickpeas with, you guessed it, more of the fresh veggies. I dipped the raw veggies in hummus and smeared sunflower seed butter on them, too. Then one night, I was in a big hurry to get dinner on the table (who am I kidding–that’s every night!) I remembered a fast curry my friend Erica once showed me when I visited her in Florida.

Coconut milk is the base. Don’t worry, the fat in coconut milk, while saturated, is GOOD for you.  You dump in the veggies and spices of your choice into the silky coco milk, and heat everything up for just a few minutes. The variations are endless. For added flavor, cook the onions, fresh ginger, and spices together for a moment. You can garnish as you wish, swap out the veggies to your heart’s content, and play around with the spicing. Here’s what I threw together the other night:

Curry in a Hurry (Quick Summer Veggie Curry)

Coconut milk is the base of this simple curry. Feel free to get creative with the veggies, the spicing, and the garnishes.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tablespoon coconut oil, or neutral cooking oil of choice
• 1/2 of a medium onion, sliced
• 2 Tablespoons freshly grated ginger
• Curry spice mix of choice (I used Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Pie spice, plus 2 teaspoons of turmeric, and a half teaspoon each of cardamom, coriander, and cumin)
• 1 14-16 ounce can coconut milk (can use light)
• 2 cups filtered water
• 2 pounds veggies of choice (I used zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, and mild red peppers)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat oil over a low heat in a large, deep skillet or Dutch oven. As oil heats, clean and chop all veggies into chunks. Leave the peels on if you like to save time and add fiber.

2. To the oil, add the onion pieces and fresh ginger. Cook to soften over the low heat for about 2 minutes. Then add in the curry spices of your choice, mix well and cook for another 30 seconds to 1 minute (you should smell the spices).

3. Immediately add in the coconut milk, veggies, and water. Stir thoroughly. Add in a bit of salt and bring to a boil. As soon as the curry begins to boil, drop the heat to low and cook for 2-5 minutes, until veggies reach the desired texture. (You can test veggies with a fork or knife). I don’t like mushy veggies, so I cook mine around 3 minutes. Depending on your preference, you may shorten or extend the cooking time. Taste, and adjust the seasoning.

4. Serve over cooked rice or other grain of  your choice, with garnish if desired. Some garnish ideas: fresh cilantro, fried onions, raw scallions, a red hot sauce.

Serves 4.

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Exotic Persian Iced Tea w/Rose Water and Cardamom Infusion

Iced tea can have a Persian twist, thanks to a cardamom and rose water infusion. Photo courtesy of Stock.xchng.

Hey guys, I wrote this post a few days ago, then didn’t publish. I was trying to get a snap of me enjoying today’s iced tea recipe. Oh well, I got a pic, then didn’t upload it, and my camera is in my checked luggage. Yes, I’m typing this in the JetBlue terminal at New York’s JFK airport as I wait to board my flight to Texas. Gotta LOVE free, public Wi-Fi.

We’re deep in the workweek now, but I started the post out asking. . .

How was your Fourth of July (if you celebrate it?) What were you all up to for the holiday?

Mine was great, even if it was HOT out. I enjoyed some blissful time off.  Saw some friends, did Yoga both days, plus rollerbladed around Central Park early in the morning on Monday the 5th before the heat hit. Hit up the farmer’s market and the local store as well and enjoyed walking around a quiet, somewhat empty Manhattan.

I ate more than my share of watermelon this weekend. Yum! Photo courtesy of Stock.xchng.

Throughout the weekend, I ate a ridiculous amount of fresh watermelon, cherries, and crispy local Kirby cucumbers. Cooling, filling, and most of all, tasty. Heavy food on hot days generally doesn’t do it for me. The heat kinda puts a damper on my normally slightly voracious appetite. Admittedly, not a complete damper. I gotta say, if there were legal limits on watermelon and cherries in particular, I’d have been waaaaay over. 😉

Fireworks! Can you believe the people in my neighborhood put on their own display? Some of the fireworks actually looked like this. Photo source: Stock.xchng.

On the night of the Fourth, as is an annual tradition up here in Harlem, the neighbors were blowing up fireworks in the local park across the street from me that rivaled the “real” fireworks display further downtown. Seriously, from my window, I had a front-row seat to the neighborhood’s (illegal) display. Further in the distance, the official fireworks display was going off. Double trouble, baby! Some of those local fireworks were no joke–my guesstimate is that the local fireworks shot up and exploded at around 15-20 stories high. They were loud, too. The cat was like “What the. .  .?”

It was kinda fun to see and hear all of the commotion and brightness, in an illicit and underground sort of way. Ha!

Today's Persian Iced Tea recipe is influenced by the hot black tea I sometimes brew and infuse with cardamom pods and a splash of rose water. Note the dark amber hue of the tea. This is the color we are going for when brewing our tea. You could go lighter if you prefer, of course. Photo courtesy of Stock.xchng.

Another thing I did this weekend was tinker around with some recipes. I’d been meaning to make a Persian influenced iced tea for the longest time, but never got around to it, until this weekend. It’s really quite easy and has an exotic taste, thanks to cardamom, rose water, and classic black tea. It’s a subtle flavor, but a refreshing one. Yes, the rose water and cardamom might be exotic ingredients for some readers. Check out your local Middle Eastern, Indian, Mediterranean, or  market to find these ingredients at competitive prices. For example, gourmet markets sell rose water for like $7 a jar, but I can get the exact same jar at Patel Brothers out in Jackson Heights for $1.99. It pays to shop around. Amazon carries this stuff, too. Cardamom and rose water are used in lots of other recipes, so they’re worth having.

This drink recipe comes at a perfect time, as I’ll be shoving off to my home state of Texas in a few days, and am sooooo looking forward to the plentiful and perfect iced tea there.  The iced tea in New York City doesn’t hold a candle to Texas tea. Dunno why, but it just doesn’t. Some of my favorite memories are of my mom and older sister brewing a big ‘ol jar of “sun tea” out in the backyard. I’ll have to ask them to teach me how, because I forgot. If I ever know (not sure if I did).  So with this Persian Iced Tea recipe, I pay homage to both sides of my heritage: Proud (part) Persian and proud native Texan.

PG Tipps tea is my black tea of choice, but any decent quality black tea will do for this recipe. Lipton, for example. works well.

By the way, the other day I went on a bit of a shopping spree. For me, that means spending like, $30 outside of the grocery store. Yeah, I was a frugalista or recessionista or whatever-ISTA waaaaaaay before the terms were trendy. And I still mostly am, even though, at the moment, I have more work than I can shake a stick at. I know the ebbs and flows of life, and that this feast of work shall likely pass, so I always try to strike a balance with my spending so that things don’t get too out of control in either direction–too frugal, deprived, and miserable, or too bloated and spendy and equally miserable.

Anywho, I finally got a big, beautiful glass pitcher, something I’ve been wanting for a long time. For some reason, a glass pitcher and cake display plates have always seemed so luxurious to me, like items to get only on a gift registry or somesuch. I’ve recently begun to realize that this mentality is kinda silly, especially for people like me who do cook, prep drinks and smoothies, and even have people over for food relatively often. It’s not like my kitchen tools are museum display pieces. They’re real workhorses. They kinda have to be, because in my tiny NYC kitchen, I have room for very little.

So when I spotted a lovely glass pitcher For $3.99 at a discount store up here in NYC known as Conway (a chain better known for its clubwear and underwear that’s so trashy, I deem it disposable lingerie-ha!), I was all over it (the pitcher, not the lingerie!) I snapped it right up.

Rose petals, rose water. It's all good in this tea.

Right away, I was up to brewing teas, smoothies, and other chilly concoctions as my excuse reason to use the pitcher. (Well, after I paid for the pitcher, took it home, de-boxed and washed it, that is 😉 ) So the Persian Iced Tea is the first recipe that I’m sharing with you, debuting the new pitcher. I think if this story had a moral, it’d be that simple things can make us happy, and why deprive ourselves of this happiness for some unknown tomorrow. Live in the moment, and enjoy amazing tea while you’re at it!

Which reminds me: I’m not sure how much (or if), I’ll be posting while I’m away in Texas. Lately I’m all about not putting too much pressure on myself, so if that means a few days in between posts, that’s okay, right? Well, I sure hope so 😉 See you all around online soon. Xoxo!

Persian Iced Tea

Made with rose water ice cubes, cardamom-spiked simple syrup or agave nectar, and quick brew black tea, this Persian inspired iced tea has an exotic flare and refreshing taste:

Ingredients:

• 6 ounces rose water
• Black tea (I used 2 PG Tipps bags, a strong brew that’s brewed hot. You can use a cold brew tea as well)
• 6 cups of filtered water, plus more for ice cubes
• 2 Tablespoons agave nectar (or simple syrup–linkage to directions below)
• 2 teaspoons powdered cardamom (or 4-6 pods of green cardamom)
• Fresh mint leaves for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1. Make the rose water ice cubes. Pour 6 ounces of rosewater into an ice tray and top off with more filtered water to make perfect cubes. Pop into freezer overnight, or until frozen solid.

2.  Brew the tea according to package instructions. For example, with my PG Tipps brand tea, all I needed was 2 teabags to 6 cups of boiling water. (PG Tipps is a strong brew!)  I immersed the teabags for no more than 30 seconds, and the tea was the perfect dark amber hue. Your mileage will vary, depending on the brand of tea you use, and if you use a cold or a hot brew tea. (With a cold brew tea, you don’t have to boil water. You just dump the bags into the cold water and allow them to infuse. Love that!)  So in short, carefully follow the package instructions that will yield 6 cups of tea total.

3.  Make the agave-cardamom syrup by warming agave over low heat. Or, if you don’t have agave, follow these directions for a classic simple syrup that we can then infuse with cardamom.

4. Add the cardamom powder or pods to the syrup, and stir well to allow its flavor to infuse. Remember, LOW heat here is your friend. It only takes a few seconds for the infusion to happen, so taste test the syrup, make sure you can taste the cardamom, and then remove it from the heat immediately.

5. Add the syrup, a little at a time,  to the brewed tea, and stir generously.  (Taste as you go here–everyone likes their tea sweetened a little differently, or not at all. For that matter, you could put the syrup on the side and let everyone use the amount they want in their individual tea glasses).

6. To serve, pour tea over rosewater ice cubes that you’ve placed into a tall glass. As the rose water cubes melt, their flavor will infuse into the tea. Garnish with fresh mint, if desired.

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One Pot Lentil and Chickpea Stew with Middle Eastern Spices

One pot lentil stew with chickpeas, spinach, carrots. My retreat Yogis loved it. It's easy to fix, and it tastes better after a day.

Today’s recipe is one of the very first I got good at cooking, back in my teendom days.  It’s simple, flavorful, and packed full of fiber, protein, iron, and B-vitamins, to name just a few. We’ve had some unseasonably cool days here recently, and settling down in the evening with a big bowl of this stew is oh-so-comforting.

My sister, Mona, left, and I head out for a day of sightseeing and Yoga, with lentil and chickpea stew waiting for us at home upon our return.

Good news: this dish tastes better after sitting in the fridge for a day or two. Love that! This stew was a big hit at the recent Yoga retreat I hosted, and I promised to post the recipe. I also promised my college student sis, Mona, that I’d post this so she can make it up ahead of time and have it on hand for her busy weeks of school and work. So here goes:

One Pot Lentil Stew and Chickpea Stew

Ingredients:

Olive oil

1 medium onion

2 large carrots

3-5 large garlic cloves

3 teaspoons each of cardamom and coriander

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 scant teaspoon cumin

1 scant teaspoon allspice

1 cinnamon stick (optional)

1 ½ cups lentils (brown or yellow preferred)

4-5 cups filtered water

1 28 ounce can of peeled, whole tomatoes

Salt to taste

Black pepper to taste

14-16 ounces cooked chickpeas (either canned or pre-cooked)

2 cups fresh spinach

Directions:

1.       Heat olive oil over a low flame in a large soup pot. As the oil heats, peel and chop the onions and carrots.

2.       Raise the heat of the pan to medium. Add the onions and carrots and stir well to begin cooking them. Cook for about five minutes, stirring often, until softened.

3.       Lower the flame to low. Add the garlic and spices and stir well. When the spices’ aroma begins to bloom (in about 30-60 seconds), remove the pan from heat immediately and turn off the heat. Cook for 30 seconds to one minute more.

4.       Add the lentils, canned tomatoes, cinnamon stick, 1 teaspoon of salt, pepper and water to the pot. Break up the tomatoes and stir everything together really well.

5.       Return pot to burner, and bring to a boil. Once stew is boiling, drop the flame down to low and cook for 20-30 minutes more, or until both carrots and lentils are tender.

6.       Add the pre-cooked chickpeas. (If using canned, be sure to strain the liquid and rinse the chickpeas).

7.       To finish, turn off the flame and add the spinach. The residual heat will wilt the spinach, leaving it a bright green color without overcooking it.

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Portable Spinach Pies Plus Bonus Magical Fresh Salsa Recipe

My portable spinach pies are easy to make, healthy, and travel quite well.Yep, not the best picture. Took it with my BBerry on an overcast day. I'll try to swap it out with a beauty shot of the pies very soon.

Sometimes recipes come together in the oddest ways. And so it goes with my Portable Spinach Pies. I’ve made spinach pies before, but never really committed to making them a staple of my cooking repertoire. I have no idea why, now that I’ve made them again. They’re delicious, nutritious, and highly portable. Bonus: They taste great at any temperature: hot, warm, and even cold.

Maybe it was the Phyllo Factor that kept me away so long? Or the simple fear of the unknown? Before we get into the recipe itself, here’s a quick slide show of a recent day trip I took to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. What does this have to do with spinach pies? Well, spinach pies were my lunch that day. In fact, the very spinach pie recipe I’m sharing with you. Please forgive the fact that some of the pics have captions and others don’t. I’m still learning how to work this cool new WordPress slideshow feature.

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Those scenes were lovely, weren’t they? Ok, now back to cooking:

So I made and odd and wonderful time-saving discovery when making this pie. The first time I made the filling, I was going out of my way to saute plenty of onions and the perfect amount of garlic, to spice it “just” so, adding fresh lemon zest, and so on. I kept having to taste and adjust the seasoning. Was it good? Yes, it actually was, but it wasn’t quite perfect.

The second time I made the pies, I was super short on time–needed to leave within the hour. By this point, I had a pretty good idea of what the pie needed to have inside to taste good. But I didn’t have time to zest a lemon, to snip sun-dried tomatoes into bits, or to play around with getting the spices just right. In other words, this is what everyday life is like for a lot of us.

All of a sudden, I remembered that I had some fresh homemade salsa in the fridge that I’d made earlier in the week.  I thought, “I wonder if it would work? After all, it has onions, garlic, cumin, lemon, and even tomato. Yeah, there’s some cilantro in there, but not that much. Uhhhh, what time is it? Uh ok, wow, I gotta get outta here. Let’s just do this and pray.” So that’s exactly what happened.

I threw in a few spoonfuls of the salsa, along with some Arabic Spice Mixture, a few bits of chopped black olives, and sauteed it all together, adjusting the salt and pepper as it cooked. Bingo! It was perfect and took less than five minutes. The tomatoes added a richness to the pie, but you’d never know they’re in there unless you made them yourselves. The cilantro didn’t overpower. And the beautiful flavors of the onion and garlic were liberated the second they hit the hot olive oil. Luckily I’d made the salsa mild, so the jalapeno pepper taste didn’t even register. Amazing stuff!

Sometimes stumbled-upon shortcuts are just okay. I can honestly say this shortcut improved the recipe significantly.

So while it might seem tedious to make a fresh salsa just to use a few spoons of it in a spinach pie, please flip that script and think of it in a more positive light. The salsa is so excellent in many other contexts: as a snack, as topped for veggies and/or meats, mixed into beans as they simmer. Basically it’s magic, because it boosts and rounds out the flavor of pretty much anything it touches.  So we’ll start with that salsa recipe, then move on to the pie.

Magical Mild Homemade Salsa

1 28 ounce can of whole tomatoes and juice

1 medium onion, cut into large chunks

4-6 large garlic cloves, peeled and cut in half

1 jalapeno pepper, seeds and ribs removed

1/2 cup cilantro leaves (or parsley leaves if you have the “I hate cilantro” gene)

Juice of one lime or lemon

Dash of cumin (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients to a blender or food processor and pulse once. (Resist the urge to just let it rip and whip all of the ingredients together at once). Pulse one or two more times (or more if preferred) to get desired consistency. I like my salsas to have quite a bit of chunkiness to them, but you may prefer a smoother blend. Either way works.

Highly Portable Spinach Pies

Ingredients:

Olive oil

1 pound bag of frozen spinach, thawed and drained of excess water

1 tablespoon of Arabic Spice Blend ( or a few dashes of whatever spices you like, such as cumin, coriander, etc)

1/2 tablespoon fenugreek powder

1/4 cup fresh homemade salsa (recipe above)

3-4 Tablespoons of black olives cut into chunks (optional)

2-3 sundried tomatoes, snipped into bits (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 275 F. Then start with a couple of teaspoons of olive oil. Heat it over medium heat in a large skillet or saute pan. Once the oil is shimmery and a drop of water skitters across its surface easily, add the spinach. (If you feel you need more oil, add it as needed).

2. As spinach sautes, keep it moving with your cooking tongs or a wooden spoon. Add the spices to the spinach. Stir and cook for 30 seconds to one minute, until spices’ aroma begins to bloom. Then add in the salsa, sundried tomato piece, and the olive chunks. Cook for one minute more.

3. Remove the filling from the heat and let it cool as you prep the phyllo dough.

4. Wrap 2-3 tablespoons of spinach mixture  in 2-3 sheets of phyllo dough. I like to wrap mine like burritos–I place the filling in the middle, fold the short edges upwards on each side, then wrap the rest of the dough around the pie. Click here for some visuals.

5. Place pies, seam side down,  in a well-oiled baking sheet. Slather the top of pies with olive oil. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, flipping once. Pies should be light golden brown when removed from the pan. The low heat is a key element of this recipe, so please don’t blast that oven to save time. It doesn’t work. I know; I’ve tried.

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Some Quickie Persian and Arabic Spice Blends

Beautiful ground and whole spices. For today's easy Persian and Arabic spice blends, I used pre-ground spices. Photo courtesy of http://www.sxc.hu/profile/nkzs

Like organizing my shoe collection or that abyss underneath the kitchen sink, putting together some handy spice blends was something I’ve been putting off. Once I did it though, I felt very liberated. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

To be quite honest, I don’t even really know why I kept avoiding this simple, time-saving task. Much like getting a closet or pantry organized, having spice blends handy will save you so darn much time. But I guess the process of putting them together can appear tedious.

But guess what’s a hundred times more tedious? Scooping out bits of spices from multiple jars almost every time you cook!

To save time when making these spice mixes, I bought my spices pre-ground. Sure, you can grind your own, if that’s your thing. Hey, I’ll admit that I have a spice grinder and I do get a real kick out of grinding my own sometimes. But in the interest of saving time, I just used powdered spices, as fresh as I could find them. Since I cook a lot, using these blends up should be no problem.

So here are a couple of handy spice blends of the Persian and Arabic persuasion that I finally rigged up. Feel free to adjust amounts of any (or all) of the spices up or down to suit your personal tastes:

Bria’s Quick Persian Spice Blend (Advieh)

In a clean, airtight jar, combine:

1-2 teaspoons each of ground:

cardamom, cinnamom, nutmeg, rose petals (optional)

1 teaspoon of:

orange peel (dried and finely minced or zested)

Bria’s Easy Arabic Spice Blend

In a clean, airtight jar, combine:

2-3 teaspoons each of ground:

Allspice, cardamom, cloves, coriander, cumin, nutmeg, paprika

1 teaspoon each of:

cinnamon, ginger, sumac

1/2 teaspoon of:

cumin

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Khoresht Fesenjan: Persian Pomegranate Walnut Stew w/Chicken

Khorest Fesenjan, a classic Persian chicken dish with a sauce made of pomegranate and toasted walnut. Photo by Stacey Young.

Hey guys! We recently explored a vegetarian (actually vegan) version of today’s Persian dish, Khoresht Fesejan. Today, here’s the more classic version of this luxurious Persian stew with pomegranate, walnuts, and chicken. Enjoy this dish on top of the delicious rice dish of your choice. Classic chelo rice would work beautifully, or you could try my super easy basmati rice technique. Enjoy this richly flavored, slightly sweet, slightly sour stew.

Khoresht Fesenjan: Persian Pomegranate Walnut Stew

Note: Since pomegranate juice is so popular now and pretty easy to find in supermarkets, you can use that instead of pomegranate syrup. However, pomegranate syrup/molasses is available in some grocery stores, and also in Middle Eastern/Mediterranean stores. A lot of oil will come to the top of the dish. This is normal and nothing to worry about; it is the oil from the walnuts.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil, ghee, butter, or neutral cooking oil of choice
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 pound bone-in chicken thighs, legs, and/or breasts, skin removed
1/2 pound walnuts, finely ground (shells removed)
4 cups pomegranate juice or 1/2 cup pomegranate syrup/molasses diluted in 2 cups of water
1/4 teaspoon saffron, dissolved in 1 tablespoon of hot water
Salt, to taste
Honey or sugar
Cardamom pod (optional) OR 1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
Pinch of allspice (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat the fat in a large pan Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 10-15 minutes. Remove onions.

2. Salt chicken. Add chicken and brown on both sides, about three minutes per side. Remove from pan, and set aside.

3. Place the ground walnuts in the remaining oil in the frying pan. Cook and stir over low heat 5 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

4. Return the onion and chicken to the frying pan with the walnuts. Stir in the pomegranate juice or diluted pomegranate syrup. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear. (You can simmer longer to deepen the flavor, adding water as necessary so the pan doesn’t dry out).

5. Adjust seasoning to taste. If stew tastes too sour, add a little honey or sugar and simmer a bit longer. Serve over basmati rice. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

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