Radish Greens Pesto

MATTHEW0 COMMENTSFROM THE LUNCH BOX, RECIPES

Feb 15

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Et Voila!

Radish Greens? Yech! I just couldn’t imagine. I’d come home from the Farmers’ market and just shoved the radishes in the drawer in the fridge. A couple of days later, I knew it was time…run to the Google and search.

Up comes a recipe for RADISH GREENS PESTO. Thank goodness. It was cold and rainy out, and I just couldn’t bring myself to drag myself to the supermarket for greens to eat with dinner. This discovery set me on a journey to make the most of what was left in my fridge:

• A bit of parm more than ready for grating,
• Unsalted and unroasted nuts sitting in a bag in the cupboard,
• Some olive oil,
• Some salt and pepper
  …I had the base of a meal. Some pasta and it’d all be alright.

Two Zests of Lemon

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Radish Leaf Pesto

Ingredients

2 large handfuls of good-looking radish leaves, stems removed

1 oz. pecorino or Parmesan, grated or shaved

1 oz. walnuts chopped

1 clove garlic, germ removed, cut in four

1 short ribbon of lemon zest

2 T olive oil, plus more to get the consistency you like

salt, pepper, ground chili pepper

In a food processor blend all ingredients. The greens may make it so you have to process in short pulses until smooth. You will likely have to scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Processing produces a thick pesto; add more oil and pulse again to get the consistency you prefer.

Taste, adjust the seasoning, and pack into Tupperware. Use within a few days (it will keep longer if you pour a thin layer of oil on the surface) or freeze.

If I may make a suggestion: be certain to serve as a side dish only. The radish greens are pungent and the flavor striking. It could turn a dinner into a one-note meal. I serve this pesto as a side pasta dish later this week; so be sure to tune in this Friday for details on how to make this work for you and your guests.

- See more at: http://www.alunchboxblog.com/radish-greens-pesto/?preview=true&preview_id=2097&preview_nonce=c3928d80b0#sthash.sjPaST0w.dpuf

Shirin Polow

Puttin’ it all Together!

MATTHEW0 COMMENTSFROM THE LUNCH BOX, RECIPES

Mar 09

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Persian Rice Before you Flip it Into the Serving Dish

At this point in the week, after MONDAY, WEDNESDAY and Thursday’s blogposts, now your meal is nearly ready to serve. You just have to make the rice. This part should be easy, and while it’s not hard, it does require far more attention than you might normally provide  a pot of rice.

This milk-soaked, butter-drizzled rice is spectacular, creating a chewy crust on the bottom of the pan with saffron, sugar, and salt. My guests were bowled over by the show-stopper performance that this rice provided when it came time to eat it with all the accompaniments and the main course.

Knock Your Socks Off Persian Rice

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Saveur says, “Shirin Polow is a rice pilaf famed for its thick, crisp tah dig crust and crown of sweet garnishes”

Serves 4-6

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

1 c Jasmine rice

1 1/4 c water

1/2 c whole milk

1/4 c sugar

2 T butter

1/4 t crushed saffron (threads)

1/2 T rose water

1/4 c sultanas/golden raisins/currants

1/4 c shredded carrot

1/4 c barberries (some people used chopped dried cranberries)

1/4 – 1/8 c chopped pistachios and sliced almonds toasted

peel of two oranges cut into ribbons

freshly ground salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Bring 1/2 c water and sugar to a boil, place shredded carrot and ribbons of orange rind into the water for about 10 minutes. Let stand, add in the rose water.
2. Rinse the jasmine rice, set aside.
3. Toast the chopped and sliced nuts in a toaster oven until just barely browned; or roast on a cast iron skillet for about 5 minutes shifting them regularly over a gas flame with a good shake or two.
4. Boil  water.  When at a full boil, pour in the rice, lower to a simmer (about 5-7 minutes).
5. When the water has mostly absorbed, place the butter on top of the rice and allow to melt through. Pour milk over the melting butter into the rice. Continue to simmer with lid off.
6. Pour over the carrot, orange peel & rose syrup/water over the rice (This step should not result in adding a lot of liquid; add no more than a tablespoon or so of the orange peel water and rose water).
7. Again, allow to cook through with the lid off until all liquid is absorbed. You can speed up the process by covering and letting rest for 5-8 more minutes, if you like.  I cook with the lid off as is my preference.
8. Place the toasted nuts and dried berries on top of the finished rice.
9. Invert the pot onto a serving plate. The berries and chopped & sliced nuts will drop to the bottom of the plate, and the tah dig will glisten on the top. Slice into the rice with a serving spoon, place in the middle of the table and take in the look on your guest’s faces!

- See more at: http://www.alunchboxblog.com/puttin-it-all-together/?preview=true&preview_id=2504&preview_nonce=57eea6e1db#sthash.PnN3SZoX.dpuf

Walnut & Pomegranate Chicken Stew

Chicken Stew With Walnuts & Pomegranate Molasses

MATTHEW0 COMMENTSFROM THE LUNCH BOX, RECIPES

Mar 08

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Quick Fried Chick

I normally would have left the entrée ’til last, but the rice dish that accompanies this dinner is so spectacular, so out of this world in both presentation and exotic goodness that this tasty entrée couldn’t compete. Don’t get me wrong, this walnut chicken dish is probably fairly typical Persian fair, but it’s quite special. The resulting dinner was super flavorful, and the opportunity to cook with pomegranate molasses–which up until now I had only used in cocktails (a decidedly un-Iranian thing to do, I’m sure)–was a culinary moment for me.

Well-Ground Walnut Crumbly Paste

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It’s a much faster meal to prepare than it appears to be from the recipe. Once you have the walnuts processed, it’s all downhill from there. And as the stew simmers, you can prepare everything else (yoghourt dip, rice, and set the table).Here’s how you you assemble the main course for this week’s meal:

Serves 6-8

Cooking time: 2 hours (Prep: 15 minutes; then stew for the remainder)

Ingredients

For the chicken:

2 lbs. skinless, boneless chicken thighs chopped into bit-sized pieces (approximately 1″ x 1″)

salt and pepper

Olive Oil for quick frying.

For the sauce:

1 lb. whole walnuts (recipe calls for 1.5 lbs of walnuts, but my bag was only 1 lb.)

6-8 c water

1 1/2 T ground tumeric

2 c pomegranate molasses (for the record, I only used 1 c)

1/4 c sugar

For the garnish:

16 oz. baby leaf spinach

1 medium red onion sliced finely for garnish

Instructions

1. Fry all chicken until well-browned on all sides, drain on paper towels, set aside.
2. Grind whole walnuts into a paste. You will need a strong grinding machine for this–Cuisinart, Vitamix, etc.  Return crumbly paste to a Dutch oven and add in the water. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer.  At this point, I added the chicken back in. This is not in the recipe. It led to a finely stewed chicken thigh that wasn’t rubbery and firm, but chicken bites that fell apart beautifully.
3. For the record, I fried up one medium onion and added that as well to the paste and the stewing chicken.  The recipe most certainly did not call for that either!
4. After 90 minutes of simmering, pour in the pomegranate molasses. Again I adjusted the recipe here: the magazine says to simmer for two full hours and then add in the molasses for 25 minutes, but I had a show to watch on TV with my guests!  So, in the last thirty minutes of the two hours, I added in the molasses.
5. Garnish: Fry up a large batch of spinach in butter and garlic, dress the side of each bowl of chicken stew. Sprinkle finely sliced red onion

Cooking Tips:

• The surprise was the time it takes to fry up chopped, boneless, skinless chicken thighs in a pot that is about 6″ in diameter. Whew! That was exhausting. If I can make a suggestion, in spite of the spatter caused by frying thigh pieces up, use a 12″ skillet or larger, so you can get the pre-frying done more quickly.
• Have plenty of papertowel on hand to soak up the chicken fat and oil that accumulates
• Brown the meat thoroughly; the color will make the dish much more appealing.
• This recipe made much more sauce than chicken, so there was plenty leftover sauce, and not a lot of chicken for leftovers at work the next day. I highly recommend making more chicken.  It should be fine and flavorful.
• The original recipe calls for cooking the spinach in the stew for 90-120 minutes, but I can’t bring myself to do that. The glistening green spinach on the side of the decidedly brown stew was a nice contrast in colors, just as the flavor was a contrast in tastes. Accentuate that.

- See more at: http://www.alunchboxblog.com/chicken-and-walnuts/?preview=true&preview_id=2497&preview_nonce=bb10143dff#sthash.EC71JIai.dpuf