Javaher Polow (Persian Jeweled Rice)

Few dishes leave me in awe, and Javaher Polow or Persian Jeweled Rice is one of them. My awe manifests itself in a couple of different ways. On the one hand, I marvel at the visual impact of seeing the dish. Studded with fruits and nuts, it truly looks as if jewels are embedded throughout the dish. On the other hand, I am struck by the complexity of preparing the dish: to create this be-jeweled masterpiece requires time, skill and patience. Many times I feel like I lack all three, and, hence, the dish has been an aspiration of mine for quite some time. 

Yet, the dish has been around much longer than any aspiration. Javaher Polow, also known as Morasa Polow, dates back -- at least -- to the 16th or 17th century, when it graced the royal tables at Qazvin, the capital where the Safavid dynasty ruled an empire stretching from the Caucasus mountains to the Persian gulf, and from Hoveyzeh to Qandahar (which is in modern day Afghanistan). The Safavid empire was one of the longest lasting Persian empires, from 1501 C.E. to 1736 C.E.

Many consider the Safavid empire to be the period of time when Persian cuisine truly developed. It may also be due to the fact that much of the history of Persian cuisine traces back to the Safavids, with sources become more scarce prior to that time. Nevertheless, it is beyond dispute that the Safavid court gave rise to many dining traditions and many dishes that remain a fundamental part of Persian cuisine to this day. Maybe someday I will have the time to truly explore that history, which can be found in manuscripts from the chefs of the royal kitchens, like the Matatolhayat, which recounts the lived experience and recipes of Nurollah, the chef to Shah Abbas I. 

Back to Javaher Polow, this dish involves a process that, depending upon the recipe, can take a lot of time and skill. Fortunately, I found a simplified version of the recipe on Milk Street, which is the website for Christopher Kimball's Milk Street cooking school and magazine. This simplified recipe provided a way for me to try to tackle this recipe without having to master the layering of rice, avoiding the over-cooking or under-cooking of the rice, and to focus on the basics. The simplified recipe enabled me to produce a delicious rice dish that probably ranks in the top 5 of most beautiful dishes that I have ever prepared. 

Having prepared a "simplified" version of Javaher Polow, I have begun to build up the confidence to try recipes from Persian chefs. The goal is to produce an authentic version. While I have more of the skill, and while I work on my patience, I still need to find the time.

JAVAHR POLOW (PERSIAN JEWELED RICE)

Recipe adapted from Milk Street

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon saffron threads
• 4 tablespoons salted butter
• 2 medium yellow onions, halved and thinly sliced
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups basmati rice, rinsed and drained
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 3/4 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and shredded on the large holes of a box grater (about 1 cup)
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
• 1/2 cup shelled pistachios, chopped, divided

Directions:

1. Prepare the saffron water. In a small microwave bowl, combine the saffron with 3 2/3 cups of water. Microwave on high until the water has taken on a yellow hue, about 1 minute. Set aside. 

2. Prepare the rice. In a 12-inch skillet over medium, metl the butter. Add the onions and 1 teaspoons salt, then cook, tstirring occasionally until softened and light golden brown, about 10 to 12 minutes. Stir int eh rice, cumin, cardamom 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Cook, stirring frequently until the grains are light browned and no longer transluscenet, about 4 to 7 minutes. Stir in the saffron water, the carrots and cranberries. Bring to a boil over medium high, then cover, reduce to lw and cook until the rice has absorbed the liquid and the carrots aee tender, 25 to 30 minutes. 

3. Finish the dish. Fluff the rice with a fork, then stir int he orange zest and 1/4 cup of postachios. Taste and season with salt and pepper. transfer to a shallow bowl and sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup pistachios. 

PEACE.

Cranberry Persimmon Chutney

I have never prepared a dish with persimmons ever in my life. That seems like a strange statement to make. Persimmons are found around the world and many cuisines use the fruit in various dishes. I have seen them in grocery stores and simply continued to walk past them. 

So, when my beautiful Angel recently purchased a lot of persimmons, I had absolutely no idea what to make with them. I had to do a lot of research, mostly on the internet, to find recipes that I could make. 

One recipe caught my eye almost immediately. It was for a Cranberry Persimmon Chutney. My love of South Asian foods, from Nepal to Sri Lanka and everywhere in between (which basically includes Bhutan, Bangladesh and India), drew my attention to the word "chutney." The fact that the Thanksgiving holiday had just passed got me to thinking, "I have cranberries." It seemed that everything was coming together for me to make this recipe. 

Chutneys are a very old food, whose history can be traced back centuries on the Indian subcontinent, to at least 500 B.C.E. The historical preparation involved taking uncooked fruits, such as apples or mangoes, and adding an acid base, like vinegar or tamarind juice. These chutneys were meant to be consumed fresh, alongside other dishes. This is a practice that continues today, with generally made with fresh fruit and some spices that, much like sambals or sambols, are served with almost every meal. 

The combination of persimmon and cranberries, along with the use of mustard and cumin, provided a balance of sweet and tart, along with some earthiness. The use of agave syrup heightened the sweetness in the chutney, while the vinegar provided some more balance to the overall dish. After finishing this recipe, I began to think that I should have been buying persimmons rather than just simply passing them up at the grocery store. 

CRANBERRY PERSIMMON CHUTNEY

Recipe from Robin Asbell

Makes about a cup

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 cup cranberries
• 1 medium persimmon, peeled and chopped
• 1/4 cup agave syrup
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Put the spices in a small saucepan and dry toast over medium high heat until fragrant. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cook, stirring often, until thick. 

ENJOY!

Cranberry Orange Relish

I would have never guessed that cranberries have a dark side. But, those berries do.  It is a story of corporate hegemony, regulatory failure, and farmers' resourcefulness.  Much of the story has been told a couple of years ago by Kirsten Saladow for Quartz, but, it is a story that deserves an additional look.

According to Ms. Saladow, one company -- Ocean Spray -- controls nearly three-quarters of the cranberry farms across the United States and Canada. (That's approximately 700 farms.) Ocean Spray is also behind many of the cranberry products that line the shelves of the stores in our neighborhoods.

One would think that, based upon the packaging of Ocean Spray products and the company's advertisements, there are no issues with respect to those little berries. As Ms. Saladow writes, there is the picture of a cranberry farmer:

Cranberries are grown in bogs primarily in the northern part of the US in soft, marshy ground with acid-peat soil.  They're hard to harvest on the vines they grow on, so instead, the bogs are flooded at harvest time, water reels pull them off the vine and the cranberries float to the top, allowing them to be collected and sent off to market.  Those images you see of farmers in waders, up to their chests in water with cranberries floating all around them?  Totally accurate.

Photo from http://endangerednj.blogspot.com

While the image of the cranberry farmer may be "totally accurate," there is a lot more to that picture.  Back in the 1950s, Ocean Spray began to use aminotrizole, a chlorophyll inhibitor that has been proven to cause "growths" in rats.  Ocean Spray limited the use of the chemical in the weeks before each Thanksgiving, but, word got out one year that the chemical was found in cranberries. That caused the purchase of cranberries to plummet by 70% that year.  Needless to say, aminotrizole is no longer used in cranberry farming. However, many other chemicals are used, including chlorothalonil, carbaryl and pronamide.  When the bogs are filled with water, that water becomes contaminated with the chemicals.  Workers who go into the water get exposed to the chemicals.  The bogs are eventually drained and that chemical-laced water enters local bodies of water. All of that runoff is not regulated under the Clean Water Act or any other major environmental law.  And, in one case, the State of Wisconsin (which produces the second most cranberries in the country after Massachusetts), the "cranberry industry" received an exemption from  wetland water quality standard law.  That exemption was granted despite the fact that cranberry farms destroyed more wetlands in the state than any other activity and have negatively impacted trout fishing due to the diversion of streams for the farms' use. 

Thus, for the most part, the story of the cranberry has been one that pitted large companies against individual growers, the environment and, hence, the community. This dark side is a serious and unfortunate one, especially given the fact the history of the cranberry has its positive notes.  Cranberries were eaten by American sailors to prevent scurvy. Native Americans used the cranberries not just for food, but also for a red dye and medicines. 

This recipe draws its inspiration from the earliest days of our country, long before the use of chemicals and the degradation of our environment.  The recipe comes from the Colonial Wlliamsburg Tavern Cookbook. As noted above, Massachusetts is the leading grower of cranberries.  The Pequot Indians introduced ibimi - translated as "bitter berry" to the pilgrims. Eventually, the berries would be exported out of the New England, finding their way south to the other colonies (such as Virginia) and eventually into the taverns of Williamsburg.  Thus, this recipe for Cranberry Orange Relish.

The best part of this recipe, and, indeed, what caught my attention, was the use of Cointreau.  The colorless, orange flavored liqueur from Saint Barthelemy d'Anjou, France. I have never tasted Cointreau, let alone used it in a recipe.  What I have found after making this recipe is that the orange flavors of the Cointreau help underscore the orange in the recipe, as well as provide a richness to what is best a side.  When I served this as part of our Thanksgiving dinner, it was well received by anyone.  After all, who does not like a cranberry orange relish where the alcohol has not been cooked out.  (BTW, if you haven't figured it out already, this is not a kid friendly dish.)

CRANBERRY ORANGE RELISH

Recipe from The Colonial Williamsburg Tavern Cookbook

Makes 3 Cups

Ingredients:

2 cups cranberries

1 orange, quartered, seeded

1/2 lemon seeded

1 cup sugar

1 cup pecans

1/4 cup Cointreau or other orange liqueur

Directions:

In a bowl of a food processor, combine the cranberries, orange and lemon and process until coarsely chopped.  Add the sugar, pecans and Cointreau and pulse briefly to mix.  Cover and let stand at room temperature for 12 hours.  Refrigerate overnight.

ENJOY!

Apple Crumble

I am not the only one who cooks in our family.  My beautiful wife, Clare, is also a great cook and a great baker.  Every once in a while, I ask my Angel to provide a guest blog post so that I can share some of the amazing and delicious things that she makes for family, friends and, of course, me.  She has already provided guest blog posts about Cuban Bread, Loyalist Bread, Salmon Burgers, Peach Cobbler, Parmesan Soufflé with White Wine Butter Sauce and Meatballs with Orechhiette, Kale and Pine Nuts.   So, without further ado,

A Guest Blog Post by Clare ...

When it comes to desserts, I am the one that makes them in our family.  Keith does not really make a lot of desserts; and, I think that is because he is not really into baking.  When it comes to cooking, he does not always measure things exactly.  He likes to "eyeball"the measurements.  This does not lend itself very well to baking, where exact measurements are much more important, particularly if you want to have a good dessert.

Then there are desserts that are more "Keith-friendly," that is, ones in which being off on a measurement or two would not spell ruin for the dish.  One such dish is this apple crumble, which I made as part of our Wine Club dinner back last September.  (Keith has been really busy at work and at home, which has left some recipes, like this one, waiting to be posted.)  The theme of the Wine Club dinner was The F Word, which was a dinner based on recipes by Gordon Ramsay.  This is Gordon's take on an Apple Crumble.  

The key to this recipe is that the apple is presented in two forms ... puree and chunks.  This helps to provide some interesting texture to the fruit in the dessert.  Gordon adds dried cranberries, which add some interesting flavor to complement the apples.  The granola topping, which adds that crunch one would expect with a crumble rounds out the dish. 

Over all, this is a delicious dessert and a great way to end that particular wine club dinner. 

APPLE CRUMBLE

Recipe from Gordon Ramsay's Cookery Course

Serves 4

Ingredients (for the apples):

6 tablespoons of caster sugar

Pinch of ground cinnamon

1 vanilla pod, seeds only

6 apples, cored but not peeled, 3 of them grated

     3 of them cut into chunks

3 tablespoons of dried cranberries

Zest of one lemon, juice of 1/2 lemon

Ingredients (for the crumble topping):

6 2/3 tablespoons of plain flour

2 tablespoons of demerara sugar

3 1/3 tablespoons of butter, chilled and cubed

Pinch of ground cinnamon

4 tablespoons of nutty granola or muesli

Directions:

1.  Prepare the apples.  Heat the oven to 390 degrees Fahrenheit.  Heat a small hob-proof baking dish. Add the caster sugar and heat for about 5 minutes until it caramelizes.  Add the cinnamon, vanilla seeds and grated apples and cook for 1-2 minutes.  Stir in the apple chunks, then mix in the cranberries, lemon zest and juice.  Remove from heat and set aside.

2.  Make the topping. Place the flour, sugar, butter and cinnamon in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.  Add the granola and mix fully until incorporated. 

3.  Bake the crumble.  Scatter the crumble topping over the fruit and heat the dish on the hob.  Once the apple mixture is bubbling, transfer to the preheated oven and bake for 12-14 minutes until the topping is a deep golden brown.  Remove and serve warm.

ENJOY!