Happy Persian New Year!

Each year I host a big gathering of friends and family for NoRooz. I love all the days of anticipation - scheming my menu and hunting down all the ingredients that I'll need. This year I made a special trip over to San Jose to go to a Persian Market -- oh my gosh, it felt so festive and merry to be in a shop full of people preparing for NoRooz! Everyone was shopping with baskets full of goodies and sprouts, and herbs and millions of other good things. I must remember to do this every year, just to build up the merry spirit of the holiday in my heart!

This year's celebration was even bigger than usual because it was also my dad's 80th birthday the following day, and we combined the two celebrations into one -- and for such a special day a few extra people came. It was pretty great. Two of my besties came over and spent the whole afternoon helping me in the kitchen which was both super fun and also a total life-saver for helping me meet my ambitious culinary agenda!

cheese and herb platter

The platters had fresh dill, chives, cilantro, mint, and parsley... along with walnuts, dates, and dolmas. The dates are my most favorite Black Gold Dates from Sam Cobb Farm down in Palm Springs, and they are so fantastic. Since we didn't go down to the desert this year, I ordered my dates online. They have a rich, deep flavor and aren't super mooshy or super dry. Just perfect! The dolmas were straight outta cans from Trader Joes! ha ha. Sorry to disappoint!

Nan-e Barbari

We cut the breads up into little strips and put them out with the cheese platters. In this picture, you can a little bit see that they got a very nice crumb and texture: a good balance of density and airy-ness.

happy nibbling and chatting and festivizing!

huge platter of Kuku Sabzi

Kuku Sabzi is a traditional NoRooz food - an omelette packed full with minced fresh herbs, walnuts and barberries. Over the years I've tried many attempts at veganizing this recipe, and this is really my favorite -- it's based on the mini muffin-tin omelettes from Isa Does It, and then mixed up with lots of fresh herbs. I finally took the time to type up my recipe:

Kuku Sabzi Minis

(based on Muffin Pan Mini Omelets from Isa Does It, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz)

*you can easily double this recipe

ingredients:

2 1/2 Tbsp dried barberries

1/2 cup packed fresh parsley

1/2 cup packed fresh cilantro

1/2 cup packed fresh dill

1/2 cup packed scallions (green parts only)

1 cup packed spinach

1/4 cup fresh fenugreek, or 2 Tbsp dried fenugreek (optional)

generous 1/3 cup chopped walnuts, plus extras for decorating

2 cloves garlic, peeled

14 ounces silken tofu

1/2 cup water

2 Tbsp nutritional yeast

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 cup chickpea flour

1 Tbsp arrowroot flour

instructions

Cover the barberries with warm water and let them soak for at least 30 minutes. Meanwhile combine the parsley, cilantro, dill, scallions, spinach, and optional fenugreek in a food processor and pulse until finely minced. You don't want it to turn into a paste, but you really, really want to chop those guys into oblivion. If you don't have a food processor, get a good knife and start chopping chopping chopping. Once the herbs are chopped, set them aside in a large bowl, and next use the food processor or knife to chop your walnuts. Add the walnuts to the herbs. Don't worry about cleaning out the food processor between steps.

Preheat your oven to 350F. Next, chop up the garlic in the food processor (or a blender). Add the silken tofu, water, nutritional yeast, olive oil, turmeric, salt, and black pepper. Process until the mixture is smooth. Add in the chickpea flour and arrowroot and process more, until fully integrated. Pour the mixture into the bowl with the minced herbs and walnuts. Drain the barberries, discard the soaking water, and add the barberries to the batter. Stir well until fully incorporated. (note: at this point, you can refrigerate the batter to use it later or the next day)

Lightly oil a muffin tin and fill the muffin cups about halfway full with the batter. If you'd like, you can put a few chopped walnuts (or a whole walnut half) on each mini kuku sabzi. Bake the mini kuku sabzis for about 20-25 minutes, until they are lightly golden. Allow them to cool in the muffin pan for at least five minutes before you try to get them out.

Shirazi Salad

Shirazi Salad is a simple and delicious salad - and such a nice balance to the other flavors of the NoRooz feast. Light, fresh, crunchy, and simple -- it's a refreshing component with so many more robust dishes on the table. This year's salad was Persian cucumbers (the organic ones from Trader Joes are great!), cherry tomatoes, chopped red onion, and olives... along with several small handfuls of fresh herbs: a combo of cilantro, parsley, dill, and mint. For a dressing, I ad-libbed a quick dressing with pomegranate paste, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper. Easy and delicious!

i love this picture!

The main 7 items:

Sabzi - sprouts symbolizing growth and rebirth

Samanu - a sprouted wheat pudding, symbolizing wealth

Senjed - oleander seeds, symbolizing love

Seer - garlic, symbolizing medicine

Seeb - apple, symbolizing health

Sumac - ground sumac, symbolizing the color of the sunrise

Serkeh - vinegar, symbolizing "old age and patience."

some of the other things include:

Sonbol - a hyacinth, symbolizing spring time

Sekkeh - coins, symbolizing weather and prosperity

Shirini- sweeties, for sweetness in the new year

A mirror - symbolizing reflection

A copies of poetry books Hafiz & Rumi, two great Persian poets

Candles

Eggs, symbolizing new birth (I use glass eggs)

A goldfish, symbolizing life (I use a cute plastic goldfish!)

Sabzi Polow

Sabzi Polow is another traditional NoRooz dish - parboiled basmati rice is mixed with yogurt, a mountain of fresh herbs, and then cooked/steamed in a pot. The Persian preparation of rice is so special and fantastic - the individual grains of rice are never clumpy or sticky, and there is a beautiful, crunchy golden crust on the exterior. This crunchy part is so good that it has it's own word "tahdig" -and it is definitely the best part. Every year I suffer some anxiety about how well my tahdig will turn out and this year I got a beautiful golden crust -- perfect, beautiful and delicious! I was so happy!

Sabzi Polow

based on the Persian Rice recipe from Vegan Eats World, by Terry Hope Romero

*you can easily double this recipe, which is what I usually do

ingredients

3/4 cup minced fresh dill

3/4 cup minced fresh cilantro

3/4 cup minced fresh scallions or leeks (green parts only)

3/4 cup minced fresh parsley

1 2/3 cups white basmati rice

8 cups water

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup unsweetened vegan yogurt

1/4 tsp salt

4 Tbsp olive oil or melted vegan butter

instructions:

Wash and mince your fresh herbs thoroughly - either by hand or with a food processor. Remember, you really really want to mince those herbies finely.

Put the rice into a mesh strainer and rinse it well under cold water, to wash off excess starches. In a large pot, bring the 8 cups of water to a rolling boil. Add in the salt, then add the rice. Boil for 3-5 minutes. Take out a grain or two of rice and bite into it -- you want the outside to be soft and lightly cooked and the inside to still be hard. Drain the rice and rinse it again with cold water, and then put it in a large bowl.

To the rice, add the 1/4 tsp salt, vegan yogurt, and 2 Tbsp of the oil/butter, and mix well. Take out 1/2 cup of this mixture and set it aside. Now add the minced herbs to the big bowl and mix them to fully incorporate.

Preheat a heavy, 2-quart pot no larger than 10 inches wide, with a tight-fitting lid, over medium-high heat. Add the remaining oil/butter and swirl it all around to coat the bottom and the first couple inches of the sides of your pot. Use a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to spread the 1/2 cup of reserved rice across the bottom of the pan evenly. Now add in the remaining rice (with the herbs mixed in). Use the back of a measuring cup to gently but firmly press down the rice.

Use a chopstick to poke several holes into the rice - an inch or two apart and a couple pokes in the center too. This helps the steam escape so the bottom can get good and crunchy!

Next, take a clean, smooth-textured kitchen towel and put it over the top of the pan - then put the tight-fitting lid firmly onto the pot (so the dishtowel is between the rice and the bottom side of the lid.) Carefully fold the corners of your towel up on top of the lid, so that they don't hang down and catch fire on your burner - use a rubber band or a chip clip to secure them on top of the lid! The towel is important because it catches the steam and helps you get perfect Persian rice!

Turn the heat down to medium-low and cook for 35-45 minutes. It's a good idea to rotate your pot a few times, for a more evenly golden crust. Check the rice by lifting the lid -- the rice should smell toasty (not burnt). Sometimes you can get a butter knife and carefully peek down the edges of the rice to see if you see a golden color developing. Cook another 10-15 minutes if needed (and you can also turn up the heat a little if it's not getting golden), to get a good golden crust. Keep an eye on the rice, and also don't forget about it -- you don't want it to burn!

Remove from the heat, and take off the lid and towel. Take your serving platter, and invert it over the pot. Carefully hold the edges of the serving platter and the handles of your pot, and flip it over! It takes courage! A perfect tahdig will make a little "floop" sound and land perfectly on your serving platter. Dig in!

Amoli Rice Salad with Barberries & Orange Peel

from Silk Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey, by Najmieh Batmanglij

By the way, Silk Road Cooking is such a beautiful and evocative book, I highly recommend it. Especially if you enjoy reading about food and cooking foods from around the world!

Ash-e Reshteh

with onion-turmeric-mint garnish

And I especially love the contribution of the garnish: onions cooked until golden, then with added ground turmeric and dried mint. It is amazing! I made a big batch of the garnish this year too because I like to have lots of it!!

Ghormeh Sabzi

Maybe you have noticed that several of these dishes have the word "sabzi" in their name -- "sabzi" means "vegetables," or in this case "herbs." The traditional dishes of NoRooz are filled with fresh, tender herbs to symbolize the growth and new life of spring time. It's usually a combo of parsley, cilantro, dill, scallions/chives, leeks, and baby spinach. If you can track down fresh fenugreek (or even dried fenugreek), it's also great to include some of that! Fenugreek is a strong flavor, so I usually use a little less of it compared to the other herbs.

Adasi Persian Lentils

Nonetheless, I thought it would be nice to make something that I knew he'd love and, lo and behold, he loved these lentils again this year! I know they're not much to look at, but they are perfectly seasoned with cinnamon and angelica (a ground spice that I found on my trip to the Persian market, called "golpar" in Farsi.) They are deceptively delicious for such plain looking lentils!

My dinner plate of glory

Such beautiful abundance! I just love the flavors and aromas of Persian food - they are complex, strong, and still often unexpected to my American palette. As you can see, I enjoyed a mountain of delicious food... and we haven't even talked about dessert yet! Mwahahaha! After two long days in the kitchen, it felt great to sit down and dig in. Of course it tasted great too!

Special Drinks:Dried Lime Tea, Mint Limeade, & Pomegranate Mint Spritzer

I also made Mint Limeade -- we cooked up a special lime syrup by making a simple syrup, adding fresh lime juice, and simmering it for a bit longer. We added that with some fresh lime juice, springs of fresh mint and sparkly water. I think next time, I will also boil some fresh mint with the syrup - so that flavor can come through a little more. Pretty much everyone loves limeade, so it's not surprising that this one was a hit!

We also made a simple Pomegranate Spritzer -- fresh pomegranate juice from the farmer's market, a touch of simple syrup, sprigs of fresh mint, and sparkly water. After the even was over, there was a little limeade and a little pomegranate spritzer left over, and I just combined them into one pitcher. Note to self - it was good!

NoRooz Sweets!

Saffron Almond Diamonds

Nan-e Nokhodchi (chickpea flour cookies)

Sohan As-Ali

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Vegan Eats & Treats!