Persian scrambled eggs with dill (panir bereshteh)

After "discovering" this wonderful Persian beetroot and yogurt borani recipe, I was hungry for more Persian recipes. Browsing the FoodBlogSearch results and using Google gave me plenty of ideas for diversifying my family's diet during the coming weeks. One dish that really caught my eye was "Persian feta omelette" that's apparently a real hit at byblos le petit café - a favourite Persian brunch location in Montreal, Canada. As we have a ready supply off fresh eggs from our four chickens, I'm always willing to try new egg recipes, and this feta omelette fit the bill nicely.


Fluffy, one of our two Orpingtons, on a walk 

I didn't have an exact recipe, instead I took inspiration from here and there (see some links at the bottom of this post). I call it Persian scrambled eggs with feta as opposed to Persian feta omelette, as, well, this is how I make scrambled eggs and not an omelette :) By blitzing the eggs with feta cheese first guarantees you have a uniform feta-egg mixture, and every bite you take tastes of the lovely feta cheese, as well as the farm-fresh eggs.

Serve with a selection of flat and soft white breads, or on top of - or between - toasted sliced bread.

Persian scrambled eggs with feta cheese
Serves two to three



4 large eggs
200 g soft feta cheese
freshly ground white or black pepper
a pinch of oregano or marjoram

fresh dill, to garnish

Place the eggs and the feta into the beaker of your hand-held/immersion blender and blitz until combined. Season with pepper and a pinch of oregano or marjoram.
Lightly oil a heavy-bottomed omelet pan.
Pour the egg mixture into the cold pan and place the pan onto a hob over a medium-low heat. Heat gently and slowly, stirring with a wooden spatula or spoon, until the eggs are scrambled, yet soft and creamy.
Remove the pan from the heat, transfer the eggs into a serving dish. Garnish with chopped dill and serve at once.  

More about Persian feta omelette/omelet: 
Cooking and Cooking (recipe for Panir Bereshteh)
Julie's "Eating Project" blog (see photo no 5)
She Said (same recipe/photo in the Australian Herald Sun)
Cheese contest @ Canadian Living

Beetroot borani recipe (borani chogondar)

Any regular reader of Nami-Nami has noticed the respectable number of beetroot recipes on this blog. My friend Alanna of A Veggie Venture blog even calls me "Beet Princess" (she reserved the title of Beet Queen to herself, and indeed, her list of beetroot recipes is pretty impressive, too :)

Here's my latest discovery among beetroot recipes. I was browsing Sam and Sam Clark's latest book, MORO EAST, and this Persian dish caught my eye. Borani is a general term for yogurt-based vegetable "salads" and dips in Persian cuisine. We really enjoyed this, eating it with simple oven-baked potato wedges on our sunny patio. It'd work well on a meze/mezze board with some toasted flatbread, or alongside some grilled or fried fish, oven-roasted lamb or even grilled chicken. It's extremely versatile, as you can imagine.

I will surely be making this borani chogondar again over the summer (I loved the colour!!!), perhaps alongside the spinach version (borani esfanaaj) and the aubergine/eggplant version (borani bademjan).

Make it at least a few hours in advance, so the flavours can develop.

If you're a fellow beet lover, you may want to check out the Beautiful Beet Recipes Pinterest board, where you'll find 100+ great pins leading you to some wonderful foodbloggers' recipes. If you'd love to contribute to that board, then just leave your Pinterest handle in the comments and I'll send you an invite!

Beet Borani
(Peedi-borani)
Serves 6 to 8 
Based on Sam & Sam Clark's recipe, with some modifications



500 g young beets
400 g thick/strained Greek/Turkish/Persian yoghurt
1 large garlic clove (crush to a paste with a generous pinch of salt)
a pinch of sugar
a small bunch of fresh dill, finely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a splash of wine vinegar or lemon juice, to taste

To garnish:
100 g feta cheese, crumbled
a small handful of walnuts, chopped
a sprinkling of nigella seeds (also known as black Kalonji onion seeds)
a few dill fronds

Scrub the beets, but don't peel them. Place into a boiling water and simmer for 1-1,5 hours, until cooked. Drain and cool and peel, then cut into chunks and place into a food processor.
(Note that you can also roast the beets, or, in a hurry, use boiled un-vinegared beets).
Process the beets, then add the yogurt, crushed garlic and a pinch of sugar, process again until smooth.
Add  the chopped dill, then season to taste with salt, pepper and vinegar/lemon juice.
Transfer onto a serving bowl, cover with clingfilm and put into the fridge for a few hours so the flavours can mingle.
When ready to serve, garnish with crumbled feta, chopped walnuts and some dill fronds. Sprinkle black nigella seeds on top.

 

See other beetroot borani recipes: 
Smoke and Umami
Café Leilee
The Salty Pear
Liz Z  (Liz uses mint to flavour her borani)
Chef Yusuf

Persian Lamb and Rhubarb Stew

I love rhubarb. I've just checked my Flickr photostream and it seems that I've made no less than seven rhubarb cakes, six different rhubarb puddings, one type of jam and one drink during the last few weeks alone. But I was determined to try something savoury as well, so I combined this BBC Good Food recipe and this Delicious magazine recipe (they're remarkably similar, aren't they?), and made this Persian lamb stew.

Not sure this is my favourite new way of serving lamb, but it's definitely a nice and different recipe for using rhubarb. Frying of the herbs in butter is essential for the success of this recipe, as the flavour and aroma of fried parsley and mint is rather special, so no skipping of that part!

Persian Lamb and Rhubarb Stew
(Pärsia lambahautis rabarbriga)
Serves 4 to 5

75 g butter, divided
1 Tbsp sunflower or rapeseed oil
2 large onions, halved and sliced
750 g lamb, chopped into cubes (I used the leg)
2 tsp ground coriander seeds
1 litre vegetable stock
salt
freshly ground black pepper
sugar or honey, to taste
20 g fresh parsley, chopped
3 Tbsp fresh mint, chopped
400 g rhubarb, cut into 1 inch lengths

Melt 25 g of butter in a heavy-based saucepan on a low-moderate heat. Add onions and saute for 10 minutes, until golden and softened. Put the onion aside.
Increase the heat to high and add the oil. Add about half of the cubed lamb and brown all over (about 5 minutes). Put the browned meat aside and brown the rest of the lamb.
Return all the meat and the onions to the saucepan, add coriander. Add enough hot stock to cover. Reduce the heat, cover the saucepan and simmer on a low heat for about an hour.
Season with salt and pepper.
Melt 25 g of butter in a small saucepan, add the chopped fresh herbs and fry, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Add the fried herbs to the meat and simmer for another 30 minutes.
Melt the rest of the butter and add chopped rhubarb. Saute for 3-5 minutes, until rhubarb is soft, but not mushy. (If the rhubarb is very sour, add about a tablespoonful or two of sugar or honey). Stir the rhubarb into the stew.
Taste for seasoning and serve with rice or couscous.

Similar posts:
Persian lamb stew with rhubarb and mint by Ariana @ And Here We Are ...
Persian lamb with rhubarb and chelow @ Australian Gourmet Traveller
Persian rhubarb stew by Azita @ Turmeric and Saffron
Persian lamb and rhubarb stew by Dani @ The Kitchen Playground
Persian lamb and rhubarb stew by Laszlo @ Chef de Paprika