Celebrating Spring

We are celebrating spring here. Its still cold out, and just so happened to snow on the first day of spring, but that makes it that much more important to celebrate. For the Persian New Year or Naw Ruz (new day), a fun tradition is to grow some sprouts of some kind or sabzi to welcome in spring. We grew some lintel sprouts and took our cues from this really nice persian blog Turmeric and Saffron. It was our first try, and I think it turned out very well. After the sprouts have enough green they can be placed on a Haft-Seen table (7 s's). Most of the things on the table begin with a seen or s in farsi and represent specific things for the new year. Below are pictures of our sabzi growing and the final product. Enjoy and Happy Spring!

Ghormeh Sabzi (A whole lot of herbs persian stew)

The wonderful thing about Persian food is its always healthy, its always delicious and its almost always based on onion and turmeric. Once you understand that onion and turmeric are essential, you can cook amazing Persian cuisine. Ghormeh Sabzi is such a wonderfully delicious stew. Its fragrant and nutritious. There are different variations, but here's how we made it.

Key ingredients for this dish are a bushel or two of coriander (cilantro) and bushel (or two) of parsley and a bunch of green onions.

Ghormeh Sabzi

1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
1 tsp. turmeric
1 lb. stewing beef
1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
1 bushel parsley, finely chopped
1 bushel coriander (cilantro), finely chopped

juice from one lemon or lime

1-2 dried persian limes, leemoo-amoneee (these are optional but are a really nice touch)
1 can red kidney beans

Method

1. Saute the onion over medium-high heat in oil and turmeric until golden brown. Add the stew meat. Cook until the meat is browned well on all sides.
2. Add the greens to the meat & onion mixture, stirring well. Add 1.5 - 2 cups of water (this is just an estimation to get it to a stew consistency, not a soup consistency). Season with salt & pepper to taste. Add the lemon juice, turn the heat down, and let the whole thing simmer. The longer the better as stews only get better flavour the longer they stew together.
3. Add the dried lemons towards the end of the cooking period (if added too soon, the stew may become bitter).
4. Finally, add the drained kidney beans.
   
   
   This stew is supposed to be a bit sour. Its so delicious and refreshing.

Serve with rice.