Vienna native enters Hell's Kitchen armed with a passion for cooking - Tysons Reporter

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Vienna native enters Hell's Kitchen armed with a passion for cooking - Tysons Reporter

Vienna native enters Hell's Kitchen armed with a passion for cooking - Tysons Reporter

Posted: 25 May 2021 08:00 AM PDT

When the new season of the FOX cooking competition series Hell's Kitchen premieres next Monday, Vienna native Brynn Gibson will be one of 18 chefs competing for the title. This season's theme is "Young Guns," meaning the chefs were all 24 years old or younger at the time of filming.

Gibson grew up in Vienna, just a bike ride away from Tysons. Her love of cooking stems from seeing how food brought her family and friends together and how it creates a very personal connection between the chef and the customer.

"When we'd eat lunch at school and stuff, we would all sit together, and I saw that food has the power to bring people together," Gibson told Tysons Reporter. "And that was something that I deeply cared about, just being able to share a part of myself through my food with other people, because I think it's a very personal way of sharing, you know, almost intimately with other people."

Gibson's path to Hell's Kitchen started in a Facebook group, where she was discovered by a recruiter for the show. After some skepticism, she agreed to audition. She is now grateful she took the opportunity, summing up her experience on the show as "life-changing."

"Not in the sense of the rewards and everything," she clarified. "It was just being in such a high-intensity environment, and everyone was so passionate, especially Chef Ramsay…That was kind of my 'make it or break it' moment, and it really helped me focus on the fact that this is something that I want to do for my career and for the rest of my life."

Gibson is a self-taught cook, aside from a few cooking classes in Vienna when she was 12. Before the show, she had worked as a prep cook, but with just a couple of years of college experience under her belt, she admits feeling "extremely intimidated" before filming, since she had to quickly adapt to new situations, such as running a brigade system.

Part of that intimidation also came from internationally renowned chef and Hell's Kitchen host Gordon Ramsey, who is as known for his tempermental, profane media persona as his cooking.

"I was extremely intimidated by him just because he exuded this passion," Gibson said. "But after the initial intimidation, I was in awe constantly when I was around him just because he exuded this greatness and this excellence and this…love for the craft."

Since the show filmed in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, Gibson has been focused on pursuing her passion in Providence, Rhode Island. She opened her own business called The Dumpling Den in 2020 and runs a blog called The Nugget Box.

"I made dumplings here and there," Gibson said. "And more recently, with this whole pandemic situation, I decided to leave one of my jobs in the industry and pursue [my passion] full time. I've been doing pop-ups in downtown Providence, and it's been amazing."

Gibson says that, thanks to the "Young Guns" theme, she has been able to cultivate friendships with other chefs who are also starting their own businesses right now, and they have been able to lean on each other for support.

"It was just so amazing to be able to be around a bunch of young people that were just as passionate as I was, and I am still in contact with a couple of them," said Gibson. "And having that support system and seeing how everyone is doing is just amazing."

Hell's Kitchen: Young Guns will premiere on Monday, May 31 at 8 p.m. on FOX.

Photo via Michael Becker/FOX

More Grill and Outdoor Cooking Tips for All Year Round - Zip06.com

Posted: 26 May 2021 05:00 AM PDT

While some of us save grilling for summer fun, there are many others who love to cook outdoors all year round, no matter the weather. There are also plenty of folks out there with strong opinions about charcoal briquettes versus lump charcoal and the right kind of seasoning to use on meat, and there is complete consensus on this point: never use a wire bristle brush to clean the grill. Read all about that below.

Also, here are some of our favorite grill recipes and tips from our archives, follow the links, or visit zip06.com and search on the headline of the story:

• Use an instant read thermometer for chicken: Nibbles: Instant Read Thermometer

• Vegetable lettuce wraps with grilled veggies: A Feast with Friends, Prepared on the Grill

• Rack of lamb on the grill: Sunny and Mild and Time to Break out the Grill

• For burger bliss, maybe skip the grill: Ultimate Burger, Revisited

• Foil wrapped chicken enchiladas on the grill: In the Mood

• How to create the ultimate outdoor patio: Creating the Ultimate Backyard Patio

• Shrimp and scallop boil foil packet, bacon bourbon baked beans, and Michele's Steak on a Stick: Celebrate the Fourth of July with a Backyard Barbecue

Here are some tips and tricks from our readers:

 

• Don't use a wire bristle grill brush: "If you use a stainless steel or brass wire brush to remove stuck-on food from grill grates, be aware of this surprising downside: Small, sharp bristles can break off as you're cleaning and get stuck to your grill's cooking surface. The next time you grill, those stray bristles may adhere to food and be accidentally ingested. An estimated 1,700 Americans went to an emergency room between 2002 and 2014 after having ingested wire bristles in grilled food, according to a study published in 2016 in the journal Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. One in four of those with grill brush injuries had to be admitted to the hospital."—Mary Elliott, Madison, citing <URL destination="https://ift.tt/3fmiKYD Reports

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• The kids got me a wood-fired Ooni pizza oven for Christmas, and it's my favorite thing. So far, I've only used it for great pizza, but there are directions for roasting and smoking meat. I think it's going to be my new outdoor cooker. Easier to clean than a grill. And you can clean up the fallen sticks from your yard to fuel dinner.—Colleen Shaddox, East Haddam

 

• We grill year round, as long as it isn't torrential rain, an ice storm, or a hurricane. If we can get to the grill, we grill. We grill very simply. Proteins are seasoned with salt and pepper usually. I have a pork chop recipe I use often: We like to get really thick chops—over an inch—and brine them for 8 to 12 hours. We grill over direct heat until well seared then move off direct heat and cover the grill to finish them. Extra moist, very flavorful.—Ed Thereault, East Haddam

 

• I grill all year long, and use the smoker as well. I use lump charcoal, never briquettes, and never use lighter fluid. Use a stack starter with newspaper. You can add soaked wood chips on charcoal grills. Season all meats at least one hour before grilling. Try McCormick Montreal Steak or Montreal Poultry. That is a really good "during the week and had a long day at work" one. Sometimes a nice kosher salt and fresh ground pepper is all you need. Pork and beef can be seasoned the day before, and wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, put on a plate, and refrigerated. Bring steaks to room temperature before grilling to control the level of doneness.—Edwin Williams Bartlett, formerly of Guilford, now from New Hartford

 

• I love my Weber Genesis grill. I do mostly meat and veggies, but I also love stone fruit on the grill.—Lee White, Groton, food columnist for Shore Publishing and zip06.com

 

• For the past 15 years or so my job at Thanksgiving was to do the turkey on my gas grill and making the gravy on the side burner. It frees up the oven for the side dishes, and keeps me out of the bustle of all that's going on.—Charles Hedge, Deep River

 

• I have a Weber gas grill and two Weber charcoal-burning kettles. I barbecue year-round. The "quicker" items like steaks, burgers, sausages, and seafood are done on the gas grill, and the heftier meats (ribs, whole chickens, brisket, roasts) go in the kettles for slow, smoked roasting, usually in conjunction with various rubs. Kingsford charcoal works just fine for me, as it did for my father back in the 1960s. Here's a simple recipe for grilled shrimp, Greek-style: 1 pound 16- to 20-count extra jumbo raw shrimp; ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil;and 2 to 3 tablespoons dried oregano. Preheat a gas grill for 10 minutes. Peel the raw shrimp and place in a mixing bowl. Pour the olive oil over the shrimp and mix with spoons until thoroughly coated. Alternately mix and sprinkle oregano over the shrimp until evenly distributed. Place the shrimp on metal or wooden skewers, piercing each shrimp twice on the skewer for extra stability. Grill the shrimp for 4 minutes on one side, then 3 minutes on the other side, turning carefully. Remove from grill and let cool for a few minutes. Serve with yellow rice or other aromatic rice. Serves 3 to 4.—Mike Urban, Old Saybrook

 

• I grill all year long. Always had a Weber. It's the first thing I shovel out during a snowstorm.—Susanna Maresca Bakula, originally from North Haven, now from Madison

 

• I grill all year long. Our grill master has boots and a parka, or an umbrella and raincoat. Whatever the weather. Bacon on the grill is awesome for the weekends.—Catherine Flynn Donovan, Madison

 

• We grill year round, and are wimpy in that it's gas. I use it to make hot pepper relish, which if I make it indoors, renders the house unlivable, so I'm forced outside. Outside of that, we're pretty normal in our use. Too bad there aren't any active colliers in Madison anymore, I guess that last ones gave it up in the 1920s...that would make for an unusual story. At least there are a bunch of their old abandoned fireplaces scattered through the woods.—Charlie Shafer, Madison

 

• A thick cast iron Lodge brand paella pan is essential for us! It lives out on the grill. We use it for smash burgers and anything else requiring a good sear. The advantage of grilling outdoors is, you can get cast iron pans screaming hot and not fill the house with smoke.—Alix Provence, originally from Madison

• A cast iron pan is good for cooking fish outside on the grill as well.—Lori Berg Schroeder, Madison

 

• We have a Simpsons collectible version of the large charcoal burning Weber. It's over 20 years old. We use Kingsford charcoal most times. It always available and it always works well, lasts through some major grilling adventures...We use a metal starting chimney...People come from all over for my hamburgers...they are thick, made from good meat, with a sprinkle of Tony Chachery's Cajun spices and deli cheddar. I also make grilled portobello mushrooms, marinated in minced onion, garlic, black pepper, salt, and red pepper flakes.—Lorain Ohio Simister, Clinton

 

• We don't use our Big Green Egg in winter, but do regularly grill in our living room fireplace.—Stephen Davis, Madison

No-Cook Cooking: Take some re-entry dining advice from pandemic pets - The Daily Progress

Posted: 25 May 2021 03:00 PM PDT

As more people are taking their hungry, newly vaccinated selves into reopened restaurants, we're all realizing that we're more out of practice than we expected.

If you've ventured back into the world of indoor dining already, you may have noticed that the sizzle of a fajita on its way from the kitchen is a symphony. It's lovely to be back. But if you're settling into your physically distanced seat and feeling momentarily rattled by the noise, the movement and all those people, take heart — and find some encouragement in the life lessons our pets have taught us during the pandemic.

For more than a year now, we've been eating most, if not all, of our meals next to the cats and dogs who crashed our Zoom work meetings, snored audibly during important phone calls and kept us warm while we typed late into the night. And while few of us were able to adopt some of our pets' more enviable maneuvers — 15-hour catnaps, anyone? — many of us may have gotten a little too comfortable in an insular world in which table manners didn't matter and spills got lapped up before they hit the floor.

Eating with, and in front of, other humans is a skill we need to snap back into as quickly as possible, whether we're in a chef's dining room or a friend's breakfast nook. It's worth it for the renewal of tribal bonds that we missed more than we're willing to admit.

The same dogs and cats who gleefully enabled your etiquette erosion can offer inspiration for getting your polite-society groove back. Their advice may be just what we need to get back out there after a long year of sit and stay.

Advice from the felines:

■You're never too dignified for zoomies. Ever marveled at the way your cat converts dinner nutrition into 3 a.m. circuit training? Cats and dogs both excel at overnight "zoomies," but cats tend to include more off-the-floor parkour elements. Knocking items off dressers and climbing the curtains and screaming might not be your thing, but if the day-shift friends you've missed hanging out with want to go for a bike ride or a twilight walk after dinner has settled, by all means, go.

The days are getting longer, so there's more daylight time for recharging. Consider eating dinner a little earlier and going out to play instead of scheduling snacks throughout the evening to muffle unacknowledged loneliness. If you're ready to put last year's stress behind you, miniature golf with your pals might burn off more than just calories.

■Have mouse, will travel. If your cat starts bringing you toys and staring at you, he might be inviting you to play — or he might believe he is providing for you. During my late husband's illness, I could get a quick sense of how his day had gone while I was at work by counting the catnip toys that our cats had piled in front of his chair.

Consider that your cat may be encouraging you to accept his loving care, eat a little something and perk up — and think of the people in your life who could use a boost right about now. A friend who's having a rough time at the moment might appreciate a basket of food that you've cooked or assembled, so reach out and ask. Depending on your friend's needs and wishes, a meal could be left on a doorstep at an agreed-upon time, or enjoyed together if your friend is hungry for conversation and connection. Even a snack of coffee and cookies could fill you both after a lean and lonely year.

■ Whenever you hear the can opener, come running. Although you've been honing some impressive kitchen skills since so many restaurants had to close their doors, there still will be times when heating or assembling fits your schedule better than cooking.

Keep a few cans of the ravioli you loved eating on childhood teacher workdays in your pantry for the night you're cranking out quarterly reports or the afternoon you're feeling the day-after side effects of that second dose of vaccine. And when you simply want to catch up with a good friend, neither of you needs to worry about fancy feasting; one of you can open soup cans while the other pops some bread into the toaster.

And from the canines:

■ If you eat your chow quickly enough, you won't have to worry about what it tastes like. If eating became a utilitarian pursuit while you were working from home or juggling extra shifts in your frontline role, some of the niceties may have gone out the window. Are you bolting your food down like your beagle bestie? Eating meals at the keyboard with barely a pause? No wonder stress bothers your stomach more these days — and no wonder you can't remember at dinnertime what you had for lunch.

Dogs sometimes eat as if there's no tomorrow, which is not a good look for humans dining in public. Remind yourself to slow down. Savor your entrée and give thanks for the hands that prepared and served it. You deserve to enjoy your meal, and a mindful approach can help build back what the past year has carved away.

■ Never ignore growling. If you're planning a post-vaccination day trip with your friends, have a decent breakfast before you leave home. If you'll be hiking all morning before lunch, tuck a granola bar in your pocket. Hangry is never a good look, and it can seem downright childish outdoors. If your stomach is growling, the next stop is a snarl, so fuel up and don't ruin the day for your friends.

■ Never turn down a french fry from a toddler. Have you ever noticed the expression in a dog's eyes when she accepts food offered by a small child? It's more than just the sense of accomplishment of getting past an adult's "no" over the same item. She is aware that her family's furless puppy is learning about hospitality, welcome and care. And she's honored that said puppy is reaching out to nourish her. Accepting that french fry represents honoring pack order while getting away with something.

Anything served with great love is delicious. If someone is offering to cook dinner for you, go. Cooking and eating are bonding rituals, and your dog wants you to know that appreciating the pack is more than just good manners. Don't worry about needing a haircut first to smooth out the raggedy results of that YouTube unicorn ponytail trim; at this point, we all need a spa day at the groomer.

What matters is that you've been honored with an invitation from someone who wants to break bread with you across a table rather than a screen. Give thanks that you have someone in your life who wants to nourish you. Just go. And be fed.

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My brothers can cook - The Michigan Daily

Posted: 25 May 2021 12:23 PM PDT

I can't cook. I've done everything from having the contents of my blender explode on me in the kitchen to burning something so badly that the smoke alarm went off. Instead, I heavily leech off of my family's cooking because if it weren't for them, my diet would consist only of Maggi noodles, the South Asian equivalent to instant ramen.

I'm lucky: I grew up eating my mother's homemade Indian food every day, and I would get the opportunity to observe her in the kitchen working her magic. She would flip anything on the stove with her bare hands from tortillas to chapatis, you name it. 

As a kid, I wanted to learn to cook like my mother, so I would do what I could to help. Granted, it wasn't much, but sometimes I would cut a vegetable, mix a curry or add the spices. What I never noticed was my brothers helping out in the kitchen. They were always playing video games, watching YouTube videos or just sluggishly laying in bed. I didn't mind though; the kitchen was emptier and allowed us to work more efficiently. 

However, that drive to learn stopped one day. I couldn't tell you at what exact age it was, but I do remember I was fairly young, most likely before my teenage years. I was helping my mother in the kitchen and without skipping a beat, she nonchalantly commented, "It's good that you're learning to cook early, that way you'll find a husband easily once you're older." She chuckled afterward and kept preparing dinner like nothing was wrong. She didn't even bat an eye toward me.

Her sarcastic tone made it seem like it wasn't a comment she meant for me to take seriously. But even before I became, as I've been told, "an extreme feminazi," that comment didn't sit right with me. Since when did my ability to cook gauge how easily I'll be able to find a husband? It didn't add up for me.  

My teenage years came around and I knew I needed to sharpen my skills in the kitchen since I did not want to rely on my mother to have food on the table. I told her I wanted to make the family dinner one day, and for her to teach me something simple. She taught me how to make a potato curry, which is a fairly simple dish, and she said that all I had to do was fry some potatoes on the stove and once they become crispy, add all of the spices necessary. Wanting to feel like an independent adult, I shooed my mother away from the kitchen to her room upstairs so I could work alone. When you're harnessing a new skill, it's normal to make mistakes, which is what happened when I accidentally burned the curry. The potatoes kept sticking to the bottom of the pan, and that's when a wave of panic hit me. I forgot to add oil beforehand. I hopelessly added oil while the potatoes were cooking, fiddling with the knob on the stove, turning down the heat in hopes the potatoes would soften up and become easier to scrape off, but that made things worse. I started flailing my arms everywhere, spatula in hand, sweat drenching my forehead. My heart was racing at the thought of my mom coming downstairs and yelling at me for ruining dinner. After I finally managed to scrape off the potatoes, they were burnt to a crisp and pitch black in color. The whole house reeked of a smoky odor and the potato curry wasn't edible, so I had to toss it. I was sad, of course, it felt like I ruined dinner. My mother wasn't mad, though. She calmly looked over my shoulder and acted accordingly by whipping up some yogurt rice for dinner.  Soothed by this comfort dish, I was starting to feel less upset until another snarky comment was made, this time from my father. 

"Who's going to marry you if you can't even make potato curry?"

This also wasn't a comment I was meant to take seriously, since my father smugly grinned whilst making that remark. But in the heat of that moment, it didn't feel like a joke. The "feminazi" side of me kicked in as the comment cut me deep. I'm trying to learn a life skill and all these folks can think about is how much marriage material I am? They didn't even bother teaching my brothers how to cook; instead, they just constantly heaped their plates with more food. With a burning sensation smoldering on my face, I angrily convinced myself that I should just stop learning how to cook since that seemed like the only way to escape comments like these. 

I wish those were the only two comments that were thrown my way, but unfortunately they weren't. All throughout high school, my grandparents, aunts, mom's friends and sometimes even my own friends would not even ask me if I knew how to cook, but rather what I could cook. I always responded with, "I'm not that good, so I let Amma do all the cooking." And I always received the response, "You don't cook? How are you going to get married?" Except this time, these folks weren't joking when they asked, as was evident by their concerned, stone cold facial expressions. These same individuals never asked my brothers what they knew to cook. They never even asked my brothers if they knew how to cook. It seemed like they only cared about what my brothers liked to eat. 

Though my brothers were never taught to cook by my mother like I was, they still manage to put food on the table for themselves. There was one incident I remember during my senior year of high school: I was out with my parents and my younger brother was left home alone. It was late by the time my parents and I got home, but when we walked into the kitchen, we found a stack of homemade burger patties. My brother must've heard us as he immediately came downstairs saying, "No, don't eat those!"

"Why not?"

"I mixed up the spices, I put sambar powder instead of red chilli powder. They looked the same so I got confused. I mean, you guys can try it but I'm warning you."

Forget the fact that he mixed up two resembling spices — he put together a whole burger patty all by himself. I'd never even seen him step foot in the kitchen and now he's making burgers? My jaw was on the floor. I asked him, "Where did you learn to make this?" He shrugged, "I just googled it."

He started making more and more food all by himself. He started pouring his own dosa batter onto the stove, making perfectly shaped dosas. His chapatis were perfectly round. His grilled cheese sandwiches were never burnt. One day, he even made tomato chutney all by himself without a written recipe, as my mom's brief verbal explanation was enough. Of course, sometimes he messed up. Sometimes he would burn something or, as mentioned earlier, mix up two spices. But that didn't matter. There were no snarky comments made when he messed up. Nobody asked him how he was going to get married. There was none of that. Instead, when he made something tasty, he was met with comments like, "Wow! Whoever marries you will be so lucky!" 

I had a similar experience that summer when my older brother hosted my younger brother and me at his home in California. That was the first time I saw him cook, and the food he made tasted fantastic. He learned to cook of his own volition and found comfort in recreating his favorite family recipes. Every phone call he had with my mother always ended with her giving him a new recipe to try or convincing him to get an Instant Pot. After coming home, I told some of my friends how good his cooking was, but again, I was met with, "Wow, his future wife is going to be so lucky." Again, though my older brother is talented in the kitchen, nobody pushed him to practice this skill. The reactions my brothers get are not the same reactions I get. On the rare occasion that I do end up trying to make something and it turns out tasty, I don't receive any praise. 

It's not that I'm asking for praise or anything like that, but it feels like an expectation for me to be good at cooking, and for my brothers, it can be a fun side hobby. Many women in today's society, not just in the South Asian community, feel that cooking is an obligation, rather than a life skill. My friends have similar experiences to mine. Some have been explicitly told that it is the woman's job to cook for the husband and family and to always have a meal ready for them after work. There are even memes about the idea that you won't get married unless you can cook well. It's been ingrained in many of us that cooking is a "feminine" skill, which in turn discourages men from cooking. This thought process affects us in our day-to-day lives — I know some men who refuse to or are even discouraged from cooking for themselves since they are told that it's "not their job" and that it's "girly" to want to cook. Some women I know are genuinely afraid that they won't get married because their cooking is not the best. 

My friends and I constantly hear comments like, "No one will marry you unless your rotis are round," or "No one will marry you unless you can make chai." These remarks make us feel the need to defy this narrative, and we do so not by introducing the idea of cooking as a "feminine" skill or as a part of a homemaker's craft, but as a basic survival skill, something everyone should learn to do. Teaching our generation of friends and family that cooking is meant for everyone, not just women and homemakers, helps us shut remarks like these down for good, and can encourage men like my brothers to practice and perfect their cooking skills. One day, they may even be able to teach me to become a better cook — how to chop vegetables as fast as our mother does, how to gauge how much spice to put in a dish and remind me to put oil in the pan before the potatoes when making potato curry.

MiC Columnist Smarani Komanduri can be contacted at smaranik@umich.edu

Get Cooking: The basics of Persian or Iranian cuisine - The Denver Post

Posted: 25 May 2021 09:41 AM PDT

Is the more correct term "Persian cuisine" or "Iranian cuisine"?

Yes.

It's still a quandary. We go to Persian restaurants, not "Iranian" ones. People from Iran call themselves and most everything about them "Iranian." There's no place on a modern map marked "Persia." Like its history, much about Persia, er, Iran, is fluid. (I'll mostly reference Persia here.)

But there is no mistaking that Persia has given the globe both significant foodstuffs and their cooking. Going back 4,000 years, when scribes there recorded recipes on clay tablets in cuneiform, Persia has had a massive influence on all the cuisines of the Middle East and, through them (especially via Arab conquests) into all of Mediterranean Europe and, looking eastward, on the cuisines of Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

Many of the foods that we associate with India—biryani, naan, garam masala, pilaf and kebab—are originally Persian. Persia gave the world of food saffron, the pomegranate, spinach and (get this, hundreds of years ago) almond milk. Almond milk! Rosewater and the edible parts of the rose (petals, rosehips and buds) originated in Persia and are commonly consumed there today.

In the days of the Great Silk Road, Persia acted as a sort of hub airport for the diffusion of the lemon, the orange and the eggplant. Of all foods for which it has been a conduit, rice (from China of course) is the most significant in its own contemporary cooking.

The Iranian ways with rice are legion, but of two general sorts, as "chelow" or plain rice and as "polow" or rice cooked with (it appears, from many recipes) anything else edible. The three-stage way of cooking all rice dishes—rinsing and soaking, then boiling, then steaming—assures rice that is cooked like flavored air, light and dry.

A crowning achievement for any cook is the golden crust often formed at the bottom of a skillet or pan of rice called tahdig (tah-DEEG). I have heard from an Iranian friend that, while to be sure some food may be left uneaten at a particular but always-lavish Persian feast or celebration, he has never left a table and observed a piece of leftover tahdig.

Another signature of Persian cooking is the use of an unholy amount of herbs. (In the recipes given here, the measurements in "cups" are not a misprint.) The profligacy of dill, parsley, cilantro, basil, tarragon, marjoram or oregano and other herbs make for heavily scented but lightly treading foods.

In truth, nearly every meal in Iran is accompanied by a platter of such fresh herbs as the centerpiece, along with radishes and scallions, with any number of flatbreads made of wheat and likely a dip centered in yogurt, another Persian mainstay (and, it is claimed, another gift to the culinary world).

Whether Persia gave the globe yogurt is too difficult to ascertain, this being the simplest of "prepared" foods (yogurt is likely the most ancient of kitchen accidents for it is no more than spoiled milk). Persia should be happiest that it gave us almond milk. What would today's eater do without almond milk?

A Persian herb frittata (kuku sabzi) fresh from the oven. (Bill St. John, Special to The Denver Post)

Herbed Frittata with Walnuts (Kuku Sabzi)

Adapted from Louisa Shafia, "The New Persian Kitchen" (10 Speed Press) and Samin Nosrat, "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" (Simon & Schuster). From the Shafia recipe, I omit the ingredient of rose petals which are difficult to come by for the regular cook. However, a very light hand-sprinkling of rosewater on each serving and its plate will add at least some of the scent. Makes 1; serves 6-8.

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons grapeseed oil
  • 2 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter)
  • 1/2 cup finely ground walnuts
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 cups loosely packed fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
  • 2 cups loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems, finely chopped
  • 1 cup loosely packed fresh dill fronds and tender stems, finely chopped
  • 1 medium leek, white and light green parts only, rinsed and finely chopped
  • 1 bunch scallions, green and white parts, finely chopped
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 9 eggs, whisked

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Heat a 12-inch ovenproof non-stick skillet (for example, well-seasoned cast iron) over medium heat. Add the oil and ghee, followed by the walnuts and garlic and cook for a few minutes until the ingredients start to release their fragrance. Add the herbs and scallions and cook for about 2 minutes, until wilted. Turn off the heat and season with salt and pepper. Let the pan cool for a few minutes, then gently stir in the eggs.
  3. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake for 15-18 minutes, until the center of the frittata springs back when lightly pressed. To unmold, loosen the edge with a butter knife and invert onto a serving platter. Serve hot or cold.

Yogurt and Cucumber Soup

Adapted from Najmieh Batmanglij, "The Food of Life," 25th anniversary edition 2021 (Mage Publishers). I omit the ingredient of rose petals which are difficult to come by for the regular cook. However, a very light hand-sprinkling of rosewater atop each serving will add at least some of the scent. Serves 4-6.

Ingredients

  • 1 long, seedless cucumber, peeled and diced
  • 1/2 cup green raisins
  • 3 cups plain whole-milk Greek-style yogurt
  • 1 cup water
  • 2-3 ice cubes
  • 1/4 cup chopped spring onions
  • 2 tablespoons each, chopped: fresh dill, fresh oregano, fresh tarragon
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and grated
  • 1/4 cup shelled walnuts, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • For garnish: 1/4 teaspoon dried mint, 1 tablespoon green raisins, toasted lavosh or pita bread broken into 1-inch pieces, as croutons

Directions

  1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except the salt and pepper and garnishes and stir thoroughly. Season with the salt and pepper, remembering that this soup will be served cold so it may require additional salt, to taste.
  2. Cover and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes before serving. Garnish servings (in pre-chilled bowls) with the dried mint, raisins and flatbread croutons.


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