Meat Week (day one)

Last night some friends came over for dinner. My buddy Robert, who is a Vegan, decided that he was going to have Meat Week start yesterday. He does this every once in a while, maybe once in a year. He eats meat, which he doesn't eat normally. I thought that I should make some Ghormeh Sabzi to begin his week of excesses - It's good! I made this for the first time ever last night. I had it again for lunch today. Essentially this is a bunch of green herbs cooked with onion, meat, and dried lemons. I will break it down for you.

1 lb of meat (lamb if you are serious, beef or even chicken would also work, I used beef)

1/4 cup of oil

large onion (sliced)

can of kidney beans

3 garlic cloves (minced)

4-6 dried lemons

salt & pepper to taste

3 cups of dried Ghormeh Sabzi herbs or you could make it your self by chopping up 1.5 cups of spinach, 1/2 cup of parsley, 1/4 cup of coriander, 1/4 cup of garlic chives, 1/4 cup of fenugreek. You want to end up with about 3 cups of finely chopped green stuff. If you have kids, just buy the herb pack and simplify your life.

rice (washed and soaked for an hour or two)

oil

potato (sliced thin)

How to: Soak the herbs in water for about a half hour. Remove from water and press out extra liquid. Set aside. Cut your meat into small bit size pieces. Add oil to deep pan or wok and heat it up, add in garlic and onion and fry till golden. Add in meat and fry till it is not red anymore, basically you want to sear the sides of the meat, but you don't have to cook it all the way through. Salt and pepper it. Add your herbs that you set aside earlier and saute for a minute or so. Add in about 2 cups of broth (beef, chicken or veg - I used beef). Bring to simmer and add in the lemons. This all needs to simmer for about 30 minutes. Add in the kidney beans and simmer for another 15 minutes. You also can slice open the lemons so that they release a little bit more flavor to the dish. If you have and extra hour just keep it on the stove and let it simmer, if you have kids that are going crazy, slice the lemons to save time.

For the rice, cook to a boil and then simmer for till the rice is firm, but not crunchy. Make sure you add plenty of salt while it is cooking. Blanch with cold water to stop the rice from cooking any more and to wash off the excess salt. Put oil to cover the bottom of a non-stick pot, add your sliced potatoes to the pot and then put the rice over the top. Add a little more oil and turn up the heat. You want to steam the rice now. I like to bring the heat up till I see steam coming from the covered pot, then turn it down to simmer. After maybe 30 minutes, the potato is a golden brown and the rice is prefect.

Serve the Ghormeh Sabzi over rice. Watch out for the lemons though, they are tart! After dinner you should step outside and watch the sun set.

This dish is great the next day for lunch as all the herbs and lemons have had more time to release their flavors into the dish.