Persian Noodle Soup // Ash-e Reshteh

Finally the fall season is here, oh .. I missed my summer time. Well, actually the weather still pleasant reached 70 F everyday, but we need a jacket to walk around off course. And this is a good time for soup :) to make you feel warm and healthy in the same time. So I chose Persian Noodle Soup, this soup is not look appetizing , but I tell you .. this soup is sooooo delicious and healthy. My daughter loves persian noodle soup, ahaa.. the easy way to feed her with vegetable. And don't forget spinach is a great choice to stay healthy.

According to my husband, Iranian loves to eat noodle soup for snacking ! oh.. not me or my daughter, this soup is a heavy soup, can fill you up for the rest of the day. If you decide to do some a little diet, just eat soup ... you wont be hungry anymore

Persian Noodle Soup // Ash-e Reshteh

Ingredients :

2 large onions, sliced thinly length wise

6-8 cloves of garlic, minced

1/3 cup chickpeas / garbanzo beans

1/3 cup navy beans

1/3 cup red beans

1/2 cup lentils

2 tsp turmeric

3 cups fresh parsley

2 cups fresh cilantro
1 cups fresh mint

20 springs of fresh chives or scallions ( green portion of scallions only)

1 1/2 lb baby spinach

2 oz reshteh - Persian noodle or substitute with linguine

1 tsp flour

salt & pepper for the taste

Garnish

1 large red onion, thinly sliced

2 tbsp dried mint

kashk, whey ( sour cream can be substituted for kashk)

Directions :

Soak beans for a few hours in water.

Sauté onion and garlic until translucent. Add chickpeas / garbanzo beans, red beans, and turmeric, salt, pepper. Sauté for a few minutes together.

Add 8 cups of water or stock . Season with salt, cover and cook for one hour.In the mean time rough chop all the herbs

Add lentils and herbs to pot. Cover and cook for another 1/2 hour on low. Stir the pot every so often during the cooking process

Break off noodle into three sections and add to the pot.

Add spinach.  Cook covered for another 1/2 hour. Make sure to stir the pot every so often.

Place flour in a small bowl. Take 3 tablespoons of the liquid from the soup and add to the flour

Mix well until there are no lumps. When adding flour to soups it is always a good idea to use this technique to ensure that there are no lumps in the soup.

Add water and flour to the soup. Adjust seasoning by adding salt. Cook for 1/2 hour longer on low. At this point your soup is ready as the beans should be cooked. You can further cook the soup to deepen the flavors, however, it must be on very low temperature, since this soup is very thick, chances are the bottom will stick.

For the garnish fry onions in oil. I have found that vegetable oil works best and the chances of burning the onions is much less. Once the onion turns translucent, lower the heat and allow for the onions to slowly caramelize

Once they have tuned into a golden color add dry mint and allow for the onions to crisp up. This takes about an hour from start to finish. It is best to prepare the garnish while cooking the soup .

Place soup in a bowl, add a pinch of fried onion to the center along with a dollop of sour cream if you like (or just skip like me :D )

Tips :

1. Since I have no patient with chopping vegetables especially cilantro and parsley, most the time I just put everything into the food processor, and voilaa... just a second, all the veggie chopped very nicely. 

2. Waiting for beans become tender is spend a lot of time, when I'm in rush i use can bean instead but add the beans near the end of the process so that they don't overcook

Chocolate Babka

what the h** Babka is ?? A very first time saw this cake or bread *hmm* it was at P* Bread Company, still confuse what the taste is so I bought 2 slices, what i can say that the taste is so damn good but a slice is way too much to me so yesterday I make my own Babka, and this morning i have a babka for breakfast. cost less than $7,5 !! I can make 2 loaves.

Babka is : described in many ways, and its origins tend to be obscured. Some say babka is a classic Czech coffee cake, while others call it a traditional Polish cake. What is known is that babka is a yeasted sweet cake, popular in most of Eastern Europe, which is flavored with rum, studded with raisins, and considered a traditional treat on Easter but why need to wait until easter LOL .. make now and you won't regret

you see, my daily breakfast usually starts at 11am ! just enjoy a quite morning *eerr.. not really quite since I can hear a bunch of kids playing around school playground close to my backyard :D and perhaps one of those kids is my daughter too.. but I love it, no complain .. especially with a slice of warm babka ? hmmm.. heaven

*I had trouble to put picture into the blog lately, so if you didn't see any picture especially the second pict.please just klik a little white dot above, the picture will comes. - I've been reporting this to admin of blogspot but no response so far .. :( *

Chocolate Babka (add Pecan - my way :D )

Recipe : Epicurious

For dough

3/4 cup warm milk (105–115°F)

1/2 cup plus 2 teaspoons sugar

3 teaspoons active dry yeast (from two 1/4-oz packages)

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for dusting

2 whole large eggs

1 large egg yolk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened

For egg wash

1 large egg yolk

1 tablespoon heavy cream or whole milk

For Pecan chocolate filling

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, well softened

2 (3 1/2- to 4-oz) bars fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (no more than 60% cacao if marked), finely chopped

1/4 cup sugar

Chopped Pecan or whatever nuts you like to add

Special equipment: a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment; 2 (8 3/4- by 4 1/2- by 2 3/4-inch) loaf pans; parchment paper

Preparation

Make dough:

Stir together warm milk and 2 teaspoons sugar in measure cup. Sprinkle yeast over mixture and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If yeast doesn't foam, discard and start over with new yeast.)

Pour the yeast mixture into mixer bowl add 1/2 cup flour to yeast mixture and beat at medium speed until combined. Add whole eggs, yolk, vanilla, salt, and remaining 1/2 cup sugar and beat until combined. Reduce speed to low, then mix in remaining 2 3/4 cups flour, about 1/2 cup at a time. Increase speed to medium, then beat in butter, a few pieces at a time, and continue to beat until dough is shiny and forms strands from paddle to bowl, about 4 minutes. (Dough will be very soft and sticky.)

Scrape dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. - hmmm.. I went to fabric store, and before i know it was already 3 hours spent time in the store and bring home a bunch of new fabrics *grin*

Assemble babkas with filling:

Line each loaf pan with 2 pieces of parchment paper (1 lengthwise and 1 crosswise).

Punch down dough with a lightly oiled rubber spatula, then halve dough. Roll out 1 piece of dough on a well-floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into an 18- by 10-inch rectangle and arrange with a long side nearest you.

Beat together yolk and cream. Spread 2 1/2 tablespoons softened butter on dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border all around. Brush some of egg wash on long border nearest you.

Sprinkle half of chocolate evenly over buttered dough, then sprinkle with half of sugar (2 tablespoons). Starting with long side farthest from you, roll dough into a snug log, pinching firmly along egg-washed seam to seal. Bring ends of log together to form a ring, pinching to seal. Twist entire ring twice to form a double figure 8 and fit into one of lined loaf pans.

Make another babka with remaining dough, some of egg wash, and remaining butter and chocolate in same manner. Chill remaining egg wash, covered, to use later. Loosely cover pans with buttered plastic wrap (buttered side down) and let babkas rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until dough reaches top of pans, 1 to 2 hours. (Alternatively, let dough rise in pans in refrigerator 8 to 12 hours; bring to room temperature, 3 to 4 hours, before baking.)

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.

Brush tops of dough with remaining egg wash. Bake until tops are deep golden brown and bottoms sound hollow when tapped (when loaves are removed from pans), about 40 minutes. Transfer loaves to a rack and cool to room temperature.

Babkas keep, wrapped in plastic wrap and then foil, frozen 3 weeks

old time memories..

Bring back my old time memories ! that what i try to do before eid fitri celebration coming this Tuesday - Insya Allah . My mom used to sew clothes for me and my sisters before eid clebration a very long time ago. Yup, she sew clothes for everybody , not only for us but for neighbor too.  She made money with her skill.  And a couple days before eid , she will be busy in the kitchen too .  She baked, she cooked , she prepared everything , the smell of cookies filled the air, sometime made us hungry and couldn't wait to taste .. to bad, we must to obey what she said, wait until fasting break.  And than she will give us a little amount of cookies to try and kept the rest for eid celebration day. Oh, that memory is always come to my mind especially during ramadan like this time.

Soon we will celebrate Eid fitri too, like my mom did , this time i do the same to my little one, i sewing a simple dress for her just to remind me how happy i was wear a new dress and walked around neighborhood. As you can guess, a fabric stores is more like a big playground to me. I will forget about the time while I'm in there. Silly me, while others enjoy been around jewelry store, i chose fabric store instead LOL. 

look what a beautiful fabrics i bought , oh well.. 

And baking an old time style cookies for celebration is another exciting moment to me too.  I choose one of my mom recipe with a different shape of cookies off course , we call Nastar .  Nastar is a small cookies filled with pineapple jam, delightful snap through the day, and become the most famous and the most wanted treats on big holiday such as Christmas, New Year eve and Eid in Indonesia.

NASTAR // Pineapple Tarts Recipe

Pineapple Filling


Ingredients:
4 large pineapples
300 g sugar
1 clove
1 inch cinnamon stick

Method:
1. Slice and grate pineapples till fine. You can use a food processor do grate it.
2. Strain the grated pineapple till dry.
3. Let it simmer in a wok toll the juice has dry up. Add sugar and, cinnamon stick and clove.
4. Stir till the pineapple filling is thick, sticky and dry.
5. Leave to cool and shape into small balls.

Note : make the filling in advance and refrigerate it.

Pastry

Ingredients:
500 g butter (or mix between butter and margarine is ok too)
100 g powdered sugar
4 egg yolks
700 g all purpose flour
200 gr edam cheese, granted
4 tbsp milk powder
1 tsp vanilla essence

Egg Brush
1 egg yolk plus 1Tbsp water


Method:
1.Preheat oven at 150° C.
2.Cream butter and sugar till white.
3.Add in egg yolks and beat at low speed for 1 minute.
4.Fold in flour gradually.
5.For pineapple cookies basket like mine : just roll a small dough between Ziploc bag, cut into a circle shape and put into a small pie cup. Or the simple way just make like a small ball.
6.Put the rolled pineapple filling onto the pastry
7.Brush with egg brush.

8.Bake for 30 minutes or when tarts is light golden brown in color.

When my arms can’t reach people close to my heart.

I always hug them with my prayers.

May allah’s peace be with you.

A very happy eid mubarak to you, my friends