Poached egg salad

It's Sunday and I had a very heavy day yesterday with steak dinner and drinks and etc, so today I decided its going to be salad, but as it is a Sunday you want to make some effort for your meal. Here is the recipe for what I have made, poached egg salad.
Ingredients:
For the dressing:
Balsamic vinegar: 2 table spoon
English mustard: 1 tea spoon
Mayonnaise: 1 tea spoon
Salt& pepper

For the salad:
Cucumber:1/2
Yellow pepper: 1/2
Celery: 1 stem
Lettuce: 3 leaves
Egg:2 poached

Mix the dressing ingredients and pour it at the bottom of the plate you are serving the salad in. Add the lettuce, for extra oomf grate the cucumbet, pepper and celery and pile them in the middle, put the poached egg on top of them, add some fresh chopped mint to garnish and dig in!

Plum khoresh

This is my all time favourite and my mom's is the best, so why not sharing the joy. Here is the recipe, it is for 2-3 people.
Lamb(diced): 300 grams
Dried plum: 200 grams
Onion: 1 medium
Tomato puree: 1 Table spoon
Sugar:100 grams
Cinnamon:2 tea spoon
Turmeric, salt and pepper
Veg oil: 1-2 Table spoon
Water( boiled): 1 cup
Dice the onion and fry it in some veg oil, add turmeric and fry it for 30 seconds with the onion, add the lamb and let it brown. Add the tomato puree , dried plums, cinnamon, salt pepper and fry for a couple of minutes, finally add the sugar to the mixture. Add the boiled water until it covers the ingredients. Put the lid on and let the heat do its magic for around an hour until the lamb is soft and tender. Serve with fluffy rice with a glass of cold ice tea.

Chicken pie with almond, pear preserve and saffron

I have never made pie crust, the idea of 1/2 cup butter was never very encouraging. But I found this butter less pie dough recipe and also had some cooked chicken around, so thought why not give it a try. I have also made it a bit differntly so that it has an Iranian twist on it. So here is the recipe, this makes two individual pies.

For the pie crust:
Flour:1&1/2 cup
Almond (ground):2 table spoon
Sugar:2 tea spoon
Salt: 1tea spoon
Veg oil: 1/2 cup
Saffron:1/4 tea spoon
Water:1/3 cup
Milk:2 tea spoon

For inside of the pie
Chicken(cooked & shredded):1 cup
Pear preserve:2 table spoon

Add the flour, salt, sugar, ground almond and saffron, mix all the dry ingredients. Slowly add the oil and work the dough, add the milk and water and work it until it looks right. Thin the dough and lay it in the oven proof indivual pie pan. Add the chicken and put one table spoon of the pear preserve on the top and cover with another layer of pie crust. Put in a pre- heated oven (190 degrees) for around 25 minutes unril golden. Serve with fresh green salad.

Olive meze pizza

I have bought olive meze from a shop in Nottingham and it was too good, I thought I had to share and even more make a greco-roman feast, an olive meze pizza. Here is the recipe:

Lamb: 4-5 pieces
Olive meze: 1/2 jar
Cheddar:150 gr
Pizza dough

I made the pizza dough by mixing normal flour, olive oil, salt, baking powder and water. Cook the lamb and shred it.
On a pizza dough spread a good amount of olive meze and then add the shredded lamb and cover with good old cheddar. Put it in an oven for 25-30 minutes until golden and by then the house smells heavenly. I hope you like it as much as I did.

Leek & onion spaghetti

It has been a very long time since my last post, but the schools are open, the weather is cool and it is time to cook. What better than some comfort food, spaghetti. Here is the recipe:
Onion: 1 medium
Leek: 3 stems
Milk:1/2 cup
Soft cheese: 1 table spoon
Spaghetti: 100 g
Veg oil: 1 table spoon
Salt and pepper
Water: 4 cups

Boil the water and add spaghetti, salt and some oil, cook it until soft and then drain the spaghetti.
Chop the leeks and the onion, fry them in a pan with a little veg oil, when slightly golden, add the milk and the soft cheese, let it cool for 3-4 minutes and add the cooked spaghetti to the mixture, the only thing left is to enjoy!

Zereshk polo- Chicken with barberries sauce

This is my all time favorite and I have  not put it on the blog so far because I thought it is far too simple, but then I thought it is way too good not to be shared. This serves 2-3.
Ingredients:
Barberries: 1 cup
Chicken: 2-3 pieces
Onion: 1 medium
Water: 2 cups
Turmeric: 1 tsp
salt: 1 tsp
pepper: 1tsp
Butter: 1 Tsp
Sugar: 2.5 Tsp

Fry the onion for 2-3 minutes, then add the chicken and fry it for 10-12 minutes until golden. Cover it with boiled water and let it cook thoroughly. In a small pan, add the butter and fry the barberries for 1-2 minutes then add the sugar and  1 cup of the water from the chicken mixture and fry them all together for 5-7 minutes. If you like add more sugar ( I personally like it very sweet) towards the end add a dash of saffron to the chicken.Cook some fluffy rice and dish it up. Enjoy!

Lamb lever scotch egg

There is a nice and local butcher which I get all my meat from and occasionally they have lamb lever, nice and shiny, I know the best way to cook lamb lever (at least for Iranians) is to dice it and skew it and grill on a BBQ, but at the flat I am living, I cannot BBQ (sigh) . On the other hand, I love scotch eggs, but to be honest the idea of it being deep fried does not go very well with my diet, so here is my oven baked lamb lever scotch egg. The recipe is for one (quite big) ball of scotch egg :-)
Lamb lever: 200 grams
Egg boiled: 1
Bread crumbs: 1 cup
Salt and pepper: to taste
Vegetable oil: 1Tsp


Chop or blend the lever until it is like a lumpy mash, add bread crumbs, salt and pepper to the mixture. Wrap it completely with a boiled egg. You don't need to dip it in beaten egg as the mashed lever is quite moist any way and you can just cover it with breadcrumbs. Put it on an oven tray covered with a bit of vegetable oil and let it be for around 20-25 minutes in a 190degrees oven. Serve it with nice greens with a dash of balsamic.