To Die for Blueberry Muffins

To Die For Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup canola oil (or vegetable oil)

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

Approximately 1/3 cup milk (see instructions below)

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup butter, cold and cubed

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400. Grease the muffin cups or use muffin liners.

Combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. Whisk to mix. Place the vegetable oil into a 1-cup measuring cup and add the egg and vanilla. Pour in enough milk to fill it to the 1-cup line. Pour this into the flour mixture and mix just until combined. Don’t over mix! Gently fold in the blueberries. The batter will be thick.

Fill the muffin cups to the top. I used an ice cream scoop and one scoop filled them perfectly.

To make crumb topping:

Mix together the brown sugar, flour, cubed butter and cinnamon. Using a pasty blender or a fork combine until the butter is pea sized. Sprinkle over the muffins before baking. I used a heaping tablespoon for each one. Trust me, heaping mounds of topping are a good thing.

Bake 20 - 25 minutes in a preheated oven or until they test done. Let cool 5 minutes in pan, and then remove from pan to cool on a rack. Eat warm if possible!

Yields: 8-10 muffins

Ghorme Sabzi

Ingredients:

2 lbs beef (chuck roast or rump roast)

1 large onion

1/3 cup oil

1 T tumeric

2 cups water

2 bunches green onion

3 bunches spinach

4 bunches parsley

1 bunch fenugreek

1 can drained kidney beans

dried lime to taste

salt to taste

Add the oil to a large sauce pan and slice the onion. Add onion to pot and cook (on medium-high) onion until soft, tender and slightly browned (about 7-10 minutes). Cut meat into 2 inch cubes. Add to pot and allow meat to cook on outside (5-8 minutes) - no need to cook meat all the way through. Add the tumeric and mix well. Add 2 cups of water, cover and let simmer (medium heat) for 45 minutes.

Clean and finely chop the green onion, spinach, and parsley. Add to the sauce pot. Let cook for additional 1 hour or until vegetables are cooked well.

Add kidney beans.

Add lime and salt to taste.

Serve over white rice.

Challah

Ingredients:

3/4 Tablespoon active dry yeast

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup olive, corn, or canola oil

4 eggs

1/2 tablespoon salt

4 1/2 - 5 cups flour

Directions:

1. Dissolve yeast and 1/2 tablespoon sugar in 1 cup luke warm water

2. Whisk in oil, beat in 3 eggs with remaining sugar, brown sugar, and salt. Add the flour slowly until dough forms a nice ball and is not too sticky.

3. Knead dough for 10-15 minutes

4. Roll dough in flour, grease a bowl and put dough in bowl. Cover with loose cloth or towel and let rise for 1 hour in a warm place.

5. Punch down dough, knead for 1-2 minutes, return to bowl, loosely cover and allow to rise again for 1 hour.

6. Remove dough from bowl and braid into loaf (loaves).

7. Beat remaining egg and brush half of the egg over the challah. Cover with loose cloth and allow to rise for 1 hour.

8. Heat oven to 375 degrees.

9. Brush remaining egg on challah.

10 Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.

Khoresh Karafs

Ingredients:

1 large onion

2 lbs of Beef Chuck Roast

3 tablespoons corn or canola oil

2 teaspoons tumeric

4 bunches of Italian parsley

2 bunches of mint

1 bunch scallions

1 large bunch celery

3 dried limes

1-2 tablespoons dried lime powder (to taste)

1 tablespoon salt (to taste)

1 teaspoon black pepper (to taste)

Add the oil to a large sauce pan and slice the onion. Add onion to pot and cook (on medium-high) onion until soft, tender and slightly browned (about 7-10 minutes). Cut meat into 2 inch cubes. Add to pot and allow meat to cook on outside (5-8 minutes) - no need to cook meat all the way through. Add the tumeric and mix well. Add 3 cups of water, cover and let simmer (medium heat) for 45 minutes.

Finely chopped the mint, parsley and scallions. Add to the pot and let cook for 20 minutes. Cut the celery into 2 inch pieces. Cut the whole dried limes in half. Add celery and limes to the pot and cook for additional 30-45 minutes. Add additional water as needed. Add the dried lime, salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over white basmati rice.

Toss Kabob

This a quick, easy meal that is hearty and makes the whole house smell like "home".

Ingredients:

1 medium onion

1 clove garlic

3T cooking oil

1 whole chicken (usually 4 lbs)

2 cans tomatoes (or 8 fresh tomatoes)

6 oz water (if using canned tomatoes)

6 potatoes

8 carrots

2 T salt (to taste)

1 t pepper (to taste)

Preparation:

Evenly slice onion

Dice garlic

Peel and cut potato in half

Peel and cut carrots to (a little larger than) bite size pieces

Directions:

Add oil to a large pot. Heat oil and add onions. Sautee onion until soft and golden. Add diced garlic and chicken. Sear chicken for 3 minutes on each side.

Add tomatoes and water. Allow to cook for 30-40 minutes on medium heat, stirring every 15 minutes to ensure chicken does not stick to bottom of pan. Add salt and pepper.

Add potatoes and carrots. Allow to cook additional 30 minutes or until potatoes are cooked.

Serve.

Dolmeh Feffel

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 large green peppers
• 1 pound ground lamb or beef
• 1 cup rice
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons corn or canola oil
• 1-2 cans tomato paste
• salt
• black pepper
• 1 bunch parsley, finely chopped
• 1 bunch mint, finely chopped
• 2 bunch green onions, finely chopped
• 1 bunch tarragon, finely chopped
  

DIRECTIONS:

Fry onions in oil over until soft. Add ground meat and fry further until meat is cooked. Add salt, pepper and most of tomato paste (I like my dolmeh very tomato-y, so I add a good amount of tomato paste, if you don't like it tomato-y, add less paste). Mix and cook further.

Cook rice until it's soft (don't steam it, just boil until cooked). Drain the water and let cool. (wild rice is very tastey in this recipe if you don't want to use white rice).

Add rice to meat & onions. Add parsley, mint, onions & tarragon as well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix well and let cook another 15 minutes. The mixture should be a little 'wet', so if need be, add some water.

Cut a circle at the top of the peppers and remove seeds. Sprinkle some salt inside peppers, fill them with the mix and close the tops. Again place the peppers side by side (avoid stacking them) in a large pot. Prepare sauce by mixing water with the rest of tomato paste. Pour the sauce in over the peppers and simmer for approximately 20-30 minutes. There should be at least 1 inch of sauce in bottom of pot to allow the peppers to cook.

Chollo Abgusht

Fill a large pot about 1/2 full of water.

Add 3 Tablespoons of salt.

Add 3 Tablespoons tumeric.

Add one whole onion (cleaned).

Add one whole chicken (5 bls).

At this point, be sure the water is covering the 90% of the chicken.

Boil on Med - Med-High heat for 1 hour.

Peel pototos. For each pound of chicken, add one potato. In this case, we add 5 potatoes.

Cook an additional 30 minutes.

Drain one can garbanzo beans. Add to the pot.

Add salt to taste.

Serve over white basmatti rice.

Ash e Reshteh

INGREDIANTS:

1 cup dry kidney beans (not canned)

1 cup garbanzo beans (not canned)

2 cups lentils (not canned)

2 cups pinto beans (not canned)

6-7 bunches of spinach

4-5 bunches of cilantro

4-5 bunches of parsley

3-4 bunches of chives (or just the green portion of green onions if you can’t find chives)

3-4 bunches of green onions

2-3 bunches of mint

about 10 onions

about 5 cloves of garlic

1 package of RESHETEH noodles

2 Tabelspoon dried mint

This recipes serves about 25-30 people.

PREPARATION:

Allow beans to soak in water for 24 hours. You can soak kidney, garbanzo and pinto bean together, keep lentils in a separate container for soaking.

Chop and wash all vegetables in about 1” pieces (like the size you would chop romaine lettuce for salad).

Slice onions evenly and fry until golden brown

Dice garlic and fry until golden brown (be sure not to burn it!)

Crush dried mint (remove all stems) and fry in about 3 tablespoons of oil

Drain the beans.

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS:

In a large pot, add all kidney, pinto and garbanzo beans with water (approximately 1 ½ cup water for each cup of beans). Cook on medium-high heat for 45 minutes. Add lentils and more water. Cook additional 45 minutes. Beans should be tender, but not fully cooked (al dente).

At this point, you should still have a good amount of water in the pot. If not, you will need to add more.

Add all vegetables (except fried onion and garlic). Make sure there is enough water to get all vegetables wet, but this is a very thick soup, so be mindful not to add too much water. If you can push all the vegetables down and the water will cover them, then it’s enough. You can always add more if the soup is too thick …..

Allow to cook for approximately 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes on medium heat.

After 2 hours cooking, add the fried onions, fried mint (and its oil) and fried garlic and allow to cook an additional 1 hour. Continue to stir every 30 minutes.

Add Reshteh. Allow to cook additional 15 minutes (or so) until the noodles are cooked.

Add salt to taste (usually about 3 tablespoons).

Ash e Reshtah is typically served with a garnish of fried onions, fried mint, fried garlic and “Kashek”. Kashek is a form of whey that is sour (a very sour yogurt).

ENJOY!!!