Recipes!

Here's a recipe for Mexican Chili:

1 lb Ground beef
15 1/2 oz Chili beans; hot and spicy
15 1/2 oz Chili beans; hot
28 oz Tomatoes; cut up
6 oz Tomato paste
1 1/2 c Celery; chopped
1 c Onion; chopped
1/2 c Pepper, green; chopped
4 oz Chili peppers; drained
Seeded and chopped
2 tb Sugar
1 Bay leaf
1 ts Salt
1 ts Marjoram, dried; crushed
1/2 ts Garlic powder
1 ds Pepper
4 oz Mushrooms (optional)

In crockpot combine beans, undrained tomatoes, celery, onion, tomato paste, green pepper, green chilies, mushrooms, sugar, bay leaf, salt, marjoram, garlic powder and pepper.

In skillet brown ground beef; drain and stir into tomato mixture.

Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.

Skim off excess fat. Remove bay leaf; stir before serving.

If you don't have a crockpot handy, perhaps a chafing dish would also suffice.

Alternately, if you'd like to discuss your visits to Chili, like the one where your class trip got really drunk on the cheap local beer and had to be bussed around the local tourist sites with a massive hangover, please recount such tales here.

That and peppers. Peppers with everything.

http://www.io.com/~wallen/chili/t3-2-sm.gif

A little lime juice at the end, the acidity brightens the flavors so they stand out from one another a little more than they would normally;

add spices in at least three different phases so you get "levels";

the regional differences aren't as sharply defined as for barbecue, but they're there, what with the beanless Texans and verde New Mexicans and batfuck insane Cincinnatians;

related to my views on regionalism, authenticity is overrated: there is no Platonic Chili, no ineffable portrait of The Perfect Chili, so anyone claiming there's only one road to get there is off the point; and one of the qualities of chili which shouldn't be overlooked is its greater sympathy for syncretism compared to, for instance, apple pie;

unusual things to add which can work include chopped fresh mango (which is nearly unnoticeable once the chili is done, except in that "this definitely isn't onion or pepper, wtf?" way), peanut butter (which dampens down the spice considerably), and coffee;

cigar and cigarette ash are common ingredients in old-fashioned recipes for chili, the kind that're handed down from father to son;

don't get into the cilantro argument: it seems that some people have a gene (it's assumed to be genetic, anyway) which causes them to taste cilantro as soap or metal; no, it doesn't taste that way to the rest of us; no, we aren't crazy for liking cilantro, and you aren't crazy for hating it, we'd hate it too if it tasted to us like it tastes to you;

living in New Orleans, I learned to like the taste of hot sauce specifically, especially Tabasco, which ages its pepper mass for three years, something no one else does -- adding it adds a different flavor than chile powder, etc.;

chili -- the dish, a mixture of chile peppers and meat; chilli -- British spelling thereof, and of the pepper as well, I think; chile -- the pepper; chile powder -- powdered (or at least finely crushed) chile peppers; chili powder -- a seasoning blend for chili/chilli.

your thoughts on the proper accessory cheeses?

* When I was a kid, when we'd get pizza my parents would always have mushroom, pepper, and onion, so the combination of those vegetables, that smell, is one I always associate with pizza. They got the same thing every time. Me, aside from the 7 or so years when I didn't eat pizza[1], I got something different every time. That was like the point. They give you a whole list of toppings! You can mix or match however you like! It was like the sundae bar at Frankensundae, only it didn't count as dessert. I didn't understand why anyone would get the same pizza every time.

But anyway, when I started cooking, sometime in that no-pizza zone, I started making chili. My mother's family's chili recipe is a soup-can recipe, but surprisingly good for one, using Campbell's Chili Beef soup, which they no longer make (the Chunky one was very different). That's what I started with. Since my mother had a garden, I added peppers and onions, but wasn't sure when they were supposed to go in, so I cooked the chili most of the way and then sprinkled peppers and onions on top, as though it were pizza.

Crunchy chili is weird.

[1] When I was 6, on the first day of elementary school, they had pizza in the cafeteria, and it was this big deal: holy crap, pizza! School has pizza! School is great! Except the pizza I was used to was the pizza from the Greek-owned pizzeria, with the thick dark red sauce and the crust that was crispy and a little chewy; the cafeteria had these enormous rectangles of white bread that turned yellow where it met the orange-y sauce, and cheese that didn't seem to brown. I stopped eating pizza altogether until sometime in junior high. On some level, I think I believed that pizza died that day, that it wasn't simply that the cafeteria had made bad pizza, but that Pizza had in some metaphysical sense been injured and offended.

So I ordered meatball subs every time my family or friends got pizza, despite everything I just said about the love of variety.

* The first time I tried habanero peppers, I didn't realize they were largely the same thing as Scotch bonnets, which I'd heard of. My mother, knowing I liked cooking with spicy food and that it was very hard to find spicy food in New Hampshire, planted the peppers, and I picked a bunch for a pot of chili. Like, handfuls of them. I didn't taste them before using them. I just put in the 2 cups or so of chopped habanero, sauteed, added other stuff, cooked, took a bite, and died.

* I first tried mango in chili after reading Elmore Leonard's Get Shorty, the protagonist of which is Chili Palmer. Decided to make chili called, well, Chili Palmer. Wanted Floridian ingredients, and mango seemed like they probably grew it in Florida.

(It isn't something I use often, I'm more about skewing things very subtly now, like using aleppo pepper and a little cocoa powder for a real dark, earthy base note.)

I urge moderation with the star anise. Eggplant I can't quite picture; would you crisp it first maybe, or just let it melt in?

Anyway though. I don't like cocoa in chili as much as I used to, there's a bitterness that's too much like burned spices in that context -- though a little very dark chocolate (with enough sugar to offset the bitterness) can be all right. The smokiness of chipotle would be a good pairing with that, for instance.

Cinnamon, star anise, etc -- I'm not a fan of Cincinnati-style chilis, but their appeal seems to be greater west of the Mississippi. I pretty much stopped adding cinnamon to chili when I started buying it from Penzey's, because the stuff I have now is strong enough that it's too easy to overdose.

I absolutely LOVE this detail. It is fantastic, I want to put it in a book or something.

Tobacco isn't usually consumed, right? I mean, I don't know anything about chewing tobacco except that you don't swallow it, but I don't know why it's bad to do so and whether it's something that's irrelevant for other forms. Would that be a problem with leaving the tobacco in the chili?

Paul, how was the pork done?

I wonder if additive-free cigarette tobacco would be good: http://www.cigarettetobacco.com/ourtob1.htm

I really don't want to think about a chili cook-off at the Irvine landfill :(

Ah, thought you were here! Never mind then. There's always EMP!

Oh: something I've been doing lately because I usually have it around is adding a spoonful or two of demiglace (in the "stock cooked down until you can slice it with a steak-knife" sense) as the chili cooks. It thickens it the way masa does, and pushes it more towards "brown" instead of "red" so you're less likely to get a chili that tastes like spicy beany spaghetti sauce.

I'm thinking of making a chili soon, so I can have something to eat with the cornbread I'm legally required to make now that I have a cast-iron pan. I'm thinking meat AND beans. Overkill? And what are these 'chili beans,' referred to in the first post. Kidney beans in a can with some spices?

I'm glad you fully understand the obligation of the cast iron pan g00blar. And I do believe you are correct re: canned chili beans.

(but, the chili sauce is going to be incredibly good - another use for the immersion blender!!!)

I don't know - it killed the heat for awhile, but the wine I had with dinner kicked it right back up again. It's more a pleasant hotness now though.

Rock Hardy, do you have a chili secret? I've made chili colorado before but I'm going for a more beany Texas-like thing for this cook-off. Also, I can enter two, so may just dump the cans of Skyline I've got in a pot and bring some Cincinnati-chili-3-ways fixings in.

http://www.fiery-foods.com/dave/taste9.html

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/WilliamCrump63/h0gr0ast.jpg

enhance the beet flavorcolor

Thread delivers, that post is densely packed with pro tips. Thx, PBKR.

Best borscht i ever had was a cold borscht at a Polish restaurant in Jersey City in the 90's, down the street from an artist's loft where my friend's dad was living temporarily. i don't know how to find it, and it's probably long gone anyhow, but that one had yogurt and dill mixed in.

i'm mostly vegan now (i eat dairy a few times a year), but i always have tahini on hand and i'm constantly dumping bean broth down the drain as a byproduct of other dishes.

the one i had the other day wasn't pureed, the beets were still firm but the cabbage and potatoes were def overcooked. it didn't matter. it had a tanginess that neutralized some of the earthy beet flavor, and i'm wondering if they added acid to it or it's just the way the beets are cooked.

Good call, the Serious Eats recipe I use for reference sometimes calls for balancing the dish at the end with the addition of sugar and red wine vinegar.

just night shifted and got real sick overnight. i had to tough it out but i'll be calling in sick today and tomorrow. please forgive me if i'm slower to respond. i was gonna try making borscht this weekend but now idk.

quincie, you're right. the amount of beans in my recipe was way too much. i normally just eyeball everything, so when i made it last week i measured everything out. figured i'd come back and make corrections, but i totally forgot. the 4-5 cups of water was exactly right (i don't believe it tbh). but the amount of beans i use is just a little more than a cup (dry). about a cup and a quarter. also, i use way less than a tablespoon of salt. closer to half a teaspoon! i added four "punches" of salt, if you know what a punch of salt is. tbf there's a chance it's something my uncle made up.

also quincie, you could totally try it with lamb or beef cubes, i'm pretty sure you just sautee the onion in a separate shallow pan with a pinch of turmeric and back pepper , then brown the meat and add it to the stew to braise together with the beans and limoo. as i recall from my childhood the meat adds a whole other dimension.

outdoor miner, you may be interested to know that i've used leftover ghormeh sabzi as a veggie-hot dog topping and it totally works. i figured if kimchee and chili are valid veggie dog toppings, why not?

about tahdig rice, there are a couple of special kitchen items that i don't use for anything else. one is a towel which i wrap around the lid of the pot. it creates a tighter seal and absorbs some of the moisture from the rice when you steam it, so you end up with a fluffier, lighter, less dense & sticky rice.

the other is a wooden stick that belonged to my grandmother. i think it's some kind of rolling pin, but i'm not real sure. it's very thin for a rolling pin and has a strange contour. i'm gonna say you could use a narrow rolling pin. i use it first to pulverize a pinch of saffron in a measuring cup, kinda like a mortar/pestle action, to which i then add 1/4-1/3 cup of boiling water. and set that aside.

later on, i use the rolling pin-esque thing to poke holes in my mound of rice, which allows steam to rise. i'll have to take a picture of this next time i do it, or perhaps there are youtubers who do something similar and have a visual aid.

you really need to use grapeseed oil for this. it takes 15-20 mins for the tahdig to form on high heat. the heat has to be pretty high (not maxed out, but slightly higher than medium-high, i'd say). if you use another oil, the tahdig will char and burn from the sustained high heat. if you cook it on lower-medium heat, the rice won't crisp and you'll end up with a soft, greasy layer of rice on the bottom.

i'll measure out 2 cups of basmati rice, or 3 depending on the preparation. for baghali polow, which is tahdig rice with dill & fava beans, i use 3. likewise for shirin polow, "bejewelled rice" which is tahdig rice with candied orange peel, carrots and nuts. but for ordinary tahdig rice with saffron and most other preparations, it's 2 cups.

to remove excess starch from the rice, you must rinse it. this is really important, and pretty standard for cooking basmati rice. basically you swirl it around in a pot of water with your hand, then dump out the water when it gets cloudy and add new water. repeat a few-several times. you'll know when it's done because the texture of the rice feels different to the touch.

typically after that, you'll soak it for 30 mins in a large pot or bowl of warm water. this is not as crucial and can be skipped if you're in a hurry.

once the rice is ready to cook, add it to a large pot and fill it with water. think about cooking pasta, it's just like that. when the rice is almost-but-not-quite cooked ("al dente" kinda, but really more like slightly undercooked), strain out the water. sometimes i'll give it a quick rinse with cool water to stop it cooking more.

i find that with the very tall pot i use for this, if it's almost full with water, if i strain it out just before it reaches a rolling boil it's the perfect consistency.

at this point you take your nonstick crockpot or stock pot and coat the bottom very generously with grapeseed oil. use plenty. add half of the reserved saffron water to that and shake the pot back and forth vigorously (think of a gold panning motion) to distribute the saffron water.

with the remaining saffron water in the measuring cup, slowly stir in a portion of the undercooked rice (as much as you can coat with the saffron water). set this aside.

at this stage, salt the rice to taste (1 teaspoon salt per cup of dry rice is my 'rule'... so if you started with 2 cups, add 2 teaspoons). if you are adding other flavors to the rice, such as minced dill and fava beans for baghali polow, this is when to mix it into the rice. note that this is not the same as "toppings", which should be added at the end.

take a third of your rice (about 2 cups cooked) and add it to the stock pot with grapeseed oil. pack it down pretty firmly with a large spoon, so that it makes a dense & uniform bottom layer of rice that's completely saturated in oil. this will be your tahdig.

with the remaining rice, build it into a pyramid shape, layer by layer, adding one spoonful at a time. whereas the tahdig layer is densely packed, this should be very loose. i usually shake the spoon a little to make it looser. with each layer you build, the circumference should be slightly smaller. so we're building a very loose, vaguely pyramid shaped mound of rice. when you run out of rice, dump the cup of rice soaked in saffron water over the top and 'crush' it into the mound with a spoon, or spoon it out over the top as another layer.

now you take your rolling pin thingy. insert it into the center of the mound to create a hollow. you wanna push it all the down to the bottom of the loosely packed rice pyramid without piercing the tahdig. the different densities make this very easy. as long as you're gentle the resistance will stop it when you get to the bottom tahdig layer.

then make 4 more holes like this, for each compass point. think of a pentagram, or like the connect the dots version.

finally, drizzle some grapeseed oil over the top of the rice mound.

while it's not nearly as involved as making ghormeh sabzi, i feel visual aids would be more helpful here. i'll try to take pics next time.

try to secure your towel around the lid of the pot. to keep it from catching fire!!!

now the rice is ready to be steamed. cover the pot and cook it over high heat for about 15 minutes. it can take up to 20 minutes sometimes. DON'T WALK AWAY!! keep an eye on it to make sure the towel doesn't catch fire (this has happened to me maybe twice? it just got a little singed. no erupting into flames or anything. but we gotta be cautious). **if you smell the rice burning, remove it from the heat immediately** we wanna crisp the rice, not char it.

this sounds more involved than it probably is! it takes like 40 mins?

one important thing to note... when you crush the saffron in the measuring cup, make sure the inside of the cup is *completely dry* before adding saffron to it

Rinsing rice has been a game changer for me.

and i'm wondering if they added acid to it or it's just the way the beets are cooked

recipe i use calls for a splash of apple cider vin to finish iirc. have never pureeed the few times i've made it, it's kinda stew-ish but so freaking delish.

xxpos

also, thx for saffron rice reminder. made it a couple times towards the beginning of the pandemic and it fell out of rotation. . .

sorry for multiple posts, am at work and slowly going through thread:
hot dog topping sounds tip top tbh. and as far as the bean quantity goes i actually halved the provided gs recipe except for the beans, thinkingt i'd hold back half of those but ended up putting them all in the final dish and i LOVED the bean quantity. sry for bean a weirdo

I ordered new pot (didn't have anything suitable for persian rice) and some saffron so I can get down with proper persian rice soon. In the meantime, my fake tadhig actually worked out well and the g.s. was even better with two days rest!

DM I see you are not in the "add yogurt" camp for persian rice--I see some folks do a portion of rice mixed with yogurt for the bottom/crispy part that goes into the pan first.

omg that post was SOOOO LONG!! sorry everyone

DM I see you are not in the "add yogurt" camp for persian rice--I see some folks do a portion of rice mixed with yogurt for the bottom/crispy part that goes into the pan first.

wow, i've never heard of anyone doing that! for some rice preparations we put a layer of thinly sliced potatoes on the bottom of the pan.

i have a great aunt whose social life revolves around cooking Persian food, i'll ask if she knows anyone who makes it this way.

i actually halved the provided gs recipe except for the beans, thinkingt i'd hold back half of those but ended up putting them all in the final dish and i LOVED the bean quantity. sry for bean a weirdo

<3

oh hai I am making ghormeh sabzi rn

gonna do proper Persian rice this time

you rule ♥️♥️♥️♥️

forgot to update that i made borscht a couple of weeks ago using the tips PBKR provided (didn't follow a recipe, used bean broth, tahini sauce , combination of roasted & boiled beets) and it was *delicious* ... but i got violently ill later that night (not because of the borscht) and threw out the leftovers, couldn't stomach the sight if it.

Glad the borscht tasted good and hope you will be able to revisit it again in time.

Labor Day ghormeh sabzi!

Gonna let it sit overnight, then do proper Persian rice to go with it tomorrow. I need to be more brave in my tahdig game; my first attempt (following deflator's instructions to the T) came out really well for a noob effort, but could have been browner on the bottom. I was really scared of scorching, this time I will take a deep breath and keep going on the higher heat.

oh wow, i haven't made any khoreshts in months, it's summer tbf but i'm overdue

i was also scared to push the heat enough as a noob :)

was just thinking about the gormeh two days ago when it was cool and rainy but had other plans at the time. def need to remember to make this again someday soon-ish

my current most valuable ingredient is coconut milk. It's transforming qualities on bodged curries, especially when I've not got the spice blend quite right is magical.

my local chinese-american spot took a nosedive, so i've started making one of my favorite dishes of theirs at home. normally i think this would be served with shrimp and char sui, but i've been using ground pork as it's easier and more economical.

singapore noodles

rice stick / vermicelli - about half a pack
meat (ground pork or ground chicken) 0.5 to 1 pound
1 med. onion
1 med. carrot
veggies
bean sprouts
green onion, sliced thin
2-3 eggs
3 tbsp mae ploy yellow curry paste
2 tbsp water
pinch sugar
soy sauce to taste

brown meat, set aside
sautee onion, carrot, other veg
remove veg or push aside, fry eggs
boil noodles in water for roughly one minute
mix curry paste with sugar and warm water, add to pan along with meat and noodles
use a spatula or metal utensil to break up noodles into 1-2 inch length
season with soy sauce to taste
fold in sprouts and green onion

You're making me hungry.

Turned the family and friends on to a meatless sabzi the other night. it stands on its own and doesn't really require a protein, i feel like. also, it's really SO simple once all the herbs are prepped (i still hand chop and forgo the food processor). side of saffron rice was also nice

awesome. i've made it a bunch of times lately, got some limoo omani from the persian grocer in my neighborhood which are much more fragrant than the ones i'd been using but the dish tastes the same.

i love this recipe from Yeung Man, making his amazing chili oil took longer than expected but once you have that prepared, the noodle dish takes 5 mins. super fast and easy, perfectly balanced flavors between the smoky chili oil and the paprika and maple syrup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uOLXNgZYqg

my current most valuable ingredient is coconut milk. It's transforming qualities on bodged curries, especially when I've not got the spice blend quite right is magical.

yep, 100% ^

I've done a couple of Yeung Man Cooking recipes, the one I keep going back to is his very simple one-pot rice and lentils one. love his minimalist AMSR style. But still haven't attempted his legendary chilli oil yet.

Those peanut butter noodles look great.

they are!

xp oh, nice. i've only done the chili oil and the peanut noodles, but i'm very impressed with him so far. i was reluctant to sacrifice an entire bottle of grapeseed oil but his chili oil was worth it and seems like it will taste amazing on basically everything.

the peanut noodles one is the kind of recipe where all the flavors are perfectly balanced and you don't need to tweak anything.

budo's optional vegan fake samlor machu (cambodian sour soup)

1 red onion
1 large carrot, thin coins
2 potatoes, medium cubes
2 tomatoes
about 1 cup large chunks pineapple (fresh is best)
1-2 quarts chicken stock (or veggie stock)
olive oil
1-2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp huy fong chili garlic sauce OR preferred hot sauce
fish sauce (or preferred salt source for vegan)
white vin and/or lime juice (tamarind if you have it)

garnish:
3 green onions, thin rings
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup chopped cilantro
~finely chopped red onion set aside from your red onion

saute onion, potato, and carrot in olive oil until you get some color/softness. you can use a bit of sesame oil here too if you have it. then add a dash of fish sauce, dash of white vin, your pineapple, ONE of your tomatoes, chili sauce, tbsp brown sugar, and stock. stir then simmer until potatoes and carrots are soft. one or two minutes before turning off eat, add your second tomato. with heat off, add the green onion, garlic, cilantro, and red onion. taste the broth and add fish sauce, white vin and/or lime juice, more chili or hot sauce, more brown sugar, all to taste. serve over rice or over noodles at your preference. finally, you can top with toasted sesame seeds and/or crushed peanuts if desired

Makin' some ghormeh sabzi again. This time I threw in a little bit of mint because I had some on hand.

niiice, i just restocked limoo amani a few days ago (the persian grocer in my nabe had sold out for a minute)
no ghormeh sabzi yet but i for some reason made gheyneh bademjan during the heatwave

i actually made “tahdig only rice" without the mound of polow on top
it’s like the cap’n crunch with just the berries, but rice
it was super easy and i can’t believe i never thought of it before.

and i thought of the insanely long post i wrote itt about rice on my way home from a chest ct scan (my longest ever on ilx by a mile, which is saying a lot)
and i felt really bad
it’s so easy

1. rinse the rice
2. soak the rice
3. boil the rice until it’s just undercooked
4. drain the rice
5. salt the rice with salt
6. coat the nonsitck pot with grapeseed oil on the bottom
7. gently press a the rice into a flat layer over the oil
8. cover the pot on and heat on high for 10-15 mins

ta-da! tah-dig! (sorry)

No no no! All the detail was really key! Plus fun to read.

I feel compelled to confess that I am taking some liberties with this batch of g.s. because, well, needs must.

In addition to adding some mint leaves, I swapped the spinach with (gulp) a not-modest amount of arugula (sorrrrrrrry!!! I had one, but not the other, on hand!).

Also leaving out the beans because I don't have those on hand, either. Although I might get a (blasphemy) can tomorrow to add to leftovers.

Actually, now that I think about it, I have some roasted noodles leftover from making ash retash. And some--wait for it--kashk. Would it be madness to add these to g.s.? Or should I save them for something else? I mean how often do I get to use kashk--I've had a jar in my fridge for quite some time, it seems fine (could not find the hard ball version, which I should have picked up when on the trip to Oman that had to substitute for my nixed trip to Iran).

omg arugala in place of spinach is genius!!! i am so psyched to try that next time i make it, should give it a nice lil bite.
canned beans will be fine! not as nice obv.
when i was a small kid you know where we used to get GS in a can- i liked it then! i see it here once in a blue moon but always $$$ and i can’t be bothered.
no beans should be fine too assuming you are making it with braised meat?

i’ve always kinda wanted to try it with noodles or pasta, and i always chicken out. maybe i tried it with leftover aldente rigatoni or something once, lol.
with the mint, it's a little more like an ash sabzi hybrid, so… why not??

kashk - no idea, never tried, sounds a little odd and personally i wouldn’t, but then i am weirded out by most dairy

did you ever post about the trip to Oman?

i definitely want to experiment more than i have with nontraditional variations of this dish.

You know what should exist for those of us who can't, like, drop by our favorite herb mix stand in Tehran for ready-to-go g.s. mix? FROZEN g.s. mix! Surely that would be MUCH better than canned, right? OK not as good as fresh, but sometime you just wanna get your g.s. going without the whole wash-destem rigamarole y'know.

I have not posted about my trip to Jordan/Oman.

God only know if/when I will get another chance at the Iran trip :(

It is too bad, because I was really trying for the Axis of Evil tour, and had already knocked off North Korea.

that is some amazing life experience, when did you go to NK?? I'm also hoping to be able to visit Iran eventually.

I do have family-friends and relatives who freeze the sautéed herbs for later use, and it works great! but just as much work. i have not seen it in stores but it probably exists.
not a fan of the dehydrated sabzi mixtures but assume they are what goes into the canned stuff.

axes of evil sounds like a shrapnel records package tour

oh yeah my aunt wrote a Persian cookbook
she texted me a picture if the cover though. everyone she knows is telling me it's available everywhere but I can't find it anywhere. if I do I'll link to it here.

I need this Persian cookbook! Unless it is in Farsi!

I need this Persian cookbook! Unless it is in Farsi!

Oops

Gettin’ ready to make some Marry Me Ghormeh Sabzi for new (vegetarian) beau

I kinda fell for him when I learned he is familiar with tahdig, but is not persian, just like meeeeee

sounds like a keeper! i *totally* forgot about posting gheymeh bademjan recipes for you, oof. sorry about that! i’ll get on it.

Yeah so i was supposed to move the week you asked for a the gheymeh recipe, it ended up not happening, but i was really stressed out.

Well what do you know, the most bodacious vegan youtuber Baking Hermann has covered this one.

https://bakinghermann.com/khoresh-bademjan-persian-aubergine-stew/

The thing that makes this dish challenging is cooking the peas for a long time without them breaking down. His strategy is to cook them separately and add them back in at the end. I don’t know how that would taste, but it seems easier.

-I like his method of blooming saffron with ice
-i don’t like the use of ground cinnamon, it will ruin the supernaturally alluring dep red color you get from frying the tomato paste at the beginning, which is one of the best things about this stew. Use a whole cinnamon stick instead.
-…speaking of which, i don’t see that he uses any tomato paste.
-i would slice the eggplants half as thin lengthwise as he says, say no to chunky eggplant.

https://persianmama.com/vegetarian-khoresh-bademjan/

This is the closest recipe i can find to the way i make it. I don’t use the citrus peel or juice, which i guess she has subbed for limoo amaani
My favorite thing about this recipe is the eggplant prep instructions, which are excellent (linked at the bottom of the page). I also think her suggestion of timing the addition of pomegranate concentrate to stop the peas overcooking is very clever.

I like to add a splash of rosewater and a pinch of ground cardamom at the end. I would try it without first, so you can compare and make it to your preference.

I had to dig around to find someone else who likes to do the same. Well, i should have just done that to start with, because:

https://www.reddit.com/r/persianfood/comments/1m179uc/the_ancient_persian_stew_that_qajar_kings_called/

Now we’re talking, this cat knows what’s up!! This is the traditional, omnivore version without eggplants, but it’s (otherwise) perfect. Well, almost. They add the limoo amaani at the end to prevent it tasting bitter. Uh, what?? I can’t say i ever found it bitter, and i would worry that adding them at the end won’t be tangy enough, but i never tried it his way. Maybe i should, I just never felt this dish needed less limoo amaani.
There’s apparently a whole novella of a pdf + instructional video on their website, in the same amusingly flamboyant style i hope. I can’t be bothered to sign up for anything rn but it sounds like an excellent resource if you want to learn about Persian food.

did you ever find your aunt's cookbook? also ty for these posts! v interested to check links properly when I have a chance.

Me too! In the meantime, I am once again taking some liberties with the G.S. Again I did not have spinach on hand. Last time I subbed arugula (worked well!); this time I have no arugula, but I do have some swiss chard growing in a pot lol. So I picked some of that, stripped out the stems, and used as I would have spinach. Sorry, Persian grannies who are having a fucking heart attack!

I'm also going to add some firm tofu. Or maybe I should use tempeh? I don't want to go overboard on the beans, but would like some more protein/texture in there.

Not yet eggplant season here, but I am going to make SO MUCH Persian eggplant stuff when it is.

arugala and swiss chard are inspired substitutions, i will totally try that next time since i’m not really feeling the spinach in it of late.
i think jackfruit has the most similar texture to braised beef of the ‘alternative proteins’ (but i haven’t eaten meat in 30 years so ymmv)
miner, hi! no, i haven’t found my aunt’s cookbook :( they sent me a pic of the cover, so i know that it exists and is in English, but i don’t know if it’s self-published or what. she’s very old (actually my great aunt) and i’m way overdue for a visit.

Warning! More G.S. fuckery!

Swiss chard sub was OK, but I do wish I had spent more time getting the herbage really, really browned out in the sauté stage. I got impatient and added liquid about 5 min sooner than ideal.

Then! Oh noes! Didn’t source even *canned* kidney beans, so subbed garbanzos! Treachery! Sorry DM and Persian grannies I will do better next time :(

(I still got laid fwiw)