Title: Iranian Vegetable Stew; Ghormeh Sabzi
Categories: Mideast Vegetable Stew Beef Lamb
Yield: 1 Servings

1	bn	Fresh spinach (esfenAg)
1/2	bn	Fresh dill (sheveed)
1	bn	Fresh parsely (ja`faree)
1	bn	Fresh cilantro or coriantro
		(geshneez)
1	bn	(use only the green stems)
		Fresh Leak (tareh farangee)
1	bn	Fresh chives (tareh)
		Or substitute stems of
1	bn	Scallions (piAzcheh).
1		Table spoon dried
		Shanbelileh (what is it
		Called in English?).
1	lb	Stew meat (beef, lamb, veal,
		Etc ), cubed.
4		Dried lemons (limoo amAnee)
		Or,
1		Table spoon dried lemon
		Powder (gard-e leemo amAnee)
1	md	Onion, finely chopped.
1/2	ts	Turmeric (zard choobeh).
3	tb	Cooking oil.
1	tb	Lemon juice (optional).
1	c	Dried beans pre-soaked or
1		Can
		Touch each of salt, pepper
		And crushed red peppers (if
		You like it
		Spicy)

Wash and cube the meat and let it drain. Cut off the heads of the leaks (and scallions) and put the stems along with the rest of vegetables in a kitchen stringer, thoroughly was and let them drain. Using a cutting board, while repeatedly bunching up all vegetables together, finely chop the vegetables. The smaller the pieces the better. If you have a food processor, you could use it in place of the manual labor :-)

Place the chopped vegetables in a pot, put the heat setting to high, and frequently stir the vegetables until all their excess water has evaporated. Add two table spoons of cooking oil and continually stir fry the vegetables until they turn a redish color. This process should take about 15 minutes. Take the pot off the heat and put it aside. During the stir fry process, you may add a bit more oil if needed. When finished, the vegetables resemble dried ones with no water remaining in the pot.

In another pot, add about one table spoon of cooking oil and the chopped onions and stir fry over medium heat, until they turn a golden brown color. Add the meat, stir fry for a few minutes, add salt, pepper and turmeric and let the meat fry with the onions for a few minutes. If you are using dried beans, at this point drain them and add them to the mixture.

Next poke a hole in each of the dried lemons and add them to the mixture (or add the powdered kind). Add about two cups (16 oz) of water, place the lid on the pot and let it boil for another 15 minutes.

Add the fried vegetables into the mixture, turn the heat setting to medium-low and let it cook. The cooking time required from this point on is about another hour. Half way through this period, if you are using canned beans, add them into the mixture. Once the meat is separated when poked by a fork, the stew is ready. This stew is served over white rice.

If you like the sour taste, you may add a table spoon of lemon juice towards the end of cooking.

Hints: When stir frying, its imperative to constantly stir the vegetables. Otherwise, they quickly form a crust and burn. You can easily undercook the vegetables but you can hardly ever over cook them. If they look watery stir fry> them a bit longer.

Note: This is the khuzestAni version which uses more varieties of vegetables than the TehrAni version, but I happen to think it tastes better.

samiri@encore.com (Soheila Amiri) soc.culture.iranian

previous

next