Persian feast (I got a bit carried away)

 I lost my cooking mojo for a while, mainly because I was so bored of making things that everyone would eat. Added to a stressful few weeks - work very busy, very close relatives testing positive for the virus while in a locked down area that we can't visit, the general tension of monitoring every cough and the fear that school classes will start to shut down and we'll be back to home schooling and all the mental health issues that go along with it...aaand breathe. On the positive side, we have happy children who are, crucially, having school dinners. Despite only relieving me of weekday lunches, it's amazing the difference this has made.

So, Persian feast it is. I really felt like having a pottering, kitchen day, where the meal would take some time and I might learn some new recipes. The inspiration for this mostly came from Persiana, and we ended up with the following:

Cacik (yoghurt with cucumber, garlic and dill)

Eastern-style focaccia (with chilli, cumin, coriander, mint and sumac)

Spiced lamb kefta

Kotlet (spiced beef and potato cakes)

Safavid-style beef pastries

Hummus and salads (I didn't make either, thanks Marks and Spencer)

It sounds impressive, but is mostly chucking spices into mince, with the odd chopped onion.

Focaccia was the star of the show. I'm not really a bread maker - I've dined out on the story of making naan for about 6 months - but this was so easy. 125g soured cream, mixed with 150ml cold water and 100ml boiling water. Add 7g yeast, 3 tsp salt and 2 tsp sugar, and mix. Add in 550g strong white bread flour, 2 tbsp cumin seeds, 1 tbsp ground coriander, 1 tbsp dried mint and 1 tsp dried chillis. Mix well until the mixture forms a rough ball, then leave somewhere warm for 10 minutes to rest. 

Line a roasting tin with baking paper, and plop in the dough. Stretch it out until it fills the tin, then poke deep holes in it with your fingers. Cover and leave to rise for at least an hour. Once the hour is up, preheat the oven to 200 (fan). 

Drizzle the bread with olive oil (the recipe said 200ml, but that looked way too much, so I just guessed) and sprinkle with 1 tbsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp nigella seeds, 1 tsp sumac, and some fresh thyme. Bake for 25 minutes. Scoff.

For the kofta, mix 500g lamb mince with 1 large onion, minced, 1 tsp turmeric, half a tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp ground cumin, 2 tsp salt, 50g toasted pine nuts, a handful of currants, a load of chopped parsley and 2 large eggs. Squish together vigorously, then form into small sausage shapes and fry in a drizzle of oil.

The spiced beef pastries involve 200g minced beef. Fry until browned, then add half a tsp each of turmeric, ground cumin, parika and ground cinnamon, a pinch or two of ground nutmeg and quarter of a tsp of chilli powder. Mix and fry until quite dry. Cool and add a very finely chopped red onion and a handful of chopped parsley. This recipe is supposed to include a tablespoon of dried rose petals, but that was a middle-class purchase too far...Roll out a ready-bought sheet of puff pastry, and divide into 12 squares (skirt over how embarrassingly long this took). Add a spoonful of beef mixture onto each square and fold over into a triangle, squeezing the edges together. Put on a lined baking tray, brush with melted butter and cook at 200 for 20 minutes.

Finally, spiced beef potato cakes. Take 500g minced beef, 400g cold mashed potatoes, 1 onion minced finely, 20g chopped coriander, 2 eggs, 1 clove garlic, 2 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp turmeric, 2 tsp salt, half a teaspoon ground cinnamon, and some black pepper. Squodge together well, then form into patties. Coat each side with breadcrumbs, then fry in a little oil for 6-8 minutes on each side and serve. I actually put these in the same oven as the pastries and they turned out fine.

Served with garlicky, cucumbery yoghurt, salads and hummus, this was all fabulous and proved too much even for my family. It was lovely to try something new (maybe 4 new recipes was pushing it a bit) and a day spent pottering around the kitchen proved food for the soul as well. I think we all deserve a feast sometimes!