No recipes this time, but lots of Persian food inspiration for me to try later.


We were invited to dinner at our friends' house last night. They're a really nice couple with two boys of 8 and 11. Even the kids are nice - I'm not the kind who loves kids just for the sake of it, just because they are kids, sometimes quite the opposite :) But these two are funny, clever and a bit cheeky, but well-behaved. They completely fell in love with husband, which probably endeared them to me even more.

This is actually the guy who drank my wine and ate my fish a couple of weeks ago, so I think he wanted to pay back. They have family roots in Iran, so I was hoping we'd get some original Persian home cooking. Boy was I not disappointed.

I love all kinds of Middle-Eastern cuisines, well, I love all kind of cuisines full stop. But yes, Middle-Eastern is very much up my street and Persian is one definite favourite. Before I started exploring I wouldn't have thought they have such love for my favourite herb, dill. I've always thought it's very Scandinavian and not really so appreciated elsewhere. All sorts of herbs feature heavily in Persian cuisine, which is one of the main reasons I love the food so much. Dill is used a lot, and not necessarily with fish or seafood, but with rice, vegetable dishes and soups as well as in meat dishes. I often put it in my version of the fantastic Khorest-e Ghormeh Sabzi from Iranian Azerbaijan. It's not in most recipes for this dish, but I have seen it in some, and I think it works.


For starters they served us Ashe Mast, a soup of yoghurt, lentils, rice, chickpeas and DILL! I had never even heard of it, so it was really interesting to try. I really enjoyed it. It's thick and hearty, but somehow crisp and light at the same time, probably due to the combination of dill and yoghurt. She had used dried dill which reminded me how fantastic dill is in this form also. I often go for fresh, but the dried variety is beautiful too in it's intensity.

I thought I tasted lemon also. And apparently this can be made with little meatballs in it which I suppose would make it a nice meal in itself. As a starter I think it works nicely without them.

For main course there we two kinds of rice, both very typical authentic Persian dishes, Zereshk Polow, rice with saffron and barberries, and Baghali Polow, rice with dill and fava beans. Both are great rice versions for me to try, I have done many others, favourite so far Shivid Polow (garlic, dill and saffron), so it'll be good to try some new ones. No surprise, out of the two Baghali Polow was my favourite.

Husband was in heaven. I can nowadays cook rice to husband's exacting expectations, but these were still a notch or two ahead of mine.


They served us a fish dish of fantastic baked sea bass filled with a mixture of raisins and pomegranate molasses. The fish was full of flavour and beautifully served on a bed of herbs and topped with lime, gherkins, and radishes.

I am normally not crazy about raisins in any cooking or baking, I always dig them out of a scone, a bun or a salad. In Finland we have this disgusting dish, liver bake, a mixture of ground liver and rice, which is made even more disgusting with the addition of raisins. I had a boyfriend and a dog more than 20 years ago now whose favourite dish this was. Boyfriend would buy a pack of ready made liver bake and give half to the dog and eat the other half himself. Euch.

In this fish though the raisins worked. I think they helped to keep the fish moist, but also added and interesting twist to the whole dish.

The meat course was a traditional stew, Khoresht-e Bademjan, lamb with eggplant and tomato. I haven't had this before either, and it is an absolute must do. I loved the mushy eggplant. Eggplant is a bit of a staple in Persian food and is known as the potato of Iran. Husband ladled at least 4 helpings. I did pretty well for a girl, I'd say.


For dessert we had fresh fruit, which often is the way in Middle-East. Fruit was followed by tea with cinnamon or ginger. Cinnamon apparently helps normalise postprandial blood sugar levels. And it tastes nice in tea.

The dinner ended with Ab-Haveej Bastani - Carrot juice and vanilla ice-cream float. Fresh and interesting and apparently very popular in Iran.

Yesterday afternoon I got a message from my upstairs neighbour saying she could kill a G&T in the evening. I sensed there was maybe quite a work week going on. My week’s been a bit colourful as well, so why the hell not. We agreed she’d bring the booze and I’d cook us something nice.

This is a lovely fulfilling comfort food. I lightened the original up with mushrooms, but with the amount of cheese and white sauce it's still quite heavy duty. You can of course make it with beef which makes it a bit lighter, but I think lamb is tastier and if you are looking for a low-calorie option I think this is a bit of a non-starter anyway.

Look how beautifully aligned my pasta tubes are.

I hope the Pastitsio-police are not going to get me for adding mushroom, I'm not sure how big a crime it is. I always think as long as the end result is good we should not be too holy about these things. And I am not sure about the pasta types either, you need a bloody Ph.D. to figure those out.

The only time I have had pastitsio prepared by someone other than myself was on our honeymoon on the wonderful island of Santorini. It was our last day, we were walking around the shops in Fira buying some last minute souvenirs. I bought some tablecloths, a pinny :) and the inevitable scarf, I don't think I've ever been anywhere where I didn't buy a scarf.

And of course I bought some olives, spice mixes, caper leaves and other local delicacies.

We took our last pictures of the amazing caldera and were surprised by a freak rain shower. We escaped the rain to the first restaurant that came our way. It was empty which probably wasn't a good sign.

We ordered some kind of a Greek salad to share for starters, husband ordered lamb chops and I got a tasting platter with pastitsio, dolmades and stuffed tomato. The food was pretty bad to be honest, most of the food we had during our holiday was fantastic, but the starter salad was just weird, half dead salad leaves, tasteless mushy cheese on top covered by anchovies. Husbands chops were overcooked and my plate was nothing to write home about. The pastitsio was nice although it didn't blow my mind and it was almost cold, which technically I think is allowed, but I just would have preferred it hot.

Our sad starter salad

It didn't get much better.

So, the best ever pastitsio by far I have had is by my own fair hand.

Greek lamb mushroom pastitsio (serves 4-6 people)

Pastitsio meat sauce

I yellow onion
400g ground lamb (or beef, or you can do half and half)
3 garlic cloves
250g mushrooms
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp cumin
2 tbsp greek herb mix
2 tbsp fresh chopped oregano (or 2 tsp dried)
2 tbsp fresh chopped mint (or 2 tsp dried)
Salt
Black pepper
1/2 cup of red wine
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 can of tomatoes

Bechamel sauce

40g butter
2 tbsp plain flour
2 cups of milk
1/2 cup of grated parmesan
1 egg

300g of tubular long pasta like long ziti, mezzani or bucatini

1 cup grated cheddar

1. To prepare the meat sauce, chop the onion and mushroom and mince the garlic. Start frying the meat and onion in a frying pan, you don't need to add oil. lamb has enough fat in itself. When meat is browned add minced garlic and chopped mushroom, herbs - I make my own mix, but feel free to use another if you have, spices, salt and pepper. Fry for another couple of minutes on medium-high heat. Add the red wine and let cook for a few minutes, add the tomato paste and tinned tomatoes and leave to simmer for half an hour on low heat.

2. To make the Bechamel sauce melt the butter in a non-stick sauce pan, and the flour and stir until it forms a smooth paste. Cook for 2 minutes, add the milk whisking and heat until simmering, let simmer for a few minutes until it starts to thicken. Add the grated parmesan. Let cool a little and add the whisked egg.

3. Cook the pasta, but leave it a bit under, so cook it a couple of minutes less than the pack instructins. Rinse and add a drizzle of olive oil to keep it from sticking.

4. To assemble grease a large casserole dish with butter. Place the pasta in the bottom of the dish, try to align the strands of pasta so that they run straight from one end of the dish to the other. Add the meat sauce on top of the pasta. Pour the béchamel sauce on top to cover the dish and sprinkle the grated cheddar on top.

5. Bake in the 200C oven for 30-40 minutes or until the top is nice and brown.

Nothing to do with the blog post, but we went walking in the Chiswick House Gardens today and I got close to a heron when it was just taking flight and got this picture so thought I'd share it.

I always love to cook for people, so I was actually really pleased although it was unfortunate that I only had two fish. But I had a bag of nice big shrimp in the freezer which I defrosted under warm water and drizzled with oil, seasoned with salt, pepper, a dash of Tabasco and fresh oregano ready to be skewered and grilled.

Parents have arrived. They're only here for a long weekend, but it's lovely to have them over. They came with moose meat, smoked salmon and sourdough rye bread, Marimekko napkins and salty licorice. And Lonkero for husband. Lonkero is a great summer drink - we make it here from Ting Caribbean Grapefruit lemonade and gin, but of course the Finnish proper stuff in the original blue can is the real thing.