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Saffron and Cardamom Chicken Broth

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 20:45:27 GMT

Healing, nourishing and restorative ! This clear Chicken Broth will leave you wanting more and more and more! Eating it is like one long hug from the inside out ...

THE most important flavour enhancer for Sabzi! The ONE THING that will make your sabzi dishes taste phenomenal and "authentic"!

183:841073976 (Jilah Bakhssayesh) — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 10:30:48 GMT

How to get that insanely delicious authentic flavour from your herbs!

This is a long blog, but if you are keen to cook Persian dishes that taste insanely good, then this blog is for you!

I have broken down the stages required to create the authentic Iranian flavour that is created in dishes such as Gormeh Sabzi, Galieh Mahi and other delicious meals that involve the use of fresh herbs

If you want to just skip to the printable version it is here :

Courgette and Cauliflower Soup

Wed, 08 Sep 2021 14:55:58 GMT

Maple Roasted Butternut Squash Salad

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 09:38:14 GMT

The most delicious and versatile use of Butternut Squash!

Brocolli and Fennel Seed Soup

Thu, 19 Aug 2021 00:40:14 GMT

Spice Roasted Dill & Lime Courgettes

Sun, 01 Aug 2021 19:36:56 GMT

A perfect way to prepare your Courgettes!

With the late frosts in May, Jilah's Tiny Kitchen Garden has been late to produce, but the one vegetable that has pushed through earlier like a trooper is the humble courgette and after thinking up this way of preparing it I am looking forward to each and every one of them!

The distinct flavours for this dish are the freshness of the lime paired with the spicy Pul Biber; the mellow Urfa Chilli with the warmth of the Nutmeg that comes through as an undertone so satisfyingly. Ground Caraway Seed adds a complimentary dimension to the Nutmeg too and then with the odd burst of Cumin Seed and a whiff of Garlic the overall result is sooo delicious!

I ate this dish with flat bread, salad, gherkins and an Iranian inspired potato and egg mixture and it worked really well, but courgettes done like this would also be perfect with cous cous and sprinkled with toasted Pine Nuts, either hot or as a salad ... the possibilities are mouth watering!

Mustard Mayo Mashed Dill Potato

183:841073976 (Jilah Bakhssayesh) — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 18:03:29 GMT

A perfect accompaniment to my Sweet, Sour, Sticky, Peppery Pork Spare Ribs recipe!

https://www.jilahstinykitchen.com/pork-ribs-sticky-sweet-sour-and-peppery

This recipe came about as a last minute thought for accompanying Spare Ribs. It started off as plain mashed potato but soon turned into a gourmet flavourful dish in its own right that had me tempted to eat spoon fulls of it whilst waiting for the Ribs to finish caramelising off ... Mashed Potato or if you like "crushed" will never be the same again!

Pork Ribs .. Sticky, Sweet, Sour and Peppery!

Sun, 01 Aug 2021 17:03:44 GMT

Slow Cooked and dropping off the bone with a sweet, sour, sticky peppery marinade ... this recipe will have you craving Pork Spare Ribs on a daily basis!

It is delicious served with my Mustard Mayo mashed Dill Potatoes

https://www.jilahstinykitchen.com/mustard-mayo-dill-mash

I am ashamed to say that venturing into preparing spare ribs in my own kitchen has been a late development for me and consequently the joy of eating these succulent sticky yummy morsels has been a bit of an epiphany for me .... now that my taste buds have taken the hit ... there will be no going back for me! This is when I am glad of my half English heritage ... I may never have tried this dish otherwise, so taken up I naturally am with Persian Cuisine!

I served this dish with my Mayo Mustard Dill Mashed Potato recipe which is available on the next blog after this one ..

After much googling into spare rib marinades, my approach to creating this delicious marinade has been to use the seasonings that I am particularly enjoying at the moment in my cooking. I use Wilderness Organics spices due to their incredibly fresh and intense aromatic flavours and their Nutmeg and ground Caraway Seeds have proved themselves on numerous occasions to create a really multi-dimensional taste experience.

Combined with Garlic Powder, Long Pepper and Black Kampot Pepper (also from Wilderness Organics), these seasonings blend perfectly with the already established combination of Tomato Ketchup (not my normal ingredient choice but in this case it suits the recipe perfectly) and Maple Syrup that often provides the base for Spare Rib marinades.

The addition of Tamarind Paste and Apple Cider Vinegar as well as Pul Biber and freshly bashed/roughly ground Cumin Seeds really lifts the flavour and the result is a multi layered sweet, sour, peppery plate of heaven!

The way in which the marinade caramelizes and becomes akin to treacle is the icing on the cake and the resulting de-glazed liquor just finishes this dish off perfectly!

So .... here is the recipe. Please let me know if you have tried it and how it was for you xx

Falling in Love with the mighty Cauliflower!

183:841073976 (Jilah Bakhssayesh) — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 23:27:41 GMT

I promise, you will want to eat the WHOLE Cauliflower when you prepare it like this!

Who remembers Cauliflower resistance from childhood? School Cauli, Grandma's over cooked soggy Cauli, perfectly cooked Cauliflower Cheese from your Mother but because of the school Cauli and grandma's squashy Cauli, Mother's carefully prepared Cauli didn't stand a chance?!! Well ... I am here to tell you that if you cast these previous traumas aside and start with a fresh open mind, this much maligned vegetable will become your most mighty favourite in no time!

Introducing myself xx Jilah. from Jilah's TIny Kitchen

183:841073976 (Jilah Bakhssayesh) — Sat, 29 May 2021 00:13:58 GMT

The Jilah behind the 'Jilah's Tiny Kitchen'

Half Iranian Half English , I grew up in the UK and continue to live there now. I have always loved food and eating, and especially loved time spent with my Iranian Granny who was a fantastic cook. I loved to watch her cook, ask her questions and get involved myself. My Mother was a good cook too and she let me bake and cook at home so that once I went to Secondary School I was able to cook a meal and bake cakes myself un-attended. Cooking cheered me up, connected me with my sense of source and an important facet of myself. It gave me optimism, strength and energy again if I ever cooked at times when I was feeling low, serving as my joyous pick me up. I loved to make my own recipes up too and as well, took a pride in identifying with my taste buds what ingredients might be in a new dish that I had been served by my Granny (and later by my Iranian and Kurdish friends who sometimes cooked for me) then trying to recreate it myself .

Having been brought up in a very Western community, cooking Persian food with the memory of my Granny sitting on my shoulder helped to connect me strongly with my Iranian side and FEEL Iranian. It was my mission to create Iranian dishes that were Authentic and that tasted as if an Iranian had cooked it. Such was my zeal in this area that when I first started cooking Iranian dishes again as an adult, with no Granny alive to consult, I used to imagine her in the kitchen with me advising. I was then told by a clairvoyant that indeed my Granny was with me when I cooked and that she often laughed and tapped me on the hand when she thought I was putting it too much of this or the wrong spice etc … When my children’s Father moved in with me I learnt more recipes in which to use particular spices and seasonings in and I discovered what is done on a daily basis in Iranian households and what is done for that extra zing or presentation when making the meal for a large gathering of guests.

Over the years, just as my Granny had been, I became particularly known for my Persian Rice and as I mixed with other Iranians I learnt recipes that were specific to particular regions of Iran and that came from other Iranian family culinary traditions than my own. I bought books and tutted at any of them that used both fried onion AND fried Garlic in some of the dishes or that used an excessive variety of spices included in one recipe in order to fulfil the Western Publisher’s marketing objective of ramping up the Exotic aspects of Persian cooking .... as if it needed ramping up in the first place!! I asked friends to tell me how they made particular dishes and where the regional and familial variations made the recipe a little different to the standard generic one.

My daughter’s Father was a good cook who had learnt well from his Mother. His Mother grew up in the North of Iran in the province of Rasht and had been assigned the role of Cook on the family farm that she grew up on, so she knew LOTS of Iranian dishes including those that were from the region she grew up in and the specific techniques and seasoning tricks that would make the meal stand out. Needless to say, I learnt a great deal from my daughter’s Father which combined with my Azerbaijani Iranian Granny and my Persian friends from Shiraz, Isfahan, Tehran, Kurdistan, Azerbaijan, North Iran and Lorestan has given me a full portfolio of Iranian culinary resources upon which to draw. It is this first hand learning which I find so so valuable and has given me a kind of discernment when I look at Persian cookery books ... I love to be able to sift the wheat from the chaff when it comes to identifying well informed authentic recipes.

As well as the incredible flavours that Iranian food boasts, it is also so healthy too with the Ancient emphasis on balancing heat producing and cold producing foods in the body so that the food keeps the body in balance and maximises the nutritional value that can be gained from eating it.

In Nov 2014, I opened my own Cafe/Restaurant/Bar/Events Venue called 'The Butterfly House at The Torrs' that specialised in Artisan in-house produced food created from scratch with only the most unprocessed of ingredients taken at source. Salads that combined Spicy, Sour, Sweet, Salty flavours in the one dish and a mixture of cooked and raw Vegetables with Salad ingredients, grains & pasta were served with Savoury Pastries and Soups with copious amounts of garnishes that were AS important as the actual Soup, became our signature dishes. I sometimes cooked Persian cuisine and when I did it flew out, especially the heavily Herb-laden Soup called Ashe Reshte which left a lingering and delicious smell in the cafe with its combination of Fresh Coriander, Leek, Parsley & Spring Onions that are sautéed until deep dark green and packed with aroma. Sometimes I cooked up a Persian Feast with a variety of Khoreshtes, Rice Dishes and accompanying side dishes and on the those occasions a big hit was the Persian Bakhlava for Desert which is so very easy to make.

For six and a half years The Butterfly House at The Torrs took up all my waking hours .. it was my baby and a labour of love, although when 39 hr, 27 hr and 23 hr shifts occurred it did at times feel like I was working down the mines!! Cheffing in my kitchen there was a chance for me to develop my own recipes and create inventive menus and dishes that were essentially vegetarian and vegan but that were complimented with roasted meats, meat pies and sauces. My aim was that regardless of whether the customer was vegetarian or vegan, that the dishes that laid the foundation of the menu were equally suitable for non meat eaters and that those who wanted meat could add meat to the range of salads , vegetable and mixed grain dishes that made up most of the menu choices. In this way, no one had to ask “have you got a vegetarian/vegan menu”? … it was all included on the one menu. It was also vital that each dish was something extraordinary in flavour, something that the customer felt they could not have created at home and was therefore worth coming out to my establishment for.

When Covid made it clear that continuing The Butterfly House would not be sustainable, I closed the business and created my online cookery school Jilah's Tiny Kitchen. I feel very fortunate to have been able to “pivot” as they call it now! Jilah's Tiny Kitchen is a place where I can share my passion for cooking and bring the deliciousness of Persian Cuisine to other foodies around the world. It has opened up to me a global community of chefs, cooking enthusiasts, foodies and other entrepreneurs and this is great! I now run cookery classes, teaching enthusiasts in their own kitchens from my tiny kitchen, I do lives on facebook and Instagram, I've started writing blogs and have just launched my Instagram TV Show 'Inside2Kitchens' where I meet with other chefs and cooking enthusiasts to prepare a meal and share our different approaches to making that same meal work for both Vegi/Vegans and Meat Eaters. We swop notes and share tips, have a laugh and hopefully inspire people to cook without fear and without boundaries.

There will soon be a 'Jilah's Tiny Kitchen Tribe', a membership club which will enable me to reach more people to teach in depth at an affordable price for them where they receive recipes, video lessons, live classes, support from email and phone communication, instructional blogs tailored to the Tribe's needs, webinars, opportunities to appear in live InstagramTV 1 to 1 cooking classes and live question and answer sessions each month.

'From my Granny's kitchen to my tiny kitchen to your kitchen'! It has been quite a journey xx

Aubergine & Pomegranate Dip

Thu, 27 May 2021 13:39:26 GMT

This dip is so versatile ... Eaten with Bread, on top of Rice Cakes & Crackers, or on the side with Rice and it provides the base for other recipes (more of that in another blog) ... the options are endless!

Aubergine and Pomegranate Dip

What do you do when you have random ingredients Chopped, Squeezed and purposefully burnt at the end of a photoshoot? ...... You turn them into a new dish, that’s what you do.

During the photo-shoot I decided to cut open a Pomegranate, pick and chop my Garlic leaves, burn some Aubergine to make them Smokey and get out a variety of herbs, spices and sauces to show what kind of ingredients are used in Persian Cuisine.

I then needed to do something with them after the shoot was over and my kids returned home from school hungry and ready to eat.

So .... hot off the stove, I am including this recipe in my first ever blog for you all. You get the recipe pre the book that’s currently in the planning! (hahaaaaa!!) All I ask in return is that you give me feedback ... this recipe was great yesterday when I made it off the cuff but how does it work for others?

Let me know .. tell me of your experience with it, send me photo’s! I would also be interested in whether any of you know of this dish having already been created in the North of Iran or Azerbaijan? As it might well be that I have accidentally happened across an existing dish due to using ingredients so common to North Iranian (Shomali) Cuisine .... Thankyou in advance for your feedback xx

I based this dish on the North Iranian way of combining ingredients and kept it simple .. Charred Smokey Aubergine, Pomegranate and Garlic Chives (and also, as in my case, Garlic Leaves from my garden plot), are all key ingredients in North Iranian Cuisine. Add Turmeric which is used in every Persian dish and then an Azeri twist with Pul Biber and I had made the most delicious dip or side dish to eat on top of Rice Cakes, to have with Flat Bread or to have as a side dish with Rice and Smoked Fish, Olives and Sabzi Khordan.

The key flavour in this dish is the smoked Aubergines and the key texture is created from the fresh Pomegranate Seeds which pop in your mouth and release their delicious juice and then leave you with their crunchy bits which give you more time to taste the accompanying deliciousness of the slightly sweet smoked aubergine that has been fried with Turmeric to which the added sour/sweet Pomegranate Syrup acts as a perfect compliment and balancing ingredient. Gentle Garlic flavour from the fresh leaves made a little more substantial with Garlic Powder adds dimension and the Azerbaijani influence with Pul Biber just clinches the flavour note that with the matching sweet smokiness of the Aubergine creates a dish that dances on your tongue!

A little tip for the smoking of the Aubergines ... Unless you can burn them whole on a barbecue or open fire, you will be doing them in the kitchen on your stove top (provided you have a gas cooker! Otherwise I recommend that you burn them under the grill). In order to preserve the cleanliness of your stove top, you will need to cover the top with foil making holes to free the flames from the gas rings. If you have skewers that is idea for you to be able to lift, turn and remove whilst hot, the aubergine from the flame. The wide Koobideh Skewers that hold minced meat kebabs are ideal, but if you only have the thin ones they will be fine ... two skewers either side along the length of the Aubergine is ideal to help prevent it from sloppily collapsing onto the flame when it is cooked through enough, but one skewer is fine too. I have seen them charred on a gas flame however with no skewer at all so don’t worry if that is what you will need to do.
There is a little extra info for you after the recipe where I identify the properties of Unani that this recipe reflects ...

Place the Aubergines over the flame and literally burn the skin till it develops a white fine salt like powder on the surface of it and the Aubergine is soft and sqwushy inside

Once the skins are burnt and charred, take the Aubergines off the flame and leave to cool down whilst you cut open your Pomegranate and remove the seeds

Take your Garlic leaves and finely chop them ... (the finer the better)

Cut open your Pomegranate and take out the fleshy seeds

Now peel off the skin of the Aubergine .. it will have gone crispy in parts and be more like chipping it off as well as the softer areas that you can peel off. Try to get most of the skin off but don’t worry at all if you end up with specs of skin still on the flesh .. it will all contribute to the flavour and be fine.

Next chop the Aubergine, (almost mince with a heavy knife) into tiny mashed up pieces and fry briskly over a high heat with the Turmeric and Garlic Salt and a sprinkle of Sea/Himalayan Pink or Kosher Salt. (Kosher Salt is milder in flavour)

New paragraph

In a Pestle and Mortar (if big enough, if not take a bowl and the end of a rolling pin and bash with that), bash the Garlic Leaves and 80% of the Pomegranate Seeds together. Don’t get too carried away with bashing as you want to keep some of the pomegranate seeds whole so that they pop in your mouth.
Add the bashed Garlic leaves and Pomegranate seeds to the Aubergine that is still on the heat and then add the Pul Biber and Pomegranate Syrup
Mix them all in and allow to fry, scIn raping any caramelised aubergine that might have stuck to the bottom of the pan and re-incorporating it into the mix for added flavour
Adjust the Salt to suit your own taste
Spoon into your serving dish and garnish with the Summer Savoury and remaining Pomegranate Seeds

Noosheh Jan! xx

Now that you have seen the recipe itself, lets look at the qualities of Unani (the Ancient Persian Empire tradition of balancing foods that when eaten, heat or cool your blood) which this dish embodies. Whilst I didn’t create it with the purpose of ensuring balance between hot and cold properties, it actually turns out to be balanced!

In the cold camp we have two of the three main ingredients: Aubergine and Pomegranite. To offset their blood cooling aspects, we have the heat created from Oil in which to fry the Aubergine, Garlic, Salt, Pul Biber and Turmeric.

I just love this aspect of Persian Cuisine! Whilst filling your stomach and making your tongue dance, the food also maintains a healthy balance in your system. As the Aubergine is the base of the dish and the Pomegranite Seeds and Pomegranite Syrup comes in at a close second, the relatively scant quantity of heat creating ingredients such as Cooking Oil, Turmeric, Salt and Pul Biber added to the larger amount of Garlic Leaves and Garlic Powder all combine when assessing its Unani characteristics, to create what I am pleased to discover is a very well balanced dish!

Look out for my future post on the Ancient food system of Unani! The system of food combining that balances the heating and cooling effects of different types of food.