Have tried to dodge emos very hard today, hence I have been cooking Persian all day. Made Mirza Ghassemi and Khoresht Fesenjan (the latter for the first time) and I had to basically pound half a pound of walnuts in a mortar by hand (I don't own a food processor) and now I want to die. Unless my arm falls off first ( Read more... )

Ladies and gentlebeings, it is my honour to present to you some of Ja'far ibn Yahya al-Barmaki's parents' favourite dishes, collected from Annals of The Caliphs’ Kitchens. (Psst... you can download a PDF of the book hereThe first three are cold pullet (pullet=tiny chicken) dishes to be served as appetizers. I really hope I can try that first one ( Read more... )

Have been totally unable to write emails or to make phone calls today, so apologies if I owe you emails/replies. Just saying this because I'm feeling super-introverted today and just so groggy I need to gather my strength.

This is mostly happening through devouring medieval Islamic cookbooks. It's helping. I've already gone through this 13th ( Read more... )

I've just remembered I've got to go and buy some more harissa paste tomorrow. Here is an illustration of a) life without harissa paste and b) life with harissa paste.


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My Persia research is now extending to Persian cuisine as well. With awesome results. I just made some Mirza Ghassemi and it's DELICIOUS. 8-q Holy fucking shit! It's a lacto-ovo-vegetarian dish from Gilan (incidentally, the province at the southern end of the Caspian Sea where our Persiaverse novel is set). So now I know what the locals nom on cold ( Read more... )

...you start cooking venison (it was on sale in the supermarket and was cheaper than chicken or beef o_O) and you go to a Finnish site to count the macronutrients (protein, fat, carbs, etc) and it doesn't list venison. So you have to look for the closest equivalent, which is... reindeer. In fact, I'm cookng it the way I would cook reindeer because ( Read more... )

I've been eating nummy low-carb burgers today. The sort you can make with a microwave oven (hallelujah ( Read more... )

I quite like Lancashire Hot Pot. It reminds me of Karelian Hot Pot. Nummy. I've been known to lick the dish afterwards. Let this be a lesson to Finns coming to the UK. Or something ( Read more... )

Things are getting better, in that I got up at 6AM rather than 3AM, so things are more sensible, hooray ( Read more... )

Feel horrible today, physically and mentally. Mostly because of RL rearing its ugly head and being nasty. Poo. This isn't right when there's a fantastic person visiting and we're generally having a fun time. It's just that all the walking is really making my back hurt. Sore legs I could cope with, but feeling a mild stabbing pain in my lower back ( Read more... )