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<\/figure>Have you ever wanted to make a type of dish\/food of a particular country using all fresh ingredients only to find that you cannot buy what you need and you end up having to substitute the fresh ingredients for dried ones and or when you don\u2019t have the necessary dried ingredients you need you have to substitute them for fresh ones? Well, that has happened to me on more occasions than I care to remember. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I happen to like food, really like food and cooking various dishes from different countries around the world not only allows me to widen my taste palate, which is something I\u2019m quite passionate about doing, but it also helps me to learn about the history of different cultures through their respective cuisines. Now, one dish that I particularly like is a Persian\/Iranian dish called Ghormeh Sabzi which is basically a herb and spice stew made up of course of herbs, spices, meat and beans. This dish is typically served with Persian rice and a fresh and crispy Persian green salad consisting of cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers and onions and either seasoned with sea salt or served with a sweet and sour dressing made with pomegranate juice. I have made this dish only once before (see picture attached) and despite not having fresh ingredients to work with it came out exceptionally well. I was first introduced to Persian\/Iranian food through attending a party at the Iranian embassy in Tokyo some years ago and the on dish that I remember above all others that I ate was Ghormeh Sabzi. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
For my second attempt at Ghormeh Sabzi, I thought I would try to make the most authentic one I could and in order to do so I knew I would have to grow my own fresh fenugreek as it is not possible to buy it in my local supermarkets nor in international supermarkets: fenugreek is simply not used at all in Japanese cooking. I also knew that I would have to try to buy some dried limes which I knew would be difficult as dried limes are also not used in Japanese cooking. At first buying dried limes proved to be difficult because there were none to be found in Japan and ordering on the internet (which I absolutely hate to do) also did not seem like an option. Fortunately, after doing a lot of research, I came across an importer of Persian\/Iranian food based here in Tokyo who had recently received a consignment of dried limes from Iran and I bought a hundred gram bag from him. Actually, on the packet it says dried lemons, but Iranian people refer to lemons as limes, I know, it\u2019s a bit confusing, but that\u2019s what the importer told me, and after checking it is correct. All I needed to do now was to buy some fenugreek seeds and get them sown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each week, I kept thinking that I would buy some seeds and start the process of growing my own fenugreek, but the weeks passed by and I was no nearer to planting any seeds let alone harvesting fresh fenugreek. \u00a0It was really my daughter, Emma, that gave me the push I needed as she was also interested in growing her own salad vegetables, as well as parsley, carrots and some beetroot. \u00a0All the necessary growing items were purchased (growing boxes, soil, fertilizer, etc), seeds were sown, care and attention have been daily applied over the past month and the results speak for themselves (pictures attached).\u00a0 Both Emma\u2019s herbs and vegetables and my fenugreek are thriving and all being well I will be able to harvest the fenugreek next week and then set about making my authentic version of Ghormeh Sabzi. \u00a0I would love to think that I could buy lamb shanks for my Ghormeh sabzi, which would be the icing on the cake as far as authentic cooking goes, but as it is impossible to buy lamb on the bone here in Japan I will have to make do with a Kg of leg or shoulder meat.\u00a0 I will of course let you know how it works out in the coming weeks.\u00a0 I will also be providing you all with the Ghormeh Sabzi recipe and the step-by-step instructions (with pictures) on how to make it.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Until next week, keep safe, enjoy the weekend ahead and if you do decide to get into the kitchen to do some serious cooking then make sure your knives are sharp, your chopping board if clean and flat and, if like me your hair has a tendency to find its way into your food if you are not careful, always make sure you are wearing a chef\u2019s hat or something similar to prevent hairs from getting into your food. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Newsletter Readers, Welcome to another edition of our weekly newsletter and I hope it finds you happy and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stephens-corner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=679"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":691,"href":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679\/revisions\/691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/wp2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/20211015s2-1024x438.jpg\")
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