Andy Makes Khoresh Gheymeh (Persian Stew)

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(guitar music)

So today, I'm making a dish that I grew up with

from my childhood.

I have been getting requests to be making more Persian food

since I guess I came out with my Persian story

and it's a stew called Khoresh Gheymeh.

And it's made of up meat, dried limes,

chana dal, a few different spices,

and it has this incredible, crunchy potato topping.

It's really easy, and I'm going to show you how to make it.

We're going to start with the onion,

this is just going to be the base, like with so many

different stews around the world.

What I'm using here, chana dal,

which are yellow split peas.

I'm going to cover this by two inches

and then I'm going to add just a little bit of salt.

We're going to bring that to a simmer.

Once it comes to a boil, we'll reduce it to a pretty

low simmer, let that go for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, we're going to heat about three tablespoons

of oil.

So I'm going to take you back.

We have one pound of chuck cut to about three quarter inch,

one inch pieces.

I'm going to season this with salt.

Give that a toss.

If you could do this early, as in an hour before,

that's great, just to really season the meat.

We have the oil nice and shiny.

We're going to add the onions.

I'm going to walk away for a second.

At home, don't walk away, unless you're a professional.

I wanted to show you these.

These are called, in Farsi, (foreign language).

Which translates to basically, salted Persian limes.

It's so perfumey.

It has that musky flavor, I love it.

Ideally, you want to pierce these, so that their flavor

can be extracted when you add them to the stew.

Alright, let's see how the onions are doing.

Okay.

I'll season this with a little bit of salt.

Okay, so we have our onions.

They're pretty soft, they're brown around the edges.

This are good.

I'm going to add one pound of the chuck and toss this.

Probably about anywhere from four to six minutes

on medium high.

I'm going to add about a teaspoon of ground tumeric

and about three quarters of a teaspoon of cinnamon.

We'll give that a toss.

Let that go for just like 30 seconds.

Only to just kind of get the aromas going.

The meat starts to look a little glazey.

A little bit of pepper.

Some people add pepper, some people don't.

I add a little bit.

And then I'm going to add a quarter cup of tomato paste.

I'll cook this down for about two minutes,

just to cook the tomato paste out.

So now the tomato paste is starting to stick

to the bottom of the pot, I'm going to add

those dried limes.

And then I'm going to add four cups of water.

We're going to bring this to a boil.

And let's just scrape the bottom of the pot

since that tomato paste and spices might have stuck.

We have our stew coming to a boil.

I'm just going to reduce it to a simmer, like medium-low.

I'm going to take the back of the wooden spoon,

and I'm just going to crush them slightly,

the sides of the pan.

You want that kind of musky, sour, funky, stringent flavor.

So, I'm going to reduce that.

I'm going to cover with a lid.

Leaving it just like slightly open so some of the steam

can come out and so it can reduce.

We have a tiny bit of saffron that costs as much

as my pinky is worth.

I will say this is an optional part of the stew.

Some households put it, some households don't.

I like it.

So I'm just going to grind up the saffron threads like this.

(banging)

Sometimes I'll add a pinch of kosher salt.

Some people add like course sugar just to kind of help it

grind to a powder.

We're going to get it to a powder consistency like this.

I'm going to add like three tablespoons of hot water.

So we have the saffron water.

This is three tablespoons worth of saffron water.

We're probably only going to use about a tablespoon

of this in the stew.

So the stew gets topped with potatoes.

It sounds weird, yet it's what makes this dish,

I think, really, really special.

One russet potato, unpeeled.

So what I like to do is stack these up and then I'll cut

them about a little less than half an inch.

Straight down.

I'm going to put these in a salad spinner.

This is weird, stay with me.

I'm going to rinse these in cold water.

What I'm doing here is kind of agitating the potatoes

and getting rid of any excess starch.

You'll see how the water is cloudy.

Okay, so it's great, easy, to kind of do it

in the salad spinner because then you can kind of

drain it really quickly and you also have all this water

that's on the potatoes now and you need to get rid of that

because you don't want to put that water in the frying oil

because it's going to splatter and prevent your potatoes

from becoming crisp and golden.

So what I like to do is spin them in a salad spinner.

And you get all this water out from your potatoes.

Look at that, look at that.

Wow.

I'm going to put a big handful of potatoes.

And you're going to turn these around.

Look how pretty these ones turned.

You see, really nice, wavy.

Really crunchy.

They look like my hair during puberty.

[Off Camera Man] Man, you gotta provide us with the

photos so we can put that in!

We didn't clear it up.

So you want to take the potatoes out when they

start to turn golden like this.

You want to season this with salt immediately.

Then I'm going to add last batch here.

This totally not traditional way to make these potatoes,

you would just saute them but this is just a little bit

I think of a cool technique.

So we have our crisp potatoes.

I'm going to turn off my oil.

I'm going to check the stew.

It's nice and thickened.

I'm going to add the saffron water over here.

About a tablespoons worth.

I leave these dry limes in.

Some people take them out just before serving.

I think we're pretty good on salt.

It's really delicious.

You have the like wonderful brightness from the dried limes.

The chana dal has great texture.

I'm just going to serve this up.

And this is not a published recipe so just

follow us at this video.

You can DM me if you want more details or questions

and I'll get back at you.

I'm going to top this with potatoes like that.

You can eat it on its own with flatbread or some

fluffy Persian rice.

I hope you guys enjoy it and it brings as memory

or memories to you as it does for me.

I got to catch a ferry.

What are those?

They're regular people's shoes.

And I don't feel good about myself or sexy

but this is what I needed to wear today.