The Swindian

Weekend of Food 2015: Persiana

The menu was chosen. The duties were divided. The spreadsheet was complete. It was time for the event of the year: The Weekend of Food.

WoF, as it is fondly named, was established in 2013, when we took a virtual trip to Eritrea and the Deep South. 2014 saw our tastebuds travel to France, and this year, we chose the Middle East, but specifically made recipes from just one cookbook: Sabrina Ghayour’s Persiana. If you don’t have a copy yet, do buy one – it’s a phenomenal read, and every recipe is a winner, with the freshest of flavours. I also love that Sabrina is very active on social media – whilst planning this meal we were a bit lost on where to find the ingredients, but she gave us a load of tips on where to shop in London. We ended up getting most of the ingredients on Edgware Road, but had to hit up Whole Foods for the preserved lemons.

As usual, the weekend was packed with activities, and whilst food is at the forefront, it’s always so nice to catch up with the WoF gang!

Friday night

We were nostalgic for our university days, so we went to a ceilidh in Camden and danced our socks off! It was great fun, and also a nice way of knowing that we had worked off a few calories before gorging ourselves all day long on Saturday and Sunday…

Saturday morning

A simple brunch: Bagels, scrambled eggs, and bacon with freshly squeezed orange juice and other fruits

Saturday afternoon

Cook, prepare, chop, boil, stew, dance party (there was a lot of Derulo involved)!

Saturday night: Persiana feast. Click on each of the courses below to find out more!

Mezze:

Smoked aubergines with garlic (Mirza Ghasemi), hummus, Turkish feta pastry cigars (Sigara Borek Peynir), spiced lamb kefta, Turkish white bean salad (Piyaz), cucumber and radish salad

Mains:

Soup: Spiced vegetable soup

Chicken, walnut and pomegranate stew (Khoresh-e-Fesenjan), Za’atar cod with relish, Persian bejewelled rice (Morassa Polow)

Desserts: 

Syrup-poached apricots with walnuts and clotted cream, cinnamon and citrus almond pastry cigars

Sunday morning

We gorged ourselves on a beautiful plum custard cake, adapted from this recipe for one of my friend’s birthdays! We swopped the apricots for plums, and didn’t add any milk to keep the batter thin. It was supremely soft and the custard layer was sumptuous!