This week I decided to cook a food that was one I thought would be simple and easy to make while at the same time cost efficient. The dish I decided to make was a Persian style of pirashki with a few changes here and there based on what was available in my pantry.
Ingredient(for a patch of 8)
2/3 cups of diced baby carrots
1 1/2 cup ground beef
1 diced clove of garlic
1/3 of a diced white onion
1/4 cup of chopped parsley
1/4 cup of spinach
3 teaspoons of salt
4 teaspoons of ground chili peppers
2 teaspoons of pepper
1/3 cup of tomato paste
4 tortillas cut in half
2 tablespoons of paprika
3 teaspoons of canola oil
The image is the of the final product of the pirashki
This is the interior of the pirashki with all the ingredients mixed together
I originally had obtained this recipe from my mother and the style she had made it when I was younger. There is no "right" way for a pirashki, it can be made with what every ingredients you like. It can be as simple as a cheese and spinach in the tortilla. I chose to go with this recipe with a few changes, one being more significant. A few minor changes I had made were adding the ground chili powder as I like food a bit more spicy than my mom does. I did add spinach to the recipe even though it had parsley already in it, this was more due to I had a lot of left over spinach so I decided to throw it in as well. I also added paprika, though not a major change I thought it would add more flavor to the overall dish. The major change I had to make was with the tortillas. Even though there are many way to make a Persian pirashki the one thing they all have in common is the pastry. Usually pirashkis are made with a fresh dense bun to capture the heat and the flavors of the food you had cook. Unfortunately I did not have any ingredients to try and make my own dough to try and attempt to make the bun so I looked in my refrigerator and decided that I would substitute it with tortillas instead.
When making the dish I first started by cooking the onions in some canola oil. I cooked them until a light brown to golden color. I then added the ground beef to the mixture as well as the salt, paprika, pepper, ground chili pepper, tomato paste, and garlic. I let those cook until the ground beef was almost fully cook before finally adding the carrots, parsely, and spinach. I stirred them all together and let them cook for 1-2 minutes before finally taking it off the stove. I then took my tortillas and cut them half so that I could fold them into a triangle to have everything stay in so that I could fry them. After I had wrapped them all up and were ready to fry them I noticed that I was all out of canola oil, so what I decided to do instead was to bake them in the oven as 325 F for about 3-4 minutes or until the tortillas where just starting to brown. This was both a healthier option and much less messy of a job.
Ingredient(for a patch of 8)
2/3 cups of diced baby carrots
1 1/2 cup ground beef
1 diced clove of garlic
1/3 of a diced white onion
1/4 cup of chopped parsley
1/4 cup of spinach
3 teaspoons of salt
4 teaspoons of ground chili peppers
2 teaspoons of pepper
1/3 cup of tomato paste
4 tortillas cut in half
2 tablespoons of paprika
3 teaspoons of canola oil
I originally had obtained this recipe from my mother and the style she had made it when I was younger. There is no "right" way for a pirashki, it can be made with what every ingredients you like. It can be as simple as a cheese and spinach in the tortilla. I chose to go with this recipe with a few changes, one being more significant. A few minor changes I had made were adding the ground chili powder as I like food a bit more spicy than my mom does. I did add spinach to the recipe even though it had parsley already in it, this was more due to I had a lot of left over spinach so I decided to throw it in as well. I also added paprika, though not a major change I thought it would add more flavor to the overall dish. The major change I had to make was with the tortillas. Even though there are many way to make a Persian pirashki the one thing they all have in common is the pastry. Usually pirashkis are made with a fresh dense bun to capture the heat and the flavors of the food you had cook. Unfortunately I did not have any ingredients to try and make my own dough to try and attempt to make the bun so I looked in my refrigerator and decided that I would substitute it with tortillas instead.
When making the dish I first started by cooking the onions in some canola oil. I cooked them until a light brown to golden color. I then added the ground beef to the mixture as well as the salt, paprika, pepper, ground chili pepper, tomato paste, and garlic. I let those cook until the ground beef was almost fully cook before finally adding the carrots, parsely, and spinach. I stirred them all together and let them cook for 1-2 minutes before finally taking it off the stove. I then took my tortillas and cut them half so that I could fold them into a triangle to have everything stay in so that I could fry them. After I had wrapped them all up and were ready to fry them I noticed that I was all out of canola oil, so what I decided to do instead was to bake them in the oven as 325 F for about 3-4 minutes or until the tortillas where just starting to brown. This was both a healthier option and much less messy of a job.
Thoughts/Reflection
When I had taken the pirashki out of the oven, at first glance they looked very well made (especially for my first attempt ever at making them) but when inspected it more closely and opened up the pirashki I could tell that they certainly were the way my mom had made them. When I took a bite to taste test it the flavor was very odd, it was sweet, while at the same time spicy, and the cook carrot, spinach, and parsley did not go well with the ground beef and the spiced I had added to it. Overall it had a very mediocre taste to it. One think I wish I had done differently was instead of using ground beef that I had used chicken instead, I feel that the flavor profile of the vegetables and spices would go much better than it did with the beef. I also wish I could have made the fresh buns from scratch like it was meant to be. While I did very much enjoy the cooking of the food I feel the final results were not very satisfying especially with time spent making it. I hopefully will try this recipe again in the near future with more favorable results.
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