Part Three: Banana Bread and "Gourmet" Sabzi

This is the last in my series of weekend cooking posts. I will have to move onto something different for my next few posts as I won't be cooking for a bit. Now I'm on a mission to clear the fridge of leftovers!

Monday was a Baha'i Holy Day, and fortuitously it was a work holiday as well. In celebration of the Holy Day a friend hosted brunch at her home. I baked a quick banana bread in the morning to take over. I have made banana bread a few time before and invariably it comes out of the oven looking lovely, but concealed in the middle is a little spot of doughy not-quite-done-ness that I can't get rid of. Why? I always thought it was because the bananas congregated in the middle, but this time I pureed the bananas into a banana soup, rather than just mashing them with a fork, so I know for a fact they were evenly distributed! If I leave it in the oven longer, the whole rest of the loaf dries out. This loaf was no exception. See below...

The outer slices deceptively look just right. But cut in a little further and look:
Is it my pan? (A non-stick 9-inch loaf pan.) Is it my oven? (A non-descript ancient clunker.) Is it the recipe? If anyone has thoughts, or better recipes to share, I am open to suggestions.

I had much greater success on Monday afternoon, which I spent making a famous Persian stew called qormeh sabzi (قرمه ‌سبزی ). Personally, I like to refer to it as gourmet sabzi, or "gourmet greens." It's an herb stew made with meat, dark red kidney beans, and lime. The name comes from the selection of green herbs that go into it--mountains of parsley, cilantro, chives, scallions, and fenugreek (I had to use dried for that last one). I snapped a photo mid-process of the herbs ready to go into the pot.

Sadly I did not have the presence of mind to photograph the finished product. By the time it was finished cooking (after 3 hours of slow simmering), we were so eager to eat that pictures were the last thing on our minds.