Gheymeh Recipe
Ingredients:
(feeds 4-6 people)
.5 lb Stew meat- cut into very tiny pieces
1 medium onion – chopped up
1 large potato
1 cup yellow split peas
oil
salt/pepper
turmeric
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 dried lime (limoo amani) and/or dried lime powder (I used 1 dried lime and a tad bit of the powder)
lemon juice
liquid saffron (optional)
Directions
- In a medium or large pot, saute the onions until tender and then add the pieces of meat. Stir the meat and onions, then add turmeric, salt, and pepper. After a few minutes of stirring everything and allowing the meat to cook a little add 1 1/2 to 2 cups water.
- At this time you can add the dried lime and/or the powder, the tomato paste, and some lemon juice. Cover the pot and leave it on medium heat.
- In a frying pan add a bit of oil and put it on medium – low heat. Wash the split peas and then drain the water. Add the split peas to the pan and saute them a bit. If you skip this step and add the split peas to the stew before they are slightly sauteed in oil they will become mashed up and not hold their form.
- After cooking for 5-10 minutes, pour them into the pot and stir in with the rest of the stew. Take the temperature of the pot down to a medium-low heat after about 15 – 20 minutes (after you add the split peas). I also added some liquid saffron to the stew at this time.
- Now you will need to chop up the potato french fry style to prepare it and set aside. I did this and placed them in a bowl and rinsed them then soaked them in water. I added salt to this water as well. This way the color of the potatoes wouldn’t change and I could fry them when my stew is almost done.
- Once you fry the potatoes you can set them aside until 5 minutes prior to taking the stew off the stove. If you throw the fries in too early they will make the stew watery. I usually set some of the fries aside to decorate on top of the stew once I have poured it into a serving bowl. Note: instead of fries you can buy the shoe string potatoes at the grocery store and use those.