Discussion
This is a recent discovery for me when attending an event at Kensington Olympia and trying the restaurants opposite (I thought Alborz was better than Yas). I have now discovered that a restaurant local to me is a Persian restaurant when I thought it was an Indian fish restaurant. What is your favourite Persian dish? mine so far is Ghormeh Sabzi which is a lamb casserole dish with red kidney beans, masses of green herbs and preserved lime. Yum!
For starters, my favourites are:
Mizeh Ghashemi: roasted aubergines pureed and slow cooked with smoked garlic tomato and onions: Utterly sublime
Salad Olivieh : Russian salad with potato, cold roast chicken peas and mayo
And the main courses:
Ghormeh Sabzi when cooked well is lovely. It needs to simmer all day, from first thing in the morning or ideally the night before. Of all the Iranian dishes I eat (and I have eaten a great deal over 25 years, it is the most variable)
Khoresh eh badam jaan - A rich fragrant stew with aubergines, tomato and saffron
Khoresh sib zaminee - As above but with potato
All stews MUST be eaten with rice that is 'taardig' rice from the bottom of the pan that has been fried/steamed until it about an inch thick and perfect for the stew juices
And of course the kababs
Cheello kabak / joojeh (with bones) / Kabab koobideh
Try the yoghurt drink - no , it's not like Lassi. It's called Doorgh, is somewhat of an acquired taste but pefect with the stews.
Oh and the restaurant serves it, Iranin icecream - 'bastani' either saffron or vanilla with lumps of clotted cream or the spagetti ice 'faloodeh' that tastes of rose water, is very sweet and is consumed by squeezing a whole lime into it and waiting for it to freeze.
And then endless tea. Tea from the samovar tastes different.
You may have gathered, I take Persian cooking somewhat seriously. Consumption wise, I do believe I am a bit of an old pro!
I only eat in the Iranian resturants that have a Tanoor. Meltingly hot bread served with the kababs and especially the starters is one of this world's sublime indulgences.
Mizeh Ghasemi and scorching hot bread followed with a mouth full of doorgh... Bliss
Mizeh Ghashemi: roasted aubergines pureed and slow cooked with smoked garlic tomato and onions: Utterly sublime
Salad Olivieh : Russian salad with potato, cold roast chicken peas and mayo
And the main courses:
Ghormeh Sabzi when cooked well is lovely. It needs to simmer all day, from first thing in the morning or ideally the night before. Of all the Iranian dishes I eat (and I have eaten a great deal over 25 years, it is the most variable)
Khoresh eh badam jaan - A rich fragrant stew with aubergines, tomato and saffron
Khoresh sib zaminee - As above but with potato
All stews MUST be eaten with rice that is 'taardig' rice from the bottom of the pan that has been fried/steamed until it about an inch thick and perfect for the stew juices
And of course the kababs
Cheello kabak / joojeh (with bones) / Kabab koobideh
Try the yoghurt drink - no , it's not like Lassi. It's called Doorgh, is somewhat of an acquired taste but pefect with the stews.
Oh and the restaurant serves it, Iranin icecream - 'bastani' either saffron or vanilla with lumps of clotted cream or the spagetti ice 'faloodeh' that tastes of rose water, is very sweet and is consumed by squeezing a whole lime into it and waiting for it to freeze.
And then endless tea. Tea from the samovar tastes different.
You may have gathered, I take Persian cooking somewhat seriously. Consumption wise, I do believe I am a bit of an old pro!
I only eat in the Iranian resturants that have a Tanoor. Meltingly hot bread served with the kababs and especially the starters is one of this world's sublime indulgences.
Mizeh Ghasemi and scorching hot bread followed with a mouth full of doorgh... Bliss
drivin_me_nuts said:
Ghormeh Sabzi when cooked well is lovely. It needs to simmer all day, from first thing in the morning or ideally the night before. Of all the Iranian dishes I eat (and I have eaten a great deal over 25 years, it is the most variable)
Ah thanks. I usually start it 3 or 4 hours before eating, whilst very nice it has not quite met the standard of when natives cook it. Also, where do you source dried limes?
The Lukas said:
drivin_me_nuts said:
Ghormeh Sabzi when cooked well is lovely. It needs to simmer all day, from first thing in the morning or ideally the night before. Of all the Iranian dishes I eat (and I have eaten a great deal over 25 years, it is the most variable)
Ah thanks. I usually start it 3 or 4 hours before eating, whilst very nice it has not quite met the standard of when natives cook it. Also, where do you source dried limes?
I am going to try ghormeh sabzi in the slow cooker if I can get hold of some fresh fenugreek.
DMN - does this recipe (cribbed off tinterweb) look ok to you?
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp turmeric
1 lb stewing meat
4 dried Persian limes
1/3 cup kidney beans, dried
4 cups fresh parsley, packed
2 cups fresh coriander,packed
1 cup fresh feenugreek
2 cups fresh chives
salt & pepper
oil
The Lukas said:
drivin_me_nuts said:
Ghormeh Sabzi when cooked well is lovely. It needs to simmer all day, from first thing in the morning or ideally the night before. Of all the Iranian dishes I eat (and I have eaten a great deal over 25 years, it is the most variable)
Ah thanks. I usually start it 3 or 4 hours before eating, whilst very nice it has not quite met the standard of when natives cook it. Also, where do you source dried limes?
MC can you please read this as well
There are two things with ghormez sabzi you need to do.
- The dried limes need to first be washed thouroughly to remove any dust and then, taking a VERY SHARP knife, make 4 / 5 holes by pushing the knife in and then twisting. The holes need to be anything between 5 - 10 mm big depending upon the size of the limes. This allows all that lovely flavour to come out and the limes to break down properly. When you put them in the casserole dish / clay over pot or slow cooker, push them into the juice so that they fill up with liquid right from the beginning.
The spices, as shown in Mobile Chicane's recipe below will be fine, but you must first gently fry all the sabzi in a little oil. Don't let it burn, but those lush green colours and smell needs to come out before you simmer it, otherwise it's just like eating grass! It will shrink to nothing, but it will releash a rich flavour.
We used to cook GS with chicken, because my wife didn'l like lamb. Either way, you need the bones in the stew, especially for lamb as all that lovely marrow and bone gives it that complex flavour.
And fow kidney beans, we tend(ed) to use tin unsalted beans and add them about an hour before the end of an over cook - it's to stop them splitting and turning to mush. In a slow cooker stick them in at the beginning, because it's so much cooler than a normal oven hopefully they won't split.
As it cooks, in any fat comes to the top and it probably will because of the trying, drain it off. Greasy GS isn't nice and better less water and richer than watery which is horrible.
....
To go with it, if you are brave enough, try making noon (bread) tardig.
You will need flat bread (many generic middle eastern shops sell it and in Farsi it's called lavash and tends to come in rectangular sheets and in sponginess it reminds me of foam carpet underlay).
This is what you do...
Wash several cups of basmatti rice and then par boil in a big pan of boiling water. Cook to the point that the centre of the rice is very slightly firm. You do not want to overcook this, or the next bit will be like mush. Put in a collinder, wash with COLD water and then drain for at least 30 minutes until the excess water has drained off.
Now the fun bit.
Put enough oil in the bottom of the pan to coat the bottom of the pan well (not a puddle of oil so it swills around, but enough). When the oil is hot (hot but not smoking), lay the bread on the bottom of the pan in the oil and if there is oil smeared up the side of the pan, push the bread on to the side of the pan as well. The brad will start crackling away in the oil and as it does, spoon the cold rice onto the bread. Don't press it down, but let it fall off the spoon and evenly cover the bread. Leaving the top off the pan, leave it on a medium heat until it starts to steam and then cover with a tight fitting lid which has had a tea-towel wrapped around the inside. This capture the steam and leave the rice beautifully cooked and individullay grained. It won't stick. Leave to simmer on a low heat for at least 45 minutes AND DO NOT TAKE THE TOP OFF THE PAN! unless you smell it burning in which case, next time you make it, tuen the heat down a bit.
To serve, this is the tricky bit without scalding yourself very badly. You will need a BIG serving plate. Place on top of the pan and invert the pan on to it. You will get beautiful light to deep caramel covered rice cake. If you tap it with a spoon you will get a nice heavy dull thud - they you know it's done.
You can substitute the bread for potatoes. Par boil a good FLOURY spud- waxy ones are horrible. Slice close 7 - 8 mim thick and then place COLD into the pan of hot oil so they saute. Add the rice as before. Same cooking time. Utterly sublime rice
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Zeresh (bilberries) can also be put into rice and mixed in to make Zeresh polo. Very simple, buy the Zeresh and make sure you remove ALL the woody stems the top, or any grit that may be there. Thouroughly wash and then gently fry in a table spoon of oil to release the wonderful tangy flavour. As you add the rice, turn the zeresh into the cold rice as it's added into the pan - just gentle fluff it into the rice.
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Now if you want to make the very best rice, you will need to invest in a good old fashioned mortal and pestle - a small UNGLAZED one that you can ONLY use for Saffron.
WHat you are going to do is take a generous pinch of saffrom (and generous means a good 20-30 odd strands put into the bowl and then add just a small amount of caster suger. That acts as a grinding medium to turn the strands into dust. It won't sweeten the flavour of the rice as there's so little of it.
Scrape the dust into a small cup and then add 2 tablespoons of boiling water. Leave to steep for 30 minutes (i.e. you do this straight after you've put the rice on mostly boil). Then, having added the zeresh, using a teaspoon, dot the rice with the saffron water. The sharpness of the zeresh with the deeeply complex and fragrant saffron mixed with crunch bread or potatoes is very often served with a chicken casserole. It's takne me longer to write this than it will take to prepare it.
One other thing to note, if you live near and Iranian supermarket (and if you're in south kensington there are several) and you look in their freezers you will find they often sell prefried ready to go ghormeh sabzi spices. Why the restaurant ones taste different... the good ones use Iranian sabzi and it's much more intensely flavoured; it comes from Iran. You can also buy the precooked GS spices in tins - a good brand is called yek-oh-yek; on the tins the brand is written: 1 & 1
I hope you enjoy
Hi MC, if you cook your own kakabs look for two things
Sumak which is sprinkled in to rice/Kaman when served
Advieh which is sprinkled into mince meat when making koftheh
Edit:
A few more things:
- Bottled lime juice - Iranian food ueses limes never lemons. Very useful to have and great to add to salads and casseroles. It has a different. more intense taste to fresh lime: 1&1
- Pomegranate paste 'Ab Anar'. This gives casseroles their rich and intensely fruity flavour. Add to a something like a chicken chasseur with a splash of lime juice and some Zeresh and it's superb. (Also makes the best pouring sauce for icecream ever and if you have an icecream maker, ab anar and crushed pineapple is wonderful in summer)
- Lime powder - handy for casseroles where you want the flavour but not hte lumps.
Sumak which is sprinkled in to rice/Kaman when served
Advieh which is sprinkled into mince meat when making koftheh
Edit:
A few more things:
- Bottled lime juice - Iranian food ueses limes never lemons. Very useful to have and great to add to salads and casseroles. It has a different. more intense taste to fresh lime: 1&1
- Pomegranate paste 'Ab Anar'. This gives casseroles their rich and intensely fruity flavour. Add to a something like a chicken chasseur with a splash of lime juice and some Zeresh and it's superb. (Also makes the best pouring sauce for icecream ever and if you have an icecream maker, ab anar and crushed pineapple is wonderful in summer)
- Lime powder - handy for casseroles where you want the flavour but not hte lumps.
Edited by drivin_me_nuts on Monday 7th May 15:10
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