Iran/ Persia

Iran has always seemed like a magical land to me. The very names of places infused it with a glamour, a sense of a place that was beautiful beyond imagination. Isfahan, Samarkand, Persepolis and Tabriz could evoke a mystical fascination for me. In college, my best friend's family had lived there for several years and her father and brother were still there, so I got firsthand glimpses of this beautiful land through memories of others.

Later on when food became a passion, one of my aims was to be able to cook food from around the world. Before the kids were born we used to have world food week at home, wherein each day the menu was composed of food from one particular country. I experimented with a couple of Iranian dishes then and then for years forgot about them.

Then last week a friend who was hosting a Friday night bacchanalia said she would cook Iranian-style mutton. I was inspired to volunteer a Persian Pulow with herbs. It turned out so well that Sunday saw me turning out a Potato and Green Beans Pulow with Persian-style red lentils. Both delicious!

Both Pulow recipes from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian cookbook - my favourite!

Herbed Pulow

Ingredients:
I large bunch each - chives, dill, parsley, coriander and the green part of spring onions; chopped very fine
1 tbsp yogurt; 3 tbsp water
2 garlic cloves
2 cups basmati rice
1 pinch saffron, dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water
1 tbsp oil; 1 tbsp melted ghee
Salt to taste

Equipment:
Non stick pan with tight lid
Wide flat plate/ tray for serving

Put ten cups of salted water to boil. When it reaches a rolling boil, add the rice and cook for 5-6 minutes until parboiled but still chalky. Remove and strain, put aside.

Meanwhile, mix the chopped herbs together with the garlic and season to taste with salt.

In a non-stick pan on a low flame, put in the tbsp of oil. Add the yogurt and the water and mix well. Layer one third of the herbs at the bottom of the pan, followed by a third of the rice. Continue this way, building 3 layers each of herbs and rice.

On the top layer of rice, spread the melted ghee and the saffron water. Cover and cook on medium low for 4 minutes, medium high for 5.

Then remove the lid and wrap it in a towel. Replace the lid on the pan, flipping the ends of the towel on top of the lid to prevent it catching fire. Cook on low for 25-30 minutes.

To serve:
Remove the lid. Place the serving plate/ tray upside down on the rice - i.e. the serving side should face the rice. The plate should be as large as the circumference of the rice.

Loosen the edges of the rice with a rubber knife/ sharp-edged wooden spoon. Flip the pan over so the plate is on the bottom and tap the pan a couple of times to ensure the rice comes out from the pan ( like extracting a cake from the cake tin.

When done properly, the rice looks like a cake, with a thick, brownish crust. Very important - do not discard this crust, it is amazingly delicious.

Serve with mutton/ vegetable stew and a boorani ( yogurt raita) on the side.

Potato Pulow with green beans

Ingredients
2 cups basmati rice
2 cloves garlic
2 onions, finely chopped
1 cup green beans, chopped into 1 inch pieces
3 small tomatoes chopped small
1-2 large potatoes cut into 1/8th inch slices
1 tbsp tomato paste/ ketchup
1 stick cinnamon
1 tbsp salt
1.5 tsp turmeric
2 tsp oil
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp water
Salt to taste
Green chilly if desired

Parboil the rice as in the Herbed Pulow recipe.

Meanwhile, put some oil in a pan and saute the onions until translucent. Add the cinnamon, garlic, onions and fry till the onions are translucent. Add tomatoes, chillies, ketchup, salt and beans and a splash of water and cook, tightly covered, until the beans are tender but still have a bit of bite.

Put the non-stick pan on low heat and add the butter and turmeric, and 2 tbsp water. Layer the potatoes around the base of the pan in overlapping layers to cover the bottom of the pan. Add a layer of rice. Add 1/2 the green beans mixture, cover with another 3rd of the rice. Repeat the green beans and rice, ending with a top layer of rice.

Cover and cook in the same way as the Herbed Pulow; use the same method of eviction from the pan.

Serve hot with a boorani and the red lentils

Persian Red Lentils

Ingredients
1 cup red lentils ( masoor dal)
2 onions, chopped fine
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 bay leaf
2-3 pieces garlic
1 stick cinnamon
1/2 tbsp oil + 1/2 tbsp oil
3 cups water
1/2 cup tomato paste (I used ketchup)
Sour cream
1 tsp cumin powder
Salt to taste

Put the oil on to heat and fry the onions on low flame until they brown. Once well browned, add the tbsp of oil and tsp of salt and cook for 5 more minutes on medium high. Set aside.

Put 1/2 tbsp of oil on to heat. Add the bay leaf, cinnamon and garlic. Add the lentils, ketchup and water and cover and cook until the lentils are well cooked and mushy.

Meanwhile add the cumin powder and salt to taste to the sour cream ( I used hung yogurt, and also added chopped chives).

Serve hot topped with the caramelized onion and the sour cream/ yogurt mix.

With a typical Shirazi salad, it makes for a wonderfully light and delicious meal which is also healthy!

Persian Inspiration

The weather's been hot enough here lately to remind anyone of the Sahara – it was 45 degrees Friday. So hardly surprising that we didn't feel like having the usual suspects of dal and sabzi for dinner over the hot, hot weekend. In fact, the kiddos and I had an inebriated-type long 3 hour nap Saturday afternoon, in celebration of the awful weather. So when it came to figuring out what we wanted to eat for dinner this weekend, I definitely leaned towards lean cuisine. Suddenly I remembered couscous which, while not a husband favourite, does qualify as a light meal. We had had a really lovely meal of what I then thought was cous cous last week in Seattle – on reflection I figured it was probably bulgur wheat, but the thought of couscous inspired me.

I had planned to make hummous over the weekend, so I decided I wanted to give my cous cous a middle-Eastern flavour. But it was too hot to look through cookbooks so I had me a mini-brainstorm. What flavours truly went with Middle-Eastern? Hmmm…mint, for one. Pomegranates would add a Persian touch…and somehow the thought of Persia has always enthralled me…Pistachios would add crunch and further the connection. Lime…

It was really fun improvising this cous cous, and I realized that cous cous is going to get added to my mental list of 'foods I like cooking because I get to be creative'. It turned out really well too, and had that zing of freshness that a hot weekend like this one really needed in a meal. The pomegranates added a lovely burst of tart sweetness to offset the strong mint flavour and the crunch of pistachios was a lovely addition. With this and some litchi icecream for dessert, we had a wonderful summer dinner.

Ingredients:
250 gm couscous

Water (enough to cover the couscous and 1 inch over)
Handful mint leaves

Handful coriander leaves

1-2 Snake gourds, diced
Juice of 1-2 limes (depending on size and juiciness)
Half cup pomegranates
Half cup pistachios, lightly toasted/ dry roasted in a frying pan
1 onion, julienned
Salt to taste

Add the water to the couscous and let it soak in for about 5 minutes. Use a fork to fluff it up once the couscous has absorbed all the water. Meanwhile, finely mince the mint and coriander leaves. Add the herbs, the onion, snake gourds ( like long, crisp cucumber), the pomegranates and the lime juice to the couscous. Make sure the lime is juicy – the ones I used were very tart and flavourful but not juicy and so the couscous was a little drier than I would have liked. Add salt to taste, mix and fluff up with a fork again. If you like a touch of spice, add zatar mix or just a touch of paprika. Chill for about half hour and serve, with pomegranate juice on the side, to add more Persian-ness to the meal.

How's that for this weekend's herb blogging # 182, hosted by Chris.