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!

Maavinakaayi Chitra Anna

I don't know why - perhaps it is to do with our tribal origins - human beings have an inherent need to form groups or cliques, each of which firmly believes in its own superiority over the others. You can see this behaviour in children as young as three on a playground, and of course, as adults, the belongingness and superiority need seems to get reinforced. Naturally, then, as a Kannadiga, though born and brought up in Delhi, I firmly believe in the superiority of South Indian food, in particular Karnataka food, over anything else the world has to offer, in terms of taste, nourishment and satisfaction. I was thrilled to find a food blog event on Karnataka recipes for this month. I debated whether to plunge into BBH - Bisi bele bhaath - a signature dish for both Karnataka and myself - one which my friends repeatedly request when they come over. But in 37 degree heat, BBH ( or RC - reinforced concrete as we fondly call it in the family) is too heavy and spicy, so I decided to save that and make one of my summer favourites.

Mangoes are called the king of fruit and for most Indians they truly are, with their intensely fragrant aroma and succulent golden honey flesh. The number of things the mango lends itself to is also amazing, from Thai salad ( use the semi-ripe mango as an alternate to raw papaya in Som Tham ) to shrikhand, lassi, pickles, ice creams, shakes to being eaten as they are, the juice dripping from one's chin, salted and chillied for the Thothapuri variety or without accompaniment for the badami, Malgoa, Hapoos or the Chausa. One mango dish I look forward to at each Kannadiga wedding down south is fresh mangi pickle - made and consumed within a few hours.

A Karnataka mango dish that appears regularly at our table in the summer is mango rice- maavinakaayi chitra anna - tart, spicy and tongue-ticklingly chatpata, its texture a melange of soft rice and crunchy peanuts. A perfect summer dinner involves mango rice, accompanied by cold curds, straight from the fridge, and a crisp cucumber salad, followed by sweet, sweet mangoes eaten the desi way - skin ripped off using one's teeth, and the flesh bitten into chunks, followed by the ritual suckling and slurping of the gotta - the seed - until it becomes bleached white.

Maavinakayi Chitra Anna



Ingredients:

2-3 green, raw mangoes, grated
1 handful grated fresh coconut, or desssicated coconut
2-3 green chillies
1 dried red chilli
2 tsp mustard seeds
1 sprig curry leaves
1 tsp heeng ( asafoetida)
Pinch turmeric
1/2 cup raw peanuts in their skins
3 tbsp oil
Salt to taste
1 cup long grained basmati rice, cooked and spread out on a platter
Handful coriander leaves, chopped fine and half cup fresh coconut for garnish

Put the grated mango, coconut, green chillies, red chillies and 1 tsp mustard seeds into the blender and blend until it becomes a smooth mass.
Heat 1/2 the oil in a bandley ( wok).
Add 1 tsp of the mustard seeds and wait for them to pop.
When they pop, add the turmeric, then curry leaves, then heeng.
Add the mango-coconut paste and stir, cooking on a medium flame for 2-3 minutes until the mango is cooked but not overcooked. Set aside.
Heat the rest of the oil and put in the peanuts. Fry them on a medium flame, stirring occasionally until they turn crisp and brown. Remove from heat.
Add the mango paste and the peanuts to the rice, as well as salt, and mix well, checking to see if the flavour is uniformly mixed. It should taste sharply sour, salty and spicy. In case the mango is not sour enough, you can add a bit of lemon juice to the rice.
Let the rice stand for 2-3 hours, so the flavours are fully absorbed and mature.
Garnish with coriander and coconut before serving.

This dish is served cold, so it can be made well ahead of time if you are entertaining guests.

Vangi Bhath and Majjige Huli

It had been ages since I had an authentic Kannadiga meal ( Ok, a whole week, since I made huggi-gojju the last weekend), but I was really craving for good old home food. It's amazing how emotions are built into us human beings at a visceral level, so that the sight, or just the smell of the things you love or hate can trigger such strong feelings. We had visited the new Namdhari supermarket in Gurgaon on saturday and picked up the lovely green brinjals which are so reminiscent of meals at my mother's house.

On Sundar morning, I decided that we were going to have Khara Bhath (Spicy rice) with majjige huli - Kannadiga Kadhi. This is a classic combo, often made on festive days at my mother's house, where the festive meal has some staples including a spiced rice dish. Vangi is what eggplant or brinjal is called in Marathi, and I guess the Karnataka-Maharashtra border adopted the word for mutual use some centuries ago. This dish was again one of our staples when students in France, as it is quick to make if you keep the masala powder handy. At a pinch you can improvise by just using sambar powder/ huli pudi, but I like to make this and keep it around, as it is also an excellent topping to perk up something boring, like cabbage or beans sabzi.

Majjige huli, or Kannadiga style kadhi is very different from the North Indian kind, because it has no besan, for one thing. It is preferably made with slightly sour yoghurt, and with a vegetable added in, so that it is light and healthy. It tastes great with any type of Khaara bhaath, and also goes well with just plain rice, or with rotis. You can even serve it as soup, if it is thinned out a little. My favourite kind is made with palak, since I'm a green-leafy lover, but sometimes I just make it plain so it brings out the taste of the Khaara Bhaath better. The vegetables typically added are drumsticks, cut into 2-3 inch segments and boiled or white gourd ( booj kumbalakai in Kannada).

Khaara Bhath (It is called vangi bhath only if you add eggplant)

Ingredients:
Masala Powder
2 handsful dry coconut
1 cup dried chillies
1 cup dhania seeds
1 stick cinnamon
1 handful urad dal
1 handful chana dal

Dry roast all the ingredients, with maybe just a drop or two of oil. Let cool and dry grind, adding a pinch of heeng (asafoetida) and turmeric. This can be stored for about a month, but if keeping for longer, park it in the fridge so the coconut doesn't start smelling oily.

Vegetables
Carrots, cut into 2 inch sticks
Eggplant cut into 2 inch long strips ( preferably the long green variety, else the small purple ones)
Green bell peppers, cut the same way
Peas
Potatoes, cut the same way

You can infinitely vary the vegetables added in, as per your taste. To make the dish, cook 1 cup rice ( the grains should be fluffy and separate) for 3-4 people. Cook the vegetables separately in an oil + mustard seeds + curry leaves tadka. You can park the veggies in the tadka and then shut the pan for some time, to ensure they are well-cooked. Make sure the veggies are cooked but not soggy, they should have a slight bite to them.

Assemble the rice and veggies, and add the above masala to your taste, along with salt. Khaara bhath is really easy to make and throw together with whatever veggies you have in your fridge at the time. It makes a great one-dish meal for busy days, with a bowl of curd on the side and some chips for added crunch.

Majjige Huli
Ingredients
1 handful coriander leaves or seeds
1 small piece ginger
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp chana dal, soaked for half hour
1/2 grated coconut, or 1 cup dry coconut reconstituted in hot water
1 tsp cumin seeds
5-6 green chillies
2-3 black peppercorns

Grind everything together till it becomes a smooth paste. Bring 1/2 litre sour yoghurt to boil on low heat and add the masala paste to this. Stir to mix and boil, adding water in case you feel the mix is too thick. Keep it boiling for 5-7 minutes. Add a tadka or seasoning of oil, curry leaves, mustard seeds and a dry red chilly for interest.

This meal can be perked up with some papads and a curd rice with lime pickle, for a wonderful Kannada style meal.

I did finally get around to taking pictures of our sunday lunch but they're still on my digicam, so you'll have to wait till I upload them. I had been uploading pics found on google but a fellow food-blogger brought to my attention that this is violation of IP ( Thanks, Anita) so I have taken off all the old pics and will have to get my lazy hiney off the couch and upload my own pics which may take a while!

Mavinakaayi Chitra Anna - Mango Rice

I hate the Indian summers for the most part, especially living in Delhi as I do. My plants dry up, my family wilts, one has no energy to do anything, especially when the temperature goes over 40 degrees C. But there are, thankfully, a few compensations which make the summer bearable. One of the things I most look forward to in the summer is mango season, in common with millions of Indians. The mango is called the King of fruit and I truly believe there is nothing to beat the tastes, as varied as there are regions and topographies in India. From Andhra comes the Banganpalli, sweet and juicy and small. Malgoas come from the west as do the overrated-in-my-opinion Alphonsos or Hapoos. In the north we get Safeda, Dussehri and the one we like best of all - the Chausa. The Chausa is a large, custardy yellow mango, little fragrance but smooth fruit with very little fibre. It comes towards July, the end of the season, and is a truly fitting end to the glorious mango season.

There are many dishes we make with the ripe mango, though I like eating it just as it is. A britisher apparently once said that the best way to eat mangoes was to climb naked into the bathtub and then bite into it. I guess we've learnt to be less messy but I love eating it without cutting it up or using forks and spoons which frankly detract from the luscious taste. Just bite into it and feel the juice dripping down your chin and running down your fist. Keep a large plate handy, that's all.

But what I set out to blog about today was a dish we make with raw mangoes. It's a rice dish, since it is from Karnataka in the south. It has an amazing mixture of flavours, textures and tastes - sour, salty, spicy, crunchy - like a good dish should and is a wonderful summer meal. It doesn't require any accompaniment though I sometimes have a bowl of yoghurt or curds on the side. It's easy to make, though as I was writing out the recipe I realised it sounds fiddly. But it actually is a breeze and makes any meal taste festive.

Ingredients:

1 green mango, grated fine

1 tablespoon dessicated coconut, grated

4 tsp oil

Handful curry leaves

Half cup peanuts, shelled but with skins on

1 tsp mustard seeds (black)

1 pinch asafoetida (heeng)

1-2 dry red chillies

1 tsp chilli powder to taste

salt to taste

1 cup basmati rice, cooked so it looks grainy but cooked through

Make sure the mango is really unripe, i.e. hard, so it is sour. Though you can make up by adding either amchur or lime juice, it changes the taste.

1. Put 1 tsp of the oil on to heat

2. When it is hot, put in the mustard seeds and wait for them to pop.

3. When they have finished popping, add the dry red chillies and curry leaves

4. Stir till the chillies turn crisp and shiny, then add the asafoetida and wait for 2-3 seconds. Take off the stove and set aside.

5. Put 2 tsp oil on to heat. Once hot, put in the mango and stir to mix.

6. Cook for three to four minutes till the mango becomes soft and cooked through. Be careful not to cook for too long so it becomes mushy.

7. Set aside to cool. Meanwhile, put the last tsp of oil into a wok and roast the peanuts till they are crisp, and the skins slightly browned. Set aside.

8. Put the mango and the dessicated coconut into the blender and grind to mix well.

9. Put the rice in a flat, wide dish. Pour the mango mix on top and add the mustard seed-curry leaves tempering. Add the peanuts as well and then the salt. Mix it well, then taste to check for salt and spiciness. If not spicy enough, add some chilli powder.

10. Serve hot or cool but not cold, i.e. out of the refrigerator.

One-dish meals

I love the concept of one-dish meals especially on weekends. But I like them to be soul satisfying as well as convenient and easy to make. The tomato rice recipe is a trusted favourite of ours, and takes minutes to rustle up if unexpected guetss drop in.

Tomato Rice
Ingredients:
2-3 tomatoes, diced
1 cup basmati rice
1 onion, fnely chopped
2-3 cloves garlic
5 mm piece of ginger, grated
2 bay leaves
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric
small bunch coriander, finely minced
2-3 green chillies (depending on your taste for spiciness); can also be replaced by chilli powder
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste
2 cups water
1 tsp sugar (or to taste)

1. Wash the basmati rice thoroughly and keep aside
2. Put the pressure cooker onto the stove at medium heat and pour in the oil
3. When the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds and stir for a few seconds
4. Add the turmeric and bay leaves and stir once more
5. Add the onions, garlic, ginger and green cillies and stir to mix. Let cook till onions are translucent, then add the tomatoes. Mix together and let cook till tomatoes are soft
6. Put in the rice and the 2 cups of water, add salt and sugar and stir to mix. Taste to check the levels of salt and sugar.
7. Put the lid of the cooker on and pressure cook for 2 whistles.
8. Let the cooker cool down and open.
9. Mix the rice well and take out into a serving dish. Top with coriander and serve.

This rice is delicious served with plain yoghurt, or hung yoghurt mixed with minced dill or mint leaves, with rice papads on the side.