Persian Cuisine Basic Tastes

Persian cuisine is intertwined with Persian culture and deserves to be explored. Persian cuisine is as old as Persian history and has served the important role of bringing friends and rivals closer over the years. In the old days, Iranian families gathered around a sofreh which was a table cloth or spread on the floor over a Persian carpet or kilim. The sofreh was and still is the corner stone of Persian cuisine and a place of gathering, laughter, relaxation, and enjoyment.

Like the sofreh, Persian cuisine is very distinct and particular to Iranians. It is a cuisine filled with strong tastes and wonderful aromas. Persians have very tolerant palates as the cuisine ranges in taste from sweet, to very sour, or spicy. Persian recipes vary also in ingredients and ways of preparation. Many Iranian dishes consist of rice and stews with different sorts of meats and vegetables. Iranians spend a lot of time in the kitchen but the cuisine offers very simple to very elaborate dishes. We hope you enjoy our collection of Iranian recipes and hope that you will send us your comments, suggestions, and ideas.

Rice: The Staple of Persian Cuisine

Unlike conventional Western assumption, Iranian cuisine is not all Kabobs and meat. In fact, the staple of any Iranian mothers kitchen is the traditional Polo or rice. Rice is the main ingredient for many delicious dishes and also serves as the backbone of all the Koresht dishes. Koresht, pronounced Korosht in every day language, is the famous and traditional stews. They come in a variety of colors and tastes and are served always over rice. Persians take the making of rice, or polo, very seriously. If you want to consider yourself a cook Persian cook, the first think you need to do is to learn how to make rice.

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Persian Breads

A Persian bakery is a humbling place where people gather every morning to get their daily bread. There are a variety of breads made in Tanoors (hot deep ovens) and they are best enjoyed fresh and hot. The word bread in Farsi is Naan. The slang or dialect for Naan is Noon. So you will see these names as Naan-e Sangak or Noon-e Barbari, meaning Sangak Bread or Barbari Bread. Here is a description of some of our favorite Persian breads

Name	Description	Picture
Babari	A fluffy long bread, thick and delicious. A litle similar to Italian Foccacia, this bread is baked in the oven and is crusty on the outside and soft and delicious on the inside.
Lavash	A very flat, wide bread, much lighter in color and different in taste. This bread is very thin usually and tastes great with Feta cheese in a dish like Naan-o Panir.
Sangak	This traditional long bread is made with little tiny stones in a hot, deep oven. That is where the name Sangak comes from: sang means stone, so it is literally Stone Bread. It is in between Barbari and Lavash in thickness and has a heavier consistency. It is often used on the Sofreh Aghd (Persian Wedding ceremony) and is decorated elaborately to congratulate the couple. It is also served for special occations on the Sofreh such as New Years Eve (Noruz).

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Essentials on the Persian Sofreh

Persians like to serve a big colorful and elaborate sofreh to brighten up the day and show the riches of the culture. There are always little snacks and nibbles availabe all around a Persian home including fruit and dried nuts and cookies. At meal time, the Iranian sofreh offers some staple ingredients that refreshes the palate and stays on the table during the course of the meal. Some of these condiments that are essential to your fabulous Persian meal may include:

• Naan-o Panir - fresh herbs and feta cheese with any kind of Persian bread

• Sliced or peeled cucumbers

• Butter with some honey or sugar

• Nuts, raisins, or dried fruit

• Yoghurt, alone or with other ingredients such as spinach

• Persian pickles and relishes

• Various dips

• Sweetend melon slices

• Peeled, steamed beets

• Seedless grapes

Persian Kitchen Essentials

It is a good idea to have these important ingredients on hand as you will see them over and over again in many Iranian dishes:

In addition to these items, when having guests over, Iranians provide huge, fragrant fruit plates for before and after the meal. These are served on smaller plates with fruit cutlery such as knife and fork. The towering fruit plates consist of oranges, apples, small Iranian cucumbers known as khee-yar (khiyar), pomegranates, pears, bananas, cherries (gilas), sour cherris (albalu), grapes, peachers, tangarines and anything other fruit that is in season. Bowls of cut honeydew melon, watermelon, or Iranian melon (kharbozeh), ajil, tokhmeh and other snacks may also be served. At the end of a dinner party (mehmooni), some other type of baked or prepared dessert may also be served, such as eclairs, cake, cream puffs, creme caramel, or other sweets with tea.

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Persian Cuisine Useful Vocabulary

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Iranian Ingredients: TOP 5 IDEAS ON HOw to Fake It

So you are having a bunch of people over and you are not quite sure where to find some essential ingredients for your next Persian meal. All of us have had a lot of experience living outside of Iran, and the added pressure when friends come over to experience the "real Iranian kitchen" can be daunting. So, we have developed a keen understanding of how to "fake it" when it comes to making good Persian food without all the right ingredients. Here are our top tips for those "everyday" ingredients, which are not so everyday, without the nearest Baghaali:

1. Robb-e Anar or Ab-e Anar - usually used for Fesenjoon (Fesenjaan). These days, you can buy fresh pomegranate juice, such as "Pom Juice" in the stores. Their biggest bottle is needed for a meal for 4 and this can be quite expensive. Your alternative to using fresh pomegranate juice is using the usual Pomegranate paste, which is the Robb-e Anar used in Iran. This can be ordered from any online grocer such as Sadaf or Iranstore but can still be fairly pricey. If you are still not convinced, the cheapest and best substitute for pomegranate paste is Prune juice. You should use at least 2 bottles to get the same thick stew and rich flavor as pomegranates. Some prune juices can be sour. To alleviate this, add a little sugar to your Fesenjun and you are good to go.

2. Kashk or whey - used in Aash-e Reshteh is hard to find. I have seen people use yoghurt for the lack of something more convenient. If you have the time, you could even attempt to make your own kashk by letting the water run out of the yoghurt that you purchase. Yoghurt has a much lighter taste but still is a great way to fake it in the Iranian kitchen. It is also a healthier alternative as you can get non-fat or low-fat versions.

Another suggestion for Kashk substitution sent in by Mariam Sheibani:

You can substitute sour cream for Kashk.  Whenever I make kashk-eh-bademjaan I totally just use sour cream! ;)

3. Reshteh - used for Aash-e Reshteh is hard to find. Sometimes Asian stores which may be more common in your area will have long noodles which are similar to reshteh in consistency, color and taste. They are as floury as Iranian reshteh and can be used for the great-tasting aash.

4. Noon Khamei - Miss the famous Iranian cream puffs that you used to get at your local Shirini Foorooshi? Well, now you can get very similar tasting cream puffs in your local supermarket. They are called "Belgian mini cream puffs" and are made by Delizza. They can be purchased in the frozen dessert section of any grocer. These cream puffs are great to have around the house for dessert or to serve to guests at the last minute. Let the noon khamei sit for a few minutes before serving.

5. Bastmati rice - our final tip is to be sure to use Basmati rice when cooking Iranian polo. Basmati is very easy to find in most stores and is the closest thing to good Iranian rice. The grains are long and the taste is much richer than Uncle Ben's or Carolina's.

 

These days, there are many online grocers which will deliver most essential ingredients to your home. We recently ordered kooloocheh, zereshk, lavashak and robb-e anar (rob-e anar) from a few of them. Iranstore.com was slow in delivery and took 3 weeks to arrive. Sadaf.com, which also manufactures and distributes most of the items, only took 1 week to deliver. There are also many sorts of ready-made dishes and sabzis for various khorosht dishes.

Share your tips, experiences, or "fake it" ideas with PersianMirror. Simply email us and let us know!

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Special Thanks

The most famous and respected cook of Iran of course, Rosa Montazemi has to be thanked here. We took many of our recipes from her and grew up cooking with her book in one hand and the spatula in the other. Also Roxanna and Farzin Mokhtarian's recipes were consulted for additional recipes. We thank all of our readers and these ladies for their contribution to this important part of Persian Culture.

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