The New Persian Kitchen (9 page)
Read The New Persian Kitchen Online
Authors: Louisa Shafia
serves 4 to 63 tablespoons grapeseed oil
1 pound leeks, green and white parts, coarsely chopped
1 cup pistachios
1 clove garlic, minced
½ teaspoon ground cumin
Sea salt
7 cups chicken stock, vegetable stock, or water
About 2 cups loosely packed fresh spearmint
Juice of 2 lemons
Freshly ground black pepper
Heat the oil in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add the leeks and cook, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes, until soft. Cook the leeks in batches, if they don’t all fit at once.
Stir in the pistachios, garlic, cumin, and 1 teaspoon salt, and cook for 1 minute. Add the stock and bring to a boil; then lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the spearmint. Transfer to a blender, blend until smooth, and add salt to taste. Serve warm, or pour into a shallow baking dish and refrigerate for 2 hours, until thoroughly chilled. Season with lemon juice and pepper, and serve.
Corn didn’t reach Iran until the century following Columbus’s first voyage, and with the exception of delicious char-grilled
balal
on the cob
dipped in saltwater—a beloved street food—this newcomer is still rarely seen in Iranian cooking. But creamy, mellow corn kernels provide a perfect backdrop for hard-edged Persian ingredients, like bittersweet dried limes and earthy turmeric, and they’re a heavenly combination in this bright yellow soup. Squeeze the excess cooking liquid out of the limes when you remove them from the pot, so that all of their flavor goes back into the soup. Serve warm, or chill in the refrigerator for a few hours and stir in a dollop of yogurt before serving.
balal
on the cob
dipped in saltwater—a beloved street food—this newcomer is still rarely seen in Iranian cooking. But creamy, mellow corn kernels provide a perfect backdrop for hard-edged Persian ingredients, like bittersweet dried limes and earthy turmeric, and they’re a heavenly combination in this bright yellow soup. Squeeze the excess cooking liquid out of the limes when you remove them from the pot, so that all of their flavor goes back into the soup. Serve warm, or chill in the refrigerator for a few hours and stir in a dollop of yogurt before serving.
serves 4 to 63 tablespoons grapeseed oil
2 yellow onions, finely diced
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
6 large ears corn, shucked
3 dried limes, soaked in hot water to cover for 15 minutes
6 cups chicken stock or water
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 to 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Heat the oil in a stockpot over medium heat and cook the onions for about 10 minutes, until they start to brown. Add the turmeric and corn. Pierce the limes with a knife or fork and add them to the pot along with their soaking water. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes, until the corn is just tender.
Squeeze the limes against the side of the pot with a long spoon to extract their concentrated flavor before removing them from the soup. Blend half of the soup in a blender, then return it to the pot. Add the saffron and season to taste with salt and pepper. Add lemon juice to taste, and serve.
Jewish Food
in Iranian Cuisine
in Iranian Cuisine
When it comes to food, Jews and Iranians have a lot in common. In both cultures, the passing of the year is measured in sacred days, and each occasion is set apart by distinct foods, which are prepared and consumed in abundance. Perhaps because such a large percentage of Jews have roots in the former Soviet Union—Iran’s once boundless neighbor to the north—both peoples famously share a love of certain foods, including raw onions, garlic, pickles, dill, beets, and anything that’s crisp and brown, like
tahdig
, for example, or potato latkes.
tahdig
, for example, or potato latkes.
Jews have lived in Iran for over twenty-five hundred years, making Iran’s Jewish community the oldest outside of Israel. Babylon, now modern-day Iraq, was conquered by the first king of the Persian Empire, Cyrus the Great, in 539 BCE. One of Cyrus’s most legendary acts was to free the enslaved Jews of Babylon and allow them to return to Israel. Cyrus even funded the rebuilding of the great temple destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king who sent the Jews into exile.
So great was Cyrus’s generosity that many Jews chose to stay in Persia under this benevolent king, the now-celebrated author of the Cyrus Cylinder, what many scholars call the earliest charter of human rights. Today, some twenty thousand to twenty-five thousand Jews live in Iran. Although more Jews live in Iran than in any other Middle Eastern country outside of Israel, this is still only a fraction of the Jewish population that was there before the 1979 revolution.
Two Religions, One Cuisine
The food of Iranian Muslims and Jews is essentially the same, except that Iranian Jews don’t mix butter or yogurt with meat. Conveniently, both Muslims and Jews eschew pork. On the other hand, the food of Mizrahi Jews—the Hebrew term for Jews who never left the Middle East and North Africa—has much less in common with the food of Ashkenazi Jews, those whose heritage is German and eastern European. On Passover, when most American Jews (the majority of whom are of Ashkenazi descent) make traditional favorites like gefilte fish and brisket, Iranian Jews eat
fesenjan
, and
jeweled rice
.
fesenjan
, and
jeweled rice
.
By tradition, Ashkenazi Jews will not eat rice, corn, red beans, and black-eyed peas at this holiday, but Persian Jews may eat all of these things (and are generally considered to have the better deal here!). Where Persian Jews are perhaps somewhat deprived at Passover is in the withholding of dairy products. In Iran, there are no dairy products that are certified kosher for Passover, so during that holiday, they are left out altogether. Because yogurt is such a key part of Persian cuisine, this is a significant sacrifice. At sundown on the last day of Passover, when Ashkenazi Jews indulge in leavened foods, Persian Jews celebrate by eating dairy—usually yogurt. A bowl of herbed yogurt and a platter of
sabzi khordan
(herbs) with bread and feta would be a perfect way to conclude Passover in Mizrahi fashion. In the
Menus
section, you’ll find menu ideas that follow the Mizrahic guidelines for Passover eating.
sabzi khordan
(herbs) with bread and feta would be a perfect way to conclude Passover in Mizrahi fashion. In the
Menus
section, you’ll find menu ideas that follow the Mizrahic guidelines for Passover eating.
Celebrating
Purim
Purim
Purim is one of the most meaningful holidays of the year for Persian Jews, as the story of Purim took place in Iran. The heroes of the Purim story, Queen Esther and her uncle Mordechai, are buried in the northwestern city of Hamadan, and their graves are a destination for tourists and natives alike. Just as in the United States, where Hanukkah has an outsize importance because of its proximity to Christmas, Purim in Iran gets a boost from
Norooz
(Persian New Year), the biggest Persian holiday of the year.
Norooz
(Persian New Year), the biggest Persian holiday of the year.
Purim customs mirror those of
Norooz
, so like other Iranians at this time of year, Persian Jews enjoy a feast of dishes that feature green herbs, they visit elderly relatives, and they give gifts of gold coins to the children in their families. The
mishloach manot
, or “Purim basket,” is a gift of food that’s sent on the day of Purim to friends, relatives, neighbors, and the needy. The tradition is based on a verse in the Book of Esther in the Old Testament stating that Purim is “an occasion for sending gifts to one another and presents to the poor.” According to custom, the basket should contain at least two ready-to-eat food items. In the United States, the basket usually holds a piece of fresh fruit and a hamantasch, the iconic triangle-shaped cookie filled with jam, chocolate, nuts, prunes, or other sweet filling.
Norooz
, so like other Iranians at this time of year, Persian Jews enjoy a feast of dishes that feature green herbs, they visit elderly relatives, and they give gifts of gold coins to the children in their families. The
mishloach manot
, or “Purim basket,” is a gift of food that’s sent on the day of Purim to friends, relatives, neighbors, and the needy. The tradition is based on a verse in the Book of Esther in the Old Testament stating that Purim is “an occasion for sending gifts to one another and presents to the poor.” According to custom, the basket should contain at least two ready-to-eat food items. In the United States, the basket usually holds a piece of fresh fruit and a hamantasch, the iconic triangle-shaped cookie filled with jam, chocolate, nuts, prunes, or other sweet filling.
If you’ve ever tried baking hamantaschen yourself, you know just how difficult they are to make. A simpler stand-in for hamantaschen is the Persian
koloocheh
, a cookie stuffed with a spiced mixture of nuts and dried fruit that’s made by Persian Jews at Purim. Different variations of
koloocheh
are prepared all the way from the Arabian Peninsula to eastern Europe and are linked not only to Jewish celebrations but also to the Easter holiday in Christian countries and to
Ramadan in Muslim countries. The streamlined
koloocheh
recipe that you’ll find in this book is a good deal easier to make than hamantaschen, and the cookies themselves are pretty to look at, too.
koloocheh
, a cookie stuffed with a spiced mixture of nuts and dried fruit that’s made by Persian Jews at Purim. Different variations of
koloocheh
are prepared all the way from the Arabian Peninsula to eastern Europe and are linked not only to Jewish celebrations but also to the Easter holiday in Christian countries and to
Ramadan in Muslim countries. The streamlined
koloocheh
recipe that you’ll find in this book is a good deal easier to make than hamantaschen, and the cookies themselves are pretty to look at, too.
Here are some recipes that would make great Purim basket “stuffers”:
• Ajil-e Moshkel-gosha (
“Problem Solver” Nut Mix
)
•
Koloocheh
(
Date-and-Walnut-Filled Cookies
)
•
Sour Cherry and Rose Preserves
• Nan-e Nokhodchi (
Chickpea and Almond Flour Icebox Cookies
)
Although the Jewish culture that began so optimistically in ancient Persia is declining in modern Iran, the food traditions of Persian Jews continue to flourish and evolve in the expats’ adopted countries like Israel and the United States. In Israel today, Iranian dishes like
baghali polo
(
Rice with Fava and Dill
),
ghormeh sabzi
(
Green Herb and Kidney Bean Stew
), and especially the Persian “matzoh ball” soup known as
gondi
are all becoming familiar to the greater population via the many Iranian immigrants who have arrived there in the past thirty years. In the United States, a cultural barometer no less impressive than the
New York Times
has featured the Passover cooking traditions of Iranian Jews.
baghali polo
(
Rice with Fava and Dill
),
ghormeh sabzi
(
Green Herb and Kidney Bean Stew
), and especially the Persian “matzoh ball” soup known as
gondi
are all becoming familiar to the greater population via the many Iranian immigrants who have arrived there in the past thirty years. In the United States, a cultural barometer no less impressive than the
New York Times
has featured the Passover cooking traditions of Iranian Jews.
Persian “Matzoh Balls” with Chickpeas and Chicken
matzoh balls” with chickpeas and chicken
gondi
Gondi—the word is a bawdy Persian expression for a certain part of the male anatomy—is a favorite food in many Iranian Jewish homes. These light, cardamom-scented dumplings look like matzoh balls, but instead of matzoh meal, they’re made from ground chicken or turkey and chickpea flour. To get a clear, unclouded soup broth, cook the gondi in a separate pot of chicken stock, and then add them to the soup broth when serving. For a more casual presentation, cook the gondi in the same pot with the other soup ingredients. You can make the gondi dough the day before, and store it in the refrigerator.
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