Persia, the country that is now called Iran, has influenced the cooking styles of many nations including Morocco and India. With an abundance of meat stews with dried fruit and a variety of dips, sauces and condiments that accompany every meal, anyone who is invited to an Iranian home for dinner will be offered some delightful surprises.
Appetizers and Breads
The main dishes are served with a colorful assortment of appetizers and small bowls filled with vegetables. All courses are served at the same time. Guests can help themselves to radishes, beets, shelled nuts, raisins and salads made with tomatoes, onions and cucumbers. Lentil and red kidney bean dips will be served along with several kinds of breads.
Sangak is the most common bread and is baked in an oven with hot pebbles and gives it a distinctive dimpled appearance. Barbari is made with white flour. It's thick and might be enough to satisfy the appetite of one person. Lavash and taaftun will also be seen on a Persian dining table.
The Persian Polo
The Persian word for rice is berenj and much care is taken when cooking it in an Iranian kitchen. Long grained varieties are favoured and rice is served with every evening meal. Chelow is prepared with yoghurt and saffron and in the process a thick, golden crust will form at the bottom of the pan which is called tah dig. This is then served with a kebab or khoresh.
Variations of Persian rice dishes such as beryani and polo have made their way to other regions such as India and have been renamed biryani and pulao on Indian menus. In Morocco, diners will be served pilaf. Even as far away as Spain restaurant-goers can enjoy another distant relative of the Iranian polo called paella, which is the signature dish of that European country.
Persian Khoresh
Khoresh is the all encompassing name for meat stews. Lamb, chicken and duck can be combined with fresh and dried fruits and herbs. Many of these recipes call for the use of pomegranates to give a sweet-tart flavour to dishes like khoresh fesenjan (duck is used but any meat can be substituted). Persian cooking is fragrant and in Iran cooks liberally sprinkle their foods with dill, tarragon, cilantro and mint. Lime juice, candied orange peels and sour cherries (sumac) are added to rice and stews alike.
Kebabs
The Persian dish most familiar in Western countries is the kebab. Middle Easterners use flat metal skewers instead of wooden skewers. Marinated in lime juice, vinegar, and garlic, a kebab can be diced into cubes of meat, cut into strips or ground. It is then flipped quickly over the hot coals and frequently covered with the marinade sauce with a fine brush.
Kebabs are blackened on the outside but slightly pink in the middle, and Persian grill chefs cook chicken, lamb, liver, heart and kidney kebabs. Kebabs are also easily found in kitchens all over Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, and Pakistan. Recipes will vary in each country.
Persian Desserts
Iranians have a sweet tooth but don't normally eat ice cream or chocolate. Instead, they prefer to end a meal with fresh fruits like peaches, watermelon, quince, or pomegranates.
Baagh-lava is a sweet almond paste with cardamom and rosewater and is the ancestor of the present day baklava found in Greek and Turkish eateries. Sherbet or sorbet in North America comes from the Persian word sharbat. This mixture of fruit syrup, water and ice is consumed by many Iranians during the hot summers in Tehran and other big cities.
Scott Hayden - Since joining Suite101 in early 2007, I've contributed articles about travel, history and health. My speciality is writing about workplace ...
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