The unthinkable Iranian ‘makaroni’
ماکارونی
A while in current historical past, the trendy type of Italian-ish pasta discovered its manner into Iran. Nonetheless, it’s a mistake to assume that Iranians have been strangers to noodles and pasta typically.
The truth is, one of many oldest written data of noodles is lakhsha, identified in japanese components of Iran and Afghanistan as lakhshak, supposedly “invented” by the Sasanian king Khosrow. The identical phrase travelled to Central Asia and Japanese Europe, changing into lapsha in Russia and laska in Hungary, each that means “noodles”.
In Iran, any pasta typically is now referred to as makaroni in home use. The everyday makaroni sauce is certainly impressed by a traditional bolognese, however someplace alongside the best way it has been tamed and domesticated to suit the Iranian palate, with a lot golden onion, a contact of turmeric, cinnamon and saffron, and solely only a trace of tomato paste.
The trick is to undercook the pasta in step one (the parboiling) in order that it gained’t be overcooked after the lengthy second stage (the steaming).
This was a youngsters’ favorite after I went to highschool and – brace your self – we ate it with large spurts of ketchup. I gained’t decide you in case you do the identical. It’s an Iranian makaroni, in spite of everything.
Serves 4
350g spaghetti or spaghettoni
For the sauce
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp golden onion (see under)
300g minced meat
¼ tsp floor turmeric
¼ tsp floor cinnamon
4 tbsp tomato paste
200ml sizzling water (from a kettle)
1 tsp saffron infusion (see under)
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp freshly floor black pepper
For steaming the pasta
1 tbsp ghee (or half butter, half vegetable oil)
1 potato, peeled and sliced crossways into 5mm discs, stored in a bowl of water to keep away from oxidation
Start with the sauce. Warmth the oil in a big heavy-based saucepan with the golden onion. Subsequent, brown the meat over medium–excessive warmth for about 5 minutes, till no pink components are left. Add the turmeric and cinnamon and prepare dinner for an additional jiffy, then stir within the tomato paste and prepare dinner for about 5 minutes, or till the tomato paste brightens in color. Pour within the sizzling water, cut back the warmth to low and prepare dinner with the lid on for quarter-hour.
Stir within the saffron infusion and salt, then alter the seasoning to style. This sauce can have little or no liquid and shouldn’t be as saucy as an Italian ragu. Put aside.
In the meantime, deliver a big heavy-based nonstick pan of water to the boil and season with salt. Add the pasta and prepare dinner for about half the time indicated on the packet. Drain the pasta and, in the identical pan, deliver the ghee and 200ml water to the boil. Put aside half of this oily water in a cup.
Cowl the underside of the pan with the potato discs to make tahdig (the prized scorched rice on the backside of the pan). Then add one layer of spaghetti on the potato slices, then prime with one layer of the meat sauce. Repeat till you run out of each, then pour the remainder of the oily water excessive.
Put the lid on and prepare dinner over excessive warmth for seven to 10 minutes. Cut back the warmth to the bottom setting (on a warmth diffuser, in case you have one), wrap the lid in a clear cotton tea towel, place it snugly on the pan and prepare dinner for about half-hour to 1 hour.
Gently combine the pasta with the meat combination and serve instantly, scraping the tahdig off the underside of the pan with a picket spatula.
Golden onion
Piaz dagh | پیاز داغ
It’s very useful to have golden onion on the prepared once you’re cooking Iranian dishes, so making an even bigger batch is an effective answer. It takes a while to slice and fry all of the onion, however it’s going to hold within the fridge for a few days and you may as well freeze some (in a single layer, that’s the important thing).
Makes 2 tbsp golden onion
Oil, for deep-frying (the amount will rely on the dimensions of your pan)
2 onions, halved, then sliced 5mm thick
¼ tsp floor turmeric
In a big pan appropriate for frying, warmth the oil over medium–excessive warmth. Make sure that the onion half-rings are separated from one another. When tiny bubbles seem within the oil, add one slice of onion to test the warmth. If the oil across the onion bubbles and the onion involves the floor, the oil is sizzling sufficient; in any other case, wait till this occurs.
Often, two sliced onions could be fried in two or three batches, in a 23cm pan. In case your pan is smaller, it’s best to fry the onions in additional batches. That is truly time saving, opposite to what you could assume, as a result of one layer of onion fries extra shortly, and piled-up onions change into soggy and take extra time to change into golden and crunchy.
Fry every batch over medium–excessive warmth for about eight to 12 minutes, or till the onion has shrunk down and is totally golden. On the final second for the primary batch, add all of the turmeric, stir round a bit, then with a slotted spoon switch the onion to a big dish lined with paper towel. The onion will darken as soon as faraway from the pan, turning golden brown on the paper. Add one other batch of onion to the pan and repeat. For this quantity of onion, the turmeric added to the oil on the finish of the primary batch is sufficient. (For those who’re making greater than this quantity, add a splash extra turmeric every second or third batch.) You may hold the frying oil for per week for frying up extra golden onion, or to make use of in dishes the place a touch of onion and turmeric could be welcome.
Saffron infusion
Za’feran-e dam kardeh | زعفران دم کرده
Infusing is the approach we use in Iran to arrange saffron for all our dishes, each savoury and candy. We name this infusing “brewing” in Persian – the identical verb we use for making ready tea and steaming rice. I do know there are different strategies of making ready saffron as nicely, however please, no matter you do, don’t use the saffron threads dry and on their very own. It’s unforgivably wasteful, as a result of its beautiful flavour and color are launched a lot better when the threads are infused in heat water. It’s additionally manner too costly to only sprinkle dry saffron threads on prime of dishes, to not point out additionally a bit obnoxious – particularly to these arms that collected these flowers one morning at dawn within the east of the world.
Makes 3 tbsp saffron infusion
½ tsp saffron threads, very loosely packed
pinch of sugar
Grind the saffron strands with the sugar in a small mortar. For those who don’t have a small mortar, you possibly can put the saffron and sugar on a bit of baking paper, fold all the edges so the powder gained’t escape, then grind with a jam jar or rolling pin till you’ve gotten a really high-quality powder.
Boil the kettle then let it sit for a couple of minutes. Tip the powder very gently right into a small glass teacup then gently pour three tablespoons of the recent water over it. (By no means use boiling water otherwise you’ll “kill” the saffron.) Cowl the cup with a lid or saucer and let the combination “brew” for at the least 10 minutes with out eradicating the lid to launch the color and aroma of the saffron. After this time your saffron infusion is able to use.
Unorthodox Iranian salad, for winter
Salad Shirazi | سالاد شیرازی
The standard salad Shirazi is an important a part of an Iranian desk, comprising cucumber, tomato, onion, salt and a few acid – ideally verjuice, which we love in Iran. Sadly in winter, the traditional salad Shirazi tastes horrible as a result of out-of-season tomatoes and cucumbers style horrible. Nonetheless, I simply can’t fathom a correct Iranian desk with out this salad on it, so I got here up with this winter model, which is inauthentic however totally delectable. The ruby purple pomegranate seeds make up for the acidity of vibrant purple tomatoes, and the feel and anise-like aroma of fennel stand in fantastically for the fragrant crunch of cucumbers.
Makes 1 medium bowl of salad
1 fennel bulb, trimmed and diced into 1cm items
1 small purple onion, diced
Seeds of ½ pomegranate
1½ tsp dried mint, or a handful of contemporary mint leaves, finely chopped
2 tbsp lemon or lime juice
1 tsp salt
Mix all of the substances in a bowl and serve.
Pears poached in wine with mascarpone cream
Like many Iranians earlier than me, I’ve been raised with the concept that sure meals are “chilly” and “moist” and have to be accompanied by “heat” and “dry” meals, and vice versa. For instance, we wouldn’t serve fish with yoghurt on the facet – indispensable as yoghurt is on the Iranian desk – as a result of they’re each “chilly”.
These unwritten guidelines that we all know by coronary heart and apply to our cooking as a part of our culinary identification are relics of conventional drugs from the Center Ages, practised by Persian physicians reminiscent of Avicenna, who in flip drew on the teachings of the traditional Greek doctor Galen, who categorised nature, individuals, meals and vegetation into the 4 “humours” of chilly, heat, moist and dry.
In premodern Europe too, these similar medical rules have been utilized to weight loss plan and meals mixtures. The thought was to “right” every meals with cooking and pairings so they’d be balanced. Though extra of a French customized, cooking fruit (“chilly” and “moist”) in wine (“heat” and “dry”) had the identical notion behind it.
And that’s how we obtained these pears, trying horny and French of their flamboyant and shiny purple wine sauce, with a luscious mascarpone cream on the facet. Admittedly, the medieval ones couldn’t have been this extravagant.
Serves 8
4 beurre bosc pears, or different pears appropriate for cooking
1 cup purple wine (250ml)
120g sugar
2 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
For the mascarpone cream
400g mascarpone (could be substituted with cream)
2 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp Marsala (could be substituted with port)
Peel the pears and reduce in half. Use a teaspoon to take away the seeds and core from every pear half, leaving a pleasant spherical hole.
In a saucepan large sufficient to suit all of the pear halves, warmth the wine with the sugar, bay leaves and cinnamon stick, stirring to dissolve the sugar. In relation to a delicate simmer add the pears, rolling them within the wine so that each one components are tinged with the wine.
Cowl and prepare dinner over medium warmth for 10 minutes. Take away the lid and simmer, uncovered, for an additional 20 to half-hour, till the wine has decreased and is slightly syrupy. Depart to chill.
Earlier than serving, whip or combine the mascarpone cream substances collectively till easy. Serve the pears with a beneficiant dollop of mascarpone cream, drizzled with the syrupy wine.
-
That is an edited extract from Pomegranates & Artichokes by Saghar Setareh, accessible in Australia by means of Murdoch Books ($49.99).
