Persian Food History and Taste

You may ask yourself: what kind of food do they eat in Iran? You may also have heard from those traveled to Iran that there are a great variety of Persian food. And when you travel to Iran, you will not know what to choose for a meal in Iran exactly. But why is the scope of native Persian foods so wide? If you take a look at Iran’s map and also the history of Iran, you will find the answer. As the center of Ancient Persian Empire, Iran neighbors different countries such as the former Soveit Union countries, Afqanistan, Turkey and the Arab states. So it has different dishes consisting of ingredients from around the world added to its own native ones.

Many coveted ingredients are actually native to Iran, such as saffron, pistachios, mint, almond, oranges, walnuts, pomegranates and grapes. Since Iran has a climate with four distinct seasons, you will find different types of foods which just grow in special regions in Iran. Here, in this article, you will read about 10 essential Iranian cuisine you have to try during your trip to Iran. Iranians are so hospitable, so whether you try these Iranian foods in restaurants or in a house, you will for sure hear the phrase Noosh-e Jan! (the Persian word for Bon Appetit). I will teach zereshk polo recipe in this article.

The taste of Iranian foods

The taste of Iranian foods is mild. It means that there is no strong smell, taste, or color in Iranian foods. We use flavors and spices like pepper, turmeric, and saffron in all main dishes but their amount is not very high.

The taste and flavor of each food are not because of flavors and spices but because of the slow baking of the ingredients for a long time. In Persian foods, nothing replaces the mild heat and long baking. When food is baked with mild temperature and in a long time, the main taste and smell of ingredients are not felt.

Instead, a mixture of complicated and new tastes is felt. This point makes the cooking of some Iranian foods difficult.

Iranian cooking Techniques

The main difference in cooking with different styles and methods refers to the way of cooking and serving. Iranian people soak the rice for forty minutes in the water and then brew it and after that, we drain its water and finally, brew it for 30 or 40 minutes. Or it takes few hours for Ash to be baked and it must have too much oil. However, people in other countries do not have this patience.

Historical Iranian cookbooks

Although the Arabic cookbooks written under the rule of the Abbasid Caliphate—one of the Arab caliphates which ruled Iran after the Muslim invasion—include some recipes with Iranian names, the earliest surviving classical cookbooks in Persian are two volumes from the Safavid period. The older one is entitled “Manual on cooking and its craft” written in 927/1521 for an aristocratic patron at the end of the reign of Ismail I. The book originally contained 26 chapters, listed by the author in his introduction, but chapters 23 through 26 are missing from the surviving manuscript. The recipes include measurements for ingredients—often detailed directions for the preparation of dishes, including the types of utensils and pots to be used—and instructions for decorating and serving them. In general, the ingredients and their combinations in various recipes do not differ significantly from those in use today. The large quantities specified, as well as the generous use of such luxury ingredients as saffron, suggest that these dishes were prepared for large aristocratic households, even though in his introduction, the author claimed to have written it “for the benefit of the nobility, as well as the public.”

The second surviving Safavid cookbook, entitled “The substance of life, a treatise on the art of cooking”, was written about 76 years later by a chef for Abbas I. The introduction of that book includes elaborate praise of God, the prophets, the imams, and the shah, as well as a definition of a master chef. It is followed by six chapters on the preparation of various dishes: four on rice dishes, one on qalya, and one on āsh. The measurements and directions are not as detailed as in the earlier book. The information provided is about dishes prepared at the royal court, including references to a few that had been created or improved by the shahs themselves. Other contemporary cooks and their specialties are also mentioned.

Ingredients

• 4 chicken pieces(thighs or chicken breasts)
• 4 cups of rice
• 1 cup barberry(zereshk)
• 2 tablespoon of tomato paste
• 1 onion
• 4 teaspoon bloomed saffron
• 2 tablespoon Butter
• Oil
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

Step 1

Fry chicken pieces in oil until golden.

Step 2

Wash the barberries in warm water, drain and set aside.

Step 3

Put chickens in the pot. Chop the onion and saute it in oil until it is soft. Then add tomato paste, lemon juice, salt and pepper and stir for a few minutes. Pour the mixture on the chicken and add 2 cups of water and cover the pot. Bring to the boil and skim off any foam on the surface and allow chicken to cook with gentle heat for about 2 hours. 10 minutes before you take the chicken out of the pot, pour 2 teaspoons of bloomed saffron onto the chicken.

Step 4

The sauce for this recipe should be thick. If the sauce is too thin, remove the chicken from pot and boil to reduce until thick.

Step 5

Rinse rice until the water went clear. Place rice in a large pan filled with water. Add some salt and let it cook. The rice is done after 6 to 8 minutes when it begins to rise to the top and the water comes back to a boil. Check the rice is cooked at the end by trying a grain. Break one grain in half. Rice should be soft on the outside but hard in the middle. Pour rice into the colander to drain; then set aside.

Step 6

In a large pot heat 2 tablespoon of oil or butter. Arrange potato slices or Lavash naan. Pour the rice back into the pot.

Step 7

Place the pot on medium-high heat directly on the stove top. Cover the pot and cook until rice begins to steam. Then lower the heat and cook for one hour until the crust forms.

Step 8

Put 2 tablespoons of butter or vegetable oil in a small frying pan on a medium heat. Add barberries to the pan and saute for 4 or 5 minutes.

Step 9

Take 5 or 6 table spoon of cooked rice and mix it with 2 teaspoon of liquid saffron and set aside.

Step 10

Serve persian rice in a plate and top it with saffron rice and barberries. Put chicken pieces in a plate and serve it with rice.

Step 11

Serve the zereshk polo sauce in a small bowl.