Persian recipes...?!
Persian recipes...?
I love ethnic cuisine. I love experimenting with new tastes and flavors. I can find recipes for Japanese, Greek, French, Indian but not Persian very easily. I need a few very good rice and meat dishes, like a polow.
Ones that you have tried and like, please do not send me a link to a website, I can easily do that. I want tried and true if not family favorites
Answers:
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Polow (or Chelow)
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Ingredients: (4 servings)
basmati or long-grain rice, 500 grams
cooking oil
salt
Directions:
The preparation of polow (or chelow) is more elaborate than kateh and results in a delicious non-sticky rice. It is normally served with kababs or any of the main dishes in this collection, unless rice is already used as one of the ingredients.
Wash rice twice and soak in salted warm water for 3-4 hours, then drain the water. Pour water in a large non-stick pan until it is half-full and bring it to a boil. Add rice and a spoonful of salt and continue boiling until rice slightly softens. Pour rice into a drain and wash it with slightly warm water.
Pour a few spoonfuls of cooking oil into the pan and add rice. Pour a few more spoonfuls of oil over rice. Cover the pan and cook over low heat for about half an hour. If cooking time is increased, a delicious crispy layer of rice (called ta-dig) will form at the bottom of the pan.
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Kateh
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Ingredients: (4 servings)
basmati or long-grain rice, 3 cups
salt
cooking oil
Directions:
Kateh is normally served with kababs or any of the main dishes in this collection, unless rice is already used as one of the ingredients. Kateh is simpler to cook than polow.
Wash three cups of rice with plain water twice and drain the water. Pour rice into a non-stick pan. Add five cups of water, four spoons of oil and two spoons of salt, and mix. Bring the water to a boil over high temperature. Let the water boil until water level sinks to just below rice level. Cover the pan, and cook over low temperature for about half an hour.
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Tah-Cheen
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Ingredients: (4 servings)
chicken, 1 kg
basmati or long grain rice, 500 grams
yogurt (Greek if possible), 300 grams
saffron, 1/2 teaspoon
large onions, two
3 eggs (yolks only)
cooking oil
salt
black pepper
Directions:
Start by washing rice and soaking it in warm water (with added salt) for 2 hours. Then filter out the water.
Chop onions into thin slices and fry in oil until slightly golden. Wash and cut chicken, remove skin, and fry in onions until color changes. Add some water and bring to boil. Turn heat down and let boil slowly until cooked, adding more water if needed. Remove the bones.
While chicken is cooking, beat the yogurt until it is smooth. Dissolve saffron in half a cup of hot water. Add saffron, salt, pepper and egg-yolks to the yogurt and mix very well.
Pour a few glasses of water in a large pot and bring to boil. Pour in rice and cook while stirring occasionally until rice grows longer and slightly softens (Take care not to overcook the rice. It should still be too hard for eating). Again filter out the water.
Pour several spoons of oil and several spoons of the yogurt mix into a non-stick pot. Add a thin layer of rice and flatten using the back of a spoon. Add a layer of chicken on top followed by another layer of rice. Again flatten the rice. Spread several more spoons of the yogurt mix on the rice. Continue in this fashion until chicken, rice and the yogurt mix have been used up. Add some more oil on top. Put the lid on and cook for about 5 minutes over medium heat.
Place the pot in an oven (preheated to 250 F) and cook for 1.5 to 2 hours. Note that the longer Tah-Chin is cooked, the thicker the Tah-Dig (delicious crispy layer of rice at the bottom) will be. When cooked, remove the lid and let cool for a few minutes.
Place an inverted large dish over the pot and turn it over. Tap the pot in order to loosen the contents inside. The contents should fall on the dish in one piece with the Tah-Dig on the outside.
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Albaloo Polow
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Ingredients: (4 servings)
long-grain or basmati rice, 500 grams
chicken, one medium-size
black cherry (or cherry), 1kg
sugar, 1 kg
onions, 2 medium
saffron, 1/2 teaspoon
cooking oil
salt
black pepper
Directions:
Wash black cherries (or cherries) and remove the stones. Add sugar. If you are using cherries rather than black (sour) cherries, less sugar can be used. Bring to boil. Cook over medium heat for 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool down completely. Remove the extra syrup.
Peel and thinly slice onions. Wash chicken. Add onions, salt, black pepper, and a glass of hot water, and cook over medium heat for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool, then remove bones. Filter the chicken juice and save for later use.
Follow instructions for preparing Polow until rice is rinsed. Pour 2 spoonfuls of cooking oil and half a glass of hot water in a pot. Follow with half of the rinsed rice and the black cherries (or cherries), and mix well. Cover with half of remaining rice. Spread chicken over the rice, and cover with the remaining rice. Shape into a cone. Mix 2-3 spoonfuls of cooking oil with black cherry (or cherry) syrup and chicken juice. Pour the mix over rice. Cover the pot and cook in an oven or over low heat for about one hour.
When cooked, remove some of the rice and mix with saffron dissolved in a bit of hot water. When serving, spread saffron-rice over Albaloo-Polow.
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Khoresht Fesenjaan
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Ingredients: (6 servings)
Chicken pieces, 1-1.5 kgs
Ground walnuts, 500 grams
3-4 onions
Pomegranate juice, 3-4 glasses (or 4-5 spoons of pomegranate paste)
Sugar, 2-3 spoons
1/2 cup of cooking oil
Salt
Directions:
Peel onions and slice thinly. Fry in oil until slightly golden. Wash chicken pieces and fry in onions until color changes. Add 3 glasses of hot water and bring to boil. Turn heat down and let boil slowly for about 30 minutes adding more hot water if needed.
Add salt, ground walnuts and pomegranate juice or paste (if using pomegranate paste, add 2 more glasses of hot water and bring to slow boil). If pomegranate juice or paste is sour, add some sugar to the khoresht.
Care should be taken to cook the khoresht long enough so that the oil in walnuts comes out and the mix becomes quite thick. Khoresht fesenjan should be served with white rice.
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Khoresht Ghaimeh
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Ingredients: (6 servings)
Stewing lamb or beef, 750 grams
Split-peas, 250 grams
3-4 onions
potatoes, 500 grams
1/2 cup of cooking oil
2-3 spoons of tomato paste
3-4 crushed, dried limes (small ones with sour taste); freshly-squeezed lime juice can be used instead
salt
black pepper
spices (turmeric, paprika), 1 spoon
Directions:
Prior to cooking, soak split-peas in warm water for 2-3 hours, then drain out the water.
Peel and thinly slice onions, then fry in oil until golden. Wash and cut meat into small pieces and fry in onions until color changes. Add 3 glasses of water and bring to boil. Let boil slowly for 1-1.5 hours until mostly cooked, adding more water if needed.
Peel and wash potatoes and cut into small pieces. Add potatoes, split-peas, salt, pepper, spices and tomato paste and continue boiling slowly until cooked. Add more water if needed during cooking.
If using dried limes, they should be added in with the other ingredients. If using lime juice, add in towards the end and continue cooking for another 3-4 minutes. Adjust seasoning according to taste. Serve this delicious khoresht with white rice.
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Kalam Polow
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Ingredients: (4 servings)
long-grain or basmati rice, 500 grams
ground beef or lamb, 400 grams
cabbage, 750 grams
onions, 2 large
tomato paste, 3-4 teaspoons
cooking oil
salt
black pepper
turmeric
Directions:
Peel and thinly slice onions. Fry in oil over medium heat until slightly golden. Add meat, tomato paste, salt, pepper, and turmeric and mix well. Fry over medium heat for about 15 minutes until meat changes color.
Wash and finely chop cabbage. Fry in oil over medium heat for 5-10 minutes. Add two glasses of hot water, salt, pepper and tomato paste and cook over medium heat for 10-15 minutes. Add cabbage to meat and mix well.
Prepare kateh or polow. If making kateh, when water has mostly boiled off, add cabbage-meat, mix well and continue cooking. If making polow, when rice is half-cooked and rinsed, add cabbage-meat to rice in layers and continue cooking.