Iranian cuisine is ancient, varied and colorful. Iran’s food culture has as historically interacted with the cuisines of the neighboring regions, such as Greek cuisine and Turkish cuisine. In planning for meals, Iranian always think also health benefits of food and how they can mix up different ingredients. The food is also varied and changes from area to area. Iranian style of cooking emphasizes balance in taste, excessive use of rice and bread, slow and low heated cooking and mild flavors.
Rice is an essential part of Iranian cuisine and there are varieties of rice in Iran for example; gerde, domsia and doodi. Rice preparation is indeed a food art in Iran and of great contrast to the majority of countries who merely boil their rice. There are endless varieties of dishes that can be prepared with rice in Iran.
There are different methods to cook rice and the common Polow.
Polow is usually served with stew, vegetables, barberry, nuts, dates, raisin and adorned with Saffron. Whit this method you always get a golden crust at the bottom of the pot, called tadig.
Besides rice, bread is one of the most important food in Iran. The breads are mostly flat and all are baked in special ovens similar to clay ovens in Indian restaurants. Commonly used bread in Iranian cuisine are lavash, sangak, taftun and barbari.
Because Iran accounts almost 90% of the world production of Saffron, you can guess what is the most commonly used spice there. It is one of the traditional spices that people use in cooking. Other most commonly used spices are turmeric and cardamom. These spices give a nice flavor and smell to the food and also make the food colorful. Then there is rose water which is used not only in food, but also in desserts. Rose water is flavored water made by steep in rose petals in water.
Iranian cook food slowly, and for a long time until all ingredients are cooked well. Most of main dishes have a similar way of producing; first chopped onions are fried with curcuma, meat is added, and then depending on the kind of stew other ingredients are mixed. All Iranian dishes have mild favor, no strong flavor or spices are used in dishes.
Traditional Iranian dishes:
1. Fesenjan (Pomegranate walnut stew with chicken/duck)
2. Bademjan (Eggplant and tomato stew)
3. Baghali polow (Rice with dill and fava beans)
4. Zereshk polow (Barberry rice with saffron chicken)
5. Ghormeh sabzi (Green herb stew with lamb)
6. Koobideh (Iranian style kebab)
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