Alex Rast wrote:
>
> at Wed, 23 Feb 2005 17:03:24 GMT in >,
> (Kate Connally) wrote :
>
> >Well, my birthday was this past Sat. and I cooked myself
> >a birthday dinner and invited a couple of friends and
> >relatives. The theme was Persian/Middle Eastern.
> >
> >First off the green lentil dip was completely
> >blah....
>
> Persian food generally isn't like the typical Mediterranean cuisine - an
> explosion of flavours.
I didn't mean "blah" in the sense of mild or "non-spicy".
I meant "blah" in the sense of "it just didn't have a very
interesting flavor". In spite of all the onion and garlic
and orange and lime juice and angelica, it pretty much tasted
like plain lentil puree which is not a flavor I find that
interesting.
> It's generally subtle and mild - some people might
> consider that "blah".
No, I don't mind subtle and mild if the base flavor is
a good one. But of the Persian dishes I've made I wouldn't
call any of them subtle and mild except for the lentil
dip and it was way too subtle and mild. :-)
> If you were expecting Middle Eastern food as in
> Mediterranean,
I don't know what you mean by Mediterranean but if you
mean Italian, Greek, Spanish, etc. I'm thinking more of
Middle Eastern. In my researches the same or similar
dishes appear in many of the Middle Eastern countries
From Turkey to Egypt and over to Iran and Iraq and
Afghanistan. Many of the basic dishes are very similar.
> then I could understand how you might have been
> disappointed. The dip looks fine to me. Did you use lime juice?
The recipe called for Seville orange juice or substituting
regular orange juice and some lime juice. I used the
substitute.
> Many
> Persian recipes call for it and without it the dish will always seem not-
> quite-right.
Actually many Persian recipes I've seen call for dried limes but
say you can substitute lime juice.
> >On to the main course. I was really looking forward
> >to the Fesenjan. ...The trouble with the recipe is that
> >you can't really taste the pomegranate juice! ...
>
> In Persian stores they generally have concentrated pomegranate syrup, which
> is probably what the recipe really needs. Is this what you got?
No. I wanted to use fresh pomegranate juice. Yes one of the
recipes called for the pomegranate molasses but I went by the
other one that called for the juice. I also added extra juice
but you still couldn't taste the pom. flavor. I have made this
before with a different recipe and used juice and it was fine.
> U.S.
> pomegranates are also often pretty insipid, usually because they're
> harvested long before they're ripe. So if you were using a U.S.
> pomegranate, it might not have worked out very well. The good domestic
> pomegranates are small (baseball-sized) and are very clearly hexagonal in
> shape, looking from the top (blossom end), as opposed to the big,
> spherical, softball-sized ones.
I frequently use pomegranates and I think the ones I get
here are perfectly fine as to flavor.
> >The sour cherry rice was also disappointing. I followed
> >the recipe pretty closely and even tracked down the sour
> >cherry preserves that are called for so it would be very
> >authentic. But I didn't like it. There is way too much
> >preserves for the amount of rice so the dish was too sweet.
>
> The recipe you have lists 3 cups sour cherry (Morello) preserves. For the 3
> cups rice, that does sound like overkill. In addition, did you get
> specifically Persian sour cherry preserve or did you use domestic Morello
> cherry preserves?
Well, I couldn't get Persian ones but I got Turkish preserves.
The are morello cherries and that's the kind of cherries that
are used in Persian preserves. I'm sure they were very similar
to the Persian preserves. And the other recipe called for
*32 oz.* of preserved for 4 cups of rice. Which is 3 times
the amount of preserves for just slightly more rice!!! I decided
against going with that recipe as far as quantities went. I used
2 5-oz. jars which looked to contain between 1 1/4 cups and 1 1/2
cups each.
> >Also, and this was totally my fault, the rice was over-cooked
> >and that didn't help. ...
>
> I have to ask, did you use the real-deal Basmati? It's essential that this
> be the type of rice used - all Persian recipes pretty much rely on the
> particular taste and texture of Basmati for proper effect. Was it
> overcooked as in dry? Or as in soggy and sticky?
Soggy and sticky. And no, I didn't use basmati. I used Thai
jasmine rice. There's no reason that shouldn't work perfectly
well. It's very similar to basmati.
> > Besides being too
> >sweet there was a funny funky flavor to the rice. It called
> >for saffron and I just threw a bunch in. I'm wondering if
> >that was the saffron flavor. I've never been able to taste
> >saffron in the quantities that are normally used....
>
> Saffron's taste I would say is strongly watery. I know that must sound
> strange, but it literally tastes like water, hyper-concentrated. Some
> people call this taste "musty". I do know that it's a taste you either love
> or hate. By "a bunch", how much do you think it was? 1 oz? It's not
> necessary to resort to overkill.
I really don't know how much. I didn't measure it. And it
definitely was a musty taste so I don't think I'm going to
bother with saffron anymore. If it need the color I'll use
safflower or turmeric (if appropriate). No sense paying a
small fortune for something I don't even like and usually
can't even taste.
> >Dessert was much better. The semolina cake was good but I
> >wasn't thrilled with the texture. The cake is bake then cut
> >into diamond shapes and soaked with a lemony sugar syrup.
> >It tastes great, but I wondered if the semolina I used was
> >slightly too coarse....
>
> Persian semolina is quite fine - generally much finer than the semolina you
> find in U.S. stores. Try looking for patent durum flour, which is very fine
> indeed - this may produce a better texture.
Okay.
Kate
--
Kate Connally
“If I were as old as I feel, I’d be dead already.”
Goldfish: “The wholesome snack that smiles back,
Until you bite their heads off.”
What if the hokey pokey really *is* what it's all about?