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.

A slice of baked cheesecake recipe with strawberry jam is good for evening. In this article I’ll teach you how to make this yummy desserts. (Baked Cheesecake)

Ingredients

• For The Base
• 75gr digestive biscuits
• 40gr butter
• 25gr demerara sugar
• For The Filling
• 50gr butter, softened
• 175gr caster sugar
• 450gr cream cheese (full fat soft cheese)
• 25gr plain flour
• 1 lemon, juice and finely grated rind
• 3 eggs, separated
• 150ml double cream, lightly whipped
• For The Topping
• 150ml double cream, whipped
• 450gr mixed fruits (blueberries, raspberries, red currants) or bag of frozen fruits.
• a little icing sugar (optional)

Instructions

Step 1

Lightly grease a 23cm loose-bottomed round cake tin. Cut a strip of non-stick baking parchment to fit around the sides of the tin, fold the bottom edge of the strip up by about 2.5cm/1inch creasing it firmly, then open out the fold and cut slanting lines into this narrow strip at intervals. Fit this into the greased tin with the snipped edge in the base of the tin and put a circle of non-stick baking parchment on top.

Step 2

Preheat the oven to 160C/325F/Gas 3.

Step 3

Put the digestive biscuits into a polythene bag and crush the biscuits with a rolling pin. Melt the butter in a medium pan; add the crushed biscuits and demerara sugar.

Step 4

Mix well, spread over the base of the tin and press firmly with the back of a metal spoon. Leave in a cool place to set whilst mixing the cheesecake.

Step 5

For the cheesecake, measure the butter, sugar, cheese, flour, lemon rind and juice and egg yolks into a large bowl and beat well until smooth.

Step 6

Fold the lightly whipped double cream into the mixture using a plastic spatula or large metal spoon. Whisk the egg whites with a hand held electric mixer until stiff but not dry and fold into the mixture.

Step 7

Pour on to the biscuit base and gently level the surface with a plastic spatula. Bake in the preheated oven for about 1/1¼ hours or until set.

Step 8

Turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake inside for a further one hour to cool.

Step 9

Run a small palette knife around the edge of the tin to loosen the cheesecake then push the base up through the cake tin.

Step 10

Remove the side paper and put the cheesecake on to a serving plate. Spread the lightly whipped cream in the dip of the cheesecake and scatter the fruits haphazardly on top. Lightly dust with icing sugar if wished.

A croquette is a small cylinder of food consisting of a thick binder combined with a filling, which is breaded and deep-fried, and served as a side dish, a snack, or fast food worldwide. (Potato Croquettes Recipe)

The binder is typically a thick béchamel or brown sauce, or mashed potatoes. The binder may be mixed with a filling or may be stuffed with it; this mixture is called a salpicon. Typical fillings include finely chopped meat, seafood, cheese, rice, pasta, or various vegetables as well as seasonings such as spices, herbs, and mushrooms. Sweet croquettes may use a pastry cream binder and be filled with fruit.

Ingredients

• 700 gr pounds riced potatoes can also use mashed potatoes
• 1 egg slightly beaten
• 1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese about 25 grams
• 1 tablespoon parsley finely chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Step 1

Combine riced potatoes also you can use mashed potato with the beaten egg, Romano cheese, chopped parsley, salt and pepper.

Step 2

Divide the mixture into 20 croquettes. Prepare 3 shallow bowls with flour in the first, egg wash in the second, and breadcrumbs in the third bowl.

Step 3

Roll each croquette, one by one in the flour, make sure to remove excess flour.

Step 4

Dip each floured croquette in the egg wash and finally roll in the breadcrumbs. In batches of 5 croquettes, “pan fry” in 1-1½ teaspoon of olive oil.

Step 5

Once all the croquettes have been “pan fried” place in a baking dish and in a preheated oven at 375℉ for 15 minutes.

Notes

Steam 3 medium potatoes with 2 cloves of garlic for about 35 minutes. Once peeled, it should yield about 700 gr. Rice or mash the potato and the garlic together.

A cupcake is a small cake designed to serve one person, which may be baked in a small thin paper or aluminum cup. As with larger cakes, icing and other cake decorations such as fruit and candy may be applied.
The earliest extant description of what is now often called a cupcake was in 1796, when a recipe for “a light cake to bake in small cups” was written in American Cookery by Amelia Simmons. The earliest extant documentation of the term cupcake itself was in “Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats” in 1828 in Eliza Leslie’s Receipts cookbook. (Chocolate Cupcake Recipe)

Ingredients

• ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
• ½ cup canola or vegetable oil
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 60 gr 60% bittersweet chocolate, melted
• 2 eggs + 2 yolks, room temperature
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted*
• ½ tablespoon salt
• ½ tablespoon baking soda
• ½ tablespoon full-fat sour cream or buttermilk, room temperature
• ½ cup water (warm) + ½ tablespoon. espresso powder
• Topping chocolate cupcake
• 1 cup cold heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• Food Coloring

Instructions

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two standard size cupcake pans with 18 liners, set aside.

Step 2

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter, oil, sugars, vanilla extract and melted chocolate until smooth. With mixing speed on low, add the eggs one at a time until incorporated.

Step 3

In a medium size mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sifted cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda. With mixing speed on low, gradually add the dry ingredients along with the sour cream (or buttermilk) and the warm water/espresso mixture. Mix just until combined. Allow the batter to rest for 5 minutes.

Step 4

Divide batter evenly among cups, filling ⅔ of the way full. Place in the oven and bake for 17-20 minutes, or until the tops spring back when touched and a cake tester comes out clean.

Be careful not to over bake! Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pans for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Step 5

Put your mixing bowl in the freezer for about 20 minutes to get cold. your heavy whipping cream should be as cold as possible, too.

Pour all of your ingredients into your mixing bowl and whisk together on high speed for about a minute. And it’s time to enjoy these chocolate cupcakes.

A baked apple is an apple baked in an oven until it has become soft. The core is usually removed and the resulting cavity stuffed with fillings and seasonings. Wrapped in a pastry crust, it becomes an apple dumpling. Pears may be prepared in the same way.

Baked apples can also be a savory dish, used as a side dish for roasts, or standing on their own, stuffed with sausage or mincemeat.
A black cap is a kind of baked apple cut in two crosswise, cored, filled with lemon rind and candied orange peel or orange marmalade, reassembled, and baked with wine and sugar. The oven is started very hot to blacken the tops. (Baked Cinnamon Apple)

Ingredients

• 450 gr red delicious apple, cored and sliced
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vanilla ice cream
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Instructions

Step 1

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Step 2

Remove cores from apples and cut them into slices.

Step 3

In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat; whisk in brown sugar until smoothie. Combine apple slices with the mixture.

Step 4

Place apple sliced in a 23×33 cm baking dish in a single layer. Top with cinnamon and bake for 25-30 minutes until apples are soft and dark brown.

Step 5

Serve over your favorite ice cream with the sauce. Enjoy!

Notes

These baked apples are delicious on their own, but you could also serve with a scoop of thick vanilla ice cream.

commonly translated as walnut cookies, walnut cakes, and walnut pastries, is a type of cookie originated from Cheonan, South Korea. It is also known by the name hodo-gwaja in and outside Korea.

It is a walnut-shaped baked confection with red bean paste filling, whose outer dough is made of skinned and pounded walnuts and wheat flour. Ones that are made in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, are called “Cheonan hodu-gwaja” and are a local specialty.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup chocolate sauce

Instructions

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets.

Step 2
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, white sugar, brown sugar, and baking soda. Add the egg, vanilla, and butter; mix until dough forms. Stir in the chopped walnuts. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.

Step 3
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges are golden brown. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

Cover cookies with chocolate sauce when the cookies cold. 

A macaron or French macaroon is a sweet meringue-based confection made with egg white, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond meal, and food colouring. There is some variation in whether the term macaron or macaroon is used, and the related coconut macaroon is often confused with the macaron.

In North America, most bakers have adopted the French spelling of macaron for the meringue-based item to distinguish the two. Stanford professor of linguistics Daniel Jurafsky describes how the two confections have a shared history with macaroni (Italian maccheroni). Jurafsky notes that French words ending with “-on” that were borrowed into English in the 16th and 17th centuries are usually spelled with “-oon” (for example: balloon, cartoon, platoon). In the UK, many bakeries continue to use the term “macaroon”.

Ingredients

• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 2/3 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1 cup finely ground almonds
• Food coloring optional

Instructions

Step 1

Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat.

Step 2

Beat egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment until whites are foamy; beat in white sugar and continue beating until egg whites are glossy, fluffy, and hold soft peaks. Sift confectioners’ sugar and ground almonds in a separate bowl and quickly fold the almond mixture into the egg whites, about 30 strokes.

Step 3

Spoon a small amount of batter into a plastic bag with a small corner cut off and pipe a test disk of batter, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, onto prepared baking sheet. If the disk of batter holds a peak instead of flattening immediately, gently fold the batter a few more times and retest.

Step 4

When batter is mixed enough to flatten immediately into an even disk, spoon into a pastry bag fitted with a plain round tip. Pipe the batter onto the baking sheet in rounds, leaving space between the disks. Let the piped cookies stand out at room temperature until they form a hard skin on top, about 1 hour.

Step 5

Preheat oven to 285 F.

Step 6

Bake cookies until set but not browned, about 10 minutes; let cookies cool completely before filling.

Notes

If you do not have a sifter, you can use a blender or food processor to thoroughly mix the almonds and confectioners’ sugar. Just blend or pulse for thirty seconds. Remember that because the consistency of the mix is like cake batter, you’re going to have to be quick about piping it onto the silicone mat. Hold the pastry bag sideways between piping so it doesn’t spill.

A milkshake, or simply shake, is a drink that is usually made by blending milk, ice cream, and flavorings or sweeteners such as butterscotch, caramel sauce, chocolate syrup, fruit syrup, or whole fruit into a thick, sweet, cold mixture. (Pomegranate Milkshake Recipe)

Full-service restaurants, ice cream shops, soda fountains, and diners usually prepare the shake in a specialized mixer known as a milkshake machine. At home, a blender is more commonly used. Milkshakes may be made from any flavor of ice cream; additional flavorings, such as chocolate syrup, malt syrup, or malted milk powder, are often added prior to mixing.

Many fast food outlets do not make shakes from the individual ingredients; rather, they use automatic milkshake machines which freeze and serve a pre-made milkshake mixture consisting of milk, a sweetened flavoring agent, and a thickening agent. These are similar to soft-serve ice cream machines, but keep the shake at a drinkable consistency.

Ingredients

• 1 cup pomegranate seeds (1 medium-sized pomegranate)
• 2 cups chilled milk
• 2 tbsp sugar (or as per taste)

Instructions

Step 1

Cut the pomegranate and remove the seeds in a bowl. Discard the inner white membranes of the pomegranate.

Step 2

Place the pomegranate seeds in a blender and pulse it a few times to allow the juice to get released from the seeds. Don’t blend it too long otherwise the juice would turn bitter.

Step 3

Strain the juice and discard the seeds.

Step 4

Add milk and sugar to the extracted pomegranate juice and again blend it.

Step 5

Transfer the milkshake to serving glasses.

Step 6

Pomegranate milkshake is ready to be served.

Notes

For a healthier shake substitute sugar with honey according to taste. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream to make it even more rich and creamy.

A sugar cookie is a cookie with the main ingredients being sugar, flour, butter, eggs, vanilla, and either baking powder or baking soda (depending on the type of sugar used). Sugar cookies may be formed by hand or rolled and cut into shapes. They are commonly decorated with additional sugar, icing, sprinkles, or a combination of these. Decorative shapes and figures can be cut into the rolled-out dough using a cookie cutter. In North America, sugar cookies are popular during the holidays of Christmas, Halloween, and Hanukkah. (Sugar Cookie Recipe)

Ingredients

• 4.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1.75 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup unsalted at room temperature
• 2 large eggs at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (can substitute lemon or almond extract)
• 2 tablespoon buttermilk

Instructions

Step 1

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt, and set aside for now.

Step 2

In the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the butter and sugar, and mix everything together on medium speed until fluffy and well-mixed, about 1-2 minutes.

Step 3

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then add the vanilla extract and buttermilk. With the mixer running on low, add the dry ingredients, and mix until they’re just about incorporated. Stop the mixer when only a few streaks of flour remain. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a spatula, and finish mixing all the dough by hand.

Step 4

Divide the dough in half and press each into a thin disc, wrapping well with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firmer but not hard, about 30 minutes.

Step 5

When you’re ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place a disc of dough between two sheets of parchment or waxed paper, and roll out until it is 1/4-inch thick. Use a 3-inch heart cookie cutter to cut out your cookies and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Combine the scraps and re-roll the dough to cut more cookies. You should get about 24 large heart cookies. Put the sheet in the freezer for 10 minutes before baking to help the cookies hold their shape.

Step 6

Bake the trays of cookies for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are just starting to take on color and they have lost the raw shine in the middle. Let the cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then remove them to wire racks to cool completely before decorating them.

Spaghetti (Italian: [spaˈɡetti]) is a long, thin, solid, cylindrical pasta.[1] It is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine. Like other pasta, spaghetti is made of milled wheat and water and sometimes enriched with vitamins and minerals. Italian spaghetti is typically made from durum wheat semolina. Usually the pasta is white because refined flour is used, but whole wheat flour may be added. Spaghettoni is a thicker form of spaghetti, while capellini is a very thin spaghetti.

Originally, spaghetti was notably long, but shorter lengths gained in popularity during the latter half of the 20th century and now it is most commonly available in 25–30 cm (10–12 in) lengths. A variety of pasta dishes are based on it and it is frequently served with tomato sauce or meat or vegetables. (Spaghetti Recipe)

Ingredients

• 340 gr spaghetti
• 3 large beefsteak tomatoes, each cut into 4 thick slices
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for the baking sheet
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 8 ounces fresh mozzarella, grated
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan, plus more, shaved, for serving
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 3/4 cup sliced fresh basil leaves, plus more for serving

Instructions

Step 1

Heat broiler. Cook the pasta according to the package directions; drain and return it to the pot.

Step 2

Meanwhile, arrange the tomato slices in a single layer on a lightly oiled rimmed baking sheet. Season with ¼ teaspoon each salt and black pepper. Dividing evenly, sprinkle the slices with the mozzarella and Parmesan. Broil until the cheese is bubbly and golden, 3 to 5 minutes.

Step 3

Warm the oil with the garlic and red pepper in a small saucepan over medium heat until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.

Step 4

Add the garlic oil, basil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper to the pasta and toss to combine. Serve topped with the tomatoes, additional basil, and shaved Parmesan.