SC - Persion cooking

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Tara Sersen wrote:
> 
> >This actually makes a fair amount of sense when you consider that at one
> >time India and Persia were, effectively, one country.
> 
> The Persia-India connection rings a bell, but I had forgotten about that.  Thank
> you!  That makes other things clearer, too.  Many of the dishes look like Indian
> dishes.  For instance, the previously-mentioned chicken fesenjoon is chunks
> of chicken in a thick sauce, spooned over rice.  And they made ground-meat kabobs,
> a style I've only seen in Indian restaurants before.  I noticed those similarities,
> but didn't make the actual connection.  Now, I wonder why the Persian food is
> so very un-spicy?

I didn't think it was, unless perhaps you're comparing it to something
Southern Indian and chili-laced. In general, my own experience has been
that Persian cooking tends to resemble more the cooking of Northern
India and Afghanistan. It's richer and less... um... loud... but not
especially bland or even unspicy. I think it's just the choice of
spices, more aromatics, less heat. 
> 
> >Kateh!
> 
> That's it - I couldn't think of the word.  Thank you!  When she put it on the
> table, she didn't name it, but she explained it.  I remembered what it was from
> a review of this restaurant that I'd read, but I couldn't remember the name.
> 
> >I've
> >actually seen recipes for this, more or less cheat versions that are
> >specifically made as kateh, rather than as a by-product of cooking pilau.
> 
> The review article said that every cook has her own trick for making it.  Some
> stir in some yogurt and saffron, others an egg, some line the bottom of the
> pan with lettuce, pita or other things to make a base.  It said that this restaurant
> used pita, but the kateh that we were served had no such base.  It was a crispy
> rice pancake.  It was really neat!
> 
> >Me, I'm a sucker for sizzling rice soup, which involves taking the
> >cooled fan deoh (which lifts off pretty easily in a sheet once it has
> >fully cooled), breaking it into pieces, and deep-frying them before
> >dropping them, still hot, into the soup, which then hisses at you while
> >you eat it. This dish is therefore not allowed at our house for New Year's...
> 
> Ooh, that sounds good!  I wonder if any restaurants in the Philadelphia area
> serve that?

Wouldn't be at all surprised. I think it is nominally a Northern/Western
Chinese dish, and it, like a number of other such dishes, began to
appear frequently on menus in New York (at the time mostly a haven for
Cantonese speakers/eater) in the mid-70's. But then I haven't seen any
diminution of mu xi yuk (moo shu pork to you) since then, so I;d guess
you have a fair chance of finding it. Just watch out for the restaurants
that use rice crispies instead... ecch!  

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com