As the narrative of The Secret Daughter jumped between multiple characters, continents, and foods (from mashed potatoes to masala roti), I jumped from thoughts of Indian food to ice cream — well, it’s been very hot here in Toronto — and lastly to thoughts of Iran.
You might think that I would say I thought of Iran because The Secret Daughter is a book about identity, where India is almost one of the main characters having so much of the story devoted to it. And that it’s a book about home countries. About tradition. About family.
Sadly, my thoughts were not attributed to the Secret Daughter because while Gowda attempted to tell an emotional story, the connection just simply wasn’t there.
No. I thought of Iran because on my way to an ice cream shop the other day, I came across sour cherries!
Photo Credit: Flickr: MGF/Lady Disdain
I hadn’t eaten sour cherries for over fifteen years and suddenly could taste albaloo polo (sour cherry rice) in my mouth and knew what was going to be made for dinner. Many would have albaloo polo with chicken and so would Rosa Montazemi, the ultimate Iranian cook whose book called Honar-e-Ashpazi (The Art of Cooking) is in every household. And this is not hyperbole. Really. Every family has a copy.
In my family though we had albaloo polo with mini meatballs. I searched and searched and couldn’t find a recipe for these meatballs in my Montazemi Art of Cooking book. So here it goes, albaloo polo broken up into three sections:
Mimi Meatballs
(recipe adopted from the small meatballs Turmeric and Saffron prepared for a pomegranate stew)
1 pound ground meat (beef or lamb)
1 teaspoon salf
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 large onion
In a mixing bowl combine the ground meat, salt, pepper, and turmeric until mixed thoroughly. I guess you could use a large spoon to combine the ingredients together, but I just remember how my mom used to do it and it was with her hands. So I also used my hands to work the salt/pepper/turmeric combo into the meat.
Make small-sized meatballs (maybe just slightly bigger than a cherry in size) and set aside.
In a large frying pan, heat some vegetable oil (I use 1 tablespoon of grapeseed oil because I’m trying to be good with my fats, or at least I have the illusion of being good with my fats) and saute the onion until golden brown. Add meatballs; stir until all sides of the meatball are brown.
Sour Cherries
(modified from The Art of Cooking by Rosa Montazemi)
Ms. Montazemi recommends that we pit our sour cherries and prepare an almost jam-like cherry syrup the night before we are going to make our sour cherry rice. This will really help the flavours set and the cherries to solidify themselves.
2 kg of sour cherries, pitted
1/5 kg of sugar
I modified this slightly and used 5 cups of cherries and 1 cup of sugar. She says to pour sugar on top of the cherries in a pot over medium heat until the resuting syrup starts to boil (approximately 20 minutes). Remove from heat and cool. Once completely cool, refregirate overnight.
We would keep the syrup and pour over the meatballs.
The Rice
I think that in Iranian cuisine your skills as a esteemed chef are dependent on your rice cooking skills. The individuality and length of rice grains can really make or break any dish, no matter how tasty the concoction may be. So I highly recommend that you make rice with a grain that you have tried before and know won’t be sticky or too starchy.
Photo Credit: Flickr: Emily Barney
Wash 4 cups of rice several times until cold water. Ideally, if you were to pour water on top of your rice, you’d want the water to appear relatively clear.
Pour rice with water (until water almost fills up the pot) in a large pot and bring water to a boil. It is very important to not let the rice cook too much at this stage. I always stand right next to the pot as the water is coming to a boil and steal little rice grains from the pot, trying the rice, and removing pot from heat when the rice grains can be chewed but are still a bit crunchy.
Remove water through a strainer. Return pot back to the stove top, reducing heat to low, adding some oil, and pouring layers of rice and sour cherries (just the cherries, no syrup) into the pot. Cover and cook for 30 minutes.
While I was waiting for the rice to cook I went in search of some Iranian music — specifically the music that I used to listen to when I was in my early teens. Andy, known as the “king of pop” in Iran, used to be one of my favourites, but wanting to spare you the long hair and flashy videos of the time, I thought to instead post this video. If you still really want to see some crazy long hair action, pirate shirts on stage, and soft-lens overboard, click here.
Oh, and then there were The Black Cats. Really, what was I thinking?
But anyways, Andy sings Stand by Me with Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora in the video you see below. The song starts with them both singing in Farsi and ends in English, a musical message of worldwide solidarity with the people of Iran.
To serve mix sour cherry rice with meatballs. Montazemi also suggests sprinkling some crushed pistachios on top of your rice mixture and well, of course, don’t forget to add some saffron too.
I must admit the Farsi portion of the song has gotten me all emotional and nostalgic, and I’m thinking that more Iranian recipes will be posted on this blog going forward. For now, I will think back to sour cherries and stand by my rice!
Thanks for the link! Your post is charming.