Sep 05
Fereni is a Persian pudding dessert that people make for various occasions. For some events Fereni is served cold as a dessert, while at other times it is served warm for someone who is feeling under the weather or sick. I personally prefer having it warm.
FYI trying to decorate with grounded up pistachio powder is very difficult. Especially because it sticks to your fingers and doesn’t do what you want it to do. 
Ingredients ( 1 medium bowl):
Milk –1 liter (roughly 4 cups)
Rice Flour — 2 tablespoons
Sugar — 8 tablespoons
Rose Water — 2-4 tablespoons
Pistachios — desired amount for decoration
Direction:
In a large pot pour in your milk. Note: do not turn the stove top burner on at this time.
Gradually add the rice flour into the pot and stir into the milk.
At this time you can turn the burner on and leave it on a medium low temperature.
Begin adding the sugar to the pot and stir in with the milk and rice flour.
Finally, add the rose water and stir all the ingredients. Make sure you continually stir the ingredients so that as the Fereni thickens it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
You will need to continually stir until the Fereni thickens a bit. Note: depending on the burner temperature (and possibly your stove) it will take 30 - 45 minutes of stirring before the Fereni is ready to be poured into a serving (or various serving) dishes.
After you have poured the Fereni into a serving dish you can finely grind up the pistachios to decorate your dish. Allow the Fereni to cool down a bit before decorating with the ground pistachio powder.
Serve warm or cold. If serving it cold you will need to refrigerate the Fereni after it cools down.
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Tagged with: Milk • Pistachios • Rice Flour • Rose Water
Apr 26
Bastani Akbar Mashti
Its almost summer and what better way to celebrate than have my all time favorite Persian Bastani (ice cream) Akbar Mashti!!! Below is a simple way to make this treat.
Ingredients (for at least 8 servings):
3 quarts creamy/rich vanilla ice cream
1/2 pint heavy whip cream — you can adjust the amount of whip cream based on your desire to have more or less in the ice cream
3/4 cup rose water (golab) — you can adjust this amount to your liking
chopped pistachio –desired amount (usually not too much ~ 1/2 cup)
1/2 teaspoon saffron –might be best to mix with a tad bit of hot water to become liquid prior to use (adjust the amount if you desire more or less saffron)
Directions:
First you will need to pour the whip cream into a deep enough plate where you can place it in the freezer to become frozen. You don’t want it to be too thick, so if needed use more than one dish to pour the whip cream into. Once the whip cream is frozen you want to take a knife and cut it until little square pieces are formed.
Something to keep in mind is that you dont want the ice cream to melt when you are preparing it. I typically put ice in a large bowl and then put a smaller bowl on top of the larger bowl…the ice will keep the smaller bowl cold. Then pour all the vanilla ice cream into the smaller bowl and use a large spoon or spatula to mix the ice cream. Add the saffron, rose water, frozen whip cream squares and pistachio (you might want to keep some pistachios for later) and stir with the spatula until everything is evenly mixed.
Once the Akbar Mashti is mixed up pout the ice cream into a suitable container that can be placed back in the fridge. At this time if you like sprinkle some pistachios on top of the ice cream (this is best if using a rectangular or square container to store the bastani in). Allow the ice cream to freeze again and then serve as desired.
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Tagged with: Ice Cream • Pistachios • Rose Water • Saffron • Whip Cream
Oct 21
There are a few different variations of Masghati, which is a Persian sweet made basically from starch. This specific recipe is for Masghati borideh shodeh (cut up pieces).
Masghati (borideh shodeh)
Ingredients:
200 grams starch –its preferred that you use a flower starch, but I used corn starch
400 grams sugar
5-6 cups water
1/2 cup rose water
100 grams heated oil
1/3 cup cut up pistachio (optional)
hail (cardamom) powder (optional)
Saffron (optional) — I added yellow food coloring instead just to give it a color, but you dont have to add either
Directions:
Dissolve your starch in 5 to 6 cups of cold water. If needed you can run it through a strainer before transferring the contents into a pot on the stove top. I found that all my starch had fully dissolved and when I ran it through the strainer nothing was left behind. The temperature for the stove should be set to medium and you will need to constantly stir the mixture until it starts to thicken. Once it begins to thicken (you will notice it starts to look like a jelly like substance) then you will add the sugar and the rose water and continuously stir the mixture. I also added cardamom powder, but you can add the seed if you wish or not add it at all. Then I added the heated oil to the mixture and still continued to stir. You basically want to allow all the water to evaporate, until it is fully thickened and if you create a line across the top with a knife the line doesn’t fade that easily. At the end you will pour the thickened mixture into a dish and allow it to cool fully before cutting it into diamond pieces. You may choose to spring the top with the cut up pistachio you have while it is cooling (and before cutting it).
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Tagged with: Cardamom • Pistachios • Rose Water • Starch • Sugar
