Sep 03

Persian Halva (with Video)

By Persian Recipes Shirini (Sweets/Desserts) 21 Comments »

This specific halva is made with white flour. There are many different halvas and I hope to learn how to make the majority of them!

halva

Persian Halvaa

Ingredients:

1 cup water
1 cup oil
1/2 teaspoon saffron
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup rose water

Directions:

In a small pot, boil the water and add the sugar, ground saffron, and rose water. Mix and leave on low or place aside once well mixed and sugar is melted.

In a larger pot, heat the oil and add the flour. Make sure you are mixing the flour into the oil and continue stirring so that it cooks evenly (and does not burn). The heat on your stove top should be anywhere from medium to high (based on how quickly you plan to stir and now allow the flour to burn). Once the color is nice and brown, and especially once you can smell that the flour has cooked you want to take the pot off the stove top and add the liquid mixture from the smaller pot. The flour mix is very hot and will start to sizzle when you add the liquid mixture. After you have added it stir very quickly until the halva thickens. Once thickened place the halva in a dish of your choice and flatten then add a design (with a spoon).

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Sep 01

Faloodeh, very close to Faloodeh Shirazi.

By Persian Recipes Shirini (Sweets/Desserts) 6 Comments »

Another favorite Persian frozen dessert.  There are a few different ways to make this, but I will share my latest technique.

faloodeh

Faloodeh

Ingredients:
1 cup boiling water
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup rose water
saffron (optional)
rice noodles (thin ones, usually sold in the Chinese food section)

Directions:

Mix the sugar with the boiling water, until completely dissolved. Add the rose water, and if desired the saffron. Set aside and once it is cooled down place it in the freezer. If you plan on making the entire package of rice noodles you will need to double your mix (sugar, water, and rose water). I left the mix in the freezer over night, that way it was completely frozen.

Once ready to make the noodles I took the frozen mix out of the freezer. I took half of the rice noodles and chopped them up a bit. Note: it was difficult to chop them up, so I actually used my blender (on chop mode) to get them to cut down a bit in size. Then I placed the noodles in a pot of boiling water for approximately 10 - 15 minutes (depending on the amount used, and thickness of the noodles). After I drained the noodles I ran them under cold water for a minute to cool down.

I then used a fork to mixed up the frozen mixture, and added the noodles to the mixture and stirred them in. I put the dish back in the freezer, and every 20-30 minutes I would take it back out and stir the contents together again. I did this for the first 4-5 hours, to make sure all the noodles were blended in well with the mixture. Afterwords, I transferred all the contents into a different dish (one with a lid) and placed it back in the freezer.

Note: you may want to add some lemon juice when you are prepared to eat it.

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Sep 01

Shole Zard

By Persian Recipes Shirini (Sweets/Desserts) 3 Comments »

shole-zard

Shole Zard

A very sweet and delicious Persian recipe for shole zard!

Ingredients:

2 cups rice (preferably small grain or medium grain rice)
approximately 8 cups water
4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon saffron
Yellow food coloring
1/4 cup oil (or melted butter)
1/4 cup rose water
cinnamon
1/4 cup slivered almonds
slivered/chopped pistachios

Directions to make shole zard:

After rinsing my rice a few times, I placed it in pot with the 8 cups of water to bring it to a boil. I continuously cooked the rice, and occasionally stirred it until it became somewhat tender. Note: you may need to skim the surface foam occasionally as well. It keeps your shole zard clean.

After about 20-25 minutes I added the sugar and continued stirring constantly, until the mixture slightly thickened. After another 20 to 25 minutes I dissolved the saffron in hot water and added it to the pot.  Note: Instead of adding 1 tablespoon of Saffron (like many do), I only added 1 teaspoon.  Then I added some yellow food coloring to make sure the entire mixture is a good yellow color.

You can use melted butter or oil. I added the oil to the Shole Zard, followed by the rose water. At this point the Shole zard is almost ready. Keep stirring :)

I continued stirring over medium heat, and added more water to the pot until I could no longer see whole rice grains. Once this was the case I continued stirring until the mixture became thick. At this time I added the almonds (Note: the almonds should be the last thing you add to the shole zard).

I poured the contents of the pot (shole zard) into a bowl and set aside to cool. I used cinnamon, pistachios, and some almonds for decorating the dish. Let the shole zard cool before serving. You can also put it in the fridge after it cools down, especially if you plan on serving it at a later time.

Enjoy the tasty Shole Zard!

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