Taste of Persia by Naomi Duguid

Author:Naomi Duguid
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Artisan
Published: 2016-09-04T16:00:00+00:00

Tbilisi, Georgia—Corn kernels of many colors at the market. Corn originated in the Americas and came to the Caucasus sometime in the last four hundred years. It soon became a valuable crop, especially in western Georgia, displacing millet.

Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan—An older Kurdish man selects flatbreads at a bakery in the bazaar. Families go through stacks of flatbread in a day.

Flatbread Heartland

Bread is life in Greater Persia: Flatbreads are eaten every day as the accompaniments to meals. For centuries, they were the most important source of sustenance for most people.

In Iraqi Kurdistan, home cooks make fine, thin unleavened breads called nane-tire (see recipe), baking them on the curve of a saj, a dome-shaped metal pan set over a fire. The breads are used to wrap foods or pick them up, as traditionally in Kurdistan people eat with their hands.

A yeasted version of the Kurdish saj breads, called lavash, is the bread of Armenia, and similar breads are made in bakeries in Kurdistan, Azerbaijan, and Iran (see photo).

In Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Kurdistan, fine unleavened flatbreads are folded over chopped greens or other fillings to make large half-moon-shaped hand pies that are like inviting baked sandwiches. See the recipe for Azeri kutab. Georgian cheese-filled breads, called khachapuri (see recipe), are rich and satisfying; both home cooks and bakeries make them. Bakeries in Georgia also make distinctive crusty, boomerang-shaped tandoor-baked breads with pointed ends (see recipe).

In Iran, two remarkable breads have pride of place: sangak and barbari (see Bread in Iran). Most bread is made in bakeries except in some rural areas, where women bake bread at home. Homemade versions of sangak and barbari are included here (see recipes here and here).

These days in the Persian culinary world, almost all bread is made with white or unbleached white flour. In earlier times, breads would have been made with less-refined flour, so you will find occasional suggestions in some of these recipes for including whole-grain flour.

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