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Recipes with dried barberries

5 recipes that use dried barberries, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Kuku sabzi, takes 40 minutes. It is most often cooked with onion, turmeric and saffron.

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Zereshk polo ba morgh

Zereshk polo ba morgh is the rice Iranians cook for guests, weddings and Friday lunches, and its tart red barberries come mostly from the orchards around Birjand in South Khorasan, where the berries are dried on rooftops in autumn. Fluffy steamed basmati is crowned with saffron rice and barberries fried briefly in butter with a little sugar, and served beside chicken braised slowly with onion, tomato and saffron until it is falling off the bone. A common mistake is frying the barberries for more than a minute or two; they burn fast and turn bitter. Chef's tip: sort the barberries on a white plate and remove any tiny stems or grit before soaking.

90 minPersianChickenGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Tah-chin

Tah-chin is the showpiece of a Tehran dinner party: a round cake of saffron rice set with yogurt and egg, turned out of its dish so the thick golden crust sits on top like a lid, with a layer of tender chicken hidden inside. Families make it for birthdays, Nowruz visits and any day guests are coming, and the barberries scattered over the top add tart red jewels. The crust should crack like a crisp biscuit while the rice inside stays soft. A common mistake is skimping on the resting time after baking; turned out too early, the cake slumps and the crust sticks. Chef's tip: marinate the cooked chicken in a spoon of the yogurt mixture while the rice boils, so the filling is as well seasoned as the rice.

150 minPersianChickenGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Koofteh Tabrizi

Koofteh Tabrizi is the pride of Tabriz in Iranian Azerbaijan, a meatball so big that one feeds a person, made for guests and for cold winter evenings in the north-west. Lamb or beef mince is kneaded with rice, yellow split peas and lots of herbs, then wrapped around a hidden heart of hard-boiled egg, prunes, walnuts and barberries and simmered in a tomato-saffron broth. At the table the broth is ladled over bread first, then the koofteh is cut open. A common mistake is under-kneading: the mixture must be worked until sticky, or the ball splits in the pot. Chef's tip: lower the meatballs into broth that is barely trembling, not boiling, and don't touch them for the first 20 minutes while they firm up.

150 minPersianMeatGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Vegetable Uzbek plov

Plov (osh) is the dish Uzbeks cook for weddings, for Friday lunch and for guests, traditionally by men over a fire in a wide cast-iron kazan. Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara each have their own style, but all are built the same way: a zirvak (base) of onions and long strips of carrot fried in oil, rice laid on top and steamed until every grain is separate and glossy. This vegetarian version keeps the zirvak and swaps the meat for chickpeas (nohat), whole heads of garlic and barberries, as in Samarkand's chickpea plov. For the classic meat version, lamb or beef is browned in the oil before the onions and simmered in the zirvak for 40 minutes. Serve with achichuk. Chef's tip: hunt out yellow carrots from Central Asian or Turkish grocers; they are sweeter and less watery than orange ones and give plov its honeyed colour.

105 minUzbekRice & GrainsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kuku sabzi

Kuku sabzi is a deep green, herb-packed egg cake that Iranian families make for Nowruz, the New Year on the first day of spring, often alongside sabzi polo. It is more herb than egg: just enough egg binds a heap of parsley, coriander, dill and chives, with crunchy walnuts and little sour barberries. It is eaten warm or cold, cut into wedges, tucked into lavash with yogurt and radishes, and it travels well to the Sizdah Bedar picnic thirteen days later. Chef's tip: cook it slowly with the lid on; high heat browns the base before the middle sets.

40 minPersianVegetarianGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Goes well with dried barberries