15/08/2022
Marvellous Persian Cuisine ✨
Imagine the colours of a beautiful flowery field on a warm summer afternoon, where fondling rays of the Sun are embracing fragrant blooms… Spices, tastes and scents in a perfect harmony. Anyone who ever had the opportunity to see or to try Iranian food can easily relate to a similar picturesque view. Persian cuisine is not so well known as it really should be despite its diversity of conceptual and healthy dishes. Deservedly, it can be said that Iranian food is delight for the eyes, medication for the body and nourishment for the soul.
According to the teachings and recommendations of the world famous physician and polyhistor, Ebn-e Seena, also known as Avicenna, we can find sophisticated usage and the balance of warm and cold ingredients in the authentic Persian cuisine. In this case though warm and cold does not mean the temperature of the substances, rather it refers to the characteristics or the nature of the specific components. Also the same concept applies to usage of dry and moist substances. The great scholar explains in his book, The Canon of Medicine how the human body can maintain its balance through the proper mixing of different foods, vegetables, fruits and nuts. For example lamb, pepper and walnut has a warm nature; eggplant, apple, green tea and fish has a cold nature. Avicenna highly emphasises the importance and efficiency of curing cold nature diseases and conditions with warm nature foods and the other way around in the opposite case.
There are two volumes of ancient Persian cookbooks from the Safavid period. The earliest one is called, “Manual on cooking and its craft” (Kaarnaameh dar baabe tabbaakhee va sanate aan). Although some chapters are missing, the book gives detailed instructions for preparation, exact measurments of ingredients, gives advices concerning the utensils and pots to be used, and mentions different methods of decorating numerous dishes. The recipes of this old book in general are very similar to those of today. The author says in the introduction that the book was written “for the benefit of the nobility, as well as the public.” The other volume that has remained from the Safavid era is “The Substance of Life, a treatise on the art of cooking” (Maaddat al-hayaat, resaale dara elme tabbaakhee). This book is rather about the dishes that were prepared for the royal court, and also contains some that were created by the shahs themselves.
More in this article:
- The art of rice cooking
- Unique spices that peerlessly characterizes the Persian cuisine
- The Persian stews
- Children’s favourites
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Like in every nation, persian cuisine has determinate ingredients and spices that give the essence and the main character to most of the foods.
