Join us as we explore the world of tomatoes in Persian cuisine! From fresh salads to soups and stews, tomatoes are a staple ingredient in many delicious dishes. Discover the different forms tomatoes come in – fresh, stewed, sauce, and paste – and how they play a vital role in Persian cuisine. We’ll be chatting about salad Shirazi, a refreshing Persian salad that’s like a Persian salsa fresca. Plus, don’t miss our discussion on grilling tomatoes – skewered and whole – on the barbecue or stovetop. And also our favorite layered rice dishes and khoreshes with tomato as one of the key ingredients.
In the second part of the episode, we share our favorite cooking shortcuts and efficiency tips in the “Ask the Beats” segment. Learn how to save time with prepped ingredients like ground walnuts and cooked beets, as well as using ready-made Jarred khoresh. We also discuss the convenience of canned beans and a rice cooker to speed up the cooking process. Listen in to learn more about these time-saving hacks and how they can help you create delicious Persian dishes with ease.
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Transcript:
Intro:
This is Modern Persian Food, a culinary podcast for today’s food enthusiast.
We talk about classic Persian flavors, modern recipes, and embracing culture and identity through food.
I’m Bita and I’m also Beata. Welcome to our show.
Beata
Hi everybody, welcome to the Modern Persian Food podcast. This is episode number 142, and we are deep diving into tomatoes in Persian cuisine today. Tomatoes are one of the most popular ingredients in Persian cooking. They run the gamut from fresh solids to soups to stews. They are almost as versatile as onions in our cuisine and we are dedicating today’s episode to chat more about it. I’m here with my co-host, Bita. Hi Bita Joon.
Bita:
Hi. I’m happy to be talking about tomatoes today.
Beata:
I just feel like it’s such a part of Persian cuisine that it definitely deserves its own episode.
0:01:04 – Bita
Yeah, I like growing them. If you have a home garden, it’s tomato season, and even if you don’t have a home garden, they’re more delicious in the summertime, absolutely. They come in so many forms and that’s kind of fun. These day there’s cherry tomatoes. Those used to be my favorite as a kid. My dad would grow all these cherry tomatoes. He was kind of like one of the only things I did with him was to help him water the garden. He’d let me pick cherry tomatoes off because they’re so good. Yeah, so there’s little cherry tomatoes. There’s the pear-shaped little ones. They come in different colors. There’s the big, delicious heirloom tomatoes. Yeah, tomatoes on the vine. They are a big part of Persian cuisine. I remember as a kid hearing from other kids that they didn’t like them, that tomatoes were gross, and a lot of people actually don’t love them. That was always surprising to me. I was like, wow, what’s not to love about them, because we had them so much?
0:02:05 – Beata
Yeah, yeah, as a kid and even now it’s one of my favorite ways to have tomatoes is in a delicious salad shirazi with a lemony vinaigrette dressing and salt and the cucumbers and onions. That’s definitely a fun way to have it. I couldn’t even imagine not eating tomatoes as a kid in that salad shirazi.
0:02:28 – Bita
That’s the way we mostly use the fresh tomatoes in Persian cuisine. I had a funny correlation the other day when we were having salad shirazi that it’s almost like a Persian salsa fresca. It’s essentially it’s almost the same ingredients in salad shirazi.
0:02:44 – Beata
Yeah, I think really the lemon juice is kind of the biggest differentiator for me. Either lemon juice or you can use ab ghooreh, which is like a verjuice, like a sour grape juice.
Yeah, it’s really good with lime juice too, yeah, so, yeah, fresh and salads especially Salad Shirazi is a great side, even just like sliced or kind of cut up with like a little bit of salt on the side of your plate is always like fine. Or put it in your little mortadella sandwich that you’re going to be having on a Persian picnic this summer. And to that point, this is part of our summer series collection that we’re doing.
We talked about joojeh kabob, we talked about Persian picnics, we talked about corn last week and this week we’re rounding it out with the Persian tomatoes. And specifically, one way that you can also enjoy this summer if we’re keeping in the kind of the theme of grilling, like we did in some of the past episodes is you take that fresh tomato and you put it straight on the grill and you get a nice char on it, and I can have that with like chana kabob or with the rice really, really with kind of like other grilled foods. Do you guys do that when you’re grilling?
0:03:55 – Bita
Oh yeah, when we’re grilling and when we’re ordering out, we ask for extra grilled tomatoes and the type that works best, the variety of tomato that works best for grilling, is the Roma tomato and that’s kind of like the medium size, oblong, sort of oval tomato. Italian is really good for grilling and it’s just delicious with kebabs. That’s the traditional way that it’s served is with kebab.
0:04:22 – Beata
Do you skewer your tomatoes before you grill them, or do you put them straight on the grill?
0:04:28 – Bita
We skewer them because we’re typically also having other vegetables and onions and so I skewer them. I’ve even tried putting them in my air fryer, which has mixed results. It’s a little messy, but yeah. So you kind of want like a firmer tomato and they are cooked whole. When they’re grilled you keep the tomato whole. At least that’s how we do it. I’m not sure how they do it in the restaurants. They might cut them in half.
0:04:54 – Beata
I mean, if you keep them whole, then it’s kind of keeping all the juices in as much as you can and it gets like this, like dark char on the outside of it. Again, it takes a little bit of time to actually get that color and get the char on it, but it gets that smoky flavor from the barbecue, from the grill, and it kind of tenderizes a little bit in the inside. It’s a perfect little accompaniment to rice that you’re having with like kebabs, so it’s definitely delicious and you can put a little bit of sumac or salt on top of it as well and make it super delicious.
0:05:24 – Bita
Yeah, I’m having a flashback to the conversation we had with Reza Jax a few weeks back. And he makes the kebab koobideh stove top and he adds his tomato right inside of the one pot dish.
0:05:38 – Beata
Yeah, exactly. So to that point you can also use the stove top. If you don’t have access to a barbecue, you can definitely char up some tomatoes just right on your stove. You can put a little bit of oil to help that out, and I’ve definitely done that as well. When you’re doing kind of like more kebab style inside cooking kebab or, to your point, Reza Jax’s kebab tabeyi (kabab cooked in a pot) recipe.
0:05:58 – Bita
Good. So the other form of tomatoes that we see quite a bit in soups and stews is a stewed tomato. Do you use stewed tomato in your Persian cooking at all Beata joon?
0:06:11 – Beata
Yeah, definitely rhere are some dishes that like really kind of have that tomato like, for example, like a khoresh bademjoon or some of the khoresh that have like some tomato sauce. You can definitely either use, like you know, stewed tomatoes that you already buy stewed, or you can just use fresh tomatoes and kind of cook them down. But yeah, there’s definitely some recipes that really benefit from having that. How about you do use the stewed tomatoes mostly?
0:06:35 – Bita
wWith soups. I do use it in my mom’s abgoosht (meat stew) recipe. That’s a soup, or like a thick, hearty soup that, at least in my mom’s recipe, has tomatoes, sometimes some bell pepper, chickpeas, onions, and it is like a tomato-based stewed, tomato-based soup, the way my mom makes it, in delicious spices, and she uses stewed beef when she makes it. And have you ever gotten fire-roasted stewed tomatoes? I love the flavor of fire-roasted anything, and so sometimes I’ll swap that in for recipes that call for stewed tomatoes.
0:07:13 – Beata
Yeah, i don’t think I’ve really used the fire-roasted ones for Persian cooking, but I’ve definitely used the fire-roasted ones. And just a couple points on your mom’s abgoosht. I love abgoosht. There is so many different recipes for abgoosht, so just calling it after your mom uses more of a tomato-based one, my mom uses more of a herb-based one, so there are different versions. But I think the thing to call out about the abgoosht is kind of like a soup and then a lot of times it’s served with like braised meats and beans that you have on the side. They call it like the goosht koobideh Kind of have that as like a little bit of side with some sangak bread and fresh herbs and some torshi.
0:07:51 – Bita
So we haven’t talked about abgoosht for a while.
0:07:53 – Beata
So that was like oh my god, i want some now.
0:07:56 – Bita
It’s kind of a winter food. My family’s from Azerbaijan, on both sides Tabri’s type of area, So it’s probably regional in what you know. Variation of recipe family to family, region to region.
0:08:08 – Beata
Yeah, to your point that it is regional and different from family to family. Some of the dishes that we’re going to talk about may or may not use this tomato product, based on where you’re from. So what we’re talking about is tomato paste.
Tomato paste is definitely used in a ton of dishes. How people use a tomato paste it’s in a can or a jar, and the best way that I’ve learned to use a tomato paste is actually try to saute it or fry it a little bit before you actually add more liquid to the dish. So you can fry it like in the bottom of your pot, as you’re like building the different layers of your khresh, for example, you can fry it in a little bit of oil and that’ll really cook out any raw taste to it and also make it more rich and kind of like brightens up the tomato paste. So that’s kind of like a tip of how to get the most out of your tomato paste. But some regional differences like, for example, hordish the karafs. I love adding tomato paste to it, but I think some versions don’t include any tomato paste.
0:09:11 – Bita
Yeah, my mom’s, I don’t think does. And your way of cooking down the tomato paste is almost like in my head. It’s probably not the proper cooking term, but it’s like caramelizing it. It’s almost cooking it for like five minutes, like three to five minutes.
0:09:28 – Beata
Yeah, and you have to keep kind of like stirring it and mixing it a little bit. Yeah.
0:09:32 – Bita
And to me it almost makes it sweeter. I love that taste.
0:09:38 – Beata
Yeah, it intensifies it a little bit.
0:09:39 – Bita
Yeah, for sure, and that’s used in like macaroni. What are some other recipes? I use it in my ghemeh.
0:09:47 – Beata
Yeah, for sure. So I mentioned bademjan. Khoresh badimjan is an eggplant stew that definitely, if it has like the real tomatoes or tomato paste added to that. Khoresh bomaye, which is okra stew one of my all time favorites that has tomato paste. Again, variations region to region.
0:10:03 – Bita
Ghemeh is yellow split peas stew that you eat with rice, that I use it for and it kind of has a lot of things going on because it’s got the tomato paste. It also has the sour.
0:10:15 – Beata
Yeah, and a lot of times they’ll actually serve the kheime with like little french fries on top of it too.
0:10:20 – Bita
Yes, and macaroni is the Persian pasta.
0:10:25 – Beata
Yeah, we had chef Orly giving us a play by play of how to make that with tahdig, so if people haven’t listened to that episode, definitely download and listen to that episode with chef Orly.
0:10:35 – Bita
Yeah, and one of the differentiators is that the Persian baked spaghetti dish is not saucy. It’s kind of mostly like the tomato paste onion meat mixture.
Right.
0:10:48 – Beata
It’s a little more dry.
Yeah, hi there. Friends, we have a quick favorite to ask you.
0:10:54 – Bita
Subscribe, follow and add us on your favorite podcast player.
0:10:59 – Beata
So you can get all our episodes every week, every Wednesday, with a fresh new episode just for you. Sign up and don’t skip a beat!
Some other dishes that we add tomato paste to lubia polo, one of our favorites. Oh yeah, Lubio polo is a green beans, sauteed green beans and onions in like a tomato paste or tomato sauce mixed with kind of really your choice of meat and layered in the rice and cooked with that. One of our family favorites, one of my favorites. I love having it with like plain yogurt on the side and some onion raw onion on there too. That’s definitely a dish that uses tomato paste. There’s also like estamboli polo, which is kind of like more of a tomato rice dish. Does that use tomato paste in estamboli or is that more just fresh tomatoes?
0:11:46 – Bita
You know, i make it in a super bastardized way and probably not at all correct.
0:11:52 – Beata
Authentic.
0:11:53 – Bita
I don’t think I do. I think I use more like saucy and make it almost more like a Spanish rice, and I think some people put potatoes, some people don’t. We’ll have to bring on an expert to teach us to make a estamboli polo.
0:12:07 – Beata
Yeah, that’s a good call. Tomatoes are such a versatile ingredient and you know we just kind of went over a bunch of different ways that a tomato is used in different forms, so we’re hoping that you can utilize some of this delicious seasonal ingredient. You know, you mentioned heirloom tomatoes, my favorite. I love it. I love just like making this very simple salad with that, having some toasted bread, some fresh herbs from basil, maybe a little splash of balsamic vinegar, and having some heirloom tomatoes one of my favorites. So definitely, hopefully, everyone can get their hands on some of that, maybe from their garden or from their local store.
0:12:46 – Bita
Yeah, there’s a soup that I meant to mention which it may or may not be actually of Persian origin, but my mom makes it a lot, is a borscht, oh borscht, and she makes it sometimes with cabbage. It’s definitely tomato based. She probably uses tomato sauce, and my guess is, by the name of it, that it’s Russian, but that is definitely a tomato based soup. So that came to mind for me as well.
0:13:08 – Beata
Okay, great, you know, if we wanted to take it to breakfast. you can make a Persian style omelet, oh yeah, which is kind of basically fresh tomatoes diced up and cooked with eggs, kind of scramble it together for like more like omelet style. Or, if you want to kind of stew the tomatoes and poach the eggs in it, kind of more like shashuka style. So definitely any meal of the day you can fit tomatoes in.
0:13:31 – Bita
Definitely. Well, we’ve got an ATB, we’ve got an Ask the Beats today. Today’s Ask the Beats comes from Sarah, who lives in Oakland, and she wants to know, Bita and Beata, what’s your favorite kitchen or cooking shortcut right now?
0:13:48 – Beata
Oh, Sarah, you’re asking the right girls for about this,
Oh yeah, do we have another hour, because this is us!
0:13:56 – Bita
This is our jam. Yeah, this is what we’re about.
0:13:58 – Beata
Exactly. I love taking shortcuts. I don’t look at it as a bad thing. I look at it as a efficiency thing of like, how can I get the most flavor and the best food in the shortest amount of time? I love using shortcuts. So, like you know, there’s been a lot of conversation about fesenjoon around my life lately. You know a lot of people when they hear that I have a podcast or we’re talking about Persian food, fesenjoon always comes up because it is so delicious and it just has like the balance of the flavors. For people who don’t know, fesenjoon is a stew that we serve over rice that is made with walnuts and pomegranate molasses And you can add meat to it if you like and it’s super delicious. It can remind people of like a mole type of dish and consistently for that recipe.
One of my favorite shortcuts is getting ground walnuts, and I typically have ground walnuts stashed in my freezer for any time I want to make like a fesenjoon or make like a dish that has ground walnuts in it, because you don’t need to sort the walnuts. You know, if you’re buying real walnuts then you know you don’t need to shell them, but you can usually get like kind of like shelled walnuts, but a lot of times you have to really go through them because they will have kind of like the inside piece of the walnut which is hardened, inedible in the walnuts. So you kind of have to like sort that. So I personally love getting the ground up version because it’s like a few steps taken care of and then I don’t need to worry about grinding them up or using a food processor or grinder to do that. It saves a lot of time for me. So that’s a top one.
If I wanted to pick another shortcut is kind of like in the produce section there’s a lot of prepped ingredients ready to go. You know you can find like chopped up onions in the produce department already to go, so you can just get that and throw it into the pot and get the base of a horesh going. Or another favorite in the produce section is the cooked beets. I love using the cooked beets, throw them on salads, but I really enjoy making a mast-o-laboo, which is basically I’ll get the cooked beets, i’ll grate them on like a box grater into a bowl, add yogurt, I put a splash of vinegar, a little salt and pepper and I have like a really fun vibrant dip slash side that I can serve alongside, you know, some kebabs or just like as an appetizer with crackers and crudite. So my shortcuts are kind of really just utilizing products that have already been prepped and ready to go so that I can cook faster and more efficiently when I get the opportunity to.
0:16:30 – Bita
I love that. You know we used to have a section we trialed for a little while called Beets Cheats, because we have so, so many and I think that we could have a whole ‘nother show on this. So I have so many and I can’t choose. I’m just gonna list them, not gonna go into tons of detail, but you know, if any like really stick out to you, you let us know and maybe we can turn it into a whole episode for you. Good idea, i think it’s really important just to make it happen. We gotta just make meals happen, and if that means opening a can or what have you, or using a rice cooker, that’s okay. And then those are two things on my list.
So I have a lot of Persian markets near me, which I’m lucky for. I will buy jarred khoresh, which is already ready to go. It’s just such a time saver. So I think that the Persian stews that we enjoy with rice are really time consuming, and there is a brand that makes a really delicious version to me, and so I will start it and use it as a starter to add things to it and they don’t have meat, so I can either make a vegetarian or vegan or add meat, so I love those.
I’m okay with canned beans. I’m always looking to add fiber protein, and so I do like cooking lentils from dry. That’s the one bean that I prefer to cook I like the flavor of and they’re not hard. I just cook it on, you know, like a low simmer, but most beans I will just open a can and that’s fine to me. I use a rice cooker many times a week. I have a little mini one. They’re so easy. I can cook rice for my dogs and I mix it with their food. And then the last one, which I know there’s people that are totally against this. I got it from my Maman joon, so take it to her. But I do sometimes put ketchup in my cooking. In the cooking down stage – I get hate mail, man.
I mean I know that it’s not authentic and some people are so against ketchup and I get like daily like you don’t put ketchup in that kind of stuff, but it’s okay, I can take it. My girl’s like my cooking, my family likes my cooking, so they’re used to it and really, essentially, tomato paste is more pure, it’s more delicious, it works better and it’s better for you. But once in a while I don’t have any left because I use it a lot, all right, and so then I will just add a little bit of ketchup. A ketchup is a more processed form. It has sugar in it. I get it, but it does work in a pinch. And if you need a little bit of a sweet taste, it actually does work in that way. That’s it, that’s all of mine.
0:19:06 – Beata
Yeah, those are great, those are all great. And yeah, for sure, canned beans, because I mean, if I’m gonna pull together like an aash reshteh, if I wanna pull that together and in a short amount of time, I’m definitely using canned beans and that’s a really great tip too. So there’s nothing wrong with using them, and a lot of times the frozen ingredients and canned ingredients they’re packaged at their peak ripeness, so maybe you’re getting even gonna get better than what it’s available at your market, if the market doesn’t have a ton of fresh stuff and it’s in the middle of a season that it doesn’t have that item.
0:19:36 – Bita
Yeah, and the rice cooker. I mean it’s just personal preference, I guess, but to me I literally just you could just put it all in there. You’re supposed to rinse your rice until the water is clear and only step soak your rice. So sometimes I just put it all in there and turn it on, and that’s how easy it is.
0:19:50 – Beata
So, yeah, that’s a good point. Those are all great tips. Thank you so much, sarah, for the question. And, as a reminder to everybody, if you wanna have your question featured on the show, the Modern Persian Food Podcast, send us a note, send us a message. However, you wanna get a message over to us, let us know and we will answer it on the show for you. Thank you, everyone and until next time. Bye-bye, till next time. Bye!
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