Fereni

Happy Sunday lovelies! I’m back with another post, I know you’ve missed me 😉

In this post I will be covering my relationship with “Fereni”. Yes you read that right, my relationship.

Fereni or Firini (whichever way you like to spell it) is a Persian rice pudding. Traditionally made with milk and rice flour with sugar and rosewater on the stove top and served either warm or chilled. Basically there’s nothing to it and it’s very much a comfort dessert normally eaten during the winter months and also very popular during the fasting month of Ramadan.

Personally I’ve never really been a fan of Fereni and found it quite a blah type of dessert. However only recently and thanks to my granny I discovered that this humble dessert had a makeover and has become quite jazzed up. Apparently in Iran they now substitute the milk with different types of fruit juices and this transforms the once boring dessert into something quite delicious and exotic! Hence I tried a variety of flavours and although it was definitely a step up from the original it still had something missing and needed a bit of work.

Given my affinity for experimenting with recipes and coming up with my own take on Persian cooking; I decided to use this Fereni recipe as a filling substitute….and so the “Fereni Tart” was born. Just so you are aware this is my claim to fame!!

During our time at the farmer’s market in Hobart we experimented with about a dozen different flavours for the tarts, so much so that these tarts ended up being our signature dessert. We played around with flavour combinations and garnished the fruit with Persian spices like Golpar and Sumac. It was very much a hit and we always sold out… ironically in the end the Fereni ended up being the face of our brand. Something that I wouldn’t ever have picked!

 

Some of the creations from our market days 🙂

 

So our relationship is a very happy one indeed, I love Fereni and we now live happily ever after! The end Xx

 

Koloocheh

Evening lovelies, hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are ready to tackle the week ahead. This post will be all about “Koloocheh” a special type of Persian stuffed cookie. This cookie is made in various parts of Iran and in the south of Iran it’s prepared for “Norooz” (New Year celebrations).  Different regions of Iran have different types of Koloochehs, in this post I will be covering the Kolooches that come from the Caspian sea region of northern Iran. Other Kolooches come from different cities like Shiraz, Kashan and Yazd.

In the north of Iran; the most notable Kolooches come from “Lahijan” and “Fuman” (cities of the Gilan provence) with Lahijan being the region most famous for Kolooche. “Kolooche-e-Lahijan” traditionally comes in two different fillings; walnut and coconut. These days there are various types of Koloocheh fillings available.

The Fuman region is renowned for it’s special type of Koloocheh  which is larger in size and is usually eaten warm….in my opinion “Koloocheh-e-Fuman” is the bomb!!

a batch of Kolooche-e-Fuman ready for the oven 🙂

 

The yummy end product!

 

Koloocheh is super easy to make and very morish so I’ve decided to provide you the recipe. You can now make your own “Kolooche-e-Lahijan” and become addicted to eating it!!

Koloocheh-e-Lahijan recipe:

Dough:

• 1 cup softened butter (or 3/4 butter and 1/4 oil)
• 1/2 tspn salt
• 1/3 cup of caster sugar
• 1 tspn vanilla bean paste
• 2-2 1/2 cups of flour

Filling:

• 3/4 cup walnuts
• 3-4 tbsp caster sugar
• 1/4 tspn salt
• 2 tbsp Persian rose water

note: the filling is up to you, this filling is the traditional walnut variety

Method:

• In a bowel, beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Stir in 1 tbsp water with the vanilla bean paste and salt until well combined
• Mix in 1- 1/2 cups of flour until combined (should be crumbly in texture), then knead in the remaining flour until the dough pulls away from the bowel and is no longer crumbly
• pre-heat oven to 180 °C
• In a food processor; combine walnuts, sugar, rosewater and salt until a chunky paste forms
• Pinch off a tablespoon size of dough and flatten it in your palm
• Add a small amount of filling (1/2 tspn) to the center of the dough, pinch it shut and pat it to form a round cookie
• Place on a grease lined tray and bake for 15-25 mins (until the bottom of cookies are golden brown and tops are no longer soft)

my deconstructed apple Koloocheh served with Pomegranate sorbet

Happy eating!! Until next time Xx