Advieh (Persian spice mix recipe)

[NYChristopher]

I came across a recipe that involves the Persian spice mix advieh.

Having come across several different combinations, I was wondering if anybody could give me the tsp by tsp to make my own (I own most of thew spices I have seen called for).

one such recipe:
* 2 tablespoons dried rose petals
* 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
* 2 tablespoons ground cardamom
* 1 tablespoon ground cumin

Does this seem representative?

Thanks

[NYChristopher]

Yeah, I can do this:

http://www.bluekaleroad.com/2013/03/a...

[MoziCat]

I came here via a recipe for Candied Grapefruit Peels:
http://www.threetastes.com/blog/files...

The recipe using them was
LAMB KHORESH WITH POTATOES AND GRAPEFRUIT PEEL
Adapted from "A Taste of Persia" by Najmieh Batmanglij

And the blog referenced THIS forum discussion regarding the Advieh Recipes...

Right off the bat, I notice how the rose petals seem to have disappeared from the discussion...A visit to your nearest florist should easily provide you with rose petals, as part of daily prep work at most florists is to remove the outer layer of petals before putting the rosebuds into displays or vases for sale. (This is also handy if you live in a not-rose-friendly climate, or in the winter.

)

I also notice the substitutution of lemons, or lemon juice, when the Persian recipe specifically uses Dried Limes, or Loomi, a specifically Persian cooking ingredient. While it might take a month or two's fore-planning to purchase a lime and let it dry up on your counter, ( a dehydrator might help, perhaps?) the flavor difference between limes and lemons is such that, at the VERY least, I would use lime juice, not lemon juice if I were adapting this recipe "on the fly..."
(And trust, I'm notorious for NOT following recipes as written...)

So, although Advieh may vary from province to province, region to region, and is somewhat heavily dependent upon personal tastes, I DO personally think that omitting the rose petals entirely, and substituting lemon for dried lime throws the entire effort into something not-really-advieh...

[plum]

What a research project, NYChristopher! "Advieh" is just a spice mixture - it's really non-specific, there's advieh for chicken, for kebab, for seafood, for yogurt, etc. All completely according to the whim of the purpose, seller or cookbook author.

The seasoning in Najmieh Batmanglij's recipes is more complex than what I have seen my husband's Persian family cooking with. For meat and vegetable stews, the only spices I have seen used are turmeric, cassia cinnamon, black pepper, dried limes, and sometimes a dash of nutmeg in zucchini stew.

Dried limes are used in only some stews - they're used whole in some stews, like celery stew and green herb and kidney bean stew (ghormeh sabzi), or ground-up in a lamb and yellow pea stew with fried potatoes on top (gheimeh). I like dried limes a lot, but if you can find them you should use them with caution until you know you like the distinctive sour/bitter/dark flavour.

The only time I've seen ground coriander seeds or cumin used, it was in an advieh for fish. I don't think I've seen green cardamom used in a savoury context, although maybe they do that in some parts of Iran as a crossover from Gulf Arab food. They do sprinkle gol-par (ground angelica seeds) over snacks like soaked green almonds, but I haven't seen it added to stews.

And I've never seen them touch dried ground ginger, caraway seeds (forsooth!) or black cardamom. Nor ground cloves. Although I have seen water infused with saffron added to stews for a special touch.

Personally, I substitute small amounts of baharat from Kalustyan's for advieh, just because it's fragrant and really adds a good note. No one's complained yet!

[Foog]

Adievh is also known as baharat at least on the packaged version I buy

http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/ba...

[NYChristopher]

What have I gotten myself into?

OK, while the above comes thru time and again, one page, ONE PAGE and google yielded the follow results:

"varies by region, and by use ... may include:" (sotto voce: to say the least)

cinnamon (11 mentions)
green cardamom seeds (10 mentions)
cumin (7 mentions)
ginger, rose petals, clove, black pepper (6 mentions each)
coriander (5 mentions)
nutmeg (4 mentions)
saffron (3 mentions)
turmeric, mace, sesame (2 mentions each)
ground angelica, red pepper, lime powder, lime zest, lemon peel (1 mention each)

I even saw one reference to caraway seed for crying out loud.

ALSO

Recipes I & II (note components are the same, but measure is different)

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 ts Ground cinnamon
1/4 ts Ground cardamom
1/4 ts Ground cloves
1/4 ts Ground ginger

Recipes III & IV (note components are the same, but measure is different)

6 TB coriander seeds
6 TB cinnamon, about three four-inch strips of bark
3 TB cardamom seeds
4 TB black peppercorns
4 TB cumin seeds
2 TB nutmeg, one or two nutmegs

4 1/2 tsp. ground coriander
4 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 1/4 tsp. cardamom seeds
1 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. whole black peppercorns
1 tsp. cumin seeds

Blending my own spice mix is not new ... as long as I have a recipe I can trust. Problem is, everything I have seen varies so wildly I don't know what to do.

(sniff, sniff) Surely there must be a chowhounder willing to part with a family recipe... <wink>

Should anyone be interested, the dish I want to make is this:

http://www.vitacost.com/Healthnotes/R...

I get that this mix isn't hot ... it can be sweet, it can be fragrant ... my guess, for this dish I should err more towards fragrant than sweet

So, how about this:

*** NYChristopher's Advieh Attempt ***

* 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
* 2 tbsp ground cardamom
* 1 tbsp ground cumin
* 1 tbsp coriander seed
* 1 tsp ground ginger
* 1/2 tsp ground cloves

(turmeric, excluded here, is included in the recipe, but if it were not, I would add 1/2 tsp; also omitting rose petal which I don't have, while the rest I do)

Thoughts?

Thanks!

[Foog]

Everything I can find says it mostly the ingredients you mention in the most pleasing ratio to you. They are vary greatly.

[jen kalb]

wondering why you dont simply use the spices listed in the recipe your first time round?

[Foog]

I read tasting the raw spices can be a little rough on the palette here:
http://persiankitchen.wordpress.com/

Nice recipes there as well.

[NYChristopher]

The recipe called for advieh ... the recipe didn't say what was IN the advieh, hence my question.

[jen kalb]

duh, sorry. If I were doing this the first time, I guess I would pick a standard reliable source for my advieh recipe

The first recipe you cited was from Najmieh Batmanglij.Ior at least the same as hers http://www.recipezaar.com/Advieh-253004 so that is an excellent source. Figuring out what your taste is isnt all that until you get inside the cuisine and figure it out a bit using some standard recipes. My only suggestion here is that you want to fresh grind your cardamon to obtain the desired flavor - ground cardamon is a fairly miserable product that stales quickly. You can either peel the seeds out of whole pods or buy decortinated (shelled) cardamon seeds and grind those.

[NYChristopher]

Thanks for the tip on the cardamom. I have both green and black pods, but have found the black to be too much for me except in the smallest amounts.

As for what started all this
http://www.vitacost.com/Healthnotes/R...

I hunted down the author and asked his advice. Here's his response (forgive me for not posting this update earlier):

The following recipe for advieh is directly from THE best Persian cook book I have ever come across. The book is called New food of life, by Najmieh Batmanglij.

2 Tablespoons ground dried rose petals (unless if you know a source for this, I would skip it!)
2 Tablespoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground angelica (again, this is a hard one to find)
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon dried Persian lime powder (you can substitute with a couple of tablespoons of fresh lime juice)

He also said that of the two tablespoons to use, use one in the stew, one-half each in the potatoes and tofu.

I made it without the Rose Petal, Angelica or Lime Powder (though I used lime juice) and thought it was an interesting dish, I'm just not sure I would rush back to it. 7/10

[jen kalb]

looks to me that the recipe you used is a meatless modification of Batmanglij's recie for Potato Khoresh recipe from the New Food of Life, which subs tofu for the meat, doubles the yellow split peas, and substitutes roasting for deep frying of the potatoes. Also he deleted saffron and dried orage peel, subbed the fresh lemon for 4 dried persian lemons and added a whole can of tomatoes in place of the single tomato in her recipe. By the way, the second advieh he gives you is her advieh for kouresh recipe - the 2 ingredient recipe is her advieh for rice recipe. All in all the changes, especially the changes probably made the recipe heavier in flavor. you might try it again with less tomato and the citrus flavors for a lighter balance. The way the potatoes are handled, fried and laid on top is interesting