London-Iranian aims to put Persian food on top table - most popular side dishes in restaurants

LONDON (Reuters)-
London restaurant owner Bijan Behzadi wants to show the world that Persian cuisine is more than just a pile of rice and kebabs, saying that his native Iranian food should be like French or Italian food
Most Persian restaurants outside Iran cater to the immigrant taste of the craving: The most important thing is chelo kebab-
It literally means rice and barbecue"
This ubiquitous comfort food is similar to fish and chips for Americans, similar to British or mac 'n' cheese.
At least one restaurant in London serves "kaleh pache "-
The "head and feet" of the sheep are cooked in their own broth --
For anyone who likes steaming brains, tongue and eyes, this is their favorite brunch. It is a love-it-or-
Hate it to separate the Iranians and not pretend to be premium food.
"In the past 20 years, great changes have taken place in London.
This is the best place to eat in the world at the moment, "beizadi told Reuters at the leafy back street restaurant in London's Meida Vale.
"But most Iranian restaurants have not changed.
We like to eat a lot and pay a little.
He runs a range of Italian restaurants and works with London. based Michelin-
In 2011, chef Giorgio Locatelli of Behzadi opened Kateh to show the regional subtleties of food from Iran, a vast country from Pakistan to Turkey
Capped mountains and hot deserts.
"Unlike the French or Italians, the Iranians are not familiar with the local food," Behzadi said . ".
"If you are from Milan, you will know about food in Calabria or Tuscany, but if you are from Tehran, you know nothing about the rest of Iran.
"Behzadi found that one of the best sources of regional cooking was the recipes collected by European diplomats and their spouses who traveled to Iran in the early 20 th century.
The book, written in English by discerning travelers, reveals many forgotten recipes in modern Iran, such as the desfuli salad from southwestern Iran, replace tomatoes and onions and cucumbers with pomegranate and twist on a plain Iranian salad.
In other dishes, Behzadi uses traditional recipes and uses different ingredients.
For example, he adapted "mahi gerdepich", a dish popular in northern Iran, where fish from rivers and the Caspian Sea are stuffed with sauce from walnuts and apricots, and then
In the Kateh version, Behzadi replaced the North-
Fish with squid
Eat 1,000 km mainly in Iran (600 miles)
Located in the south of the Caspian sea, fishing from the warm waters of the Gulf.
Another unique classic Iranian recipe is fesenjan of Kateh-
The chicken is a rich, sweet and sour gravy with two main ingredients from Iran: walnuts and pomegranates --
The Persian dish that many people like best.
Behzadi uses boiled pheasant instead of chicken to return the dish closer to Iran's Jiran province, where the original recipe specifies wild ducks from the Caspian lagoon. Kateh -
The name comes from one of the many ways the Iranians cook rice
Still offer more traditional Persian dishes, but its insistence on organic produce means its meat, such as the tender lamb bagel kebab, which is better than the chelo kebab at most other Persian restaurants
Behzadi hopes that, at least in London, the quality of Persian food will improve as much as Italian food did in the 1980 s, when the English view of Italian restaurants was a red plaid tablecloth, raffia Chianti flask and re-heated pasta.
"When I came to London in my 1980 s, Italian food was low but people brought something new to it. ” A three-
Package prices for Kateh are between £ 25 and £ 50 pounds ($40-80)
Wine and service are not included per person.
Grilled squid baby: 6-
8 baby squid Ingredients: 250g fresh walnut soak in water for a few hours, then peel the juice of half a pomegranate 1 tablespoon pomegranate paste the skin of 1 small orange 5-
Wash the apricot dry with chopped salt and pepper, wash the squid and remove all the tentacles.
Put all the other ingredients into the mixer until it becomes a paste.
Stuffed the squid with a paste. Char grill. ($1 = 0.
6110)