Persia and the Caucasus · Volume 10, Rice, Reduction and the Country Beyond the Kebab House
Naan joosh
Birjand, South Khorasan
Illustration
- Researched
- Researched from 49 sources in the brief
Naan joosh, boiled bread, is what Birjand does with the bread that broke at the table or sat a few days and went stale. Seyyed Ahmad Barabadi, head of research at the South Khorasan heritage directorate, told IRIB News it is made by Birjandi women, eaten at midday and evening in every season, tied to no day or ceremony, and fit for every age. The skill of making it is on Iran's national list of intangible heritage.
He gives its ingredients and no quantities: broken bread, fat, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, turmeric and a little saffron, dried fenugreek leaf, walnut, barberry, spring onion or fragrant herbs, and egg. It belongs to the Birjandi family of eshkeneh, dry bread broken into a hot broth with dried fenugreek leaf added to the boiling liquid, and the steps below follow that family's order. The only quantified recipe found leaves out the egg, walnut, barberry and saffron and adds tomato paste, and it is not the registered dish.
As tradition built it
An everyday Birjand dish, given as the tradition tells it.
Ingredients
The tradition's method, with the ingredients named. Quantities follow as we verify them.
- fat or oil
- onion
- garlic
- turmeric
- salt
- black pepper
- saffron, a little
- dried fenugreek leaf
- water
- stale bread, broken
- walnut
- barberry
- egg
- spring onion or fragrant herbs
Method
- Fry the onion in the fat until golden, then add the garlic.
- Add the turmeric, salt, black pepper and the saffron, then the dried fenugreek leaf.
- Add the water and bring it to the boil.
- Break the stale bread into the boiling broth and let it take up the liquid.
- Finish with the walnut, the barberry and the egg, and serve with spring onion or fragrant herbs.
Notes
No source says whether the egg is stirred through or set on top.
What a modern chef changes
The bread chosen for its hardness, the fenugreek bloomed in the fat
Method
- Use bread that is properly dry, thick and hard, sangak or barbari dried out, broken to the size of a finger joint, so it softens and does not go to mush.
- Bloom the dried fenugreek and saffron in the fat for a few seconds before the water goes in, so their aroma is in the fat that coats the bread.
- Add only as much water as the bread will drink, and serve it the moment it has, while the edges still hold.
- Toast the walnuts and plump the barberries in a little butter, and set an egg on top to poach in the steam, so each of the finishing things stays itself.