Persia and the Caucasus · Volume 10, Rice, Reduction and the Country Beyond the Kebab House
Shami ye Rudbari
Rudbar, Gilan
Illustration
- Researched
- Researched from 49 sources in the brief
Shami ye Rudbari are flat patties of minced lamb and veal with grated onion, golpar and the upland herb palang moshk, fried in a great deal of olive oil and then simmered in tomato, eaten with kateh or bread. Rudbar is the olive country of the Sefidrud valley, and the Gilan produce shop Atre Gilan says Rudbaris make it with their own strong smelling oil, and that palang moshk, which grows on the Rudbar uplands, is the dish's main herb. Nobody we read gives the herb a botanical name.
The quantities are Hamshahri's, as Eghtesad Online republished them in June 2025. Atre Gilan says that most restaurants add roasted chickpea flour and that the dish has none; Hamshahri adds none either.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. The meat rests in the fridge before it is shaped.
Ingredients
- 400g minced lamb and veal, mixed
- 1 onion, large, grated and squeezed
- 1 tsp golpar, ground
- to taste turmeric
- to taste salt
- 3 tbsp palang moshk
- about 1 glass olive oil, Rudbar oil if you can get it
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp pomegranate molasses
- 4 tomatoes, puréed
Method
- Work the minced lamb and veal with the grated onion, the golpar, the turmeric, salt and the palang moshk.
- Rest it in the fridge for 3 hours.
- Shape it into flat patties the size of a small tangerine.
- Pour the olive oil over them in the pan, about a glass of it, and cook them on low heat until their juices are gone.
- Make the sauce in the same pan with the tomato paste, the pomegranate molasses and the puréed tomatoes, return the patties, cover and simmer 10 minutes.
Notes
Hamshahri's stand-in for palang moshk is 1 tbsp dried parsley, 1 tbsp dried coriander and 1 tsp of mixed thyme, basil and dried mint. Its list gives 1 tsp of pomegranate molasses and its method a spoon; Atre Gilan simmers the sauce about 30 minutes, with a kilo of tomatoes to 500g of mince.
What a modern chef changes
The bind made by hand, and the oil tasted before it is chosen
Rung 2
Method
- Knead the meat until it turns tacky, and add no flour. Rung 2: the bind is mechanical, the same as koobideh, and the chickpea flour the restaurants use is filler.
- Squeeze the grated onion hard and use only its pulp in the meat, so the patties hold and fry instead of steaming.
- Taste the olive oil before you choose it. Rudbar oil is green and strong; a peppery early harvest oil is the British nearest, and the dish needs it to taste of olive.
- Grind the golpar fresh and bloom it in a spoon of the oil before the sauce goes in, so its resinous note carries.