Heirloom Meals: Savoring Yesterday's Traditions Today

The Ansari’s Recipe for sweet and sour TORSHEE (Persian Chutney)

Ingredients

  • 3 liters clear vinegar
  • 30 eggplants
  • 30 ripe peaches
  • 2 packages tamarind paste (tamar hind = indian date) available in asian deli shops or in Iranian food stores
  • 3 tbsp Torshee spice (a mixture of seven traditional Iranian herbs)
  • Dried, chopped, and mixed Tarragon
  • Dried, chopped, and mixed Fennel
  • Dried, chopped, and mixed Turmeric
  • Dried, chopped, and mixed Caraway
  • Dried, chopped, and mixed persian hogweed
  • Dried, chopped, and mixed lemon basil
  • Dried, chopped, and mixed parsley

Directions

  1. Cook 2 liters of clear vinegar (non aromatic/neutral) at least for 30 minutes. Keep it clear from foam.
  2. Crumble both packages of tamarind paste into the hot vinegar. Once the tamarind has dissolved, pass it through a sieve. The tamarind paste serves as a pickling agent and gives the bitter-sweet taste.
  3. Make sure that all stones and the fruit skin are removed properly! The washed and dried eggplants are placed on a baking tray in the oven. The eggplant skin will not yet be removed – it stayes for the time being. Bake the eggplants for 45 minutes on the highest temperature. The eggplants need to visibly ‚collapse’ once you pick with a fork into them. Thats how you know that they are done,
  4. Once ready, they all need to be skinned and then chopped in small slices. Add the sliced eggplants into the tamarind vinegar.
  5. 3 spoons of the Persian herb mixture are now added. Simmer the content of the pot. Let it pickel and sit.
  6. The peaches are washed in a separate pot. Take all peach stones out and cut the peaches into small pieces. The peaches are cooked until they are even. After they are done, the peaches are added into the eggplant-tamarind mixture.
  7. Everything really needs to be well stirred. Also add a tiny quantity of the vinegar once everything has been cooked. It is important that the consistency of the Torshee is not too liquid.
  8. Allow it to cool down slowly over night. Then fill it into clean aseptic/sterile glass jars and store the jars in a dark space (pantry).
  9. The older Torschee becomes, the more dark the colour turns. It needs to age, so the aroma reaches it’s maximum quality (a minimum of 3 months required)
  • Total time: 5 hours

Yield: 2-4 jars of chutney


Categories: Heirloom Recipes

Tags: Persian Chutney, torshee