The market · Nuts and seeds · The Middle East
Pistachios
Green, sweet, faintly resinous nuts — the colour in Middle Eastern and Sicilian sweets.
nutty · sweet · resinous
What to do with it
RajasthaniGhevarA lacy, honeycombed disc of batter fried in ghee, soaked in syrup and often topped with rabri and nuts.No one here has made it yetTurkishBaklavaMany sheets of paper-thin pastry layered with chopped pistachios or walnuts, baked in butter and soaked in syrup.No one here has made it yet
Kinds
- Antep (Turkey)
- Small and deep green; for baklava.
- Bronte (Sicily)
- Intensely green, and expensive.
- Roasted, salted, in the shell
- For snacking, not for cooking.
Goes with
Knowing it
- Where to buy
- Middle Eastern and Turkish grocers — shelled, unsalted, and the greener the better.
- Worth knowing
- Blanch shelled pistachios for a minute and rub off the skins for the brightest green.
Kitchens that keep it in
Iran — the high plateau between the Caspian Sea and the Persian GulfPersianSaffron rice with a golden crust, slow stews made sour with dried lime and pomegranate, and a heap of fresh herbs on every table — sweet, sharp and fragrant at once.10 classicsTurkey — Anatolia and Thrace, between the Black Sea and the MediterraneanTurkishKebabs off the charcoal, yoghurt with nearly everything, vegetables slow-cooked in olive oil and pastry rolled thin as paper — the cooking of Anatolia and the Ottoman table.10 classics
