Faloodeh Shirazi
Faloodeh Shirazi
Persian Rosewater Granita
Perhaps the first frozen dessert in history is the Iranian Faloodeh (a Persian granita threaded with rice noodles spiked with rose water and lime). This delightful and refreshing dessert originates from the former capital of Iran in the city of Shiraz. In this episode, we visit Chef Afrand Nikoukar based between Berlin, Napa Valley, and Orange County for his homemade recipe for this delicious and fragrant summer delight, which was one of his childhood favorite treats.
Chef Afrand Nikoukar
Instagram: @Afrand
Ingredients
Faloodeh Base:- 3 Cups Water
- 1 Cup Granulated White Sugar
- 1/4 Cup Iranian Rose Water
- 1 Tablespoon Glucose
- 2 Tablespoon Iranian Rose Petals
- 150 grams rice starch
- 450 grams water
- 12 grams sugar
- 6 grams rose water (or essence of choice)
Directions
Faloodeh Base Method:- Combine water, sugar, and glucose in a pot and bring to a simmer to just dissolve the sugar and mix in the glucose. We do not want to bring the mixture to a boil, we are just trying to get the ingredients homogenized.
- Turn off the heat and add the rose petals, and let it steep with the warm liquid
- Add the rose water (I like to add the rose water at the end to keep it as aromatic as possible, cooking off the rose water tends to cook off the aroma)
- Cool your liquid in the refrigerator 2 hours minimum up to overnight. The colder it is the faster it will freeze.
- Combine the rice starch, water, rose water, and sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk well until smooth. You want to eliminate any lumps of starch now before cooking.
- Transfer your whisked batter into a nonstick pot and cook on medium heat stirring occasionally. The goal is to create a thick dough like paste.
- Transfer your rice dough into a bowl and cool down
- Once your dough is firm and cool using a thin pasta extruder, press out noodles into a cold ice water bath. If your ice melts, add more. You need your water to be ice cold for the noodles to firm up. Place noodles and the ice water bath in the fridge to firm up further for a few hours.
- Strain out the roses from your cooled mix and transfer mix into your ice cream machine. Let churn for 20 minutes or until it just sets
- As your mixture starts to solidify, strain some of your rice noodles out and add them to the mixture. If you are using store bought vermicelli noodles add the cooked and cooled noodles now.
- Allow to churn for a few more minutes until mixed together and transfer to containers and place in the freezer to set a little longer. Faloodeh is ready to serve and eat, if you want the mixture firmer freeze for longer.
- I love topping my Faloodeh with tart ingredients to bring balance to the sweetness of the rose water syrup. In this video I topped mine with lots of fresh lime juice, sour cherry syrup from my mom's garden, and some local mulberries from the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano.
- In Iran it is also often eaten alongside "Bastani Sonati" (aka traditional Persian ice cream), so our Faloodeh today is served alongside an ice cream sandwich of freshly churned saffron and pistachio ice cream.
