Lavashak

The fruit puree is salted and spread exactly two millimetres thick.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg sour plums, apricots or pomegranate, or a mixture
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 100 g sugar, for the sweet version only

Method

1. THE FRUIT PUREE IS SALTED AND SPREAD EXACTLY TWO MILLIMETRES THICK. Its article gives the method in one sentence and both numbers in it are load-bearing: a mass of cooked-down fruit is salted, pressed through a sieve, smoothed to a height of approximately two millimetres, and dried until it has cooled and is firm. Two millimetres is thinner than it sounds -- a tray of puree that looks far too shallow. Thicker than that and the middle never dries; it stays tacky, and anything still damp will mould in a week. And the salt is in the puree itself, not sprinkled on top, which is why the sour kind tastes salty all the way through.
2. IT IS SALTED EVEN WHEN IT IS THE SWEET KIND. Its article describes the snack as sour and salty or sweet, and lists sweet, sour and sweet-sour varieties, but the salt is in the preparation it gives for all of them. Two teaspoons to a kilo and a half.
3. THE FRUIT IS COOKED DOWN FIRST AND THEN SIEVED. Stoned and simmered with a splash of water for twenty-five minutes until completely collapsed, then pushed through a sieve. Sieving rather than blending is what gets rid of the skins -- blended, they stay as specks that make the sheet brittle and it cracks when you peel it.
4. SOUR FRUIT IS WHAT THIS IS FOR. Sour plums, apricots and pomegranate are the three its article names. Sweet dessert fruit makes a bland leather and needs far more salt to be interesting.
5. IT IS SPREAD ON A LINED TRAY WITH AN OFFSET SPATULA. Baking parchment or a silicone mat, and the puree worked out to an even film. Unevenness is the main failure: the thin parts go crisp and the thick parts stay wet.
6. IT IS DRIED LOW AND SLOW, NOT BAKED. An oven at 60C with the door propped ajar, six to eight hours, or a day in strong sun. It is finished when the surface is no longer tacky and a corner peels away cleanly from the mat.
7. IT IS ROLLED ONLY WHEN IT IS COMPLETELY COLD. Its article specifies drying until it has cooled down and is firm. Rolled warm, the sheet sticks to itself and tears apart when you unroll it.
8. IT IS A PRESERVATION METHOD AND THAT IS WHY IT EXISTS. Its article describes it as a way of keeping fruit, and notes it is now made industrially as well as at home. Rolled in parchment in a tin it keeps for months.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Iran · All recipes