Mahyawa

Whole dried anchovies are ground to a powder and then fermented with the toasted spices.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

• 500 g dried salted anchovies, under 10 cm, heads removed
• 3 tablespoons coriander seeds
• 2 tablespoons fennel seeds, or anise seeds
• 2 tablespoons cumin seeds
• 2 tablespoons mustard seeds
• 2 tablespoons coarse salt
• 3 tablespoons white vinegar
• juice of 2 lemons
• 600 ml water

Method

1. WHOLE DRIED ANCHOVIES ARE GROUND TO A POWDER AND THEN FERMENTED WITH THE TOASTED SPICES. Its article gives the sequence: the fish are small dried salted anchovies under ten centimetres, they may be sun-dried, the heads are removed, and they are ground to a fine powder before anything else happens. That powder is the whole base of the sauce. Then the spice blend, the salt, vinegar, lemon juice and water go in to help the mixture ferment. So it is not a sauce with fish in it -- it is ground fish, made liquid.
2. THE HEADS COME OFF BEFORE GRINDING. Its article says so and it is worth doing: heads carry most of the bitterness and the gritty bone.
3. THE CORIANDER IS TOASTED UNTIL IT JUST BROWNS, AND THE REST ARE NOT. Its article singles coriander seed out as toasted until slightly browned. Three or four minutes in a dry pan until it smells and darkens a shade. The fennel, cumin and mustard go in raw -- toasting mustard makes it harsh.
4. THE MUSTARD CAN GO IN WHOLE OR GROUND AND IT CHANGES THE TEXTURE. Its article allows either. Whole seeds stay as little pops in the finished sauce; ground, they disappear and the heat is spread evenly.
5. IT IS FERMENTED IN A JAR FOR A WEEK AND THEN STRAINED. Everything mixed to a loose slurry, into a jar with the lid resting on rather than screwed down, somewhere warm -- about 25C -- for seven days, stirred once a day. It will smell powerful. Then strained through muslin into bottles, pressing the solids to get everything out.
6. IT IS MEANT TO BE THIN ENOUGH TO POUR AND DARK. Six hundred millilitres of water for five hundred grams of fish gives a sauce about the consistency of single cream. Its article describes it sold in clear bottles that show the dark colour.
7. THE PROPORTIONS SHIFT BY PLACE AND ITS ARTICLE SAYS SO. Some recipes favour fennel over anise, and the spice ratios differ around the south of the country.
8. IT IS A CONDIMENT FOR BREAD, NOT AN INGREDIENT. Its article has it sold at bakeries and by street vendors. Drizzled on warm flatbread, or thinned further with lemon and used as a dip.

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