Masghati

It is a starch jelly, cooked until it turns transparent, with no gelatine in it at all.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (butter).

Ingredients

• 150 g wheat starch, or cornflour
• 400 g sugar
• 900 ml water
• 4 tablespoons rose water
• 1/4 teaspoon saffron threads, ground and steeped in 2 tablespoons hot water, optional
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 60 g pistachios, slivered
• 40 g butter

Method

1. IT IS A STARCH JELLY, COOKED UNTIL IT TURNS TRANSPARENT, WITH NO GELATINE IN IT AT ALL. Its article describes a soft and TRANSPARENT confection made with rose water, starch, sugar and water, and that word transparent is the whole test for when it is done. Starch and water mixed are opaque white; as the starch granules swell and burst they stop scattering light, and the mixture turns from milky to clear. That change is the only reliable signal, because the thickening happens well before it -- stop when it is thick and still cloudy and the finished sweet will be chalky and taste of raw flour.
2. IT IS STIRRED CONTINUOUSLY FOR TWENTY TO TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES. Over a medium-low heat, with a wooden spoon, without stopping. It thickens in the first five minutes and then has to keep cooking; left alone it catches on the base and the whole pan tastes scorched.
3. THE STARCH IS SLAKED IN COLD WATER FIRST. Whisked into about a third of the water until completely smooth before it meets anything hot. Tipped into hot syrup it sets into lumps instantly.
4. WHEAT STARCH IS BETTER THAN CORNFLOUR IF YOU CAN GET IT. Both work. Wheat starch sets slightly softer and goes clearer; cornflour holds a firmer set and stays very slightly cloudy.
5. THE BUTTER GOES IN NEAR THE END AND MAKES IT GLOSSY. Forty grams beaten in during the last few minutes. It also stops the surface forming a skin as it cools.
6. THE ROSE WATER AND CARDAMOM GO IN OFF THE HEAT. Both volatile, and twenty-five minutes of simmering would take most of the rose with it.
7. IT IS POURED SHALLOW AND CUT COLD. Two centimetres deep in a wetted tray, pistachios scattered over, then left to set at room temperature for three hours before cutting into squares or diamonds. Refrigerating it makes the starch firm up rubbery.
8. ITS ARTICLE DESCRIBES TWO CONSISTENCIES BY PLACE. It places production in Fars province, at Kazeroun, Larestan and Shiraz, and notes that the Kazeroun and Larestan versions are more viscous and sweeter than the Shirazi one. It also names it, with Koloocheh, as on its own page, among the things brought back from Shiraz, and as part of the new year.

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