So the ice cream making would have to wait until I found a way to get my hands on the stuff.
They’re about as potent as they are pure and natural. They’re labeled salaab, but they’re really just packages of cornstarch mixed with sugar, gums, and unsettling flavorings. You may have seen boxes like these in those markets. I haven’t been able to find it, even in the tiniest and most authentic Middle Eastern markets and bakeries in Massachusetts (and in Iranian hubs in California and Texas).
You see, white, powdery, fragrant salaab is a hallucinogenic substance.īut like, say PCP, salaab is very rare, as it comes only from that one variety of treasured orchid. But not as unique.īut with salaab, the stretchy treat is borderline illegal. Without salaab-even with cornstarch as a substitute-Bastani Akbar Mashti is just saffron, pistachio, and rose ice cream, which is still very good, of course. Sweet and floral it doesn’t shout its presence and provides a sexy aroma not a starchy blandness. And after it has thickened something, it leaves a fragrant something-something in its wake. It’s the steroidal version of cornstarch. Because it has thickening powers, it’s compared to cornstarch. Salaab is a special polysaccharide from the tubers of a species of wild orchid. The unique chew comes from an equally unique ingredient: salaab (or salep or sahlab or salepi depending on the language). It’s the sweetest of battles and isn’t nearly as grueling as the one between mouth and Turkish dondurma (an even chewier, stretchier ice cream that can be cut with a knife – check it out!) When you bite into the ice cream sandwich of sorts, the ice cream shows a bit of resistance, gently teasing you until it finally touches your tongue. It is traditionally served between two thin wafer cookies. Not chewy like the densest of premium ice creams in the US, but chewy like a melting taffy.
This saffron-flavored ice cream makes up for what it lacks in French-style creaminess in its uniquely Middle Eastern texture. I still make it a point to go visit my moonstruck friend and master baker, Mohammad (aka Agha Tabrizi) to pick up the plumpest, juiciest dates some sumac-spiced mixed nuts, legumes, and seeds and the famous cookies and sweets.īefore making the annual trip, I had decided that this was the year I was going to take the word “Americanized” out of the title of my version of an Iranian ice cream called Bastani Akbar Mashti. Though it has come and gone along with the important thirteenth day, nothing has changed since last year. The first day of Spring, as I mentioned, is the first day of Nowruz, the Persian New Year.
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