I could never imagine my kitchen without spices, fresh or dried and love using them with cooking and baking. Advieh is a Persian spice mix for rice dishes and an aromatic blend that’s sweet and warming, a little earthy and a touch romantic. Using dried rose petals, cinnamon, cardamom and cumin, this advieh recipe is from a friends Persian cookbook, New Food of Life by Najmieh Batmanglij.
I have Ariana Bundy’s lovely Pomegranates and Roses cookbook and her advieh recipe for rice dishes is a bit different, no cumin and she uses saffron and white cardamom pods. I believe white cardamom pods are bleached, so I am going for the green ones. Below I have given the recipes for both so you can choose. You can use both recipes for rice dishes, but I might use Ariana’s recipe for sweet dishes like milk puddings and Najmieh’s recipe with grains and egg dishes. Like most spice mixes, each household will have their favorites customized to their tastes. Which of course, you can too.
Whole spices keep their pungency longer than ground spices and if you have a dedicated electric spice grinder or heavy-duty pestle and mortar you can easily grind some whole spices when needed. The recipes in both cookbooks used ground spices but I am using whole spices and grinding them fresh. The mix may not be as finely ground as shop bought but I like a bit of rustic in my kitchen… which by the way… smells wonderful.
I also halved the original recipes, but you can double the quantity if needed. When grinding dried spices at home its better to prepare small amounts for maximum freshness and flavor and replenish when needed. There are other spice mixes I like to prepare at home which you might like to try, pumpkin spice mix and garam masala. Happy blending.
Advieh- Ye Polow | Spice Mix for Rice
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon dried rose petals
1 tablespoon whole cumin seeds
1 tablespoon whole cardamon pods
1 cinnamon stick, broken into pieces
Or
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon dried rose petals
1 cinnamon stick, broken into pieces
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
1 tablespoon whole cardamon pods
How to prepare:
Grind each spice separately, starting with the dried rose petals. Use short bursts when using a spice grinder and grind each spice until finely ground. Mix and place all the ingredients into a small airtight jar or container. Use as required.
Note: If preparing the second recipe, grind the saffron threads (seeing as it’s a small amount) with the cardamon pods.
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I don’t know this spice mix at all, but it sounds delicious! I am definitely going to make it!
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I think the rose petals make it a little different, will also be posting a recipe soon that use this spice mix 🙂
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I think I would combine the two. I have white cardamom pods and they taste different to the green ones. I will have to read up more about if they are bleached or not 🙂
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That’s what I love about spice mixes you can customize your own 🙂 The white cardamon pods are sun-bleached and lack the pungency of the green pods… which of course you may or may not like. Tandy, how do you find the flavor of the white compared to the green?
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