sour grapes

Just a little kitchen tip for those of you who want to get into Iranian cooking. As you know, sour is a huge component of the cuisine- we get our sour from many sources- lemons and limes, fresh and dried, pomegranate in various forms, and... sour grapes! If you go to an Iranian market, you can actually find sour grape powder sold in the spice aisle. However, you can capture that flavor yourself, as long as you have access to some grape vines! What you should do is pick some unripe grapes- if you taste them they should be edible, but seriously pucker-inducing- and then preserve them. You can dry them and grind them to make powder, or juice them and freeze the juice in small segments (maybe an ice cube tray?), or just freeze them whole and throw them into recipes where a little sour somethin-somethin is called for.

The response to my Grandma recipe was so positive (thank you!) that I'm working on another of her recipes to post soon. Stay tuned!

sour grapes