Side Dishes

3 recipes

Choban Salata (Azerbaijani Shepherd's Salad)

The Azerbaijani version of the shepherd's salad that turns up in some form on every table from the Balkans to Persia, the bright herby counter to anything rich coming out of the kitchen. You dice tomatoes, cucumber and red onion to five-millimetre cubes (smaller than a typical chopped salad, almost a relish) and chop the herbs fine: dill, mint and tarragon, the tarragon being the move that distinguishes the Azeri version from its neighbours. Everything tosses together with olive oil, lemon juice and salt about fifteen minutes before serving, so the salt draws the tomato juice out and the salad relaxes into itself. Best the same day; the salad weeps if held overnight. Eat with grilled meat, with plov, with lavash, with whatever the main is.

15 minutes Serves4

Lavash

The paper-thin flatbread of the Caucasus, on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list since 2014, and the bread that wraps every grilled meat from Yerevan to Baku. You make a dough from just three things (flour, water and salt) that is firmer than a pasta dough and smoother than a bread dough. Thirty minutes' rest under a damp cloth lets the gluten relax enough to roll. The dough divides into eight balls, each rolled paper-thin (you should be able to read newsprint through the sheet before it goes in the pan). Onto a heavy dry skillet over high heat for sixty to ninety seconds per side, just long enough to puff and blister. Stack the cooked sheets under a clean tea towel as you go so they stay pliable. Eaten the same day, torn around grilled meat, wrapped around kebabs, used as a plate, used as a napkin.

1 hour 27 minutes Serves8

Saffron Rice (Azerbaijani Style)

The everyday cousin of plov: the rice you cook on a Tuesday when there's no wedding to feed but you still want the saffron-stained, butter-glossy crust that defines Azerbaijani rice cookery. You soak basmati for an hour in salted water, par-boil in heavily salted water for five minutes, drain. The empty pot films with butter, the rice mounds back in, more butter dots on top, and saffron-infused water drizzles over the peak so the colour stains down through the grains. A tea-towel-wrapped lid traps the steam, and forty minutes on low heat does the rest. Lift the rice gently with a slotted spoon so the amber-gold crust at the bottom stays intact for the table. Eats with anything braised, grilled or stewed; the rice is the dish.

2 hours 10 minutes Serves6