Beer Versus Wine – Persian Kabob
Congratulations to December’s Beer Versus Wine Challenge Winner – A Famished Foodie! Part of the honor includes coming up with February’s challenge. Participants have until next Wednesday, January 14 to turn in their suggestion before we take it to a vote. For more on the rules, click here.
Persian Kabob
The major winter holidays have come and gone, and at this point, I’m ready for food that doesn’t include turkey, cranberry sauce, or mashed potatoes. I want the opposite of traditional American food, and for me that means eating lots of Persian food. Since the Baltimore/D.C. area is filled with Persians, there is no shortage of restaurants or family members willing to provide all kinds of Iranian food at a moment’s notice. Normally winter is filled with heartier eggplant stews, but since the weather in Baltimore has been unusually warm, kabob is one of the more summery dishes that I’ve been able to enjoy this season.
Few things are tastier to me than the simple pleasure of a piece of jujeh (chicken) kabob seasoned with saffron or barg (filet) still skewered and warm from the grill. The meats are juicy yet earthy and are probably one of the most recognizable Persian foods to people who are otherwise unfamiliar with the cuisine.
What’s the best Craft Beer or Wine Pairing with Persian Kabob?
On the surface, this seems like an easy pairing as you just have to find something that pairs well with grilled meats. However, there’s also the buttery rice topped with sumac, grilled veggies, and cucumber yogurt to take into account. Eating kabob without the extra elements would be like eating a hamburger without a bun, lettuce, or tomato. Even if you didn’t want to eat any rice or wanted to skip out on the yogurt, there would be no way you could. Every Persian I know wants to feed you until you have a belly to rival Santa’s. This means that at least two full plates of food need to be consumed before anyone is allowed to get up from the table. Therefore, a good pairing needs to mesh well with all of these things.
Additionally, most of the Persians I know don’t drink that often. The ones who do drink generally go for shots, cocktails, or nameless “red wine.” I rarely talk about what kinds of booze would pair well with Iranian food because no one cares! As someone who is interested in wine, beer, and cocktails, this is unacceptable.
For me, all of this is why I think kabob is a surprisingly challenging pairing. That’s why I’m opening this up to all of you. I’d love to hear what you would pair with Persian Kabob to really make the dish pop!
so if you are going for the chicken kabob, of course with all condiments as described, I would go with an American Chardonnay – it should be classically made (say no to the stainless steel), with touch of butter, vanilla, medium to full body and good acidity – it would stand up nicely to the flavors of Chicken kabob.
I think your suggestion would also stand up nicely to the filet as well. If it’s a more heavily oaked Chardonnay like an American, the tannins make it the only white wine I would think of pairing with red meat.
I love this suggestion! We always have Chardonnay on hand (generally American) in our house, so it’s an easy one to try with different kabobs.
This one is definitely a challenge. I think you want to keep this pairing light and simple, to let the complexity and variation in the foods do the talking. For this, I would reach for a nice old pilsner with a good carb to keep the tongue light as you feast. Personally, I’ve been loving the Pivo Pils from Firestone Walker, a lot lately, and I think this would be a fun pairing. The heavier hops in the beer should play well with any spices, while the bready malts will dance with the meat’s flavors. The only thing I am leery of is the cucumber yogurt, but I think the pilsner’s nice carb and lighter character should simply keep the yogurt light on the tongue, while still allowing its fresh flavors to express themselves beside the hops. Personally, I think I go for the filet kabobs because steak…, but I can see the Pivo working with chicken quite well, too.
Because steak… I love it. Can’t really say that I’ve ever tried a chicken kabob before for that exact reason. Because steak… Great suggestion on the Pilsner!
For some reason I had IPA on the brain for this one. But which IPA was a tough decision as each IPA is so uniquely and creatively brewed and possible pairings are all over the charts. We experimented with what we had on hand – New Belgium’s Avalanche White IPA and Lagunita’s IPA (On draft in my man cave, yeah!). Lagunitas was the clear winner. The Avalanche lacked any sort of malt backbone needed to pair with beef. Also, the bitterness factor was a tad higher with Lagunitas helping to wash away the many flavors of this dish.
I am late to the game here, but I love pairing a good sour with persian food!
Sour power!!! I think this blog was posted before sours were hashtag trending. But yes, they would go well. Cheers!