Kesme - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Kesme or kespe , , ); refers to a traditional Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

n noodle

Noodle

The noodle is a type of food, made from any of a variety of doughs, formed into long thin ribbons, strips, curly-cues, waves, helices, pipes, tubes, strings, or other various shapes, sometimes folded. They are usually cooked in a mixture of boiling water and/or oil. Depending upon the type, noodles...

dish made by the Kazakhs

Kazakhs

The Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....

or the Kyrgyz. The word itself is a nominalisation of the verb to cut or to slice, referring to the slicing of the dough

Dough

Dough is a paste made out of any cereals or leguminous crops by mixing flour with a small amount of water and/or other liquid. This process is a precursor to making a wide variety of foodstuffs, particularly breads and bread-based items , flatbreads, noodles, pastry, and similar items)...

involved in preparing the noodles. The term may refer to the noodles themselves, or the prepared dish made with them. Kesme is primarily a home-made dish, and not often found at restaurants or café

Café

A café , also spelled cafe, in most countries refers to an establishment which focuses on serving coffee, like an American coffeehouse. In the United States, it may refer to an informal restaurant, offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches...

s.

Reshte are Persian style noodle

Noodle

s used in soup

Soup

Soup is a generally warm food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables with stock, juice, water, or another liquid. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids in a pot until the flavors are extracted, forming a broth.Traditionally,...

s, mixed with rice or with deserts (Faloodeh
Faloodeh
Fālūde or Pālūde is a Persian cold dessert made of thin vermicelli noodles with corn starch, rose water, lime juice, and often ground pistachios. It is a traditional dessert in Iran and Afghanistan. The faloodeh of Shiraz is especially famous....

).
Reshteh , from the Persian

Persian language

Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

word for thread or string, refers to a very fine noodle

Noodle

similar to capellini

Capellini

Capellini with its diameter between 0.85 mm and 0.92 mm is a very thin variety of Italian pasta. Like spaghetti, it is rod-shaped, in the form of long strands....

(angel hair pasta). However, it generally means a fresh (as opposed to dry) ribbon shaped egg noodle. Traditionally the noodle would be a homemade and cut item. Reshteh was the only word used to denote noodles in Arab

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

cookbooks of the 13th and 14th centuries. Special symbolism is given to dishes that contain noodles when a decision of importance or change is to occur; the noodles or "reins" of one's life are to be taken in hand. A traditional dish in Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

is reshteh polow or pilaf

Pilaf

Pilaf is a dish in which rice is cooked in a seasoned broth . In some cases, the rice may also attain its brown color by being stirred with bits of cooked onion, as well as a large mix of spices...

, which is served during the Persian new year with the noodles representing the threads of life and family intertwined. Noodles are used for special occasion dishes in giving thanks and for journeys especially to Mecca

Mecca

Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...

. Typical preparation is for the noodles to broken into parts, fried or grilled brown and then added to rice.

The reshteh used currently in the Iranian cuisine

Iranian cuisine

Iranian cuisine is diverse, with each province featuring dishes, culinary traditions and styles distinct to its region.It includes a wide variety of foods ranging from chelo kabab , khoresht Iranian cuisine is diverse, with each province featuring dishes, culinary traditions and styles distinct to...

is actually a thicker type of noodle

Noodle

, used in reshteh polow and also a type of ash, called Ash Reshteh

Ash Reshteh

Ash Reshteh is one of the most famous types of ash , made commonly in Iran. The ingredients used in cooking Ash Reshteh are reshteh , kashk , herbs such as parsley, spinach, dill, spring onion ends and sometimes coriander, chick peas, black eye beans, lentils, onions, flour, dried mint, garlic,...

Preparation

The dough

Dough

for kesme is rather simple, usually consisting of no more than flour

Flour

Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, other seeds or roots . It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...

, water

Water

Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

, salt

Salt

In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...

, and an egg

Egg (food)

Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...

. The dough is rolled out into a large thin circle, and left to dry for a while. It's then lightly floured, folded over several times accordion-style, and sliced into strips. These strips are separated, and either boiled right away in a broth (often containing ingredients such as potatoes, meat

Meat

Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...

, carrots, peppers

Capsicum

Capsicum is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. Its species are native to the Americas where they have been cultivated for thousands of years, but they are now also cultivated worldwide, used as spices, vegetables, and medicines - and have become are a key element in...

, and tomatoes), or left to harden for storage and use later. Kesme is often made in a kazan

Kazan (cookware)

A kazan, qazan, qozon or ghazan is a type of large cooking pot used throughout Central Asia and in Russia, roughly equivalent to a cauldron, boiler, or Dutch oven. They come in a variety of sizes , and are often measured by their capacity, such as "a 50-litre kazan"...

Preparation

See also