Faloodeh and Falude and Palude
June 04, 2007
It's the start of summer, and I have already indulged on some of the delights of the season: frozen desserts.
Recently, I was treated to a delicious non-dairy dessert, "Faloodeh," by my boyfriend's father whose Persian background gave me the opportunity to experience Norouz.
Faloodeh, also spelled "falude" and "palude" is a frozen dessert between a sorbet and shaved ice. As Wikipedia puts it: "fālūde (Persian: فالوده) or Pālūde (Persian: پالوده) is a Persian sorbet made of thin vermicelli noodles frozen with corn starch, rose water, lime juice, and often ground pistachios. The faloodeh of Shiraz is famous. Faludeh is one of the earliest forms of frozen desserts, existing as early as 400 BCE. Ice was brought down from high mountains and stored in tall refrigerated buildings called yakhchals, which were kept cool by windcatchers. Kulfi-faludah is also a common sweet dish in northern-India."
I ate this curious frozen treat with much delight. The picture you see is the container showing "Faloodeh, Golobolbol" and its origin in Los Angeles, California. The taste of this dessert is like "spring in your mouth" - really. It is floral and citrus, tart and refreshing all in one, with frozen bits of vermicelli of all things to add texture to an otherwise frozen water treat.
Purchasing this dessert in a place near you may be difficult, but I am told you can find it at any Persian or middle-eastern grocery. If you have an opportunity to try this dessert, do.
As for recipes, I imagine that Baking Fool will have to indulge me the use of her Kitchen Aid ice cream attachment. Afterall, she recently indulged my lactose intolerant taste buds with the most scrumptious Peach Pinot Grigio sorbet, and Blackberry and Cabernet sorbet. Mmm.
The basic ingredients for Faloodeh include rice vermicelli, cooked and cooled; basic sorbet recipe with rosewater and lime or lemon juice as the base flavor. Recipes on-line reveal that most people make the noodles themselves, and make the sorbet separately:
Discuss Cooking
Persian Mirror
If I do attempt this recipe, I'll let you know. For now, I've got a freezer choc full faloodeh.
