Iran's great summer refreshment: crisp whole hearts of romaine dipped leaf by leaf into a chilled, fragrant syrup of sugar, vinegar, and fresh mint, at once a salad, a dip, and a dessert for the hottest afternoons
Origin: Iran (Persia)
From the journey of Lettuce.
Sekanjabin is one of the oldest preparations in the Persian kitchen, a sweet-and-sour syrup of the kind the classical world called an oxymel, its very name carrying the Arabic and Persian words for vinegar and honey. Sugar or honey is boiled down with water and white vinegar to a clear syrup and steeped with fresh mint until it is cool, perfumed, and bracingly sharp. The most beloved way to eat it is kahoo sekanjabin, in which crisp whole leaves of romaine, the kahoo, are dipped one by one into a bowl of the chilled syrup and eaten with the fingers. The pleasure lies entirely in contrast: the cool, faintly bitter crunch of the lettuce against the sweet, sour, minty syrup, a combination that refreshes like nothing else in the fierce dry heat of the Iranian summer. It is served as a light course before a meal, as a cooling sweet after one, and especially in the long afternoons of high summer, when a great bowl of romaine hearts and a jug of sekanjabin are set out for the household and its guests. The syrup keeps for months, and a diluted spoonful of it stirred into iced water makes sharbat-e sekanjabin, the mint cordial that is the soft drink of the Persian summer.
The lettuce must be ice-cold and very crisp, so chill the washed hearts in the refrigerator before serving. Honey may replace some or all of the sugar for a more traditional, deeper-flavoured syrup. The finished sekanjabin keeps in a sealed bottle in the refrigerator for several months and only improves. Grated cucumber is the other classic dipper, and is often offered alongside the lettuce.
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