Bastani

Bastani is the ice cream of Iran, famously dense and elastic, made with saffron, rosewater, and pistachios. Traditional bastani is stretched with salep, a ground orchid root that gives it its chewy, taffy-like texture, but a home version with a simple custard base captures the same golden flavor. It is served scooped into cones or pressed between wafers called bastani-e nooni. If you can find salep, a teaspoon of it with the sugar gives the ice cream its famous stretch; without it, a custard base still makes a magnificent scoop.

Golden, silky, and perfumed like a garden

The custard is rich and silky, the color of sunshine, with the perfume of rose and saffron and the crunch of pistachios in every bite. A few frozen raspberries or a drizzle of sour cherry syrup make it sing. Churn it well and freeze it firm — worth the wait on a hot afternoon. For the classic street style, sandwich a scoop between two thin wafers or serve it in a cone with a drizzle of sour cherry syrup.

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