Hi Elsie, Persian cuisines usually calls for dried barberries except for barberry juice or barberry jam. You can find dried barberries online or in Middle Easter/Iranian shops.
On the other hand- that's a deuce of a lot of dried barberries- they're pretty intense- and the suggestion to wash and dry them sounds more like fresh to me. I'm rather intrigued by how the saffron is handled; no idea why ice cubes are used. Maybe this is common in Persian cuisine for some reason, but I do wish recipe writers would explain their more mystical procedures. And be more conscientious about specifying ingredients.
Hi Smaug, thank you for you suggestion, I'll make sure to add more details to the recipes. As for the method we use to bloom saffron: Saffron is a very delicate spice and a little bit of it can go a long way. When hot water is poured on saffron, it "shocks" the spice, resulting in the spice losing some of its color and aroma. However, if ground saffron is sprinkled over a couple of ice cubes, it blooms as the ice melts, giving saffron enough time to release its color and aroma. Blooming saffron using ice cubes will give you saffron water that has deeper color and aroma.
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Persian cuisines usually calls for dried barberries except for barberry juice or barberry jam. You can find dried barberries online or in Middle Easter/Iranian shops.