Pastirma / Bastirma at Pars Market

Pastirma or Bastirma is a highly seasoned, air-dried cured beef that is produced and consumed in a wide area of Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Though beef is the most common meat today, various meats are also used, including camel, pork, lamb, goat, and water buffalo, with camel being the most prized. Pastırma is prepared by salting the meat, then washing it with water and letting it dry for 10-15 days. The blood and salt is then squeezed out of the meat which is then covered with a cumin paste prepared with crushed cumin, fenugreek, garlic, and hot paprika, followed by thorough air-drying. Depending on the variety of the paprika, it can be very spicy or Mild.

Slices Pastirma at Pars Market

  In Turkey, where it is eaten as a breakfast with eggs and as a meze with rakı, there are more than 22 kinds of pastırma. Generally speaking, the mainstream spiced version from Central Anatolia, often called Kayseri pastırması, is most common. The less-common Rumeli pastırması "Balkan pastırma", is simply salted and dried.
 

Pastirma / Bastirma at Pars Market in Columbia Maryland

In Egypt, pastirma is used for breakfast, with fried eggs. It is also used as a topping for pizza, and a filling for a variety of oven prepared stuff dough dishes, whether they are made from regular bread like dough, or a flaky multilayered puff pastry like dough.
Palestinians eat the pastirma sliced in thin slices and fried in olive oil. The pastirma/bastirma is served not only in the mezze table but also as breakfast food eaten with freshly baked pita bread.

The best place in this area to find the finest quality Pastirma would be Pars Market, at Pars You can get the most delicious athentic style Pastirma / Bastirma at very reasonable prices as well as other similar foods such as Lahmajun or Sujuk and many more....  

      
Pars Market LLC

9400 Snowden River Parkway Suite 109
Columbia, MD 21045

http://www.parsmarketcolumbia.com

http://parsmarketcolumbia.blogspot.com