Here’s an adorable little Persian girl who lives in Tehran, Iran.

I have a treasure trove of pictures and stories to share from my recent epic trip to Iran and while I’ve been remiss in diligently posting those, I’m getting the wheels spinning by starting this series of “Iranian People” — where I’ll share pictures of the everyday average ordinary Iranians that I hung out with, met, befriended, or otherwise engaged with during my trip. Just ordinary Iranians, doing ordinary things. Such as, for example: laughing, smiling, or otherwise displaying a glimmer of a sense of humor! Ah: those tricky tricky Persians! I tell ya!

I can’t help but smile every time I look at this cover photograph. I love this little girl so much! Her name is Arezoo and she is smart, funny, cute, brainy, girly-girly to the max, opinionated, charming, fierce and sweet; and she’s part of a family that’s dear and close to mine and I got to finally meet her when I was in Tehran during my Iranian Odyssey.

One time, my friends Haleh and Laila (Arezoo’s auntie and mommy, respectively) picked me up, took me to their home (after we’d first gone for an early morning hike and breakfast up in the mountains with their entire family, but that’s another story altogether) and they cooked up a storm — making some of their specialties, so that I could photograph it and share the recipes with you. A few times, yours truly got up on a chair to take overhead shots of the food (which as many of you know, is par for course in food blogging territory.) Mimicking my actions, Arezoo also got up on a chair and started taking photos – proving that sometimes, imitation IS the sincerest form of flattery. I was charmed!

And I’ve heard – to my delighted amusement – that these days she still does this when mommy or auntie or grandma cook. Ha ha, a food blogger in the making! (Note to Arezoo joon: email me the pictures! I’ll post them! ps: You are the cutest! Love you!)

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My friend haleh. Checking out Reza Afssari’s paintings. | Seyhoun ArtGallery, Tehran, Iran

Haleh managed to make hijab look effortlessly chic. Exhibit A!

This is my friend Haleh, and here are two pix I snapped of her when we met up one sunny spring day at the Seyhoun Art Gallery in Tehran — where I was interviewing the owner of the gallery. (At the time, Seyhoun gallery had Reza Afasari‘s solo “Sealed Letters to Myself” painting exhibition.) Afterwards, Haleh took me to the House of the Artists (an art hub in the middle of a beautiful Persian garden) where we checked out lots of artwork; had a very nice lunch where I tried a tamarind drink for the first and probably last time in my life, and we almost went to see a rooftop staging of a play as well but left that for another day. Later on, Haleh and I also ended up taking a short memorable trip to Yazd together that was a blast. Getting a chance to finally see and hang out with this lovely childhood friend was one of the immense pleasures and rewards of this trip.

Mind you, I’m touching lightly on all these various topics (Iranian artists, the interview, art galleries in Tehran, trip to Yazd, rekindled friendships, etc.) but definitely hope to write at length about each.

Before moving on to the next photo, please do observe how my friend’s scarf is perfectly kept in place. Seemingly held by invisible fairies? The women in Iran had techniques — defying the laws of physics and gravity and slipperiness — which enabled them to wear their headscarf just so and have it remain in place. Meanwhile, yours truly had to fuss and muss and ineptly do and re-do my scarf’s knot or else pull it forward as it slipped at every opportune and inopportune moment.

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Now I have a few more stories and pix from my Iranian odyssey coming up in just a bit and right below, but first, I’m going to go on a tangent and get on a soap box.  TLDR? (No, no, please stay and do read!) Here, have some yummy Persian food served by this poised and friendly Iranian chef at a popular self-service restaurant in Tehran to fortify you while I take a teeny tiny detour and rant a bit.

“Hello! Remember me? We already met at the Lusty Tour of Food of Iran post! “

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The Tangent and the Soapbox

Even though I go on and on around here chirping about the beauty and glory of the Persian food and culture and people like a naively oblivious Disney cartoon character, I’m keenly aware that for an awful lot of folks their mental image of Iran and Iranians comes from the mass media and if so, they probably harbor extremely negative ideas about the country and its people. Aside from a desire to preserve my lovely mom’s recipes, the main reason I started this blog and have had the motivation to merrily chug along is an attempt to do my bit in helping balance a frustratingly tilted perception that at best is myopic, and at worst, is dangerously unfair to a culture that is ancient and remains a rich and beautiful one and to a people that are friendly, hospitable, and nice (just ask Anthony Bourdain!) thus leading to (excuse my language) ignorant yet sadly prevalent prejudice. Ignorance such as some people even actually wondering: Do Iranians have a sense of humor? Do Iranians laugh?

If you think those are absurd questions I can only say that I wish it were so. A year or so ago, I was listening to a podcast Dinner Party Download (one of my very favorite radio programs – you should totally check out their episodes) interview with Marjan Satrapi — the artist and filmmaker behind Persepolis — the groundbreaking autobiograhical graphic novel series  and the Oscar-nominated animated film — where she mentioned how someone once came up to her and said that before reading her books she didn’t think that Iranians had a sense of humor or laughed. Here’s a transcript of that part of the segment:

Artist & filmmaker Marjan Satrapi | Photo Source

Dinner Party Download: Turning to Iran and the way it’s perceived by people, Westerners, me included, we typically hear very little about Iran. What do you find about Iran that people are surprised by?

Marjan Satrapi: In a book tour an old lady who read one of my books came up to me and said: ‘oh, you know, I’m no longer scared of the Iranian people,’ and I said “how come?” and she said: “because I didn’t know that you could laugh that you had any sense of humor.” … You know, they’ve made it that we are these people that … when we’re talking about Iran it’s either beard, veil, or it’s nuclear weapon. And that reduces us to abstract notions and we stop being human being and if you’re not a human being then of course you don’t laugh and of course you don’t fall in love and of course you don’t like to eat ice cream and … which is dangerous because from the second that people become abstract notions then they are not human beings anymore and we can go and bomb them so I don’t try to change the world with my film but if they can say this country that you are so scared of is the same country a man died because of the love of a woman I think that I’ve done what I had to do …. I don’t want more than that.

I love how she answered this question with emotion, intelligence, and understated passion. It honestly gives me goosebumps! I am of the same school who believes change and progress comes with art and artists and the banding together and communication between us civilian normal people. Do go and give Episode #164 of The Dinner Party a listen. It’s quite fun and funny actually and totally worth it. (The Satrapi interview segment starts at the 13:25 mark. There’s also a priceless interview with the delightfully grumpy Fran Lebowitz in this same podcast which you truly do not want to miss.)

And with that, end of tangent. Stepping down the soap box. Back to our regular programming! With pretty pictures and me chirping per usual! :)

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Rasoul Akbarlou in front of his artwork. Mah Gallery, Tehran, Iran (April 2014)

So, this is a photo of the artist Rasoul Akbarlou posing in front on one of his beautiful calligraphy artworks – at the opening reception of his exhibit at Mah Art Gallery where he graciously allowed me to take his picture. This photo does not do justice to his artwork, which I was not alone in my group in finding stunningly beautiful.

There are lots of art galleries in Tehran and every other Friday, many have their “eftetahi” – that is art opening receptions. Some Tehroonies have a fun ritual of making the rounds of these art opening shindigs: for the art, for the social factor, and for the free yummies served. Oooh, the pix and tales I have and plan to share with you – including the interesting story of how and in whose company I ended up in this gallery! Meanwhile, borrow two legs (remember that Persian proverb) and run and go read this wonderful article about the art scene in Tehran, by the editor of Reorient Online Magazine.

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And let’s finally conclude this LONG post with these two awesome and wonderful smiley Persian dudes:

Smiley Persian kaleh pacheh store owner & his lurking yet friendly cook | Tehran, iran

The lurking cook may appear grumpy but he was almost giggling! Trust me! Tehran, Iran

The lurking cook approaches the camera with bashful interest | Tehran, Iran, 2014

Check out the red prayer beads! Cool! | Tehran, Iran 2014

The smiley Persian poses w/ bike. He sure looks like he is enjoying himself! | Tehran, Iran 2014

So one day a friend and I headed all the way to a far-flung neighborhood on a rather intriguing fact-finding mission that ultimately led to a heartbreaking discovery. In contrast to the rather depressing conclusion, the neighborhood itself was quite lively and interesting and I was loathe to leave and would have loved to explore its nooks and crannies but my friend and I had to go to another far-flung corner of Tehran.

Just before we were to get into a cab, I noticed this kaleh pacheh food establishment and the very friendly owner and his assistant and asked if I could their picture. They readily and gamely agreed with enthusiasm. Let’s face it: they were hams! I believe we may have all indulged in a fit of giggles as well, as though we were experiencing something hilarious! It was a fun moment in time.

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And with that, doostaneh khob, lovely people, thus concludes the first part of this series – my travel pictorial of “Iranian People” — which I hope helps answer questions such as: who the heck are these Eyeraynians and do they even know how to crack a smile?  Answer: Some do!

Boos Boos & Have a lovely weekend!

Persian grape pickles & portrait of Mercedes (painting by my brother)

Last year around this time, my mom and I set up a Fig & Quince table (of goodies and books) at the Children of Persia 9th Annual Walk. (All ‘ye Metro DC area folks who like a good cause & delicious Persian food: Mark your calendars for their 10th Annual Walk.)

For our goodies we offered: Persian mixed trail (ajeel); Persian honey almond saffron brittles (sohan ‘e assal); and 3 types of Persian pickles (torshi.): 1) mixed veggies pickles (torshi makhloot); 2) eggplant pickles (torshi ‘ye bademjoon); and 3) grape pickles (torshi’ ye angur.) The pickles were the first to go, and fast! Everyone loves a good torshi.

The eggplant and mixed-veggies pickles were my mom’s tried and true (and stellar, I might add) recipes – but making torshi ‘ye angur (grape pickles) was a novel one for us both. Its recipe one I’d found while scouring Najaf Daryabandari’s Persian cookbook (a masterpiece) for information and inspiration. (I actually had the honor and pleasure of meeting the gentleman on a few occasions during my trip to Iran. Full story: soon!)

I was excited about pickling grapes and my mom was game as well but she was rather skeptical about whether it would taste good. Turned out, the result was just wonderful. Sweet, sour, a little bit salty, and crunchy. In a unique, pleasantly palatable way.

Want some good news? Aside from its favorable taste and texture, grape torshi is ridiculously easy to prepare. Requiring not so much a recipe as know-how. So simple in fact that I won’t even bother with the usual recipe format and will just do a step by step pictorial.

By way of ingredients all you will need are: white vinegar, salt, sterlized airtight glass jars, and a good batch of nice, dent-free, firm, crunchy (no smooshy ones, oh no no no) red or black grapes. We used black grapes, as you can see.

Gently wash & dry grapes. Taking care that none of the grapes separate from the stalk.

Allow grapes to dry completely. (Leave to drain in a colander, or, lay on cloth.)

With a kitchen scissor, cut the grape bunch into separate stalks, each stalk having at least 3-4 grapes on it.

Fill pickling jars with a few grape stalks. (Don’t stuff the jar – leave wiggling room for the grapes.)

Add vinegar (enough to cover grapes, leaving some room at the top.) Sprinkle with a dash of salt. Close lid.That’s it. Your job is done.

Now, according to the original recipe, it’ll take a month before this pickle has ‘settled’ and is ready to serve, but we tried it only one day afterwards, and honestly, it was good to go!

Definitely try this. It’s an interesting way to enjoy grapes and with its melange of sweet, sour and salty taste, it makes a unique condiment that goes quite nicely with meat or a rich dish.

نوش جان! Nooshe jaan!

Dreamy Persian Ingredients spread on a Yazdi kitchen towel

This is a teaser post. As in, I’m teasing you with a dreamy list of ingredients: saffron, rosewater, rice, almonds, pistachios!

What, oh what kind of yummy Persian food could this be for?

Recipe (by my lovely friend) will be posted on Monday. Until then, hope you’ll have many fragrant things to smell & yummy things to eat.

ps. The pretty, striped kitchen towel? Glad you ask: my friend and I each bought one when traveling together in Yazd, Iran.

boos boos!

During my trip to Iran, my wonderful friend Haleh made a host of delicious Persian food (as alluded to in this post) for me to enjoy (boy, did I!) and also so that I could photograph and share the recipes of all that yummy Persian food with y’all. This Persian saffron rice pudding (one of my favorites) was one such specimen of Haleh khanoom’s beautiful & tasty handiwork. ‘Dastesh dard nakoneh!’ (May her hands not ache!)

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Traditionally speaking, Persians consider snacks of such things as a mixture of nuts, seeds, dried fruits and raisins; fresh seasonal fruits at the end of a meal; and sips of tea sweetened with either sugar cubes or nabat (rock candy) or else with nibbles of dates or dried figs; as sufficient indulgence and cure for the sweet tooth. There really is no authentic culinary tradition of ‘dessert’ in Iranian cooking: cakes, cookies and pastries, often purchased from ‘ghanadi’ (pastry shops) instead of being made at home, used to be strictly reserved for company and festive gatherings such as the new year celebration and weddings. Which explains why Iranian cuisine, so rich and inventive in many ways, is somewhat paltry when it comes to a repertory of desserts.

Among the few authentic Persian sweets, a classic and stellar one is ‘sholeh zard’ which literally means “yellow wobbly” but is often translated as ‘Persian saffron rice pudding’ — which, let us acknowledge, is a far more fitting and refined name for this fragrant, sweet and comforting Persian treat. (Although, I am partial to the monicker of  ‘yellow wobbly’, it has a naively charming ring to it.)

As you might have guessed from its English name by now, sholez zard gets its sunny disposition from saffron; its aromatic scent from rosewater (and butter); its wonderful smooshy texture from rice; and for its soft but not blandly mushy texture, sholeh zard owes a debt of gratitude to the crunchy almonds.

Delicious sholeh zard. Made & styled beautifully by Haleh (Khanoom ‘e Ghol)

Now let’s take a moment to retrace our list of ingredients: saffron, rosewater, rice, almonds, pistachios. Quintessential ingredients of a Persian kitchen. Which begs the rhetorical question: could there be a more stereotypically Persian dish than sholeh zard? (Channeling Chandler Bing! Heh!)

Interestingly of note re the rice: Persians take pains in preparing rice so as to get a nice and fluffy bed of rice, each holy grain lengthened and puffed up to its personal best (an elaborate process attested to and detailed in the ‘How to make the perfect Persian rice” post) and yet, when making sholeh zard, the object of the game is to practically cook the rice to smithereens and mush it up and mush it up good. Take that, finicky Persian rice! Payback time! GAME ON!

When served, sholeh zard is always decorated with personal design flourishes — per the taste and whims of its maker — of sprinkled cinnamon and slivered pistachios and/or almonds. (Check out these whimsical sholeh zard designs & look at this sholeh zard beauty I found on Twitter!)

Sholeh zard may of course be served at Persian dinner parties and festive celebrations. But just like halva, its rival and oftentimes counterpart-companion dessert, sholeh zard is a sweet that also has somber and solemn associations. People of faith, when praying for something specific, sometimes make private personal vows ( called a ‘nazr‘) that should their prayer be answered, they would make charitable offerings of food (called a ‘nazri‘) to the needy — this may cynically be considered a quid-pro-quo barter, or, it may be considered a way to demonstrate good faith and gratitude to the almighty. This avowed charitable food offering may be as elaborate as a feast or as bare bones as tea and dates. Either halva or sholeh zard are almost always among the ‘nazri’ food thus offered.

(I have a couple of tales re nazr & nazri from my trip – tales saved for another post. Potentially worth the wait!)

Rice, Saffron, rosewater, sugar, almonds, pistachios: the pretty ingredients of sholeh zard

Did someone make a nazr for the recipe? Because here we go, finally, with the recipe for the delightful wobbly yellow Persian rice saffron rosewater pudding:

• rice 2 cups (best quality)
• sugar 2 cups
• butter 100 grams
• rosewater 1/2 cup
• slivered almonds 50 grams
• saffron 1 teaspoon, tapered off (dissolved in 1/4 cup hot water)
• slivered pistachios and cinnamon for garnish

1. Wash and rinse rice thoroughly until the water runs clear, then drain.
2. In a big pot, boil rice with 10-12 cups of water. Remove any foam.
3. Once rice has cooked and softened completely, add sugar. Stir well with a wooden spoon to combine and dissolve the sugar.
4. Once sugar has dissolved, add almonds, saffron, butter and rosewater. Stir well to mix all ingredients.
5. Continue to cook at low temperature for approximately half an hour — until the mixture has nicely settled. (The ideal end result is one where the rice grains have practically melted; and the texture is such that if you dip a spoon inside it, the pudding should be neither soupy nor too densely firm, just nicely dense and wobbley.)
6. Remove pot from heat. While still hot, transfer the pudding to one or more serving bowls, allowing it to cool and set.

Note: For best results, use the best quality of rice. The sweetness of this pudding can be adjusted by using more or less sugar to taste.

Persian saffron rice pudding: a) Bowls Cooling off in the kitchen, b) decorated

Once the Persian saffron rice pudding has cooled off and its texture set, decorate with a personally favored flourish of pistachio, almond and cinnamon sprinkled on top. Serve to your hungry and grateful gang. Tell them to bring spoons.

Of special note to fellow shakamoos: the top layer of the Persian saffron rice pudding is the best part!

‎نوش جان! Nooshe jaan!

Thank you Haleh joon for feeding me yummy شله زرد  and making this recipe a possibility!

And hugs & kisses for this adorable sous chef!

The days are growing progressively short and the pleasantly brisk sweater weather harbors the threat of a brutish winter ahead. But: there’s a shiny silver lining! It’s quince season!

If you’re very lucky, you have quince trees growing in your garden. If you’re not that lucky but still occasionally caressed and fondled by lady luck, there is a boy who volunteers to send you all the quinces from his quince tree. (Now, isn’t that a charming gesture of woo!) If you’re somewhat lucky, you can either find quinces in one of your local markets or else you can surreptitiously forage some from here and yonder. And if none of these apply, well, let’s face it, you’re entirely out of luck! At least when it comes to quinces. And that is a fate I would not wish for you, because I love quinces and I’m equally fond of you.

A decade ago, pomegranates were obscure objects of desire but by now everyone is appraised of their charm and eager to heap praise on the ruby-red-jeweled fruit. Quince — an ugly fruit with a heavenly scent and a multitude of hidden charm — is for certain destined for an equal if less glittery future of popular recognition. If you have not yet jumped on the quince bandwagon, do it! Do it now! Do it before it is commonplace and mundane.

Now, as befits a Persian food blog bearing the monicker of Fig & Quince, we have covered recipes for: stuffed quince (dolme ‘ye beh); quince kookoo (kookoo ‘ye beh); quince tas kabob (a finger licking slow-cooked fusion of many delicious things that has to be tried and marvelled at) and we were also graced by Maria’s Dulce de Mebrillo Sweet Quince guest post. By and by, delicious plans are afoot to bring you the recipes for the Persian quince stew (khoresht ‘e beh) and also for quince sharbat (sharbat ‘e beh) as well. But right now, that is at this very moment in time, when our beautiful silvery moon in the sky is in its waxing gibbous phase, it’s time to share with you the recipe for quince jam (moraba ‘ye beh.) A toothsome affair that goes mighty nicely with tea and buttered bread.

A little aside: I regret a few things about my trip to Iran. Regrets not too few to mention. Like: why did I not go up hiking on the mountains in Tehran more often ? Why did I not motivate and go visit my friend at her mother’s house that one time? (I really should have.) Why didn’t I make the time to go visit Joobin at Khoosh Nevissan cafe? Why didn’t I spend at least one whole day sitting in a cross town bus traversing this side to that side of Tehran?  Why didn’t I take a Persian shirini making class? And why oh why oh why oh why did I not indulge in the traditional Persian breakfast?

For while I did allow myself to take great and even at times greedy pleasure in the plentiful goodness of the delicious Persian food (homemade and otherwise) widely available to me when in Iran, I stuck to my old boring albeit healthy breakfast throughout the trip. Yes! I do so confess! So even as my sundry Persian guest hosts broke their fast with excruciatingly soft and recklessly sweet smelling Persian bread freshly delivered or bought from the local noonvayee — lovely bread like nooneh sangak or barbari or lavash — that they wantonly buttered and then jam’d with spoonfuls of moraba (jam) and took big bites in between sips of hot tea, I in turn had my plain bowl of yogurt with sliced banana and some chopped walnuts and their quizzical looks of concern and pity! Yes, I was virtuous, but at what price! What folly was this! Tssk tssk!

It’s not possible to turn back the clock, alas, nor as of yet is it possible to replicate the amazing freshly baked bread of Iran outside of the borders of “the most charming country in the world,” but at least the moraba (jam) is one that can be remade to redress and remedy regretful neglects, and it’s specially nice when it is made with quince and I urge you to consider making it as well.

The quince moraba comes out a little soft, a little chewy, and a lot tasty.

• 2 1/2 lbs quinces (approximately 4 quinces)
• 3 to 4 cups sugar (depending on how sweet you prefer your preserves)
• 1 lemon
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom seeds (or else substitute 1 cinnamon sticl)
• filtered water
• Sterilized jars

1. Wash, dry, peel and quarter quinces. Remove seeds and cores. Slice each quarter into orange-slice-sized wedges. Squeeze a lemon over the wedges – the lemon juice prevents quince from discoloration.
2. Place quince wedges in a pot with enough filtered water to cover 1/2 inch. Bring to a boil over high heat. Immediately reduce heat to low, close lid, and simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Add sugar, cardamom seeds (or cinnamon stick), stir with a wooden spoon to mix, close lid and simmer for 2-3 hours — until quince wedges turn a beautiful reddish color and the syrup thickens.
4. Add freshly squeezed lemon juice. Bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, boil for just another couple of minutes. (Here’s a trick to tell if you need to continue to boil preserve or if it’s ready: Add a droplet of syrup to cold water. if the droplet sinks intact without disintegrating, the preserve is done!)
5. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
6. Fill sterilized jars with quince jam. Store in a cool, dark place until use.

Notes & trouble-shooting: Do not remove the lid while the jam is being made. If the jam is not thickened sufficiently, remedy the issue boiling the mixture on high heat (without the lid) for a few minutes until the syrup sufficiently thickens.

You can enjoy quince jam preserves as a topping with yogurt or ice cream. Traditionally, however, quince jam is enjoyed as a spread with buttered bread and tea for ‘sobhaneh’ (breakfast) or ‘asraneh’ (afternoon delight.)

 Make it, enjoy it, and noosheh jaan!

Let’s start part 2 of the Persian nooks and crannies of cyberspace (see here for part 1 and the series’ mission statement) with Anthony Bourdain – the chef and food critic bar none who visited Iran this past spring. Very much look forward to seeing this episode when it airs.

Before continuing, let’s please note that all of the images in this post are scoured from social media sites and are live links — just hover the mouse over the image and/or the handle name. I encourage you to click and go right to the source to explore and follow their content!

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Artwork by the Iranian artist Elahe Shahbani. So beautiful! I can’t stop gazing at it.

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Ramsar Hotel in the northern region (‘shomal’) of Iran in the Caspian sea region. If not for the telltale sign of women wearing the hijab, I would have mistaken the mood and architecture for that of a sleepy European town.

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An Iranian mom lining up her kids for a photo op at the tomb of Omar Khayyam, the Iranian mathematician, astronomer and poet.

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A little Persian foodie! Growing up in an awesome foodie Persian family must be so nice!

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The courtyard of the Grand Bazaar, in Tehran. The Grand Bazaar was one of my favorite places to explore when I was in Tehran. I barely scratched the surface.

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One of my favorite Persian food bloggers having herself a cozy, lovely time with yummy Persian snacks and the 2 volume masterpiece cookbook of Mr. Najaf Daryabandari.

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Iran is definitely a poetic and charming country. A whole bunch of you are entirely cynical of this pronouncement, I know, but it’s true. I mean, would a British dude write in a UK publication that Iran is the most charming country on Earth were it not true?

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Perhaps we can contemplate the veracity of this point over the weekend. These are turbulent times that feel dark and ominous, but let’s all have a beautiful weekend, focusing on good things and light, and let’s send some positive energy into this awesome and awful world of ours.

Pomegranate wears a crown because it is king!

This is another teaser post! As in, I’m teasing you with what’s to come! That is:

A grassroots effort by a veritable tribe of us Persian food writers (from across the globe) to bring to you a recipe-roundup in honor and celebration of Mehregan, the ancient Persian autumnal festival of thanksgiving and love! Doesn’t that sound exciting and delicious? The participants are talented and passionate and the Persian festival of Mehregan itself is intrinsically pretty and interesting; so I’m optimistic that this will prove to be a major treat for us all! Stay tuned as we blast off our Mehregan Persian food recipe posts on October 9th! Won’t you? (Hashtag Mehregan2014 if you want to play and follow along!)

What do I have in store for you in my Mehregan recipe post, you ask? Well, You’ll have to wait till Thursday to find out, but, I will drop some major hints by name dropping some of the ingredients: plums, prunes, noodles, Persian-style caramelized onions (piyaz dagh), walnuts, rice, a peacock, raisins, rice, and everything nice. And if you just raised an eyebrow, that’s good, I was just testing to see if you were paying attention!

I can’t wait to share my Mehregan post with you and I’m so looking forward to reading all the other writers’ posts for their insight, research, and delectable recipes for toothsome Persian treats. There’s going to be so much good cooking!

And you know what? I’m just so happy that thousands of years later and an ocean away, here we are, a bunch of us Iranians (hyphenated or half as we may be) paying homage to, exploring, and sharing our ancients roots, farhang and heritage. This is a heritage rooted in ensaniyat (humanity) and eshg (love) — as I partially quote a brand new and already very dear friend — and as such, I hope you will find it something that’s not just waxing nostalgic by “others”, but a celebration of the universal themes of  beauty, bounty, thanksgiving, respect and reverence of nature, and love – things that bind, unite and nurture us all.

Nuts & fruits (specially pomegranates) were staples of a colorful Mehregan spread.

Khoda Hafez till our delicious Mehregan rendez-vous on Thursday October 9th!

#Mehregan2014

Who am I? What is the meaning of life? What should I do with the Thanksgiving turkey leftovers?

These are age old existential questions we angst over. I confess I’m still grappling with the first two but I do have an idea how to transform the all-American leftover turkey into a nourishing, comforting food with a philosophical Persian flair. That cunning dish being none other than ‘halim‘: a slow-cooked porridge made with wheat (usually, or bulgur) and meat (lamb, chicken, or turkey) topped with a generous drizzle of melted butter and sprinkled with just enough sugar and cinnamon to delight one’s inner child.

Nutritious and highly caloric, halim is traditionally served as a hearty breakfast, often in cool seasons — best suited for days of vigorous activity or hard work, but equally delicious when one is hardly working as well.

Before the advent of food processors, making halim required patient commitment and a good bit of elbow grease. Turning hard grains of wheat into a creamy paste by hand is not the work of the meek. My mom tells tales of neighbors pulling all-nighters, making halim in big pots called ‘patil’ — stirring, stirring, stirring — using wooden spoons with very long handles (“almost resembling oars“) while chanting ‘salavat’ and reciting prayers. “Basically, they were meditating while cooking it!” Mom observes.

It bears mention that halim is a type of dish that is among the ‘nazri’ food — like halva, or sholeh zard — that is to say among the traditional class of edible fare that the devout in Iran make and distribute to the needy as alms during the holy month of Ramadan, and also at anytime during the year as a vow and gesture of either hope or thankfulness that a specific prayer will be or has been answered.

There are cafes and little hole-in-the-wall eateries in Iran that make nothing but halim. During my epic trip to Iran, one of my school friends insisted on taking me to a famous halim shop in Tajrish Square to stock up some for next days’s breakfast and even though it was quite late at night, people were in long lines buying big buckets of halim to take home for their own breakfast. Here’s the thing though, that halim was kind of OK but the most delicious halim I’ve had to taste was one made by Taste of Persia, right here in New York, in the fair isle of Manhattan. If you’re in the neighborhood, you have got to try it! It’ll make you a convert.

In the Iranian American community at large, halim seems to be gaining a foothold as the thing to make during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. This is based on my entirely unscientific anecdotal observation! To wit: I got the bright idea of making halim to use up the leftover turkey, and I thought I was oh so clever, but texting with a friend in California, she said she was just about to make halim for her boys! The next day, another friend on Facebook said she loves to make leftover turkey halim as well — she makes hers by folding in heavy cream instead of broth or water by the way and tops it with plenty of brown sugar, which sounds truly yum and decadent.

Thing is, Thanksgiving turkey halim doesn’t have to be the exclusive domain of the Iranians in diaspora. It makes delicious sense to use up leftovers in a slow cooked way that adds a leisurely touch of grace to a day off from work, and to make a comfort food that blends flavors and transforms and ultimately transcends what was left over to what will be in its own stellar class, to be coveted and craved. Gobble, gobble! Persian style!

This is tahchin, or upside down Persian rice. Tahchin is made with half-cooked rice that’s mixed with yogurt, saffron, and egg; layered with chicken or lamb; packed and molded (nice and snug) into a casserole dish; cooked in the oven; inverted into a serving dish; and garnished with barberries. Maybe also with slivered pistachios if available. Because: why not!

Tahchin is pretty yummy. One of my favorite Persian rice dishes. It used to be the treat I asked for on my birthdays.

Laya made tahchin for me when I was in Los Angeles. (Recipe: All the way at the end!)

This is my lovely friend Laya. In her kitchen. In the City of Angels. (Vicinity of Tehrangeles.) California. United States of America. Planet Earth. Universe. (What comes after the Universe?)

NOTE: The tahchin inverted in the serving dish.

NOTE: The plate of sabzi khordan – an eclectic mixture of radishes and herbs which is the ever faithful sidekick of all Persian meals.

NOTE: The green sticky tape over the camera on ye ol’ faithful laptop of mine. (Yup, still there!)

This is a closer look at the tahchin, and the aforementioned sabzi khordan (aka plate of fresh herbs and radishes.)

You know how you always find bottles of ketchup and mustard in a diner in the U.S.? Well, you would be hard pressed to find a mealtime Persian table without sabzi khordan. My father, for example, would not even conceive of such a travesty!

Yummy Tahchin! Up close and Personal!

THIS: Is an up close and personal shot of my plate of tahchin in action.

THIS: Makes my mouth drool every time I look at it.

THIS: Is torture! TORTURE!

Note the pool of yogurt to the side. As is the wont of most Iranians (and certainly the wont of yours truly) yogurt is nearly always served and enjoyed alongside with most types of Persian food. Like a sauce. It brightens and crackle pops all the flavors & textures.

Let’s backup a bit …

This is Laya’s kitchen-gloved-hand placing the fresh out of the oven casserole dish containing the yummy upside-down-Persian rice on the counter, allowing it to cool off before artfully inverting it onto a serving dish.

NOTE: The fruit bowl. Perhaps you might detect the presence of narenj mixed in with the orange and tangerines. What is narenj you ask? More on narenj later. (Hope your scrolling finger is in ship-shape!)

Laya’s kitchen faces her backyard with a glorious to-die-for-view. Even washing dishes in this kitchen feels tantamount to a transcendental experience.

NOTE: The tantalizing peek of Laya’s pool in her front yard. I MEAN! Come on!

Speaking of the pool, here’s the portrait of Snoopy, an Iranian American hapoo, lost in thoughtful reflections by the edge of it:  Upon arrival at Laya’s house I was warned that Snoopy, while friendly, required a period of getting-to-know-you before consenting to being petted. This protocol was duly noted and observed. (Canine & blogger forged a friendship by the end of the delightful visit, I might add.)

Snoopy, having come of age in an Iranian household, has a predilection for Persian food. According to family lore, Snoopy digs saffron flavoring and LOVES fesenjoon and ghormeh sabzi. (But I mean, who doesn’t?)  For his Norooz dinner, Snoopy got to eat sabzi polo and mahee! THE traditional dish that’s served for the Persian New Year!

Lucky dog!

It must be Norooz! Mahee, sabzeh & Narenj!

Here’s the mahee (fish) marinating in a marinade of saffron and freshly squeezed juice of narenj!

Mais, qu’est ce que c’est this narenj that I keep bringing up?

Laya and I did some narenj picking in an enchanting LA garden.

What is narenj? It is a citrus that tastes like a sour orange. But for Iranians, narenj is not just a citrus but the stuff of nostalgia, reverent appreciation (there’s a gorgeous palace complex in Shiraz called Narenjestan, named after the rows of beautiful narenj trees growing in its garden), fairy tales (I almost called this blog “narenj va toranj” after my most favorite Persian fairy tale), and its juice, peel and blossoms are all used to make dreamy culinary concoctions — from jam to sharbat to khoresht to āsh and marinade.

Pomegranate is the undisputed crown holder when it comes to being an iconic fruit and symbol of Iranian culture, but narenj is right there behind it, breathing down its back!

Come spring, the beautiful city of Shiraz and vast expanses of Shomal (the northern provinces of Iran) are fragrant with the scent of narenj blossoms … bahar narenj!

Speaking of the blossoms … ah yes! Let’s do speak of the bahar narenj blossoms! Just look at these beauties. Oh how I wish I could share their fragrance with you.

The heavenly scent of bahar narenj is indescribable. It is a witty, slightly mischievous, and soaring scent, if that makes any sense. It fills the lungs and the soul with a breezy smile! If that makes any sense! It smells like homecoming. If that makes any sense.

Speaking of things that are witty, slightly mischievous, entirely lovely and make you feel at home: here’s Laya again!  Posing with her tahchin handiwork and good humor for her food blogger friend.

Note the red blossoms in the tree behind her. Venture to guess what they might?

Pomegranate blossoms! Entirely adorable! Last time I saw these pretty blossoms was at a garden party in Shiraz a year ago during my hashtag “Epic Trip to Iran” in a garden lined on both sides with blossoming pomegranate trees. That was a dreamy party, and honestly, this scene in LA was nothing short of dreamy either. I finally understand why so many Iranians live in Los Angeles. There are cypress trees, pomegranate trees, narenj trees; the mountain and the climate is reminiscent of Tehran; and with all the Iranians now living in LA, you can find everything (from noon’ e sangak to noghl to kooloocheh; from شیر مرغ تا جون آدمیزاد ) in the many Persian markets and restaurants all over Los Angeles.

In some ways the hustle and bustle of welcoming Norooz in Tehrangeles was on par if not even more vivacious than celebrating the Persian New Year in Tehran itself! I’m so behind with my postings but oh boy, given time, I so would love to tell you all about my Persian New Year adventures in Tehrangeles at some point.

Sangak & Sabzeh! | Noroos in Tehrangeles

What I can tell you right now is that Laya whisked me straight from the airport to an awesome Persian bistro where they made their own Sangak bread! Check out the proud noonva and his delicious handiwork straight out of the tanoor! Do note the thriving green sabzeh (a staple of haft seen) as well.

Laya and I dined on mast ‘o musir (yogurt mixed with a special type of Persian shallot which has an awesome bite and heat and tang to it. You can enjoy mast ‘o musir as an appetizer dip with bread, and you can also enjoy it as a condiment/sauce with your main dish. We did it both ways! The mast ‘o musir went most excellently with our yummy cholo kabab. (Akh! Yadesh be khair!)

Meta Food Photography – Persian Style!

Needless to say, shots were taken before a bite was taken!

But then: it was time to munch and demolish and DEVOUR!

Oh my! Just look at this!

This is torture anew. And my mouth waters anew as well.

Kind of going back to our featured recipe (oh yeah, this is a recipe post after all, ha ha), here’s a still life composed of a bowl of barberries soaking in water – one of the prep steps of the tahchin. What else do we have? The travel section of Los Angeles Times; the Norooz sprouting green sabzeh; and a regal orchid.

The orchid was a token souvenir we swiped from the Film Festival Award night of the Farhang Foundation Nowruz Festival that was held at LaCMA.  Actually, going to the festival was the whole reason I was there in LA in March. Do you know why? I told you earlier about it earlier here. I hope to write a whole post about that and Farhang Foundation’s beautiful Persian New Year festival (they had created a gorgeous haft seen display for just one thing) and do it justice. But meanwhile, here’s a video from the first night of the event.

If you do watch the video, at the 0:14 mark you’ll catch a glimpse of me and Laya and then at 0:44 me and Mehdi (that is: Laya’s wonderful husband) and then at 1:45 mark I have a teeny tiny interview!

I liked and was impressed by all the 6 short film finalists but hands down The Role of Each Fret directed by Maryam Farahzadi was the most intriguing and powerful submission (I got goosebumps) and deserved the 1st prize win. I also loved, loved, loved Prelude (it was so clever and fun) directed by Arash Ashanti and produced by Ali Azimi.  Totally recommend you watch both.

Between the cypress and narenj trees and Persian markets and Laya (and her entire lovely family) and Snoopy and the awesome Farhang Foundation (and the wealth of brilliant events and programming they offer) I’m so tempted to move to Los Angeles!

If not for the sun and commuting (averse to both), I’d be high tailing it to LA for sure. At least for a temporary jaunt.

But let’s say I moved there. Where would I live? Silicon Valley techies are snapping up all the L.A. homes!

And on this non-sequitur note, it’s time to end your scrolling finger’s vigorous work out and get to Laya’s tahchin recipe! Finally!

Tahchin: Upside Down Persian Rice (Laya's Recipe)

• Servings: 4-6
• Difficulty: good bit of prep work but easy
• Print

Ingredients

• 2 cups of long grain rice (washed, soaked, rinsed in the Persian style)
• 2 large boneless chicken breasts, cut into big pieces
• 1 small onion, peeled and coarsely quartered
• 2-3 teaspoons ground saffron, dissolved in 1 cup of hot water
• 5 tablespoons yogurt (approximately a cup)
• one egg yolk
• 1/4 stick butter
• 1/2 cup barberries (soaked for 1/2  hour in cold water, rinsed and washed)
• tea spoon of sugar
• salt & pepper, cooking oil, and water
• Optional handful of slivered pistachios for garnish

Direction

• Wash and soak the rice per the usual Persian rice method: 1) Fill bowl of rice with cold water, gently scrub fistfuls between palms, rinse and drain. Repeat the process until the water runs clear. 2) Soak rice in lightly salted water for an hour and up to 24 hours. Rinse and drain when ready to use. Note: You could prep this step as early as a day before making tahchin. (Check out this post for a comprehensive guide and details of prepping and washing rice, Persian style.)
• Prepare the chicken: Cut 2 boneless chicken breasts into a few pieces. In a heavy-bottom pot add chicken, one cup of water, and one small onion coarsely quartered; sprinkle with salt; douse with 1/2 cup of saffron water; and cook over low heat for 3 hours till quite tender. Once cooked, remove and set aside the chicken pieces. Reserve 1/4 cup of the chicken broth for later use in a step below. (You can use the leftover broth and onions for another culinary adventure.)

  chicken cooked with onion and saffron till tender with broth

• Prepare the al-dente rice: Fill 3/4th of a large pot with water and bring to a brisk boil. Pour in rice and cook – stirring occasionally –  until the grains have lengthened and rice is al dente. Drain in a colander and set aside.
• Prepare the “mayeh” rice and yogurt mixture: In a big mixing bowl, whisk egg yolk lightly with a fork; add 5 tablespoons of yogurt and blend until mixture is smooth; season with salt and pepper, add the remaining saffron water (reserve just a teaspoon of it for the berberries for later though), mix well with the fork. Add 1/4 cup of the chicken broth (set aside earlier when preparing the chicken) to the mayeh at the end.  (Laya says this is a nice trick to add tons of flavor and moisture to the dish since tahchin rice doesn’t use a lot of oil.) Fold in the al-dente rice – one spatula at a time – mixing it gently with the yogurt mixture as you add it.

adding saffron water to whisked egg yolk

• Melt 1/4 stick of butter in a casserole Pyrex dish in 350 degree oven. Remove casserole dish from the oven; slightly agitate the dish (in up and down and left to right motions) making sure the entire surface is coated with melted butter. [Laya says the moshkel (problem) with tahchin that many people have is that at the end it doesn’t come out in one piece when turned upside down and the solution to this moshkel is to make sure the melted butter is spread evenly all over the Pyrex dish.]

layering casserole dish with melted butter for Tahchin prep

• Commence to fill the casserole dish in this manner: line bottom of the casserole dish with a one inch layer of the rice and yogurt “mayeh” mixture, then arrange a few chicken pieces over it. Continue layering in this fashion until you’ve used up all the ingredients. (Tip: Make sure the top layer is rice with the final chicken pieces nestled inside the rice to avoid burning the chicken.) Use the back of a wooden spoon or spatula to pack in and evenly flatten the surface. You can douse some melted butter over the rice at this point if you wish. Cover with aluminum foil and place in the middle of a 350 preheated oven for one hour or until a golden crust at the bottom of the dish is detected. Remove foil and cook in the oven for another 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it cool off for a few minutes.
• Prepare the barberries garnish: While tahchin rice is cooling off, sautee barberry (that was soaked for 1/2 hour in cold water and rinsed) with a bit of melted butter and a bit of sugar for a few minutes on very low heat.
•  Once cooled off, tahchin is (tah dah!) ready to serve.

Serving: Tahchin in Farsi literally means: “arranged at the bottom.” It’s translated as upside down Persian rice in English because when serving tahchin, you turn the casserole dish over and serve the rice upside down:

• Place an inverted large serving dish over the casserole dish and turn it over. Tap the casserole dish to loosen the contents inside. Hopefully the butter-lining trick has done its job and nothing will stick to the dish and you’ll get a nice (and intact) upside down molded rice with a crunchy rice tahdig on top! YUM!
• Garnish with a sprinkling of the sauteed barberries and slivered pistachios just prior to serving.
• Tahchin is sometimes translated as “Persian rice cake”, which is not too far-fetched, since tahchin is a dish served like a cake, as in: slice pieces off to serve to your no-doubt-drooling-with-anticipation table mates.

Tahchin rice pairs fabulously with yogurt. A green salad and sabzi khordan (plate of herbs and radishes) would be lovely edible companions to have on hand as well.

[Laya’s tip for grinding saffron: To finely grind saffron threads in a mortar and pestle Laya adds a sugar cube to it. This is a trick Laya learned from her mother – Mrs. Lavassani – an accomplished lady who started a school called Honarestan in Tehran, where Roza Montazemi, a revered Persian cookbook author, was one of her students. Wow!]

Make it, enjoy it, and nooshe jaan!

غوره unripe grapes | an intriguing staple of Persian cuisine

This post is dedicated to the memory of Doctor پ . A wonderful physician, musician, family friend, and all around lovely gentleman whose presence was a boon to all who knew him and who will be dearly missed. May he rest in peace.

♠

Recently I made a short and sweet trip home for a visit with my folks when among other things my mom made this and this and also did this; and when I got to hang out with Azi2 and also got to go to a do’reh (a regular monthly-or-so Persian get-together among friends who take turns hosting) and have a fun visit with a host of dear and old family friends who I had not seen in a good while. Some of my favorite people in the world. Sight for sore eyes! A true pleasure!

My folks live in the DC Metropolitan area and while it is by no means the new Tehrangeles, there are a good number of establishments where one can grab a quality Persian chow, be it polo khorosh or kashk ‘e bademjan or bastani and reportedly even very good Armenian pirooshki. There are also several good Persian grocery stores scatterd in the area, including a smallish but quite good store near my parents where one does seem to find most everything required to run a respectable Persian household, from kashk to various types of Persian bread to halva ardeh to — as I was thrilled and squealed to find stashed in the fridge — stalks of perky unripe grape clusters!  Or what we Persians call ghoreh غوره. (Query: The wine aficionados amongst us may perhaps identify a better name for “unripe grapes”?)

Gentle reader: you may by now have a noticed a pattern with Iranians and their love of unripe fruit and: it’s true!  Be it unripe almonds (chaghaleh badoom چاقاله بادوم ), unripe green plums (gojeh sabz گوجه سبز), and now unripe grapes — which are usually picked halfway before maturity.

Are you familiar with that classic Aesop fable of the fox and sour grapes? The story was well known in Iran as well. But what the roobah didn’t know and Persians have known since times of ‘yore is that sour grapes can be quite wonderful!

A staple of the Persian pantry, unripe sour grapes (ghoreh: غوره) and verjuice (or abghoreh: the tart juice of unripe grapes) is used as a chashni (taste, flavor) to add a bright but gentle tartness and deepen flavors in khoresh (Persian stews) and abghusht and tas kabob and āsh (thick hearty Persian soups.)

Khoresh Ghoreh Badejman | Persian eggplant stew with sour grapes

Fresh sour grapes have a very fleeting season – a few weeks late in spring – so to preserve ghoreh’s goodness for use throughout the year, Persians had several tricks up their sleeves.

One that we’ve already touched upon is juicing the ghooreh to make abghoreh or verjuice. (Fun linguistic fact, the word verjuice comes from the French words verjus which literally means green juice!) Maman says in the olden days before the availability of store-bought verjuice there was a whole ritual where each family would purchase as much of sour grapes as was within their needs or means and then wash and crush the grapes and store the extracted abghureh in a cool dark place in a very specific type of glass bottle with a long narrow neck — that could then be used as chashni the whole of winter.

Another method was to dry out the ghureh and then grind it into a powder (gard ‘e ghoreh گرد غوره) form; or, they would pickle the unripe grapes (in verjuice, or in salty water); and of course now in modern times, ghoreh can be frozen for later use.

Ghureh is extremely beneficial for various health problems. Rheumatism and diabetes among them. Maman tells me a story that when she was growing up, there was a doctor named “Hakim Abghureh” (literally: Doctor Sour Grape Juice! Ha ha!) named thus because whoever went to him with ailments would be prescribed ash ‘e abghureh (a verison of Persian thick hearty soup made with plenty of verjuice) to clear and clean out the stomach and intestine as the good hakim believed that all diseases gather in the stomach and the intestines!

Unless you are a wiley fox not interested in sour grapes, below are directions for making your own: verjuice; ground sour grapes; pickled sour grapes; and the best method for freezing these tart fleeting gifts of summer.

Starting point applicable to all methods of preserving sour grapes: pick mushy, discolored bits and discard.

How to make your own homemade verjuice (abghoreh): First question what drives you to have this urge? Ha ha. Kidding, ’tis a labor of love and one’s inner Martha must be appeased from time to time. Be warned however that it takes nearly 10 pounds or more of sour grapes to make one mediums sized (if that) bottle of verjuice, and sour grapes, harvested here in the U.S. in California, do not come cheap. (Mom reported she got hers for $7 a pound.) In any event, if you’re determined to pursue this crafty course of action, try to to purchase the juicier looking of sour grapes that’s available to you. Remove grape from stalk, wash well, then juice sour grapes in a juicer. (It’s preferable not to make verjuice using a food processor or a blender since those machines will grind the grape seeds as well thus giving verjuice a bitter tang that is far from ideal.) Pass the pulpy juice through a sieve and use immediately.

To preserve verjuice for later use you, boil verjuice in a pot for a few minutes. Remove from heat, add a bit of salt, allow to cool, then store in dry sterilized bottles. Tip: If possible, it’s best to use one-serving-size small bottles when storing homemade verjuice.

•

How to make your own homemade ghoreh preserve to use throughout the year: Remove the grapes from the stalk, wash, and allow to dry completely. Once bone dried, store in a dry sterilized jar and top with enough verjuice to cover plus a bit of salt.  This method, in vogue in Kermanshah and possibly other regions of Iran, is known as “ghoreh ghoreh.” Double unripe grapes that is! Cute, no?

You could also preserve ghureh in ab namak (salty water) instead of verjuice.

•

How to make your own ground sour grapes (gard ‘e ghoreh): Wash sour grapes, remove from stalk, gently pat dry and spread over a tray lined with fabric or paper towels. Leave for a few days where it would get plenty of direct sunlight till it dried out. Grind in a processor into a powder. This becomes a tasty and tart chashni چاشنی (taste, flavor) that makes stews and soups quite lovely and delicious. You could also use it to marinate fish and fowl and BBQ meat. Because, pour quoi pas? If a hint of tart is your thing, ground sour grapes could be your best friend.

•

How to freeze your sour grapes! Wash sour grapes thoroughly and then remove from stalk. Bring a pot of water to a brisk boil. Add sour grapes and boil for only 30 seconds.  Drain in a colander and immediately give it an ice bath. (A bowl filled with ice cubes, roomy enough.) to chill the sour grapes quickly. Then drain once again in colander, spread to completely dry on a piece of fabric or paper, and then fill freezer bags with sour grapes. Write the date on the bag ad freeze for up to a year. Note: another school of thought admonished that washing sour grapes prior to freezing allows discoloration (turning yellow instead of green) and suggests that you freeze unwashed sour grapes and when ready to use, thaw and wash grapes then.

Make it, enjoy it, and noosh ‘e joon!

Chilled Persian Cucumber & Yogurt soup. Perfect for summer!

Everyone knows that Persians have a thing for pomegranates, rosewater and all sorts of yummy fluffy saffron rice. What is less known is that we also have a major yen for yogurt. A bowl of yogurt is nearly always served with lunch and dinners as either a condiment or side dish or sauce; and we also have many yogurt-based dishes in the Persian culinary repertoire. It’s safe to state that yogurt is among the major staples of the Persian cuisine.

For example you may recall borani, a vegetarian genre of Persian dishes made with yogurt mixed with various types of veggies. Yogurt is also a tried and true ingredient liberally used in or added to hearty soups (like ash ‘e mast or ash ‘e reshteh); we also have yogurt as the essential and star ingredient of popular side dishes like mast ‘o khiar; and of course, last but not least, let’s not forget that yogurt is the main ingredient of doogh, a most popular Persian soft drink. (Remember this lovely dude?)

Today I have for you a  refreshing yogurt-based dish — a deceptively humble yet classic Persian delight called abdoogh khiar — that comes to you courtesy of an adorable relative of mine, nameed Valeh. How are Valeh and I related? Well, let’s put it this way: our fathers are brothers. Ha ha, yes, what I’m saying is that Valeh is my cousin or dokhtar amoo (literally: daughter of paternal uncle) as we say in Farsi.

Abdoogh khiar itself may be said to be a cousin of mast ‘o khiar, as they are quite similar, which is fitting then that the recipe is courtesy of your faithful blogger’s lovely cousin, Valeh.

Now I have to digress and tell you that Valeh is a beautiful Kurdish name that means “to be besotted by” and it’s an apt name for my very pretty cousin and her pretty green eyes. One of the many interesting facts about Valeh is that she lived in Japan for a few years where among other things she picked up the art of Ikebana (flower arrangements) that she enjoys greatly and practices beautifully. Valeh has a fine arts degree from the University of Tehran; an interior design degree from here in the U.S.; and most importantly, she has arguably the most adorable little girl in the world.

Thomas Jefferson Flanked by two Persian cuties | Monticello, Virginia

Aside #1: Thomas Jefferson, as it so happens, is my second favorite historical American. I kind of lurv him. Care to guess who’s my number one? Well, it’s a tie between Benjamin Franklin and Lincoln. I’m ardently passionate about both of those lovely American gents. By the way if you care for that sort of thing, I highly (HIGHLY) recommend this podcast: The Jefferson Hour. It’s amazing!

Aside #2:  If you think this photograph is the only Persian connection with good ol’ Thomas Jefferson, think again! On a whim and just for the hell of it, I Googled “Jefferson and Persian” without having the slightest expectation of finding anything and then THIS turns up: Cyrus Cylinder: How a Persian monarch inspired Jefferson. I mean!!!

Going back to our regularly scheduled programming, namely abdoogh khiar, that exquisitely simple chilled Persian yogurt and cucumber summer time soup:

Valeh like to add bread torn into small pieces to the yogurt soup, just like you might do with abghusht. That’s why Valeh likes to call abdoogh khiar a summer-time abghoosht!

Ingredients of a Persian Abdoogh Khiar

Cousin Val's Abdoogh Khiar (Persian Cucumber Yogurt Soup)

• Servings: 2-4
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

• 4 cups yogurt
• 2 medium sized seedless Persian cucumbers
• 5 radishes
• small bunch of green onions (scallions)
• small bunch of parsley
• a good pinch or two of dried dill weed, and dried basil
• handful each of walnuts and raisins
• water to add to yogurt
• Salt and pepper to taste
• crushed edible rose petals. a pinch or two (optional garnish)
• bread (lavash or if you don’t have lavash you can substitute with pita or other flat bread)

Note: Valeh’s measurements are given in a loosey goosey manner, as in: please feel free to adjust these to your preferred taste.

1. Peel cucumbers, slice ends.
2. Scrub radishes, trim root end and bottom.
3. Rinse green onions clean under cold water, trim root end, peel off slimy skin off the white parts, cut and remove almost all of the green tops. (You can use the green parts of the green onion for an omelet or soup or some such thing later.)
4. Rinse parsley clean under cold water; soak in water for awhile, drain, and leave to dry completely. Trim stem ends.
5. On a cutting board and using a sharp knife, chop cucumbers, radishes, green onions and parsley. (Try to get een sized small pieces.)
6. In a big bowl mix all the chopped ingredients with yogurt, dried dill and basil, walnuts, and raisins.  Add 1/2 cup of cold water (or add a few ice cubes and melt instead.) Stir to mix.
7. Garnish with rose petals and maybe more sprinkling of walnuts and raisins. Chill until ready to serve.

Serve chilled abdoogh khiar in a big bowl. To best enjoy abdoogh khiyar, serve with bread: tear bread into small pieces (we call this terid kardan), mix it with your portion of abdoogh khiar, and dig in!

Enjoy the crunch of cucumbers and walnuts and the sweetness of raisins offset by the smooth and delicious coldness of yogurt.

Thank you wonderful Valeh joon for your wonderful recipe!

Make it & enjoy it.
‎نوش جان! Nooshe jaan!

homemade shahtoot lavashak | Persian fruit rollup w red mulberries

In this last installment of docu posts about my super sweet Trip to Kermanshah, I really wanted to give you a mouthwatering, lusty tour of all the yummy food I ate during this visit. Everything from the Kermanshahi classic stew of khalal ghaimeh va zereshk (almond & barberry with cubed meat stew) to the spectacular Persian rib kabab (dandeh kabab) we devoured after touring tagh bostan, to gojeh sabz (unripe green plums) to all the toothsome shirini Kermanshahi (boxes and boxes) I got to take and I had to savor. However, somehow or other, I managed to either neglect to take photos or when I did, I took mostly blurry or poorly lit or horribly composed photos. You won’t need to scold me as I’ve already had a stern, scalding talk with myself (“one more mess up like this, buster, and you will be turning in your food blogger badge, doing a 100 push ups, making 100 servings of piyaz dagh without a break, and ruing the day you started a food blog.”) I promise, I shall know better from now on. This terrible mistake will not happen again.

That said, I hope you’ll still enjoy this as-is tour de food of Kermanshah, Iran. (Aside: I was rather pleased with myself for thinking up that “tour de food” phrase — I never have claimed to be forootan, have I — but Dr. Google busted my chops once again by shrugging and saying “Meh! So what! So have a gazillion other people.” Hmmmf! Doctor Google may be smart and all but he could certainly employ a kinder less artist-killer bedside manner.)

In any event, let’s commence our lusty oftentimes blurry foodie tour of Kermanshah shall we?  Rolah jan, berim روله جان بریم as one might say in = the Kermanshah dialect!

Well to begin with, consider the cover photo of the Persian fruit roll up. These are called “lavashak” and they come in a variety of colors and flavors, depending on what type of fruit or mixtures of fruits has been used in its creation. Super popular as a snack, specially with kids, lavashak is sold in supermarkets and bazaars and delis all over Iran, but of course, some households make their own. One of those households being that of my cousin Roshanak, who is in the practice of making lavashak with all kinds of fruit from apricots to black plums to red mulberries, such as the one pictured above. It was so good! Akh! Ooof! My mouth is watering thinking about it.

Let’s move on before I drown in a pool of drool!

Typical example of Persian table set to receive a mehmoon

You may recall seeing from an earlier post in the Kermanshah series that a mehmoonie table laden with assorted awesome goodies, including the prototypical Persian pyramid of fruit awaited yours truly the second I set foot inside my cousin Roshanak’s house.

You may also recall reading that after a suitable amount of picture taking of all the edible goodies, as is my sacred duty as a Persian food blogger, that I commenced to gorge on gojeh sabz like a hungry and shameless savage BEAST.

You may further recall that my sweet lovely uncle – who is officially the oldest (mash’allah & bezanam be choob) and thus the most respected member of the Houshiar clan – came to visit in this interim as well and how seeing him, as corny as it sounds, was a feast too. You know, for the soul. And that the whole time I was stuffing my face and catching up with my lovely uncle, cousin Roshanak was slaving away in the kitchen and awesome-smelling things kept wafting into the drawing room. Of course I was not so bihaya to just sit there and eat while Roshanak toiled but I was strictly forbidden to set foot in there or lift even my little finger and the few times that I poked my face in there begging to help I was shoo’d away. Because: that is what Persians do! Ha ha!

Then what I didn’t tell you is that at some point Mr. S (Roshanak’s esteemed and genial husband) and Haji Agha (little inside joke about one of my favorite family members) arrived as well and the lunch bell was rung. What awaited us was a feast that was served super informally in the kitchen.

I can now also show you what I didn’t show in that post … et voila:

This was lunch! Hold me! Wowza!

Where to begin? Let’s diagram and identify.

Let’s start at the bottom of the photo so working our way upwards what we have here are: lemons, zaytoon parvardeh (an olive appetizer/condiment), mixed veggie torshi (pickles), cucumber and tomato salad, to the right above the salad we have the famous Kermanshahi Persian stew made with slivered almonds, barberries and small cubes of meat called khoresh ‘e khalal ghaimeh and I no longer remember what the dish to the left is although I’m sure it was delicious, then we have the kashk bademjan (a type of Persian eggplant dish) with plenty of piyaz dagh (crisp fried onions) and of course the inevitable heaping pyramid shaped mound of white saffron-laced rice encircled by a valiant army of potato tadig, and then more lemons and olive, some sabzi khordan, a dish heaped with what looks like a plate of cut honey dew, a box of Kleenex, some bread, and a big ol’ bottle of Coke. Woof!

This may seem like a LOT of food for only 5 people, and it was, but again, people: THIS is what we Persian do! :)

(And don’t worry, none of it goes to waste.)

Kashk Bedemjoon | Persian eggplant dish w fried crisp onions & fried dried mint

Kermanshahi khoresh (stew) of almond & barberries & cubed meat with limoo amani

I swear, my mouth watered looking at this just now! My mom learned how to make this from my father’s mother, marhoom Shahbibi, and I will have to post its recipe soon. A crowd-pleasing type of food, this one is. And it has just the perfect mixture of tart and sweet, crunchy and soft. As is the awesome signature of Persian food, which I love. Imagine a ladle or two of it poured over and mixed with fluffy saffron-scented saffron-crowned white rice and you can see why my mouth watered. Whoo boy!

Polo sefid encircled by a valiant troop of potato tadig

So by now I’ve talked lots of times about Persian rice and we’ve also discussed the wondrous joy that is ta’dig. Tadig can be made several different ways. Did you know that? Well, it’s true. Those wiley Persians even make a ta’dig using lettuce leaves, which I’m most keen to share with you sometime in the not too distant future.

Here we have ta’dig sibzamini (potato tadig). Every kind of ta’dig is good but they each have their own characteristics. Like, let’s say if ta’dig was your family then potato ta’dig would be your kind, loving, cuddly, comforting grandma who you love a lot. That’s ta’dig ‘e sibzamini for you!

My sofreh runneth over! | Kermanshah, Iran

Remember in that post about vanooshk and freshly harvest chickpeas in the Kermanshah bazaar I showed you a pic of a heaping stack of freshly cut grape leaves and told you how Roshanak gifted me with a tote bag filled with grape leaves she cut for me from her own bagh ‘e miveh (fruit orchard) that I then took with with me to Tehran?

Well, Roshanak et famile have a cottage in that aforementioned orchard as well and one night during my visit the whole family we went there and everybody cooked up a storm. The men built a bonfire and skewered and roasted chicken and meat and tomatoes and onions kabob (which is basically Persian BBQ) and the women made the saffron rice and salad and prepared sabzi khordan and filled serving bowls with yogurt and torshi. Then a sofreh (cloth) was spread over the Persian carpet, old-fashioned style, and we all sat around it, the whole lot of us, young and not-so-young and old and a few babies and kids and young adults, and we broke bread and ate cholo kabab and joojeh kabab and drank doogh. Need I say that it was good? Really really really good?

Verily, it was kind of awesome.

After unskewering (isn’t that a word?) the joojeh kabab, the fire-roasted chicken laid in this pot atop a big traditional tray (I LOVE these trays) till it was time to serve supper.

Moving on to other things I love:

Like these assortment of shirini Kermanshahi. I think it’s safe to say that I tried each and every kind and upon leaving Kermanshah, Roshanak got me several boxes to take back with me to Tehran as well. Talk about a bounty!

Speaking of leaving Kermanshah to go back to Tehran, shortly before heading to the airport we had a little family get together goodbye party. Edible delights were present of course and 3 kinds of ice cream were passed around as well. I initially protested but then I admitted defeat (you can’t battle with ta’rof!) and had some of each!

Now this, what we call “nooneh sokhari” in Farsi, bearing brand name of “Vitana” with the image of this smiley boy is not a thing specific to Kermanshah but that’s where I found a package and snapped a shot of it, so I’m including it here. For most of you, this doesn’t mean anything, but for certain Persians in diaspora, this is the stuff of nostalgia.

Speaking of, thus concludes my nostalgic look back at my sweet visit to Kermanshah during my epic and sentimental journey to Iran.

Hope you enjoyed it! And khoda hafez for now till we meet again.

Persian shirini (cookies) | homemade

Hello friends!

This Thanksgiving marks the very first time ever since my family moved to the U.S that I won’t be observing this secular holiday haven of food and gratitude on American soil. I’m in Tehran (as you know) where I’m beginning to feel more and more at home, and yet, as is the peculiar and paradoxical wont of the hyphenated identity, I’m also away from home and miss family, friends, and biking across the Brooklyn bridge; and I’m homesick for that glorious je ne sais quoi of foliage and glitter and decadent cinnamon-laden frothy coffee concoctions that is the fall and the holiday season in New York.

I’m not making a turkey dinner to mark the occasion because frankly, I’m lazy, and instead I’m getting together with a dear old school chum. That will be a celebratory feast in and of itself.

Thanksgiving is of course as much about food and family as it is about gratitude. Personally, I am deeply grateful for myriad blessings big and small this year, taking none for granted, and yet, on a Debbie Downer note, I can’t help but be forlorn by the brutal and appalling turn of events in the world. Then again, I take a deep breath and recall sage words of wisdom of how each of us can be agents of change by the way we behave and react to the world; and remember a Persian poem that goes: “There’s much hope in hopelessness, and at the end of the darkest night is the light of the dawn.”

Here’s to hope and dawn and light and all that is good and delicious. I wish each and everyone of you celebrating this festive holiday to have a wonderful and warm gathering and bellies filled with turkey and cranberry and yummy stuffing (yum yum, miss it already) and for the rest of us, I wish hearts filled with kindness and gratitude. (If you want to listen to a great podcast on the subject of gratitude, Google TTBOOK’s “Gratitude Attitude” – it’s quite enlightening.)

In lieu of recipes and pictures of a feast, what I have for you are some photos that I hope will be akin to a visual feast of sorts.

Here’s the story of this pic: one time we were at home minding our business when the doorbell rang and lo, we were offered these two bowls of “nazri” Persian saffron rice pudding aka sholeh zard (a good recipe here.)

“Nazri” is the food or alms that believers make and offer to the public-at-large (or feed to the needy) in the hopes of having their prayers answered.

These sholeh zards were really good by the way! Quality ingredients! Pistachio, cinnamon and almonds and the perfectly light touch of rose water. YUM!

Ooh! This refreshment (back in Kermanshah) was such a treat: fresh shahtoot (red mulberries) picked from my cousin’s fruit garden, frozen, and served with a little silver spoon in a little bowl. Each bite was ice cold and sweet and tart and crunchy and so good I wanted to weep! Ha ha. I’m half joking. I do want to weep now though when I can only look at its photo and don’t have any to gobble up. (The pretty paisley fabric is called “termeh” by the way.)

Just recently I went to my friend’s awesome cafe, called Golo Morgh Cafe in Lavassan (a mountainous and posh suburb of Tehran) where among other things, I enjoyed this luscious tart. The thick coffee table photo book next to the tart was a treat as well, but I only got to leaf through a very few pages of it! I very much hope to return to this cafe again and again.

These are called “albaloo khoshkeh” or dried sour cherries. Among the most favorite childhood snacks of my childhood. What can I say except that are: SO. GOOD! And addictive. Very very addictive.

On a particularly nice and bright and brisk day, one of my friends and her husband took me mountain hiking in Darakeh. What a day! We hiked the rocky trail with the roar of the river snaking around and underneath our path and practically each step of the way was filled with happy hikers and vendors offering everything from persimmon to  to walnuts and pomegranates. For lunch we stopped at a mom and pop popular cafe for the most exquisite fesenjan I’ve ever had the pleasure of tasting and before that, once we had spent nearly two hours hiking, we lounged on wooden beds lined with threadbare Persian carpets in a garden with tall walnut trees and the sound track of the stream flowing through it and ordered tea. Our tea tray came laden with lemons and dates and the windfall of the azgil (loquats) were the rewards of a chance encounter with another friend.

On that note, I’ll take my leave and go make myself a nice cup of tea.

Happy Thanksgiving, Friends!

xoxo

If you must make a business trip while in Iran, it may as well be a trip to Shiraz, the city of pomegranate blossoms and roses and bahar narenj and poetry and oft: staggering beauty. And if you must go to Shiraz, it might as well be in the month of Oridbehesht — a spring month that ends with the suffix of “behesht” or paradise. And if you are fortunate indeed, you might also be hosted by people who are not just kind and lovely but who love food and feed you splendidly! And thus, it may transpire that your first breakfast in this ancient and fabled Persian city might be a simple but seductive Persian breakfast centered around a quail egg sunny side up omelette.

To recreate this scene at home, follow these easy steps.

First, crack open a dozen quail (or “belederchin” in Farsi) eggs. Heat some butter in a small skillet till it sizzles, and until it does, gaze at the golden yolks and enjoy their sunny disposition in a pleasant reverie.

Then, once the kitchen is filled with that unmistakable heavenly aroma of sizzling butter, pour the yolks in the skillet. Scramble the yolks just a teeny tiny bit and cook over medium heat till the omelette sets nicely but is still sunny side up.

Slip the omelette on a beautiful china plate and serve as the centerpiece of a very pretty and delicious Persian breakfast. (Note: breakfasts in Iran can be quite elaborate and based on my non-scientific but homegrown polling tend to be super popular in Iran.  I’ve met so many people who say variations on this theme: “I go to bed dreaming of my breakfast!” ha ha.)

Let’s explore this particular enchanting culinary landscape that yours truly got to savor at further length! Starting with the plate of herbs and cucumber and tomato (the essential ingredients for making a traditional Persian “loghmeh” or bite-sized sandwich) let’s work our way clockwise left to right:

yummy creamy feta cheese; a container of khameh (thick cream) on a plate; a tall glass of frothy homemade banana milkshake (fill blender with 4 cups of milk, add 2 ripe bananas, blend till smooth and foamy and serve); a heart-shaped bowl filled with soft succulent homemade strawberry jam (so good with that thick cream on some bread); the glorious aforementioned quail egg omelette as the piece de resistance; and of course: bread.

Can you say: YUMMY? Oh boy, it was.  (Thank you Farzaneh joon!)

Finish off polishing your fill of this heavenly morning repast with a cup of coffee served in manner most dainty, pretty and charming.

It will greatly enhance your experience if you could do all of the following while inhaling that je ne sais quoi springtime air of Shiraz fragrant with the smell of roses and honeysuckle; laden with the memory of centuries of poetry and bohemian pleasure-seeking flair that all of Shiraz is known for and renowned.

I want everyone I love to come and visit and experience the glory of Shiraz. You all: do it! Seriously! More on Shiraz to come. Promise.

Till then, xoxo and boos boos.

ps Have a lucky Friday the 13th

♥

Hello hello hello! Is There Anybody Out There?  (God, I love this album.)

But seriously: Are any of y’all still reading here? The blog stat says that a good bunch of you all are still coming and visiting (thank you! thank you!) but I know I’ve been MIA and I’m truly sorry for the absence. Perchance it made the heart grow fonder?

You see, my second epic trip to Iran (commenced circa September 2015) which was meant to last all of two months turned into a semi-permanent stay. I ended up not leaving and instead living here. In the interim, a whirlwind of activity ensued: I gave a TEDxTehran talk; I took a few cool trips (gastro, cultural and business) in Iran; I started a podcast series called the “Stories of Fig & Quince” (in Persian for the time being but moving forward I hope to do have an English version as well); AND, I ended up starting a digital media company (Zeerak Media) in Tehran! I mean, WHOA!

Throughout, I’ve wanted to share it ALL with you, every bit of it, every day, and yet, a body has just so much energy and yours truly is doing my best to stay afloat and play catch-up (while self-medicating with plenty of Persian pastry and such for the upkeep of spirit). It bears repeating that while absent from the blog’s website, I have been micro-blogging regularly and practically daily on Instagram and if so inclined, you could always follow my adventures there. Just saying!

To get warmed up and back in the blogging game, I thought I’d share a few photos of my very short yet truly memorable trip to the exotic, colorful, hospitable and entirely fascinating Persian Gulf region of Iran (or “jonoob” as we also call it here) circa February 2016.

The genesis of my trip was an invitation to attend a 3-day music festival in “Tiroor” (a small city an hour drive from Bandar Abbas, the main port of Persian Gulf.) The festival planners had set up local food and arts & crafts kiosks for the local artisans to show off and flaunt and vend their handiwork. The lady in the photo, a local artisan, is covering her face with something called a burqa. This is a type of hejab exclusive to the “bandari” women of this region, and it has become more or less defunct and prevails mostly as the custom of the  women who live in the small cities and villages in the region. There are many different types of burqa and each has a significance and signals the wearer’s status: married, widowed, young, old, bride. It is fascinating and yet too deep a subject for us to address except in this very harried and rather perfunctory way. (You can see a bunch of examples here.)

The traditional “bandari” clothing is very ornate, very cheerful, and boldly bright. There is nothing bashful or understated about the fashion, let’s say that straight up! The embroidery is called “golabatoon” and it is used on all the party and formal wear of the women. For example, a bride typically needs to have a trousseau of at least 20 outfits – tunic and leggings – all of which needs be embroidered and bejeweled by hand and it can take up to two weeks just to create one legging! It is a big and serious business, and the sweet lady featured here is one such much-in-demand artisan who meticulously embroiders these ornate designs on fabric.  She told me she was booked solid for a year!

During the 3 nights that I spent in Tiroor, I was hosted by a wonderful family, with 6 daughters and one son; each nicer and kinder and more hospitable than the next, and here are glimpses of the 2 youngest sisters with whom I spent the most time. As you may be able to tell from the photo, the leggings are a marvel of patterns and handiwork, and mind you, these leggings are the casual ones they wore for informal entertainment around the house!

Continuing with the dizzying yet pleasing plethora of the bold patterns abundant in the region, here we have a bowl of dry & crispy and somewhat spicy snack popular in the region that is called “pofak hendi” or alternatively “ajeel hendi” but it also has a very cute bandari nickname which unfortunately I no longer recall!

Now let’s discuss this photo! It brings back such wonderful memories! The cover photo  at the top of the page and this one is the documentation of the lovely and delicious breakfasts I was treated to every day by the very nice family who I mentioned hosted me during my 3 night stay in Tiroor. As you can spy with your little eye, the breakfast (served in a round tray as is the charming custom of Iran) included walnuts, sliced tomatoes, honey, taftoon bread, feta cheese and tea! It was such a nice and indulgent way to start the day. The lady of the house also made a tall stack of the small round soft bread you see in this tray in a little portable “tanoor” oven she had in the house. The sound you heard just now were a re-enactment of the squeals of joy I made when I was offered this bounty!

And let’s end with this still life of some of the souvenirs I brought back with me from this awesome trip. From top & clockwise: a really great book about the region written by a local female scholar; a red woolen burqa (older women wear this); a gold burqa (brides wear this); and a lovely bag of bandari mixed spices (cardamom, pepper, rose petals in the mix with other spices) that the locals use in everything from stews to seasoning fish and seafood.

OK, then! Hope this will do for a breaking-the-ice post after such a long absence and that you enjoyed it and that you’ve forgiven me a bit for going radio silent.

Meanwhile, for those of you who are farsizaban, I have a new podcast episode up narrating a tiny bit more of the story of the marvels of this trip to the Persian Gulf region of Iran. Do catch a listen and if you enjoy it, please do share the link with your friends. (Link!)

And now, it’s time to bid you a fond farewell. Thanks for sticking with me and I promise I shall be back soon with actual recipe posts (the food of the south and north of Iran is a revelation!) plus photo essays and travel stories. My intention is to start writing here regularly again. That is my fond hope and desire, and by golly, I shall do my best to fulfill it or bust.

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Unripe grape (“ghoreh”) and grapevine growing in Darband, Tehran.

Little Fateme with basket of fresh grape leaves | Tehran, Iran

It takes a village to stuff grape leaves! | Tehran, Iran

Yummy Persian grape leave dolmeh!

Hi and hope you all had a delicious Thanksgiving! We had a pretty snow day on Thanksgiving day here in Tehran and I was torn between feeling rapt with the enjoyment of it in the here-and-now and also acutely aware of the significance of the day and feeling distinctly homesick for friends and family on the other side of the ocean. Not to mention craving turkey and pumpkin pie and of course stuffing! Oh yummy yummy stuffing.  But actually do you know what edible thing it is that I truly and deeply miss the most? Avocados! Nice, ripe California avocados. Imported and home-grown avocados can be found here but they don’t look the same, don’t have the same texture and they definitely don’t taste the same. It’s a bit tragic. I daydream about daily gorging myself silly on avocados once I finally make a visit to the homestead. One of these days!

Anyhow, trying to get back in the blogging groove and figuring out where to pick up the much scattered thread of narrative. When in doubt, let’s go with a story and a recipe. In the last post I mentioned that I’ve started a digital marketing company called Zeerak. What I didn’t get to tell you is that Zeerak is one of several companies in a private accelerator slash incubator called MAPS. Now MAPS itself is outfitted in an old, traditional house with a big yard in the heights of “Darband” — a neighborhood in the north of Iran that is basically at the foot of the mountains.  Quite scenic.

Now another thing I can tell you is that this house is still also the residential home of the founder and the father of the founder of MAPS and in addition, a sweet hardworking family (husband, wife and 3 rambunctious children) also live here who take care of the house and the household and the yard and the family. Also 6 days a week, Aazam Khanum, the lady of the caretaker family, makes a delicious lunch for all of us ravenous and stressed out motley crew gang of the multiple startups of MAPS. Sometimes our headcount is 30 or more!  A veritable army! Yet every day at 1:30, lunch is served – nourishing and delicious and served with either salad or fresh herbs — and Aazam Khanum feeds our savage bunch with a graceful feast. (Using huge pots! I should document that one day as well.)

The spacious, multi-tiered and charming yard  of this equally charming house is home to a multitude of fruit trees. Winter came early this year and this week we’ve already had snow a few times but just a little while ago persimmons were ripening on the branches of trees; a few months ago there were black mulberries whose very juicy existence were in my mind a very convincing raison d’etre for being alive; and in early spring, the grapevine in the yard sported bright green leaves and clusters of unripe grape leaves.

Freshly picked and rinsed fresh grape leaves

As a food blogger, this was an opportunity not to be missed to make stuffed grape leaves (dolmeh ‘ye barg ‘e mo) and Aazam Khanum kindly obliged and agreed to make a big batch to feed our gang and also let me document her cooking and gave me her recipe. She is a sweet and spirited woman, with a open and friendly intelligent face. I truly wish I could share a few  photos but she adamantly prefers to stay away from the cameras. Luckily though, we can for sure show off the actual labor of her work, the beautiful dolme and share the recipe.

Fateme joon, delightful colleague, with tray of dolmeh

Aazam Khanum’s Handwritten Dolmeh Recipe

Stuffed Grape Leaves

• Servings: varies
• Time: A few hours
• Difficulty: moderate
• Print

• fresh grape leaves (we used 50, you can use more or less)
• 1 kilogram ground meat
• 1 -2 onions (finely chopped, or grated)
• 2 cups rice (cooked till al dente)
• 2 cups split pea (cooked till al dente(
• 1 kilogram of finely chopped mixture of fresh herbs (sweet fennel; leek, parsley, mint and basil); OR; 3/4 of cup dried mixture of these herbs
• 4 – 5 tablespoons of tomato paste (more or less to taste)
• turmeric, salt & pepper (seasoning to taste)
• 3 cup mixture of water, lemon juice and oil

Gently rinse the fresh grape leaves.  In a roomy pot stack the leaves — the smooth, soft side facing down (the veiny rough part facing the top) and fill the pot with 2 cups of water. Bring to a rapid boil and boil for 30 -60 seconds (or more or less, do a test) till the leaves soften and become pliable to touch. (Halfway through, you may have to use a spatula to re-position the stack upside down to avert overcooking the bottom layer and under-cooking the top layer of leaves.) Remove pot from heat, drain leaves, rinse with cold water to stop further cooking, drain again, spread leaves on a tray, leave to air dry.

In a roomy skillet, sautee onions. Next, add ground meat and sautee till cooked. Add rice and split peas and mix well again. Now add the herbs (fresh or dried) mix well and sautee, then add with the tomato paste and mix well. This is your stuffing mixture.

Take 2 fresh grape leaves, layered rough-side-up on top of each other, and place in the palm of your hands. Take a dollop of stuffing, place in the center of the leaves, and wrap the leaves around the stuffing. (You can make a cigar shape, or for an authentic Persian style dolmeh, you should try the pillow shape, as demonstrated in the video below.) Continue this process till you run out of either stuffing or grape leaves.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feFVQ5CqZZQ&w=518&h=322]

Line the bottom of a roomy pot with a layer of fresh grape leaves. Arrange the stuffed grape leaves – the open part of the wrapped bundle on the bottom – in the pot and layer on top of each other in a pyramid row. Add the lemon juice, water and oil mixture to the pot. (Note: if you end up with 3 layers of grape leaves in the pot, make sure the liquid reaches up to the 2nd level. If you end up with 2 layers of stuffed leaves, the liquid should reach only up to the 1st level.) Place a plate on top of the dolmeh to keep everything in place and close the pot’s lid. Cook on low-medium heat for an hour or two or longer till dolmeh is thoroughly cooked.

Layer a serving tray with fresh grape leaves as a decorative garnish. Arrange cooked grape leaves dolmeh in the tray. Serve with yogurt and soft bread. Yummy!

Make it, enjoy it, and nooshe jaan نوش جان!

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Yummy assortment of Persian pastry

Hi y’all! Remember me?  Of course not. I’ve been remiss and deserve not to have been missed.

Yadi. Yada. To break this dry spell I’m just going to share the photos that I have in the very first 3 rows of my photo library on my phone – without exercising judgement or discretion but hopefully not without some taste – and tell you the tale of each image.

By the way, yeah, I’m still in Iran and while we can never know the future I do plan to be here for the foreseeable part of it. Now let’s cut to the chase and check out the photos, starting with the very appetizing good-looking box of Persian pastries above which if you ever visit Iran and go to any city, big or small, you will see that every neighborhood boasts of at the very least a couple of pastry shops. The prevalence of pastry shops can be accounted for on one hand because Iranians have a sweet tooth and like to have a good time and indulge in sweet treats with tea, and for another, part of the Iranian culture and etiquette frowns on arriving empty handed and dictates showing up at the doorsteps of a host with a gift, often as not with a kilogram of these goodies. Oh goody!

Here’s a screen cap of my phone’s camera roll as proof so that you see I spoke the truth when saying I’m literally picking the first 3 rows of photos to blog about. A major bummer is that WordPress won’t let me post video files unless I fork over some money and I’m not in the mood to do so. The missing-in-action video (marked with green X in this pic) is a noisy but fun video showing a vignette of my street in the Amir Abad neighborhood in Tehran where I lived for a year. Once I resolve some technical difficulties I’ll upload and link to it on my YouTube channel where you can watch it and while there, you may find other videos to your liking from my slim but choice video uploads. For example, the one titled My Homesick Jourey to Iran. Part 1 is a fun one to watch.

OK, let’s move on to the next pic:

This is a total flash back photo for yours truly — harking to a year or so ago — when I was busy like a chicken without a head running a digital marketing company at M.A.P.S, one of the first private startup incubators in Tehran — an incubator housed in the actual family house of the founder and principal investor of the incubator. A caretaker family lived there as well – the kids always mixing with us – the father taking care of the office and the yard; and the mother made lovely homemade lunches for the whole gang of the employees of the various startups.  This photo captures the tantalizing dish of macaroni tadig! Iranians love tadig so much we even make tadig with pasta! I ADORE this dish! If the pasta is just the right amount of succulent and the tadig part is just thick and crunchy enough, nothing tastes better. Macaroni tadig might be on my “last meal” list. A quite likely & choice candidate.

This next photo harkens to a get-together with 2 friends. We met up at a cafe in Tajrish Square – a northern neighborhood in Tehran – and looks like we ordered cantaloupe and watermelon juice. As you may know, alcoholic drinks are not served in Iran and that has led to the prevalence of cafes (as opposed to bars) as hubs of “happy hour” and informal hobnobbing and after work socializing. The cafes in Tehran, and increasingly in other major cities in Iran, are often quite cool, modern and with a fun vibe & ambiance – and where in addition to trendy caffeinated beverages one finds eclectic types of non-alcoholic libations to pick from.

This photo which makes me smile is a flashback still-life of notes decorated with cherry pits – a vignette from the work desk of Fati, aka @wiredCherry2.  Ha ha! True to her nom-de-plume. Fati was the very first fellow Zeerak and the two of us were partners in crime and soldiered on through thick and thin and enjoyed many adventures and survived many mishaps together. The trials, tribulations and joys and pains of a startup in Iran. Again: Ha ha. I have to laugh and I am now thinking that I should write about this chapter of my life sometime. Maybe. Anyhow, if you’ve been reading along, you may remember Fati from the recipe posts of making grape leaves dolmeh and sharbat albaloo as well.

In this photo I was snapped unawares at an event for Crowdsourcing Week in Tehran by Nooshafarin Movafagh, who is a very talented photographer in addition to being a full time content creator at an agency and she also volunteers at cool events like TEDxTehran, etc.

Noosha, who I now count as a dear friend, also co-runs the Humans of Tehran — which you should totally check out. Photographic evidence indicates that instead of following the talk, I’m distracted, frowning and doing something or other on the phone. Something urgent I’m sure. Ah, the lure of the digital world.

Aside from banks, real estate agencies, delis and dried goods shops (known as “ajeel foroshi”) you will always easily find plenty of fruit and vegetable shops in every street in Iran. Iranian fruit vendors have their very own distinct style of offering their goods, generally opting to arrange the fruits in a mountain-top or pyramid type of shape. (Not really evident in this photo but true -take my word and I’ll try to offer photographic evidence later on as well.) In any event, care is usually taken to present fruits in a pleasing visual manner.

I have no idea when or where exactly I took shot, but it was somewhere in Tehran, & sometime in the summer judging by the fruits on display like grapes and cherries and peaches. And that’s all I have to say about this particular photograph.

Like I said in the paragraph above, you will be hard pressed not to easily find a pastry shop or dried goods store in any neighborhood in any part of Iran. And in this photo we have just a sliver of what’s possible to find at an “ajeel foroshi”–  an establishment devoted to selling things like dried goods and mixed nuts, saffron, candy, chocolate gift boxes and a a whole host of other sundry goods in the same vein.

In this photo from left to right we have dried apricots, dried plums in the middle (don’t know what those little reddish square-shaped edibles are, but on top of those you can catch a glimpse of Kooloocheh pastries)  and on the the right we have noghl, a type of Persian nibble-candy, made from almond slivers covered with hard coat of sugar candy, created in different shapes and sizes. Noghl has a very celebratory connotation as customarily a mixture of noghl and coin is a type of Persian wedding confetti that guests would shower the bride and groom .

In this photo, we have my cousin’s coffee table, laid out in a very traditional Persian-style of hostessing etiquette — with a visually pleasing and delectable array of treats ranging from a dish of fruits; a bowl of ajeel (mixed nuts and trail mix, persian style); biscuits; a lidded candy dish containing the aforementioned noghl candy nibbles. The remotes are also a throwback to ancient Persia.  Ha ha. Kidding, of course!  Just a little Persian food blogging humor.

Speaking of humor, let’s end on that note and bookend this ice-breaking long-time-no-see post with the visual and visceral yummy treat of Persian pastries. Between us, I confess this photo is making my mouth water and I’m harboring thoughts of making a mad dash to the neighborhood pastry shop. Consequences be damned! Very tempting. Hmmmm.

Anyway, friends, hope to chat with you sooner than later. I’m afraid to make any promises or declarations of intent, but I do hope to be back in the blogging groove and start writing recipe posts again as well.

Hope you liked this post and till soon!

This is another teaser post! As in, I’m teasing you with what’s to come! That is:
A grassroots effort by a veritable tribe of us Persian food writers (from across the globe) to bring to you a recipe-roundup in honor and celebration of Mehregan, the ancient Persian autumnal festival of thanksgiving and love! Doesn’t that sound exciting and delicious? The participants are talented and passionate and the Persian festival of Mehregan itself is intrinsically pretty and interesting; so I’m optimistic that this will prove to be a major treat for us all! Stay tuned as we blast off our Mehregan Persian food recipe posts on October 9th! Won’t you? (Hashtag Mehregan2014 if you want to play and follow along!)

What do I have in store for you in my Mehregan recipe post, you ask? Well, You’ll have to wait till Thursday to find out, but, I will drop some major hints by name dropping some of the ingredients: plums, prunes, noodles, Persian-style caramelized onions (piyaz dagh), walnuts, rice, a peacock, raisins, rice, and everything nice. And if you just raised an eyebrow, that’s good, I was just testing to see if you were paying attention!
I can’t wait to share my Mehregan post with you and I’m so looking forward to reading all the other writers’ posts for their insight, research, and delectable recipes for toothsome Persian treats. There’s going to be so much good cooking!
And you know what? I’m just so happy that thousands of years later and an ocean away, here we are, a bunch of us Iranians (hyphenated or half as we may be) paying homage to, exploring, and sharing our ancients roots, farhang and heritage. This is a heritage rooted in ensaniyat (humanity) and eshg (love) — as I partially quote a brand new and already very dear friend — and as such, I hope you will find it something that’s not just waxing nostalgic by “others”, but a celebration of the universal themes of  beauty, bounty, thanksgiving, respect and reverence of nature, and love – things that bind, unite and nurture us all.

Khoda Hafez till our delicious Mehregan rendez-vous on Thursday October 9th!

#Mehregan2014

“@NIACouncil Anthony Bourdain: #Persians are the nicest people in the world
متشکریم آقای بوردین٬ خوبی از خودتونه! pic.twitter.com/6ZJi0A95k5”

— NousheJan (@NousheJan) July 25, 2014

Let’s start part 2 of the Persian nooks and crannies of cyberspace (see here for part 1 and the series’ mission statement) with Anthony Bourdain – the chef and food critic bar none who visited Iran this past spring. Very much look forward to seeing this episode when it airs.
Before continuing, let’s please note that all of the images in this post are scoured from social media sites and are live links — just hover the mouse over the image and/or the handle name. I encourage you to click and go right to the source to explore and follow their content!


 

A completed work by Elahe, which combines tazhib and gol morghi patterns (flowers & birds). #Iran pic.twitter.com/HiDXXxILdW

— Dirt Road (@pedestrian) September 16, 2014

Artwork by the Iranian artist Elahe Shahbani. So beautiful! I can’t stop gazing at it.

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Travelers carrying their luggage to #Ramsar Old Hotel. #Mazandaran, #Iran. Photo by Maryam Fatourchian @maryam_fatourchian #everydayiran مسافران در حال حمل بار و بنهِ سفرشان به داخل هتل قدیم #رامسر. #مازندران، #ایران. عکاس: مریم فتورچیان

A post shared by Everyday Iran (@everydayiran) on Sep 7, 2014 at 4:56am PDT

Ramsar Hotel in the northern region (‘shomal’) of Iran in the Caspian sea region. If not for the telltale sign of women wearing the hijab, I would have mistaken the mood and architecture for that of a sleepy European town.

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At the tomb of Iranian mathematician, astronomer and poet, Omar Khayyam. She wanted the kids to line up neatly for a photo. They just wanted to run around. Better than most they understand Khayyam's words: Alike for those who for today prepare, And those that after some tomorrow stare, A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries: "Fools! Your reward is neither Here nor There."

A post shared by @ many_roads_ on Sep 5, 2014 at 3:43pm PDT

An Iranian mom lining up her kids for a photo op at the tomb of Omar Khayyam, the Iranian mathematician, astronomer and poet.

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Spot the little foodie! @samanehalaei

A post shared by Leilee (Cafe Leilee) (@cafeleilee) on Sep 19, 2014 at 8:35pm PDT

A little Persian foodie! Growing up in an awesome foodie Persian family must be so nice!

http://instagram.com/p/tE16-CTgGT/?modal=true

The courtyard of the Grand Bazaar, in Tehran. The Grand Bazaar was one of my favorite places to explore when I was in Tehran. I barely scratched the surface.

Gifs frm #Tabriz 4 #AutumnSolstice Will feast on nuts,drink chai & burn wild rue whilst reading #Daryabandari pic.twitter.com/ecdaNthsKG

— Simi's Kitchen (@SimisKitchen) September 22, 2014

One of my favorite Persian food bloggers having herself a cozy, lovely time with yummy Persian snacks and the 2 volume masterpiece cookbook of Mr. Najaf Daryabandari.

John Simpson: Iran is the most charming country on Earth – http://t.co/wV9aEaljvv pic.twitter.com/pjnKcfnQIV

— Digital Resistance (@dgtlresistance) September 10, 2014

Iran is definitely a poetic and charming country. A whole bunch of you are entirely cynical of this pronouncement, I know, but it’s true. I mean, would a British dude write in a UK publication that Iran is the most charming country on Earth were it not true?

Perhaps we can contemplate the veracity of this point over the weekend. These are turbulent times that feel dark and ominous, but let’s all have a beautiful weekend, focusing on good things and light, and let’s send some positive energy into this awesome and awful world of ours.