I grew up with Persian food. My aunt is one of the best cooks I have ever known, and the entire family fights over her sofreh for that last piece of tah-dig. But moving to Canada and then California, and being far from family meant not being able to enjoy all that delicious Persian food.
I had to learn how to make Ghormeh Sabzi, and Gheimeh, how to make a juicy Lambshank dish, and how make the perfect rice and tah-dig. But, I didn’t have my aunt to walk me through the process or give me her secret recipes.
I stumbled upon this magnificent book that has truly traditional recipes and the process around how to nail them.
Food of Life - By Najmieh Batmanglij
The advice:
With everything, making great food requires patience and practice. It took me 30+ tries to nail the tah-dig just right. I had a pencil and notepad and would jot down they details of stove setting and timings and pots used and finally I got the perfect color and crispy-ness.
Persian dishes are not quick dishes, they often need a slow cook time of 2-3 hrs on the stove. The dish needs planning. That’s why Iranian homes around 9-10AM in the morning smells amazing as the rice is on the stove ‘daming’ and the khoresh is just starting its slow simmer; being prepared for lunch at 1PM.
The khoresh (the Persian equivalent of the western stew or the indian curry) requires a dutch oven to come out just right.
The Tah-dig needs a good quality non stick pot and a ‘sholeh-pakhshkon’ (fire spreader). This is to distribute the heat from the stove evenly across the bottom of the pot to get a nice consistent tah-dig.
Noosheh Jan,
(may it pleasure your soul)