The Recipe - Iranian Saffron Rice

 Iranian Saffron Rice

 As Shadi Towfighi from Iran taught Lindsay Sterling in Bath, Maine in 2009.

7 Tbsp ghee

1 ½ cup basmati rice

salt

1 cup plain yogurt

1 tsp saffron

1 egg

canola oil

Soak rice in salted water for three hours. 

In a large pot, bring 2 quarts of water to a boil, add rice and bring back to boil. 

Crush saffron with mortar and pestle into a powder. 

In a small pot, heat 5 Tbsp ghee with saffron on low until color turns gold.

Into a heavy pot with lid (Le Creuset works well) add two tablespoons ghee and enough canola oil to cover the bottom. Turn the heat up to high. Add plain yogurt and one whole egg, mix. Add strained rice (it's boiled for a bit, but not not cooked all the way). 

Flatten the rice without mixing, and drizzle the saffron-ghee over the top. Turn heat to low. Cover the casserole dish with its lid wrapped in a towel (to keep the water vapor from dripping back down into the rice), and simmer 20 minutes. Use a thin metal spatula to include some of thecrispy bottom with each serving.

Serve with Iranian eggplant.

Copyright Lindsay Sterling 2009 

The Recipe - Iranian Eggplant

Iranian Eggplant Stew

As Shadi Towfighi from Iran taught Lindsay Sterling in Bath, Maine.

Serves 4-6

1 c. dried yellow split peas

Organic Canola oil

½ yellow onion, sliced

1 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp black pepper

21/2 c. basic tomato sauce

1 ½ Tbsp tamarind paste

4 small eggplants

4 tomatoes, green or red

Soak rinsed split yellow peas and rice in separate bowls for four hours. 

Two and a half hours before dinnertime, peel eggplant, slice into quarters lengthwise, and salt generously all sides. 

Cover bottom of a heavy pot with canola oil, sauté onion until edges crisp, and add drained split yellow peas. Add turmeric, tomato sauce, and tamarind paste (mixed into 2 cups water). Stir periodically, adding water to moisten to stew consistency, for two hours or until peas become soft. 

Thirty minutes before serving, heat ½ inch of oil in a large heavy fry pan. Dry eggplant pieces with a towel and fry each side until deeply golden, draining the finished pieces of eggplant in a strainer over a plate. 

Slice tomatoes in half and fry until soft and golden. Place eggplant and tomatoes on top of stew. Serve with crispy saffron rice.

Copyright Lindsay Sterling 2009

The Story

Iranian Eggplant Stew

By Lindsay Sterling

I went to the Kismet Inn a couple blocks from the water in downtown Bath, Maine, to learn how to cook the innkeeper’s Iranian eggplant stew. Shadi Towfighi greeted me. Her shoulder length, wavy, gray and black hair surrounded her round face. She offered me slippers and glass of tea brewed with cardamom. “Yes,” she said, as we headed toward the kitchen, “I was born in Iran.” She pronounced it, ee-RON. She lived there until she was thirteen. Then she went to boarding school in England, and has lived most of the rest of her life in the United States.

She’d begun cooking long before I arrived. On the counter were bowls of rice and yellow split peas soaking in water, and a bowl of homemade tomato sauce, which she’d made from organic farm tomatoes (sun-drenched on her porch for weeks “for more vitamin C”), cooked on low with garlic, black pepper, and a mix of thyme, oregano and dill. She opened a spice jar and gave me a whiff of her homegrown herb blend. My sinuses awoke. And so our cooking session went, moment by moment revealing detail, after detail of care.

            While the stew simmered we talked. To my surprise she said, “Women [in Iran] are doctors, engineers, dancers, firefighters, taxi drivers, chefs, restaurant owners, writers, bookshop owners.” She continued, “Brilliant Iranian women and men write. It’s a profound old culture, that’s what it is.” In decorating the inn, Towfighi has combined colorful weavings and a filigreed silver tea set from her mother’s dowry with African textiles and contemporary art and furniture by local artisans: two painters, a woodworker, and a blacksmith. The result is surprisingly serene, clean, and profoundly refreshing.

We finished with a feast. China on a white tablecloth displayed an earthy brown mix of pickled scallions, shallots, and green beans, bright yellow saffron rice with a crispy bottom, and fresh garden cucumber salad with onion and tomato. The main dish was a gorgeous golden tumble of chunks of shallow-fried green tomato and eggplant on a reddish gold stew.

Copyright Lindsay Sterling 2009