Takes: 30 minutes
Makes: Dinner for 2 adults, or more with other dishes
Ingredients
Saffron herb frittata
6 eggs
100 g fresh herbs, such as dill, parsley, coriander, fennel, tarragon, basil, tarragon
100 g spinach
1 leek
2 cloves garlic
3 spring onions (around 75 g)
1 t saffron or 1 t tumeric
1/2 t fenugreek seeds
salt and pepper
1 T cooking oil (sunflower or canola)
Fresh herb platter
Generous handfuls of fresh herbs, such as dill, fennel, coriander and parsley
50 g walnut halves
1 block feta
olive oil
lemon juice
Cheat’s Iranian rice
120 g basmati rice (or ~60 g uncooked rice per person)
30 g dried barberries (zereshk)
1/2 t olive oil
1/2 t saffron threads or 1/2 t tumeric
chopped fresh herbs (optional)
Method
Cook rice, ideally in a rice cooker or pressure cooker that will trap the steam. Add water to around 1 cm above the rice. Cooking time will be ~15 minutes (this will vary depending on cooking method, and whether you use brown or white rice). Leave with lid on to keep steaming in pot until ready to serve.
Slice leeks, garlic and spring onions and add to frying pan with a splash of cooking oil. Allow to cook gently on a low to medium heat for around 10 minutes, stirring regularly, or until the leek is cooked.
Meanwhile, wash the herbs you wish to use for the frittata and the platter, then dry gently with a tea-towel or salad spinner. Chop frittata herbs finely.
Grind saffron and fenugreek seeds in a mortar and pestle. Add 1/2 t hot water to the mortar and scrape down edges with a spatula to ensure you catch all the saffron.
Crack eggs into a large and beat well with a whisk. Add saffron and fenugreek water, pepper and salt and the chopped herbs. Mix well.
Finely chop spinach, add to frying pan and cook for a further 5 minutes, or until the liquid has evaporated.
Tip the spinach and leek mix from the frying pan into the egg bowl and stir quickly.
Re-oil the frying pan, then carefully pour in the egg mixture. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until cooked through. If desired, you can finish this off under the grill.
For the herb platter: arrange remaining herbs whole on a platter, with walnut halves (ideally freshly cracked) and a block of feta if desired. Top with drizzled olive oil and lemon juice.
For the Iranian rice: Take the dried barbarries (zereshk) and place in a second frying pan with a little oil for around 1 minute until warmed. Then add a little hot water so they become plump. Grind up 1/2 t saffron threads in a mortar and pestle and then add 1 T hot water to get all remaining saffron flavours.
To serve, tip the frittata out onto a plate and then place it onto your herb platter, green side up. Fluff up the rice, folding in your saffron water and half of the barberries. Put onto a plate or bowl for serving and top with remaining barberries, a few extra saffron threads and some fresh chopped herbs or tarragon leaves. Serve with flatbreads if desired.
The story behind the recipe…
Nosing around in speciality grocery stores is such a treat. I still remember the excitement when an Indian store opened in the small town I grew up in. Until then, the only spices we had access to came from the supermarket, anaesthetised in tiny glass tubes. At the Indian store, there were whole bulk bins of spices, you could go in with a scoop and fill your own bag up. I still remember the smell when you walked into that store, the overpowering mix of the spices mingling with samosas that were cooked fresh in the back, pockets of pea and potato and spicy gravy in pastry, the smell of dust and heat.
Suffice to say, there was no Iranian speciality store where I grew up. I had no concept of Iranian food. For that, I had to move to Paris. And when I did, I became a semi-regular in Paris’ little Iran. Okay, no-one actually calls it Little Iran as far as I’m aware. It is so little that, if you were not paying attention, you might cycle right on by and miss it. But on Rue de Entrepreneurs in the 15th, not far from the Eiffel Tower, you’ll find a few speciality shops and Iranian restaurants clustered together. I’ve included a picture of the Bazartche grocery store above, but check-out Sepide and Eskan as well. In those stores, you can find ingredients that are hard to find anywhere else (a quick google tells me there are speciality Iranian shops in Leiden and Amsterdam in The Netherlands, but I can’t vouch for these).
Why go to an Iranian specialty store, you are asking? Why, my friend, to buy zereshk. These dried barberries are a feature of Iranian cuisine. They are tart and bright red and bring joy to every plate. If you can’t find them, substitute with chopped dried cranberries, currants or dried cherries, soaking them in lemon juice or pomegranate molasses to give them some of the same sour quality.
Why else would you go to an Iranian grocery store? Why, to buy saffron, dried rose petals, green pistachio flakes, dates, dried mint, dried limes, industrial quantities of tahini, unleavened, paper thin unleavened flatbreads, pomegranates, fresh figs, rose water, orange water, pomegranate molasses, date syrup (it should really be called date molasses because it is that thick and sticky and sweet) and halva if you’re an addict like I am. They will usually also sell things like za’atar and sumac and lots of different spices, good things to buy in small quantities so that you can use them up while they’re still fresh and packed full of flavour. You can often also buy fresh herbs in generous quantities, because, as we have seen, Iranian cuisine is bold about the quantity of herbs it is willing to use.
I sourced my herbs from our local greengrocer, but markets are also a great place to buy them. I was particularly excited to find tarragon. As I wrote about last week, it feels almost as if I discovered tarragon for the first time while we were in Paris and I’ve been thinking a lot about how to include it more in my cooking, so I included it in the mix of herbs in the frittata and used it to top the rice. It may seem strange at first to eat herbs whole, but you will soon get into it, breaking off pieces of feta with your fingers and wrapping herbs around it, balancing a freshly-cracked walnut on top, or folding the whole lot into some flatbread with a chunk of frittata. On balance, I found the platter works best with slightly gentler herbs like dill, fennel, coriander and parsley. Tarragon, basil and mint are all wonderful, but they’re a bit overpowering in large quantities. Keep the mint for tea, along with fresh lemon verbena if you can find it.
Iranian food has a bad rap among veggies for being a meat-heavy cuisine. But there are so many wonderful vegetarian Iranian dishes, including the ones I’ve given versions of here, drawing inspiration from Yasmin Khan’s wonderful (but not vegetarian) cookbook The Saffron Tales: Recipes from the Persian Kitchen. A herb-heavy fritatta, or kuku sabzi (sounds way better in Persian than in English, sabzi is such a great word for herbs), given a beautiful golden colour and subtle, earthy flavour by the saffron; a fresh herb platter or sabzi ghordan, which can also be served with baby cucumbers, radishes or baby capsicums; and Iranian rice, which is a very simplified version of zereshk polo. These dishes would also go wonderfully with a shirazi salad, a simple mix of chopped tomatoes, red capsicum, cucumber and spring onion or red onion, all cut to size with herbs, and a pomegranate molasses dressing. If you are game for making some lavash or you manage to find some, these wonderfully thin breads, which are a staple of Armenian cuisine, would round out any Iranian banquet.
For some of my other favourite vegetarian Iranian recipes, check out:
Ottolenghi’s recipe for saffron rice with mixed herbs (a more elaborate version of zereshk polo). You can also try to make a tahdig, which can be a little tricky but is an absolute triumph when it succeeds.
Meera Sodha’s vegan Persian herb, dried lime and kidney bean stew (ghormeh sabzi).
The Iranian Vegan’s recipe for a vegan pomegranate molasses and walnut stew with mushrooms (khoresht fesenjoon). Eating fesenjoon is almost like eating chocolate. I would describe it as an Iranian version of the Mexican mole, with its balance of sweet and sour. It is dark brown and thick and eating it alongside the fresh herb platter allows you to break up the heaviness with some fresh, spicy herbs. While I’ve only cooked this a few times I’m always so happy to see vegetarian versions on the menu in Iranian restaurants.
Finally, for dessert, think of this classic gluten-free orange cake from Claudia Roden. It is one of my long-time favourite recipes, for its sheer simplicity and flavour, but be careful not to serve it to people who don’t like oranges or almonds… Upon serving it to one Dutchie, I was met with an immediate, strong and surprised “Wow, I do not like this”. Turns out he hates almonds. Ah, yes, trust the Dutch to tell it how it is. To give the cake an Iranian twist, once cool, top it with a stiff orange zest and rose water icing and sprinkle some dried rose petals and pistachio on top. Or try Yasmin Khan’s traditional Iranian love cake.
Thanks for reading, as always!
Amelia