Ghormeh Sabzi

I have been debating whether to post this recipe or not. Not because it isn’t a great recipe, but because it is not very typical of me to use short-cuts. I don’t bake cakes from a box, I make my own sweet-and-sour sauce, and so on. But this time around I must confess I used a short-cut, actually two: dehydrated vegetables and canned beans. Still, it was delicious and combined with the meat being prepared in my pressure cooker, this made for a totally non-time-consuming, mid-week dinner.

Plain Persian Rice and Tah-dig

If you’ve had Persian rice you know how amazing and how worth the extra time for making it is. Not only is the rice wonderful but there are no words to describe the crunchy, buttery crust (tah-dig) that forms on the bottom of the pan.

Eggplant Khoresh (Khoresh-e Bademjan)

My parents have been together for 47 years. My Persian father was working and living in Brazil when he met my Brazilian mother all those years ago. I grew up in Brazil and only visited Iran once. Even though I was very young at the time I still remember some things very clearly. My most vivid food memory of Iran was eating Kabab Koubideh at the local bazaar. I can still remember the fragrance and amazing taste of the Koubideh and the fluffy, saffron-steamed rice full of butter served with egg yolk on top. Perhaps this is where my obsession with rice began. My mother, being the amazing woman she is, helped bring a little of Iran back into our Brazilian home by frequently cooking my father's favorite Persian dishes.