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The author learned to make chicken stews such as this morgh-e torsh when she visited Iran. .Photo: Eric Wolfinger
If I didn’t look so much like my dad’s side of the family, I may have never visited Iran. My father grew up in Tehran but left decades ago, and has never returned. Growing up, my tenuous connection consisted mainly of hearing my father speak to relatives on the phone in the upward-arcing cadences of Farsi, and gathering with other Iranians each spring in the Philadelphia suburbs to celebrate the Persian New Year, Nowruz.
I dreamed of visiting Iran but it felt like a dead-end dream. There were years of challenges with citizenship and paperwork—and resistance from my dad. Finally in 2014, there I was, getting off a plane in Tehran. It was mid-May, the time of year called ordibehesht, “month of Heaven,” because the weather is so fine and everything is in bloom.
That first day, I joined a gaggle of cousins on a trip to the Tajrish Bazaar to gather ingredients for that evening’s feast. Vendors lined the passageways of the cavernous bazaar, each with their name marked above in white Arabic script against blue mosaic tiles. There were fresh white mulberries, round yellow dates still on the stem and bags of freshly shelled fava beans. I learned how to ask, “May I take a picture?” in Farsi, and the vendors bemusedly obliged.
When we sat down to feast, the table was heavy with plates of food—rice with fava beans, dill and hunks of lamb on the bone; a platter of herbs with feta and radishes; lavash from the bakery downstairs; and pickled vegetables so sour they made me blink. Everyone filled their plates and found a perch on the couches and chairs around the room.
After dinner, Parvaneh broke out photo albums from the ’60s, with everyone looking young and chic, posed on the roof of the old family home in Tehran. There were pictures of my dad, brown and angular, in front of the white house with grapevines winding down the wall behind him. She had pictures of my sister and me as kids in Philadelphia that I had never seen: I was just discovering these members of my family, but they had known about me all along.
Cucumber & Pomegranate Salad (Salad-e Khiar-o Anar)Salad-e Khiar-o Anar (Cucumber & Pomegranate Salad)Yogurt with Beets (Borani Chogondar)Yogurt with Beets (Borani Chogondar)Grilled Liver Kebabs (Jigar)Grilled Liver Kebabs (Jigar)Chicken Stew with Green Herbs & Citrus (Morgh-e Torsh)The author learned to make chicken stews such as this morgh-e torsh when she visited Iran.Eric WolfingerMorgh-e Torsh (Chicken Stew with Green Herbs & Citrus)Persian Rice Pie (Tah Chin)Persian Rice Pie (Tah Chin)
Cucumber & Pomegranate Salad (Salad-e Khiar-o Anar)Salad-e Khiar-o Anar (Cucumber & Pomegranate Salad)
Cucumber & Pomegranate Salad (Salad-e Khiar-o Anar)
Salad-e Khiar-o Anar (Cucumber & Pomegranate Salad)
Yogurt with Beets (Borani Chogondar)Yogurt with Beets (Borani Chogondar)
Yogurt with Beets (Borani Chogondar)
Grilled Liver Kebabs (Jigar)Grilled Liver Kebabs (Jigar)
Grilled Liver Kebabs (Jigar)
Chicken Stew with Green Herbs & Citrus (Morgh-e Torsh)The author learned to make chicken stews such as this morgh-e torsh when she visited Iran.Eric WolfingerMorgh-e Torsh (Chicken Stew with Green Herbs & Citrus)
Chicken Stew with Green Herbs & Citrus (Morgh-e Torsh)
The author learned to make chicken stews such as this morgh-e torsh when she visited Iran.Eric Wolfinger
Morgh-e Torsh (Chicken Stew with Green Herbs & Citrus)
Persian Rice Pie (Tah Chin)Persian Rice Pie (Tah Chin)
Persian Rice Pie (Tah Chin)
Louisa Shafia is the author of the award-winning cookbook The New Persian Kitchen.
This article first appeared in the September/October 2018 issue of EatingWell magazine.
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