CRISPY DELICIOUSNESS: A specialty from Iran. |
I went to the Kismet Inn a couple blocks from the water in downtown Bath to learn how to cook the innkeeper’s Iranian eggplant stew. Shadi Towfighi greeted me, offering me slippers and a 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 13, at which point she went to boarding school in England; she 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 more details than I can possibly record.
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, 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.
Lindsay Sterling can be reached at lindsay@lindsaysterling.com.
Shadi Towfighi’s eggplant stew
Serves 4-6
1 cup dried yellow split peas
Organic canola oil
half a yellow onion, sliced
1 teaspoon turmeric
half-teaspoon black pepper
2.5 cups basic tomato sauce
1.5 tablespoons 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 the eggplant, slice it into quarters lengthwise, and salt generously all sides. Cover the bottom of a heavy pot with canola oil, sauté the onion until the edges are 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 half an inch of oil in a large heavy fry pan. Dry the eggplant pieces with a towel and fry each side until deeply golden, draining the finished pieces in a strainer over a plate. Slice the tomatoes in half and fry until soft and golden. Place eggplant and tomatoes on top of stew. Serve with crispy saffron rice (the online version of this article shows that recipe).
You don’t have to stay at the inn to eat there ($60-80 per person), but believe me, you’ll want to. Spa services, tea, and yoga are also tempting à la carte. Rooms are $255.
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Crispy-bottomed saffron rice
7 tablespoons ghee or clarified butter
1.5 cups basmati rice
salt
1 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon saffron
1 egg
canola oil
Soak rice in salted water for three hours. Fill a four-quart pot halfway with water, bring to a boil, add rice (with soaking water) and bring back to boil. Crush the saffron with mortar and pestle into a powder. In a small pot, heat 5 tablespoons ghee with saffron on low until color turns gold. Into a heavy iron casserole dish (one with a 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, and mix. Add strained rice (boiled, but not yet fully cooked) to the casserole dish. Flatten without mixing, and drizzle 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 for 20 minutes. Use a thin metal spatula to get the crispy bottom with each serving.
