The surprising thing about Persian food

By Prudence Wade

It’s absolutely no coincidence that Sabrina Ghayour’s latest cookbook is all about ease.

She wrote Persiana Everyday during some major life changes: she had just become a stepmother to two young boys, and the new family were thrust into lockdown as the pandemic began.

Writing her new cookbook, she says, was a very different experience. “I was previously unattached, not married, no kids, and then I wrote it with two stepsons whilst homeschooling. It was some kind of hell, but I think that’s why it became the ‘easy’ book.”

Having spent most of her life in London (she left Tehran during the Iranian revolution in 1979), the 45-year-old chef now lives in Yorkshire with her husband Stephen, and two stepsons.

While Ghayour admits it’s a “miracle” the book got written, she’s full of pride for her work.

When she wrote her first book, Persiana, in 2014, she says: “Nobody knew me – I was writing a book of recipes I really wanted to put out there, whereas now I think [of the recipes in her new book] this definitely doesn’t need that last sprinkle of whatever, or those nuts really didn’t make much of a difference, so I’ll leave them out.

“Simple, economical, flavourful” – are the three things Ghayour says she wants to deliver to people in her cooking. “So I’m constantly trying to strip back ingredients where I can, because it’s cheaper – and coinciding with what the heck is happening in the world, that’s not a bad thing.”

Ultimately, Ghayour has a sense of humour about her food – and she wants to take the pressure off everyone who tries her recipes. That’s why she focuses on “flexibility”, she says, as well as “giving people a sense of freedom and a sense of confidence, knowing that if they didn’t have extract of squirrel’s toenails or whatever, it’s fine. They can just use carrots – we’re all human.”

This is Ghayour’s sixth cookbook, but that doesn’t mean she’s completely fearless in the kitchen.

“If you gave me your grandma’s apple cake recipe, of course I’m going to be bricking it, because I want to get it right, I want to do it justice, I’m not familiar with it… It isn’t my own domain of the way I cook.”

But Persian food is her specialism and she’s spent much of her career giving the cuisine a bigger platform – but there are still plenty of misconceptions about it, she says.

“It’s nothing like Middle Eastern food,” Ghayour points out. “We don’t really class ourselves as Middle Eastern, and we don’t like to be labelled as Middle Eastern… They [Persians] just think of themselves as a whole separate tribe.

“And, in a way, I can understand that, because we were not impacted by Arab cuisine, we were not impacted or conquered by Ottoman cuisine and Empire… I can understand that sort of arrogance to protect what is truly Persian.

“We were responsible for selling many of our ingredients far and wide through the Silk Roads. The one thing I always want people to know – and they are shocked by it – is Persians don’t use spice. We harvest 92 per cent of the world’s saffron, and that’s it. There might be a pinch of cumin seeds in like one rice recipe, and there endeth our use of spices. Mind blowing, isn’t it?”

This is the real difference between Persian and Middle Eastern cuisines. Middle Eastern is packed full of bold, spiced flavours, but she says: “Persians only use herbs, citrus and tomato as a flavour base.” That’s why she calls it “a fantastic place to start” for new cooks, as Persian food is much simpler.

She even draws comparisons between Persian food and the delicacies of her home in Yorkshire. “We have this unfair labelling of the north of England, that it’s meat and potatoes” – but Persian food is similar and it isn’t necessarily a negative, she says. “That’s the great thing [with Persian food], it marries so well with traditional cultures, because we like our meat cooked all the way through, but we slow cook it – we like our stews, we like plain rice, whereas let’s say in England, it might be potato.

“So there are a lot of similarities, it’s only when you go to the Arab Middle East that things are vastly different. That’s the thing I probably want people to know – if I could say something, I’d be like, ‘Hey, Persians are not big lovers of spice’.”

 

Tahini cinnamon swirls recipe

(Makes 12)

 

1 x 320g ready-rolled puff pastry sheet

4–5tbsp tahini (make sure it’s not too thin, and avoid using excess oil)

3tbsp golden granulated sugar

2tsp ground cinnamon

 

Preheat the oven to 200C (180C fan), gas mark 6. Line a large baking tray with baking paper.

Lay the pastry sheet on your work surface.

Mix the tahini with the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Spread the mixture evenly all over the pastry sheet, leaving a two centimetre clear border along one long edge. Starting from the opposite long edge, roll up the pastry tightly.

Cut the roll into four, then cut each section into three equal slices. Lay the slices with the swirl facing up on the lined tray, spaced slightly apart, and flatten each one gently. Bake for 20–22 minutes until nicely browned on top. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the tray before serving.

 

Persiana Everyday by Sabrina Ghayour is available now