Family Journey
Hamadan, IranTehranJerusalem
Los Angeles
3 recipes
Eggplant Tachin (Persian Baked Rice With Eggplant)
6-8 servings1 h and 30 min + baking
Ingredients
For the tachin and filling
- 3 tablespoons avocado oil, plus more for frying
- 4 onions, diced
- 2 large bulb eggplants or 4-5 long Italian eggplants (about 3 pounds)
- 1 ½ cups basmati rice, rinsed
- 3 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ¾ teaspoon rose water
- ½ teaspoon saffron, bloomed in 3 tablespoons of hot water
- 3 egg yolks
- Juice of ½ lemon
For the barberry mixture
- 1 ½ tablespoons butter or non-dairy butter like Earth Balance
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- ¼ teaspoon rose water (optional)
- 1 ½ cup barberries
For assembly and garnish
- Cooking spray
- ½ cup slivered pistachios
- Dried rose buds (optional)
Cook
Hamadani Gondi Berenji (Meatballs With Rice and Prunes)
10-12 servings1 h and 45 min
Ingredients
For the gondi
- ¾ cup basmati rice, rinsed well and drained
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil
- ½ tablespoon cumin seeds
- 1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
- ¾ teaspoon black pepper
- 5 pitted prunes
- 3-4 teaspoons water, or as needed
For the soup
- ¼ cup avocado oil
- 3 skinless whole chicken legs
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
- 2 teaspoons ground turmeric
- 14 cups water or broth of choice
- 4 eggs in their shells (optional)
- 1 cup canned garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup canned cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 10 prunes
- 4 Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed and quartered
- Juice of 1 large lemon
Cook
Cabbage Dolmeh (Stuffed Cabbage With Split Peas and Rice)
6 servings2 h prep + 1 h and 30 min
Ingredients
For the filling
- ½ cup yellow split peas (not fast cooking)
- ½ cup basmati rice
- ¼ cup + 1 ½ tablespoon kosher salt, divided
- 1 large head savoy cabbage
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 ½ teaspoons turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon dried savory spice (optional)
- 2 ½ tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cup cilantro leaves and tender stems, roughly chopped
- 1 cup flat leaf parsley leaves and tender stems, roughly chopped
- ½ cup dill sprigs and tender stems, roughly chopped
- ½ cup mint leaves and tender stems, roughly chopped
- ¼ cup tarragon leaves and tender stems, roughly chopped
- ¾ cup dried pitted prunes, ½ cup chopped, the rest kept whole
- Aloo bukhara (dried plums), optional
For the sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 ½ tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cup chicken broth
- ½ teaspoon brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon saffron brewed in ¼ cup hot water
Cook
Recipes
1
Eggplant Tachin (Persian Baked Rice With Eggplant)
6-8 servings1 h and 30 min + baking
Ingredients
For the tachin and filling
- 3 tablespoons avocado oil, plus more for frying
- 4 onions, diced
- 2 large bulb eggplants or 4-5 long Italian eggplants (about 3 pounds)
- 1 ½ cups basmati rice, rinsed
- 3 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ¾ teaspoon rose water
- ½ teaspoon saffron, bloomed in 3 tablespoons of hot water
- 3 egg yolks
- Juice of ½ lemon
For the barberry mixture
- 1 ½ tablespoons butter or non-dairy butter like Earth Balance
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- ¼ teaspoon rose water (optional)
- 1 ½ cup barberries
For assembly and garnish
- Cooking spray
- ½ cup slivered pistachios
- Dried rose buds (optional)
Cook
2
Hamadani Gondi Berenji (Meatballs With Rice and Prunes)
10-12 servings1 h and 45 min
Ingredients
For the gondi
- ¾ cup basmati rice, rinsed well and drained
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil
- ½ tablespoon cumin seeds
- 1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
- ¾ teaspoon black pepper
- 5 pitted prunes
- 3-4 teaspoons water, or as needed
For the soup
- ¼ cup avocado oil
- 3 skinless whole chicken legs
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
- 2 teaspoons ground turmeric
- 14 cups water or broth of choice
- 4 eggs in their shells (optional)
- 1 cup canned garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup canned cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 10 prunes
- 4 Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed and quartered
- Juice of 1 large lemon
Cook
3
Cabbage Dolmeh (Stuffed Cabbage With Split Peas and Rice)
6 servings2 h prep + 1 h and 30 min
Ingredients
For the filling
- ½ cup yellow split peas (not fast cooking)
- ½ cup basmati rice
- ¼ cup + 1 ½ tablespoon kosher salt, divided
- 1 large head savoy cabbage
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 ½ teaspoons turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon dried savory spice (optional)
- 2 ½ tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cup cilantro leaves and tender stems, roughly chopped
- 1 cup flat leaf parsley leaves and tender stems, roughly chopped
- ½ cup dill sprigs and tender stems, roughly chopped
- ½ cup mint leaves and tender stems, roughly chopped
- ¼ cup tarragon leaves and tender stems, roughly chopped
- ¾ cup dried pitted prunes, ½ cup chopped, the rest kept whole
- Aloo bukhara (dried plums), optional
For the sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 ½ tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cup chicken broth
- ½ teaspoon brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon saffron brewed in ¼ cup hot water
Cook
Orly Elyashar has a sense of humor about the community she grew up in. Called the Hamadani or Hamedani Jews, the name, she explains “translates to know it all. Hama means everything and everyone and dan means knowledge.” In addition to being well educated, the community has a reputation for dressing stylishly. “There are all these jokes about hamadinis taking showers with suits on,” Orly adds.
The community, which mostly cooks Persian food, comes from Hamadan, a city and province by the same name, in the west of Iran, halfway between the capital Tehran and the border with Iraq. Often cited as one of the oldest Jewish communities outside of Israel, it’s home to the tomb of Esther and Mordechai, and in the late 19th and early 20th century, nearly 5000 Jews lived there. Today, there are just three families in Hamadan, according to linguist Saloumeh Gholami, and the unique language of the community has nearly disappeared.
Orly’s family, like many others who lived in Hamadan for generations, fled the country after the Iranian Revolution in the late 1970s. Orly was still a little child when her family split up with her grandparents and brother escaping to Los Angeles so he could avoid conscription into the Islamic army. He was 13 when he was “sent off into the desert…. They basically smuggled these kids out of there,” Orly says.
She and her parents made their way to Israel to meet up with other relatives and a few years later moved to Los Angeles. The transition from life in Iran to one outside of its borders was hard. “I think this story is so common for first generation immigrants,” Orly explains. “Basically, you have no work, no language, no direction, nothing, and you are placed in this environment where ok, figure it out.” In Iran, her father was a prominent doctor, her mother went to Paris to shop, and the clothes they wore were handmade in London.
In late 1980s LA, Orly could easily spot the other kids at school like her. “There was always a group of kids that you saw that you just knew were on the same page as you are…. They were wearing the pair of shoes that were two sizes two big because that’s what was on sale at the time,” she says.
Her family found support in the community and relatives who took them in. For a time, she lived with her parents and brother in the master bedroom of her aunt’s condo and later, she moved in with her grandmother Simin, a petite and striking woman with blondish hair and blue eyes, whose cooking comforted Orly in her new home.
“Every morning, even though she had nowhere to go,” Orly says, Simin dressed in a skirt and silk blouse, and donned high heels as she headed to the kitchen to prepare recipes like baked rice with eggplant called tachin and cabbage dolma or stuffed leaves with split peas, rice, herbs and spices that she would make with Orly’s mother and aunts.
On Fridays for Shabbat dinner, she always made a Hamadani version of gondi berenji, or meatballs made with rice and stuffed with prunes, and served in a broth with potatoes, chickpeas, and cannellini beans. One of Orly’s clearest memories from childhood is of laying her head on her grandmother’s lap. “Her skirt always smelled like that gondi recipe,” Orly recalls.
Now a private chef, recipe developer, and culinary instructor, Orly didn’t learn to cook until she was an adult. But, as her love of time in the kitchen deepend, she became determined to master the family recipes, making them over and over until she matched the taste of grandmother’s cooking. When she became a mother, she wanted to pass on Simin’s legacy to her children who never met her. “It’s so important for us to pass that torch,” Orly says. “It’s going to die out otherwise.”
