5 ingredientsMy journey begins in the chaotic, mysterious, and beautiful city of Tehran, the home of a culinary tradition 7,000 years in the making. As a young girl, some of my earliest memories are of my grandmother, my mother and I, together in a palatial kitchen, high ceiling and blue-tiled walls. There they taught me the fundamentals of Iranian cuisine. They entrusted me with their secrets; They told me how to get the most flavour out of ingredients and I learnt that rigour and respect for their methods were inescapable. As fond as I am of my mother and grandmother, when I moved to Holland, I realised that given how expensive energy is and how little time I could spend cooking on any given day, I would have to stray to tradition, or else I would be forced to kiss Persian cuisine goodbye. The methods I developed made cooking a fast and simple process requiring few ingredients. I came to realise that there is nothing wrong with replacing the ingredients I couldn’t buy outside of Iran (or specialist supermarkets). Quick and easy Persian food is possible. By sparing yourself the trouble of using tens of ingredients, you can achieve great results while keeping things simple.