Persian Shabbat in Beverly Hills
On a Friday night last March, in the earliest days of spring, the Soofer family set its Sabbath table with challah and roast chicken, just as many other Jewish families might around the world. But there was also a stew of yellow split peas, tomatoes, eggplant, dried lemon and fried onions. Another platter held fesenjan, the Iranian stew of pomegranates, walnuts, chicken and golden prunes. In the center of the table, fragrant white rice was heaped, mountain-like, with trails of saffron-tinged rice sloping down.
And though Passover was soon to arrive, colored eggs, a bed of newly sprouted grass and other symbols of Nouruz, the Persian New Year, were arranged on a small table just outside the living room.
Anyone who thinks Jewish cooking in America is limited to brisket, knishes and pastrami on rye has been paying too little attention to the changing faces of Judaism in this country. The Soofers of Beverly Hills, Iranian Jews who came to the U.S. after Iran’s revolution, represent an important and growing segment of American Judaism. And that is precisely why, in addition to a houseful of family members of all ages, a PBS camera crew came to dinner last March.
“Jewish Cooking in America With Joan Nathan” began airing last week in Southern California on KCET. This time last year, Nathan, series host and author of the cookbook on which the series was based, spent nearly two weeks of an 80-day shooting schedule with a production team in California. They went to Nate ‘n’ Al’s in Beverly Hills to chat with the show biz guys who’ve made the deli their virtual home. They stopped at the Milky Way, the Westside dairy restaurant run by Steven Spielberg’s mom, Leah Adler. They checked out the kosher Yemenite food at the Magic Carpet on Pico Boulevard and the scene at Canter’s on Fairfax Avenue. They talked bagels with retired baker Izzy Cohen. They made cheesecake with chocolate expert Alice Medrich and borscht with vegetarian cookbook author Molly Katzen. And they watched Mandy Patinkin’s mom in San Diego make matzo ball soup.
At the Soofer home, Nathan jotted down Farideh Soofer’s recipe for gundi, also spelled gondi and gondy, the chickpea-chicken dumplings that many call Iranian matzo balls. But Nathan and her producer-director, Charles Pinsky (he directed the PBS shows of the late Pierre Franey and produces “Dessert Circus With Jacques Torres”), were after more than recipes; they wanted good stories.
Dariush Soofer, for instance, came to Los Angeles in 1980 thinking he was simply going to visit his brother, Jamshid. Then he got a phone call from his family back in Iran. “They said, ‘Stay there. If you come, you won’t be able to leave. You are in trouble here because you went to Israel and because you are Jewish.’ The government took over our company, everything.” After a year, several members of Soofer’s family, who had been unable to leave Iran, escaped and made their way to Los Angeles.
The family business had been importing scientific products and laboratory items from the U.S. for use in Iran. “Here,” Soofer said, “we had nothing to import or sell so we had to come up with a new idea.”
They turned to food. “We noticed [Iranians here] asking for fenugreek and other ingredients,” Soofer said. “We found them and we started selling them.” The business, started in 1982, grew steadily. They went from selling herbs, spices and rice--raw ingredients--to manufacturing prepared products for the younger generation of Iranians with less time to cook and to finding California farmers to grow the herbs and other produce required for Iranian cooking. Look on the display shelves of Iranian markets across the country--and in the ethnic food sections of many mainstream markets--and you’ll find the Soofer’s Sadaf brand name on boxes of the Basmati rice dish Sabzi Polo and jars of traditional Iranian stews ready to heat and serve.
For Friday night Shabbat dinners, however, the cooking is done from scratch. Farideh Soofer, the wife of Dariush’s older brother Jamshid (he is president of Soofer Co.), supervised the action in the kitchen the night of the taping for the series and explained to Nathan the proper technique for eating gundi. “You take some of the flat bread and make a little sandwich with the gundi, the herbs, some radish and maybe some pickle if you like.”
“OK, Joan,” Pinsky said as the family members made their way around the camera crew’s lights to their places at the dining table, “I want you to sit on this side of the table.”
“What we’re doing is a combination of documentary and how-to,” Pinsky said. “We give real recipes, so the how-to stuff is pretty structured, but we’re trying to get a lot of stories. The food is a vehicle to get to the culture and the history.”
The cameras roll as the Soofers and their TV host-guest of honor recite Sabbath prayers, led by Jamshid Soofer, then dig into the Friday night feast.
“Tonight, we’ll get two minutes of footage,” Pinsky says. “If we’re lucky.”
“Jewish Cooking in America With Joan Nathan” airs Saturdays on KCET at 11 a.m.
Chickpea-and-Chicken-Dumpling Soup (Gundi)
Active Work Time: 25 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 3 1/2 hours
Gundi is to Iranian Jewish cooking what the matzo ball is to Eastern and Central European Jewish food. The dumplings may be served in soup, as Nathan does in this recipe from her cookbook, or as an appetizer, wrapped in flatbread (taftan or lavash) and sprinkled with fresh herbs (mint, tarragon, cilantro, basil) and vinegar-pickled vegetables. Chickpea flour is available at Middle Eastern and Indian markets.
SOUP
1 (3-pound) chicken, cut in 8 pieces
12 cups water
2 onions, quartered
2 green bell peppers, sliced
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 clove garlic, crushed
* Bring chicken and water to boil, skimming off any foam that forms on top.
* Add onions, peppers, salt and pepper to taste, turmeric and garlic. Simmer, covered, until chicken is cooked through, about 45 minutes. Cool and strain, reserving chicken and about 10 cups broth.
* Remove and discard chicken skin and bones. Cut meat into bite-size pieces.
DUMPLINGS
4 onions, quartered
2 to 2 1/4 cups chickpea flour
1/2 pound ground turkey or chicken grind (special for gundi)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper or to taste
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
Water
1/2 cup cooked chickpeas
* Shred onions with grating blade in food processor.
* Combine onions and 2 cups chickpea flour and mix well. Add turkey, salt, pepper, turmeric and cardamom and mix well with hands. Add enough water, about 1/4 cup, to make sticky dough with consistency of meatballs. You should be able to stick your finger through it. Refrigerate 2 to 3 hours.
* Dip hands in cold water and form 1 dumpling 2 inches in diameter for testing.
* Bring reserved chicken broth to boil. Adjust seasoning. Add test dumpling and simmer gently, 15 to 20 minutes. Let test dumpling cool, then taste for seasoning and texture. If too soft, add more chickpea flour; adjust seasoning if necessary.
* Form remaining dough into dumplings 2 inches in diameter. Add dumplings and simmer gently, covered, until cooked through and floating, 15 to 20 minutes. Add chickpeas and reserved chicken pieces and simmer, covered, about 5 minutes.
* Serve Dumplings in Soup or wrap in flatbread as described in recipe introduction.
8 servings. Each serving with soup, chicken and chickpeas: 261 calories; 1,506 mg sodium; 16 mg cholesterol; 6 grams fat; 39 grams carbohydrates; 17 grams protein; 6.30 grams fiber.
