Buran (Baghdad meatballs)

For ➍
500 g eggplant
500 g ground lamb*
25 cl yogurt
2 tbs butter
3 tbs sesame oil
2 cloves garlic
¼ ts coriander
½ ts salt
½ ts cumin
1 ts cinnamon

Cut eggplants in thick slices, put in boiling salted water (1.5 l water with 6 tbs of salt) for 7 m. Remove, let stand 1 h.
Roll meat into small meatballs. Fry in butter. When browned, cover with water and simmer.
Fry eggplant in sesame oil until cooked. Peel, mash, add salt and coriander.
Crush garlic, add to yogurt, mix with eggplant. Put the meatballs on top, sprinkle with cumin and cinnamon.
Serve with some basmati rice or flat bread. Have some sliced oranges as a side dish to counter the garlic smell.

*When using beef meat, add some cinnamon.

This is a slightly adapted Persian recipe from around the 10th century, named after the bride of an Arab caliph in 822.
Almost the same recipe exists in Italy, as a traditional Passover dish, lamb meatballs with eggplant sauce.

Persian cucumber & fresh dill salad

For ➏
6 Persian cucumbers*, sliced
2 ts extra virgin olive oil
2 ts rice wine vinegar**
juice from ½ lemon
2-3 sprigs fresh dill, finely diced
salt & fresh ground pepper

Combine ingredients. Cover and chill for 1 h.

*Or 2 very fresh western (seedless) cucumbers.
**Use a slightly sweeter vinegar, e.g. sherry vinegar, instead.

Persian cucumbers are smaller than the seedless available in the west, with a slightly less watery, sweeter taste. Nowadays they are grown all over Europe and the Caribbean, and nobody knows if they were ever Persian at all.
Truely Persian is the similar Persian cucumber yogurt dressing.

Maast-o Khiar (Persian cucumber yogurt dressing)

For ➍
20 cl plain yogurt
¾ seedless cucumber, peeled & grated
¼ clove garlic, minced
¼ shallot, finely chopped
2 tbs dried dill weed
2 ts salt
¼ ts pepper

In a medium bowl, stir together the yogurt, cucumbers, garlic, and shallot. Season with dill, salt and pepper. Refrigerate for at least 1 h, preferably overnight, to blend flavors.
Serve with cold, grilled meat or fish. Or simply on good flat bread.

This recipe, contrary to Persian cucumber & fresh dill salad, is truly Persian, though it is served all over the Middle East, Turkey and Greece under several names such as 'tzaziki', after Muslim troops took it all over the Eastern Mediterranean. Persian culture and refinement is a decent forebear of Muslim and Arab culture, with which it is often confused.
Read the Arabian cucumber soup recipe and a variation on this recipe.
Picture from Pasolini's Tales of 1001 Nights, a homage to Persian culture.