Kuku Sabzi

As tradition built it

Serves 4. About 30 minutes, including a covered stovetop cook of 10 to 15 minutes.

Ingredients

• 200g each parsley, coriander and dill, roughly equal volumes
• small handful a smaller handful of spinach
• pinch a pinch of dried fenugreek leaf
• for sautéing oil, for sautéing the herbs
• 6 eggs
• 1 tsp turmeric
• to taste salt and pepper
• scatter barberries, a scatter
• scatter walnuts, chopped, a scatter

Method

1. Wash and dry, thoroughly, the parsley, coriander, dill, spinach and fenugreek leaf, then chop very fine (a food processor is acceptable here since the herbs are cooked, not eaten raw).
2. Sauté the chopped herbs briefly in oil, just long enough to drive off any remaining moisture and concentrate their aroma, since even a small amount of residual water will make the finished kuku loose rather than set.
3. Cool, then whisk with the eggs, turmeric, salt, pepper and a scatter of barberries and chopped walnuts.
4. Pour into a well-oiled pan and cook slowly, covered, over low heat until almost set through, then finish briefly under a hot grill or flip to colour the second side.
5. Serve at room temperature, cut into wedges.

What a modern chef changes

Method

1. Dry the washed herbs properly in a salad spinner and then briefly in a low dehydrator, rather than only patting them with a cloth, since the traditional failure mode of this dish, a loose, wet kuku, is a moisture problem that reliably solves.
2. Cook the egg mixture gently in a water bath rather than directly over a flame, for an evenly set, custard-like texture edge to edge rather than the slightly overcooked rim a stovetop pan tends to produce.
3. Finish with walnuts toasted and roughly crushed rather than raw, for a genuine textural contrast against the set egg that the traditional recipe, made quickly on a weekday morning, rarely bothers with.