Today I’m sharing a vegetarian dish called Baghali Ghatogh which is a specialty from one of my favorite places in the world, Gilan Province in North of Iran. The northern part of Iran is called ‘Shomal’ (North) by many Iranians. Gilan is near the beautiful lush green Jangal (forest) Mazandaran, the calm and warm Caspian Sea (Daryay Khazar), with endless green rice fields. Once you visit this area the memory of this magical picturesque place will forever stay with you. As a child I visited Shomal almost every year with my parents and loved how the air smelled, how friendly the people were and how happy I was to be close to nature at its best. Few years ago when I traveled back to Iran I once again visited my favorite piece of heaven on earth. So much had changed over the years, the land development had overtaken a lot of the land, numerous private villas were built along the Khazar shorelines. But some things were still the same: The dense green forests, the calm sandy beaches, and that sweet aroma of rice paddies. Yes, I was back in Shomal and no matter what, all those good old feelings came rushing back to me.
Gilan has many popular dishes and one of them is this vegetarian dish called Baghali Ghatogh that is made with broad beans/fava beans, fresh or dried dill, garlic and whole eggs that are poached whole in the dish after it is fully cooked.
Baghali Ghatogh is usually served over Kateh (Quick Persian Steamed Rice) or toasted flat bread.
Just recently our dear old friends of many years visited us for a few days. Though it had been way too long since we had gotten together, the years just disappeared when we met again. The visit was too short but we had a wonderful time.
The other variation to the recipe is that usually after cooking the fava beans with dill, spices, and water the eggs are cracked into the dish and poached until set, I broiled the eggs instead for couple of minutes in the oven really close to the broil element. I love how the egg whites cook perfectly into the dish while the yolks stay soft and perfectly golden, or asali, as we call them in Farsi (meaning with the consistency of honey)!
Serve the Baghali Ghatogh warm with toasted Sangak (Persian flat bread), pita bread, or Kateh (Persian Quick Rice). Add one whole egg on top of each serving. Enjoy!
Cooking time: 30 minutes, Broil time: 2 minutes
You will need a 12-inch cast iron or other oven proof skillet
- Two 14-ounce packages of frozen fava beans, or about 2 pounds of podded and peeled fresh fava beans. Frozen lima beans may be substituted for fava beans.
- ½ cup butter
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- ⅛ tsp freshly cracked black pepper
- 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- ¾ tsp turmeric powder
- 1 cup chopped fresh dill or ¼ cup dried dill
- 1 large onion sliced and fried to golden brown (about 4 ounces fried onions)
- 3 TBSP vegetable oil for frying the onion
- 2 ½ cups hot water
- 4 eggs, to be cracked whole directly on the cooked fava beans and dill
- Wash the dill by immersing the tops and tender stems in cold water for a few minutes to loosen any possible grit, repeat a few times until the water is clear. Place the dill in a colander and drain all the water before chopping.
- Rinse the frozen fava beans in a colander under warm water to thaw and drain completely.
- Thinly slice the onion and fry to golden brown. Set aside.
- Heat butter in the cast iron or other oven proof skillet and add the fava beans, salt and pepper. Saute over medium high heat for about 7 minutes, or until the beans are lightly golden and most of the natural juice is cooked off. Stir gently and frequently. Be careful not to break up the beans, the dish looks prettier when the beans are left whole.
- Reduce the heat to medium, add the fried onions, turmeric, and chopped garlic. Stir and saute for another 2 minutes.
- Add chopped dill and hot water, bring it to a boil then reduce heat to the mark between medium low and low. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Most cast iron skillets have pour spouts that do not allow a complete coverage. Add more water if needed to maintain about an inch of liquid in the skillet.
- Meanwhile preheat the oven on broil for about 10 minutes, with the rack set on the very top shelf close to the heat element.
- Uncover the skillet and crack the 4 eggs one at a time on top in four corners. Leave some space between the eggs so they do not cook into each other. I find that it is easier to crack the eggs into 4 small bowls and keep them ready and add to the skillet when needed. This also eliminates the chance of accidentally dropping eggshells in the food.
- Place the skillet in the preheated oven and broil for up to about 2 minutes, or until the egg white is set.
- Serve warm with toasted bread or Kateh (Persian Quick Rice) and a side of salad. Serve one whole egg on top of each serving.
Recipe: 2 cups Basmati rice, 3 cups cold water, ½ cup plain yogurt, 1 tsp salt, 3 TBSP vegetable oil, 3 TBSP butter. Whisk the yogurt into the water and add to the rice. Turn the rice maker dial to ON and cover the pot. After the first boil remove the lid, give the ingredients a stir and put the lid back on. The timing will be different for each rice maker, please follow the instructions per your manual. I set mine to the entire duration of the steam cycle, which is 1 hour and the TahDig comes out beautiful and golden brown and the rice is tender and delicious.
Fresh and frozen fava beans and fresh dill are available at Black Cherry Market:
www.blackcherrymarket.com/
I really enjoyed reading your narrative. You brought back good memories of summer trips to Shomal. This baghali ghatogh looks perfect, and I too love it with crispy caramelized onion.
Dear Fae, thank you so much for your lovely comment <3
Thank you so much, I am going to try your recipe tonight with Kateh. and yes it did bring back a lot of great memories.
Elaheh
Elaheh jan, thank you for your comment! I love doing my blog and meeting wonderful people like you, and it gives me great pleasure to share recipes, food ideas and memories. Noosh e Joon!
I look forward to a recipe from you dedicated to Kateh with Tahdig. Here you have used the rice cooker but I’d like to know how to make this happen in a regular non-stick pot or with parchment paper on the bottom of a regular pot. THANK YOU!
Dear Brisa, the Kateh video that I have posted on Instagram is also cooked in the rice cooker. I use the same kateh recipe regardless of the pot that I use. I don’t use parchment paper in the bottom of a pot. For 2-3 cups of rice I use a nonstick 3-4 qt pot. If more cups of rice are used the pot should be larger. Then no matter how many cups of rice, that many cups of water + 1 1/2 cups more is added, for example for, 3 cups of rice you use 4 1/2 cups of water, for 4 cups of rice you use 5 1/2 cups of water. The amount of yogurt, butter and salt should be increased with the increased cups of rice according to your taste.
Hello, your recipe looks wonderful however I was windering If I can I use dried broad beans instead?
Regards,
Maria
Thank you Maria! Yes dried beans may be substituted in this recipe but they need to be cooked until tender before using them.
Thank you!
You’re so welcome Bibi jan. Enjoy!!