A Persian comfort dish

"a nostalgic Iranian childhood snack" Naz Deravian/The New York Times

It began with The New York Times' Naz Deravian and yesterday's desk diary dish Dooymaaj salad - an intriguing enough name for me as a foodie blogger, to have a second look. You may not be able to access the recipe because eventually The New York Times retreats behind a pay wall.

However, I'm guessing that you are unlikely to give this a try anyway. This is one of those dishes from other places in the world, that mildly intrigue and give us a peep into the way people live elsewhere, but which do not ultimately worm their way into our hearts. Unless some influencer somewhere makes it a thing. Besides the dish is Persian - well Iranian - not a popular country at the present time. Although Persian food is, although not as popular as Italian whose own bread salad - panzanella - is now pretty much mainstream, as is fattoush - the Middle-Eastern iteration.

But then Naz Deravian's salad is actually "a homage to the beloved snack". The salad is a different form, although, as I discussed in a July 2024 post called Changing the form but retaining the spirit - and have rambled around many times, every dish in the world has probably evolved from an original and will continue to do so, according to the availability of ingredients, new techniques and technology, and just plain old human creativity. And as you travel from one country to the next, a particular dish, changes ever so slightly and continues to do so as it travels, until eventually, like Chinese whispers, it is something else altogether. Go east and the bread gradually disappears, go west and tomatoes start to take over. Well that's a huge simplification off the top of my head, but I'm sure there is some truth to it.

As for that homage to a beloved snack - the 'original' - this is Doymaj (feta, herb and walnut bites) from a website called I Got it from my Maman - written by Hami Sharafi - an English/Iranian man who expresses a common mantra of cooks in his About section:

"For me, food is not just about nourishment—it’s about connection. The right dish can evoke cherished childhood memories, offer comfort like a warm embrace, or ignite a sense of adventure and curiosity."

This connection obviously played its part in Naz Deravian's recipe, and I remember the plethora of cookbooks with names like Comfort and Home and variations thereof that appeared at Christmas time in the middle of all those COVID lockdowns. And that refrain continues to this day - maybe it's because of the stresses of the world we live in today, the paradoxical loss of human connection at the same time as massive technological connectivity. And so we get recipes like the above in which mother or grandmother makes something from nothing snacks for the children when they come home from school. For me it was bread and jam - not nearly as healthy but comforting nevertheless.

When looking at this dish there is also a wide range of spelling. Hami Sharafi mentions a few - Doymash, Ghot or Ghoot, Moshtok, and Changhaleh and I have already used two. There are more - for language, like food, changes as you travel, slowly for a while and then suddenly as you come up against a rigid border - the old Iron Curtain in Europe for example.

But back to our 'dish of the day' and in particular at this moment - the version that is made into balls for which

"common ingredients in all of them are Lavash, which is a very thin and crispy bread, Feta, fresh herbs and walnuts." Hami Sharafi/I Got it from my Maman

And milk or buttermilk to soften the bread and bind all of those ingredients together. Hami Sharafi's are then rolled in a mix of chopped edible flowers - nasturtiums? Possibly, but I'm sure that rose petals would be some. And this might be a flourish from his particular mother.

Tabriz in north eastern Iran seems to be main location for this kind of snack. It's near the Azerbaijan border- I found several different recipes: Dvymaj/Tishineh; Doymaj or Dogmaj/ Iran Destination - no recipe here, just a round-up of food from Tabriz; Doymaj/Cooking with Armita - from the town of Qaviz in Iran - a somewhat fancier version in which the balls sit on a bed of watermelon; and Tabrizi doymaj/Saed News

I began this post thinking that this was a dish that was common to Iran and it's neighbour Azerbaijan, however, I now realise that Doymaj - Facebook , from Azerbaijan is a completely different dish - a salad of sour plums and cherries with lots of herbs and a touch of garlic. The only common denominator here are the herbs, which rather destroys my comments about dishes evolving gradually as they move across the globe. Well in this instance anyway.

So I will return to the evolution over time theory and present a few modern day examples of how the balls have transitioned to salad. The recipe for Dooymaj/dooymash presented on the Persian Mama website, is perhaps the missing link, as it tells us that the dish is a kind of do it yourself dish:

"The guests are served a plateful of the mixture and they make their own small rolls called “tika,” or “loghmeh.” Small bites of Dooymaj is eaten with sips of sweetened fresh brewed Persian black tea, extra feta cheese, walnuts and herbs, along with even more delicious conversations."

Then we westerners took the ingredients and just made it into a salad - from the really thrown together home-made of Dooymaj of Sticky Fingers Cooking which definitely focuses on the bread part of the equation to the work of a professional - Yasmin Khan with her Fragrant mixed herb and flatbread salad (Domaaj) - however, Yasmin Khan, as a professional, and therefore 'authentic' leaning cook recommends highly that we use golpar as a flavouring, which by her own admission you will only find in specialist shops.

And then there's Saina - a member of the Kitchen Stories website who presents her Doymaj as a breakfast dish - no herbs, no bread - she says cornflakes or oatmeal but with honey and raisins. All she says is that it's a "A traditional nutritious Persian breakfast or evening meal" The name sounds Persian so I guess we have to believe her.

All of which is sort of interesting but sort of not. I think the confusions - for there is a bit of confusion here, comes from all those slightly different names. The common thread of bread, cheese, walnuts and herbs doesn't quite hang together does it? Well it did until that last one which rather throws a spanner into the works. Maybe a slight connection to the Azerberjani sour plum salad?

YEARS GONE BY

November 29

2024 - The heritage of Australia's Ottolenghi - Greg Malouf that is - I could not find a recipe from him for this dish.

2023 - Nothing

2022 - Green tomatoes - not always fried

2021 - The dilemma of Christmas pudding

2020 - Missing

2019 - Menus in cookbooks

2018 - Simple 2 - Ingredients - how many and what to do if one is missing

2017 - Us and them

2016 - Buffalo mozzarella - or will cow's milk do?