If kebab is the fire of Persian cooking, khoresh — the stews — are its patience. Two are worth knowing before anything else on a Persian menu: ghormeh sabzi and fesenjan.
Ghormeh sabzi is, by most counts, Iran's national dish — a deep green stew built from a slow-fried mountain of herbs (parsley, coriander, spring onion, fenugreek) simmered for hours with lamb and dried limes until the flavour turns dark, tangy and almost impossible to describe to anyone who hasn't tried it. Fenugreek gives it a faint, distinctive bitterness that Iranians grow up craving; it's an acquired taste for some newcomers, and a lifelong obsession for almost everyone else.
Fesenjan sits at the opposite end of the spectrum — sweet, rich and deeply savoury, made from ground walnuts and pomegranate molasses reduced slowly with chicken until the sauce turns the colour of dark chocolate. It's traditionally a celebration dish, served at weddings and Yalda, the winter solstice feast — walnuts for abundance, pomegranate for the turning of the year.
Both take real time to cook properly, which is exactly why they reward ordering rather than attempting at home on a weeknight. Our ghormeh sabzi and fesenjan are started hours before service, the way they're meant to be.
If you're choosing between them on a first visit: ghormeh sabzi if you want to understand what Iranians actually eat at home most often, fesenjan if you want the dish most likely to convert a sceptic into a lifelong fan of Persian food. Order both, and you've covered the two poles of the cuisine in one sitting.