A restaurateur in Iran, it was natural for Hamed to gravitate to food after a long and perilous journey to settlement in Melbourne. He road-tested his dishes at hundreds of cooking classes, eventually launching his heartfelt cafe and SalamaTea restaurant.

With every swipe of warm pita through herbed dadami dip, every bite of braised lamb with dried lime and saffron rice, every sip of homemade sour cherry tea, Hamed shines a light on his past in his native Tehran and continues to build an optimistic Australian future.

Funnily enough, I only discovered Persian love cake when I came to Australia, but I think that since it's taken the world by storm it's also become more popular in Iran. For me, the key flavour combination is nutmeg and yoghurt. There's something about it that is pure dessert alchemy.

Why love cake? The story goes that a village woman tried to woo a prince with this cake. He swooned over the cake but rejected the girl and she ended up eating it all herself. I hope your romantic cake adventures are more successful, though I have to say that eating the cake is also winning!

Ingredients

300g almond meal

180g caster sugar

185g light brown sugar

125g unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes

2 eggs

260g Greek-style yoghurt

1 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cardamom

2 tsp ground nutmeg

50g flaked almonds

35g slivered pistachio kernels

edible dried rose petals, to serve (optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150C conventional. Grease a 20cm round cake tin.

2. Combine the almond meal, sugars and butter in a large bowl and mix with your fingers until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Press half the crumb mixture into the cake tin, creating an even base.

3. Add the eggs, yoghurt, salt and spices to the remaining crumb mixture and, using a wooden spoon, mix until smooth. Pour the batter into the tin and smooth the surface with a spatula. Sprinkle the flaked almonds and pistachios over the top.

4. Transfer to the oven and bake for one hour, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Start checking after the 50-minute mark to ensure it's not colouring too quickly and cover the cake with foil if necessary.

5. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Decorate with dried rose petals (if using) and serve.

6. The cake will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for three to four days.

Serves 8-10.

It's fitting that I first ate this exciting fish dish in Bandar Abbas, a southern Iranian city on the Persian Gulf. This seaside town has a big fishing industry and busy seafood markets, which the families there make the most of.

"Mahi" means fish and "ghalieh" is the Arabic word for stew (what in Persian we call khoresh). In Bandar Abbas, the United Arab Emirates is just a stone's throw away across the Strait of Hormuz, and the Arabic language has been a big influence there.

The key elements of ghalieh mahi are fish, coriander and tamarind, creating a stew that's bright, sour and bold. I like tuna, but you can use any firm-fleshed fish you like, perhaps blue-eye, rockling or trevally. Most people eat it with plain rice, but I recommend saffron rice.

Ingredients

125ml olive oil

500g tuna steak, cut into 3cm cubes

2 brown onions, diced

2 tsp ground turmeric

10 garlic cloves, finely chopped

200g coriander, stalks and leaves finely chopped

50g finely chopped fenugreek leaves or 25g dried fenugreek

2 tomatoes, grated

100g tamarind paste

500ml boiling water

2 tsp salt

2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

saffron Rice (see below), to serve

lemon wedges, to serve

Method

1. Heat one tablespoon of the olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan over high heat. Add the tuna and cook for two minutes each side, until dark golden and cooked through. Remove the tuna from the pan and set aside.

2. Heat the remaining oil in the pan, then add the onion and cook for about two minutes, until golden. Stir through the turmeric, then add the garlic and cook for one minute or until fragrant.

3. Add the coriander and fenugreek leaves, reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring, for two minutes, then return the tuna to the pan and cook for another two minutes. Add the tomato and allow to cook for five minutes.

4. Meanwhile, combine the tamarind paste and boiling water in a small bowl. Add the mixture to the pan, along with the salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes, until reduced and thick.

5. Serve with saffron rice and lemon wedges for squeezing over.

Serves 4.

Rice is a key element of Persian cuisine and there are many polow (pilaf) recipes in this book. Alternatively, keep it simple with this saffron rice.

Ingredients

400g long-grain basmati rice

1 x quantity saffron liquid

Method

1. Cook the rice in a rice cooker or saucepan using your preferred method, then simply stir through the saffron liquid at the end for beautiful, easy everyday saffron rice.

Serves 4-6.

Ingredients

1g saffron threads

1 tbsp granulated sugar

60ml boiling water

Method

1. Grind the saffron and sugar using a mortar and pestle, then transfer to a heatproof bowl and stir through the boiling water to bleed the colour. Set aside for five minutes, then use wherever a recipe calls for saffron liquid.

Makes 60ml.

I have so many fond memories of this dish. It's traditionally served in shisha shops, the cafes where older men gather to smoke water pipes, drink tea and solve the problems of the world. Shisha shops don't really serve food but inevitably people get hungry while they're hanging around, so it's become traditional for staff to whip up a quick tomato omelette for customers and serve it with bread, raw red onion, herbs and lemon. If you want one, all you ask for is "omelette". There's no menu as such.

I left Iran aged 23, long before the "shisha shop age" but, if you promise not to tell my parents, I'll let you in on a secret. When I was in high school in Tehran, I was so naughty. I was in a little gang with three of my friends. We arrived at school at 7am, then the gate was locked to keep us in. But if we couldn't stand being at school anymore, we would climb the wall at about 10 am and escape. We'd always end up at Amoo Hooshang Cafe where the owner, Uncle Hooshang, would let us puff on a pipe and make us an omelette. I don't know why he was so generous, but I'll never forget his kindness to four cheeky kids.

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tomato, diced

1 tbsp tomato paste

salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 eggs

Noon Lavash (see below) or store-bought Persian or Lebanese flatbread, to serve

Sabzi Khordan (see below), to serve

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a small frying pan over high heat. Add the tomato and tomato paste and cook, stirring, for two minutes. Season with salt and pepper, then reduce the heat to low and push the mixture to one side of the pan. Crack the eggs into the now-empty side of the pan and use a spoon to gently separate the yolks from the whites. Mix the egg whites through the tomato mixture and cook for one minute, until the egg whites are just set. Spoon the yolks on top, then gently swirl them over the mixture and briefly cook until they are heated through but still a little runny.

2. Serve the omelette in the pan or transfer to a plate, and serve with flatbread and sabzi khordan on the side.

Serves 1.

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We eat bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner - no meal is complete without it. Flatbread is often used in place of cutlery to scoop up food, for wiping our plates clean and for wrapping anything from cheese to felafel.

Ingredients

2 tbsp active dried yeast

450g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

125ml vegetable oil

2 tsp salt

Method

1. Combine the yeast and 125ml warm water in a jug, then cover and set aside for 10 minutes until frothy.

2. Pour the yeast mixture into a large bowl and add the remaining ingredients along with 250ml water. Mix with your hands to bring the dough together, then turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 10 minutes or until you have a very smooth dough.

3. Divide the dough into eight even-sized portions and roll the portions into balls. Set aside, covered with a clean tea towel, to prove for 40 minutes.

4. Working with one portion at a time, roll the dough balls out on a lightly floured work surface into 1mm thick circles.

5. Heat a large frying pan over high heat until very hot, then reduce the heat to low. Add one of the dough circles to the dry pan and cook, pressing the dough gently with a spatula as it puffs up and flipping regularly, for five minutes until lightly golden with a few crispy bits. Transfer to a plate and repeat with the remaining dough.

6. If you would like a crispier bread to serve with dips, cook each side for an extra two minutes.

Makes 8.

The classic Persian preparation of mixed greens - mostly herbs, spring onions and radishes - is sabzi khordan. My father would buy the ingredients fresh every second day and my mum would wash them and store them wrapped in paper towels inside plastic bags in the fridge. They'd then be pulled out to create this ubiquitous side dish or for a grazing platter. We also wrap herbs and radishes in flatbread with feta - I think it's one of the best snacks you can ever have.

Ingredients

1 bunch radishes

1 bunch mint, leaves picked

1 bunch basil, leaves picked

1 bunch dill

1 bunch garlic chives

1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, leaves and stalks

1 bunch coriander (cilantro), leaves and stalks

1 bunch watercress (optional)

1 bunch spring onions (scallions) (optional)

Method

1. Score a cross into the top half of each radish.

2. Clean any dirt from the herbs, then soak all of the ingredients in a large bowl of cold water for 15 minutes. Drain, then rinse and set aside to completely dry.

3. Roughly chop the herbs and spring onions into 4cm lengths, then store the herbs, spring onion (if using) and radishes, loosely wrapped in paper towel in a plastic bag in the fridge, for two to three days.

4. Enjoy sabzi khordan with your meal or wrap with feta in Persian flatbread for a tasty lunch.

Two of the most well-known Persian dishes outside of Iran are ash reshteh and fesenjun. This nutty, sweet and sour chicken stew is thickened generously with walnuts and pomegranate molasses, and given a romantic glow from saffron and turmeric. It's an incredible combination of flavours: expressive and seductive and so satisfyingly tasty.

Fesenjun's lavishness suggests it originated in the royal kitchens of the Persian empire, and even today fesenjun is a labour-intensive and expensive meal for most people, so it's usually only made in restaurants and for special occasions, such as weddings.

My version is a simplified interpretation of this dish, but it's just as delicious. Walnuts are such an important part of this dish so they must be of the highest quality. They shouldn't taste rancid or bitter at all.

Ingredients

400g walnuts

125ml olive oil

2 brown onions, finely diced

2 tsp ground turmeric

2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1.5kg skinless boneless chicken thighs

2 tsp salt

1/3 fresh nutmeg, grated (or 1 tsp ground nutmeg)

boiling water

250ml pomegranate molasses

1 x quantity saffron liquid (see below)

1 tbsp sugar

To serve:

pomegranate jewels

chopped flat-leaf parsley

zereshk polow (see here)

Method

1. Blend the walnuts and 250ml water in a food processor for three to five minutes, until a paste forms.

2. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over high heat. Add the onion and cook for about two minutes, until golden brown. Add the turmeric and black pepper and fry for another minute, then add the chicken and brown for two minutes. Add the salt and nutmeg and enough boiling water to just cover the chicken. Reduce the heat to low, cover with a lid and simmer for 25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

3. Add the walnut paste to the pan, increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes, taking care not to burn the walnuts on the base of the pan. Add the pomegranate molasses and cook, stirring, for five minutes. Add the saffron liquid and sugar and stir until well combined.

4. Transfer the fesenjun to a serving dish and scatter pomegranate jewels and parsley over the top. Serve with zereshk polow.

Serves 6-8.

Any special day must have this spectacular polow as part of the celebrations. It's guaranteed to provoke lots of excited exclamations when you put it on the table. The yellow rice, coloured and fragranced by the saffron, along with the barberries and pistachios, make the dish look like a festival all by itself, and it is a wonderful accompaniment to fesenjun or any kind of stew. There's a special tahdig hidden at the base of the pan in this recipe. It's actually my brother Hadi's invention - he came up with the idea of adding a layer of crushed walnuts on top of the flatbread. It's really delicious.

Ingredients

2 tsp salt

400g long-grain basmati rice

35g dried barberries

310ml olive oil

1 store-bought Persian or Lebanese flatbread

50g walnuts, roughly crushed

70g pistachio kernels

1 tbsp sugar

1 x quantity saffron liquid

Method

1. Fill a large bowl with cold water, add one teaspoon of the salt and stir to dissolve. Add the rice and leave to soak for at least one hour, then drain. Soak the barberries in a bowl of water for five minutes, then drain.

2. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil over high heat. Add the rice and remaining salt, bring to the boil and cook for 10-15 minutes, until the rice is just soft, but still has some bite (about 80 per cent cooked). Drain.

3. Wipe the pan clean, add 250ml of the oil and place over low heat. Gently place the flatbread on top of the oil and scatter the crushed walnuts over the bread. Add the rice in an even layer, then cover with a lid and cook for 15 minutes or until the bread is golden and crisp (you'll have to poke through the rice to check). Remove from the heat.

4. Heat the remaining oil in a frying pan over high heat. Add the pistachios and cook for 10 seconds, then add the drained barberries and cook for 30 seconds. Do not leave for longer than one minute, otherwise they will burn. Remove from the heat, add the sugar and stir to combine.

5. Place the sweetened pistachios and barberries in a large bowl and add 370g of the cooked rice. Stir through the saffron liquid until well combined and the rice is golden yellow.

6. Transfer the remaining rice to a serving plate and pile most of the saffron rice on top. Position the crispy bread on top of the saffron rice, then finish with the remaining saffron rice.

Serves 4.

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