Rice with Lamb Rib Chops Tah-dig

This simple way of cooking rice and lamb has a long history around this region, where the Elamites once ruled before the Persians in the first millennium bce. These days, rice is mostly grown in the Caspian region in Iran, but in ancient times it is thought to have originated in this region, east of the Tigris River. I was fascinated to see the same dish cooked by women outdoors over an open fire in a very large, black pot in Sarakhs, Khorasan, on the Turkmenistan/Afghanistan border.