Saffroned Lamb Braise with Potato Fries

Qeymeh refers to diced meat sautéed with onion in a braise., and in Iran it can be made with fried potatoes, eggplants, zucchini, or rhubarb. In some regions they don’t use tomatoes or split peas. Our guide in Yazd was Aqa-ye Shir Gholami. Young, kind, and knowledgeable, he took us to the house of his mother-in-law Khanum-e Mehry-e Assan, where we cooked this braise shown (top right) in the spread in the photo on the facing page. Yazdis use chickpeas