Who has a Persian/Iranian cookbook ?

bigsis144

Sat, Feb 19 2011, 6:53 pm

Kosher Persian Food Blog

One of the Sfardi magazines in Brooklyn (Chazaq? Image? Community? Don't remember...) has a cooking column written by a woman with a number of Sfardi cookbooks. I think one of them is Persian, another is Syrian. Can't recall the author or the name of the cookbook, though. I just remember seeing a recipe for gondi meatballs and feeling homesick. (I'm from LA -- LOTS of Persians! You can find raw gondi meat mix in the meat sections at lots of stores in the Pico area.)

NotSoNewKallah

Sat, Feb 19 2011, 7:31 pm

There is a new cookbook out from Feldheim, "Persian Cooking by the Non-Persian Bride"

I haven't bought it yet, but I plan to do so.

Tzippora

Sat, Feb 19 2011, 7:42 pm

I'm not sephardic, and this includes all sorts of variations on all different sephardic food, labeled by country of origin (I.e. For this dish, in persian cuisine they do X, in syrian food they flavor it with Y). I got it as a wedding gift and it's fantastic!

http://www.amazon.com/Book-Jew.....32589

Toriadore ↓

Sat, Feb 19 2011, 7:45 pm

As mentioned above, Reyna Simnegar's book ""Persian Cooking from the non-Persian bride," can be pre-ordered on Feldheim or Amazon right now, but it's due out in Jewish bookstores in a couple of weeks.

↑ Toriadore

Sat, Feb 19 2011, 7:50 pm

BTW - I'm Syrian, and the cooking is quite different from Persian.

There are actually loads of Syrian cookbooks. Poopa Dweck's Aromas of Aleppo chronicles all the recipes and the history behind them, but Syrian cooks don't really follow those....sometimes I look things up to remember WHICH ingredients, but I never ever measure.

The best Syrian cookbooks are the fundraiser-types published by different PTA's over the years...

nylon ↓

Sun, Feb 20 2011, 9:54 am

The non-kosher Persian cookbooks are pretty easy to adapt--just don't use yoghurt to make tahdig and don't use butter. They don't call for cooking meat and cheese together or anything like that.

I have these two but Amazon doesn't currently have them:

http://www.amazon.com/New-Food.....11345
http://www.amazon.com/Legendar.....r=1-1

I am not a huge Claudia Roden fan--she oversimplifies her recipes and gets some things tragically wrong (I remember some howlers about kashrut).

The ingredients can be a bit tricky to find--you'll need to find an Iranian grocery store, or mail order them. Do what Iranians do and buy pistachios pre-slivered if you're doing the fancier recipes (these can be tricky to find, but do exist). You can also buy packets of dried herbs for some dishes (you'll probably have to buy fenugreek dried, because fresh is very hard to find).

Mirabelle

Sun, Feb 20 2011, 10:01 am

nylon wrote:

I was going to suggest Claudia Roden at least for a frame of reference, but I do find her writing to be highly biased (especially against Ashkenazic food which she clearly does not have the palate for).

Raisin

Sun, Feb 20 2011, 10:20 am

I have claudia rodens book and while it is interesting and enjoyable to read, and you can get good ideas for recipes, I don't find the recipes are that great. I use her book (book of jewish food) ooccasionally for the sefardi recipes, the ashkenazi recipes I have much better cookbooks for.

↑ nylon

Sun, Feb 20 2011, 1:40 pm

Yeah, her Ashkenazi recipes are terrible--it's like you can tell she has no interest in it. The Sephardi recipes were better. I have both the Book of Jewish Food and the New Book of Middle Eastern Food, and she simplifies the recipes compared to other sources I have.

In the same (vague) vein, Paula Wolfert's Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco is very good. Not kosher but again, easy to fix--the main issue is not using butter. (Middle Eastern/North African cookbooks are among the easiest to kosherize, IME, aside from some desserts.) I don't have a good Moroccan Jewish cookbook, unfortunately, which is a shame as I understand that Moroccan Jews have dishes that Moroccan Muslims do not.

Avrahamamma

Sun, Mar 27 2011, 10:26 am

cm have you found a good cookbook yet? the non-persian bride cookbook seems like a good one. I don't really need it as I am a persian bride ;-) feel free to pm me if you want any specific recipes. also recipes vary as iran is very large and different cities prepare things differently. non-kosher persian cookbooks are really not a good indication of judeo-persian cooking. they really do prepare things differently.