Taste of Persia

Taste of Persia: A Cook's Travels Through Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Kurdistan | Naomi Duguid

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Travelling via food writing. Lots of fresh herbs in these recipesā€”3, 4 or even 6 bunches for one dishā€”it's quite exhilarating. Add cinnamon, pomegranate seeds, mulberries, rose petals & saffron. Exotic & delicious. Every recipe that I tried turned out well, except I haven't yet got the knack of the crust on the bottom of the pot of rice. Lots of anecdotes & travel photos plus an extensive glossary. Wish I could find blue fenugreek somewhere...

DivineDiana This looks like a beautiful book! One of my sisters has a Persian husband and I know that she was looking for a new Persian cookbook! I think I will get this for her birthday! 7y

Lindy @DivineDiana Another good one to consider (especially if vegetarianism is a factor) is

The New Persian Kitchen

DivineDiana Thank you! I‘ll check it too! 7y

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Louise Oh, I love the crust they make with their rice! Yum! š¤“ 7y

Posemn @Lindy I love reading all of your adventures with this cookbook. I enjoy trying (or at least reading about) foods from different cultures. Thanks for sharing! 7y

Lindy @Posemn Thanks! And that's a glass of Persian-style chai in the photo, another happy taste adventure. š‹ 7y

Posemn Yep. I just put it on my library hold list @Lindy. 7y

Lindy @Posemn I look forward to seeing posts from you about your Persian culinary travels. š 7y

Lindy @Louise I get an accidental/incidental crust (very tasty) when I use vegetable broth instead of water in my rice cooker, so I was disappointed to follow directions (much washing, rinsing, soaking, making a special bottom layer, then piling the grains into a conical shape in a pot I have to watch (unlike the freedom of a rice cooker) and then no crust, only a few crispy grains. š•Still, the rice was extremely fluffy afterwards. š‹ 7y

Louise @Lindy I'll give your rice cooker method a try! I have an Iranian friend who makes a crusty rice topping by putting sliced potatoes at the bottom of the pot. She then layers rice, saffron, rice, dill. . . . The potatoes come out crunchy, and the rice is amazingly fluffy. Best rice I've ever tasted! I would love to achieve that kind of taste and fluffiness with my own cooking! (edited) 7y

Lindy @Louise Layering herbs in when you put your rice on to cook is easy and delicious. You are making me hungry! 7y

Louise @Lindy Yes, I feel like eating a bowl of fluffy rice now! š‚ 7y

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Lindy

Taste of Persia: A Cook's Travels Through Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Kurdistan | Naomi Duguid

Pomegranate Ash: a Persian soup flavoured with pomegranate molasses and lots of herbs. It's yummy!

Lindy @ReadingEnvy and @EvieBee I know you have copies of this cookbook. I left out the meatballs and the soup is really good. 7y

ReadingEnvy Looks tasty! 7y

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Lindy

Taste of Persia: A Cook's Travels Through Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Kurdistan | Naomi Duguid

Archeological finds confirm that the ancestors of the Georgians and Armenians were making wine thousands of years ago. In fact, the species of wild grape that is the ancestor of modern wine grapes is native to the Caucasus.

mjdowens Now that is very cool info to learn š¨‡ 7y

Lindy @mjdowens šThis is my favourite kind of cookbook: it's packed with information. 7y

ReadingEnvy I bought this with holiday money and it's so beautiful. I haven't made anything out of it yet! 7y

Lindy @ReadingEnvy I made Eggplant Borani today. Delish! I also followed her directions for cooking Persian rice, but didn't get a nice tadiq crust. I plan to make Green Ajika tomorrow (I'm soaking the chiles tonight.) 7y

ReadingEnvy @Lindy I worked with a woman who married someone from Iran and her crust was Soo good. I'd like to learn that technique. 7y

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Lindy

Taste of Persia: A Cook's Travels Through Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Kurdistan | Naomi Duguid

"I came across a mention of a special version [of yogurt drink] prized by mystics that includes an extract of hashish and is called dugh-e wahdat in Persian. A similar drink, called bangab ( literally bang-water) is made by adding an infusion of cannabis leaves steeped in water or milk. I have never been offered either one."
[I came across reference to a cannabis beverage last year in Marta Farley's Festive Ukrainian Cooking. Never tried it.]

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Lindy

Taste of Persia: A Cook's Travels Through Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Kurdistan | Naomi Duguid

Duguid has a lot to say about tea in Iran, and she includes 2 recipes for spiced tea: cardamom with green tea; cassia, ginger & black pepper with black tea. I've actually been curious about the spices for a few years, ever since reading Louisa Shafia's New Persian Kitchen. Shafia mentioned that Iranian chai was not like Indian chai, but she didn't say what spices were used. I am going to make some right now. ā•ļø¸

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Lindy

Taste of Persia: A Cook's Travels Through Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Kurdistan | Naomi Duguid

"The cooking liquid may instead be flavoured with ground cannabis seeds, which are apparently widely available" (in Armenia).
I won't be trying that particular variation of Cabbage Rolls Stuffed with Beans and Tart Fruit. ?

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EvieBee

Taste of Persia: A Cook's Travels Through Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Kurdistan | Naomi Duguid

Yay! My cookbook was delivered a few minutes ago! Already looked through it and love that true to the description online, it has a lot of history about the peoples and food of the Middle East. Can't wait to read it! #bookmail #cookbook

AmandaL This photo is gorgeous! 7y

britt_brooke Pretty photo. š“·š’• 7y

EvieBee @AmandaL @britt_brooke Thank you so much! ā¯¤ļø¸ļø¸ā¯¤ļø¸ļø¸ 7y

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I-read-and-eat This looks so good! I love persian food ā¯¤ 7y

LeahBergen Her cookbooks are gorgeous. 7y

EvieBee @I-read-and-eat Me too! Have you read by chance? Made me want to visit the homeland also.

The Temporary Bride: A Memoir of Food and Love in Iran

EvieBee @LeahBergen Now I want to collect them all! 7y

I-read-and-eat @EvieBee84 I have not, but now I want to! I have an Iranian friend and whenever she talks about the food she ate when she visted her family there I get so hungy! I love the whole middle-eastern sweet and savory combination š€ 7y

I-read-and-eat @EvieBee84 Also, I love the Persiana cookbook! You can find a sample of the recipes online and they are so good š›

Persiana: Recipes from the Middle East & beyond

EvieBee @I-read-and-eat That is awesome that you have a friend you can eat vicariously through, lol! So wow. In need Persiana in my life. My library has a copy so I can get a quick fix before buying. Thank you so much! 7y

Buddys_Momma Yummy! And gorgeous photo. 7y

EvieBee @Buddys_Momma Thank you so much, Holly! 7y

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