Image Source: Ten Speed Press
If you’re like me, you know next to nothing about Persian cooking. Thinking of Iran, maybe politics crosses the mind, but certainly no reference points about food. Louisa Shafia aims to bridges this gap in her lovingly written book, the New Persian Kitchen. The country’s cooking she explains is partial to sweet and sour tastes incorporating ingredients like pomegranates, limes and sumac. The 80 recipes featured are her spin on many traditional dishes like Fesenjen (p.109) along with new creations. It’s an unusually vegetarian and gluten free friendly cookbook too. The meat section even provides notes on how to vegify each recipe.
Louisa Shafia has been featured in Epicurious, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal among other outlets. She runs a health and eco-conscious company called Lucid Food and even catered the Colbert Report. Additionally, she helped open up a cafe in New York called Cafe Nadery featuring items from the cookbook. After the interview check out the recipe for Sweet and Smoky Beet Burgers. Despite her busy schedule she took the time to answer some questions for Roodonfood (Please stop by tomorrow for part 2 of the Interview and another recipe):
When many people think of Middle Eastern Foods they may think of falafel, hummus or kebabs. How is Persian cuisine different?
Iran is technically a “Middle Eastern” country, but only part of it borders on the Arabic world. It also shares borders with Pakistan, Turkey, Afghanistan, and the post-Soviet states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkmenistan. Because of its position neighboring Central Asia—and its placement in the middle of the age-old trade routes known as the Silk Road, the link between Europe and the Far East—Iran has a really surprising and diverse cuisine. Yes, you’ll find ingredients and dishes like lentils, chickpeas, and dates, kebabs, and flatbread, just like you’ll find in Arabic and Israeli cooking. But in Iran you also have smoked fish, wild duck, caviar, pickles, sweet-and-sour stews made with meat and tart fruit, noodle soup, fine white rice studded with nuts and fruit, yogurt mixed with shallots, mint, or red beets, and all manner of green herbs, from dill to basil to fenugreek leaves. There are also distinct seasonings that give Persian food its bedazzled, quirky character like saffron, dried limes, rose petals, turmeric, sumac, sour grape essence, angelica powder, pomegranate molasses, and sour golden plums. It’s important to remember that Iran has historically been a bridge between East and West, so for Westerners who taste it for the first time, it really defies expectations because it’s so dramatically different from what we think of as Middle Eastern food.
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