Persian Cooking

March 21 is the Persian New Year. I wonder if anyone here is interested in Persian food?

I find Persian food very delicious and I often either cook it or eat it at this time of year.

F

So where's Gary been, anyway?

So where's Gary been, anyway?

Been wondering the same thing.

Gary has been playing Grandpa to a small girl who arrived a few weeks ago.

[Jenise]

My friend Susan (the one who made couscous last weekend) cooks a lot of persian food, I hope she'll answer your post (she reads here).

[Robin Garr]

March 21 is the Persian New Year. I wonder if anyone here is interested in Persian food?

I find Persian food very delicious and I often either cook it or eat it at this time of year.

I like Persian/Iranian food very much. Our town has a small Iranian-American community, with a disproportionate number of them in the restaurant business (a long story), so we have at least a dozen Persian eateries and dine out on Iranian fare reasonably often. (Also, until recently, one Azerbaijani place, which is geographically and culturally similar.) I've also tried to make a couple of dishes (khoresht/stew, mostly) at home. I love sabzeh, the appetizer of herbs and feta in pitas, and the eggplant dishes, and the lavash, and all the khoreshts (had a chicken-walnut-pomegranate version at Caspian Grill recently that was incredible), and the rosewater ice cream and ... yeah, I love Iranian food.

Actually, thanks for the reminder, Frank. One of the most high-end of our Persian eateries, Saffron's, often has a special menu or banquet for the new year. Need to look into that. (It's also interesting to many Westerners, by the way, to learn that the Iranian New Year is Zoroastrian, not Muslim ... )

We have a ton of Iranian emigrees here in Vancouver and a wealth of Persian restaurants which I must admit to hardly touching so far. Must make time to do further investigation.

[Jenise]

Bill, wonder if one of them would be interested in a little fanatical behavior. Hmmmm!

Bill, wonder if one of them would be interested in a little fanatical behavior. Hmmmm!

Hmm - what wine would you match with abgoosht.....

Colbert had a meditation on the true meaning of Nowruz.

http://niacblog.wordpress.com/2009/03/13/stephen-colbert-nowruz/

He must have a Persian guy on his staff, the details he mentions are right on (hyacinths, haft seen).

We will make a Kookoo for sure. My favorite food is Aashe reshte, a savory thick stew, but it is a lot of trouble to cook. Fabulous flavor though. They put in long noodles (reshte) for long life.

I wish we had good Persian restaurants around here. Fortunately my neighbors cook Persian (or Afghan) fairly regularly so I get a "fix" now and then without having to cook it from scratch.

F

Colbert had a meditation on the true meaning of Nowruz.

http://niacblog.wordpress.com/2009/03/13/stephen-colbert-nowruz/

He must have a Persian guy on his staff, the details he mentions are right on (hyacinths, haft seen).

We will make a Kookoo for sure. My favorite food is Aashe reshte, a savory thick stew, but it is a lot of trouble to cook. Fabulous flavor though. They put in long noodles (reshte) for long life.

I wish we had good Persian restaurants around here. Fortunately my neighbors cook Persian (or Afghan) fairly regularly so I get a "fix" now and then without having to cook it from scratch.

I feel your pain, Frank. Though our little college community has gained many interesting ethnic eateries in the 18 years I've been here (starting pretty much from scratch, though), Persian and related cuisines are still not represented here. I have 5 different places I can go to get falafel/mezzes/hummous and 4 nominally Indian restaurants, but not a single Persian, Afghan or even Ethiopian place. Fortunately, I have a huge supply of saffron and dried barberries (Zereshk) from a former Iranian student, so I can at least make a few representive dishes myself.

Mark Lipton