Persian Cooking: A Table of Exotic Delights: Revised and Updated - Softcover

Ramazani, Nesta

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1588140873 ISBN 13: 9781588140876

Publisher: Ibex Publishers, Incorporated, 2014

Synopsis

For more than forty years, Persian Cooking: A Table of Exotic Delights has been the classic cookbook for the cuisine of Iran in the American kitchen. This updated and expanded edition takes into account present tastes, the availability of ingredients and modern cooking tools and methods.
Persian cooking is one of the oldest culinary traditions known to man. Its aromatic dishes are based on vegetables, fruits, rice and meat used in subtle and varied combinations, delicately seasoned with fragrant herbs and spices. Many of these healthy, nutritious and nourishing dishes are suitable for vegetarian palates.
This comprehensive collection of over 350 authentic recipes covers all facets of Persian food, including appetizers, soups, dolmehs, kookoos, salads, rice, stews, kababs, bread, cookies, pastries, puddings, sherbets and pickles. Tested methods and clearly explained techniques ensure the dishes turn out as they should. A chapter on the history of Persian food and a glossary of Persian culinary terms complete the book, making it the essential reference book on Persian cooking.
Of both Persian and English heritage, Nesta Ramazani has lived in both Iran and the West, making her uniquely qualified to offer these recipes. During a yearlong visit to Iran, she consulted the classic Persian language cookbooks and pried culinary secrets from both professional chef and housewife. Back in the United States, she tested and tried the hundreds of dishes and rendered the recipes to exact Western measurements and timing.
In addition to being a talented chef, Mrs. Ramazani is also a gifted writer. She manages to capture and convey the subtleties of the cuisine through clear descriptions and engaging anecdotes.
Persian Cooking was included in “Best Christmas Book Choices” by the Washington Post and Nesta Ramazani has been honored by the Encyclopedia Iranica for “Her Efforts to Introduce Persian Culinary Art to the Non-Iranian Public."

CONTENTS
Foreword
Persia and Its Food
Appetizers
Soups
Meat-Based Thick Soups
Vegetarian Soups
Soup
Stuffed Vegetables
Persian Soufflés
Yogurt Dishes
Vegetables
Salads
New Salads
Rice and Rice Dishes
Braised or Stewed Meat or Fowl to Accompany Rice
Stews, Casseroles, and Other Entrees
Kababs
Breads
Cookies, Pastries, and Confections
Puddings, Gelatin, and Other Desserts
Sherbets
Pickles
Shopper's Guide
Persian Culinary Glossary
Index of Recipes

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

If Scheherazade had to depend on her culinary imagination to persuade the King to spare her, she doubtless would have told him about recipes such as these. There is a succulent dish, she might have begun, called Shirin Pollo, wherein rice is enfolded with strips of chicken, sweetened orange peel, pistachios and almonds. . . . On nights to follow she might whet his appetite with Fessenjoon, chicken stewed in pomegranate syrup and walnuts, or Meat and Parsley Soup with Green Plums, Roast Partridges in Cream, Lamb Hearts with Cinnamon or Cranberry and October Bean Soup.

After she had delved into the kookoos (souffls), the kebabs, the dolemahs, the game birds, vegetables, salads, breads and pickles, she might turn to the sweetsElephants Ears, Persian Marzipan, Sweet Fingers, the sherbets and cold sweet drinks. She would soon have the King eating out of her hand, for Persian cuisine offers something for even the most sophisticated of gourmets in search of new epicurean delights.

The oldest cuisine known to man, Persian cooking is based on lamb, fruits, vegetables and grains, used in subtle and varied combinations. The food is neither highly spiced nor hot but seasoned with herbs. It is very nutritious and very economical requiring minimum amounts of meat. Many dishes are easy to prepare ahead of time and well suited to reheating-they make good leftovers.

As Mrs. Ramazani writes: Here is a culinary art so highly developed that the most lowly vegetable can taste divine, every meal can be a gastronomic treat, every cook a creative artist.

About the Author:

Nesta Ramazani is the doyenne of Persian cuisine in America. In addition to Persian Cooking, she is also the author of The Dance of the Rose and the Nightingale, which relates her experience as a founding member of the Iranian National Ballet Company. She holds an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Virginia and has written widely on various subjects relating to Iran and the Middle East in various scholarly and mainstream journals.
She and her husband live in Charlottesville, Viriginia where she writes, teaches ballet and occasionally lectures.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ibex Publishers, Incorporated
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1588140873
• ISBN 13: 9781588140876
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 400