Persiana: Recipes from the Middle East and Beyond

I fell in love with Iranian food back in my college days--pre-revolution--when my Persian friends cooked their mothers' home recipes for me. I found it fresh, flavorful, beautiful on the plate, and full of surprises. Fast forward many years and I have accumulated a shelf full of Middle Eastern/Mediterranean cookbooks, many of them exclusively Persian. I love this cuisine so much, complex yet simple, refined yet rustic--consider it one of the greats, right up there with Mexican/French/Italian--that I find a new Persian cookbook hard to resist. It is an irresistible collection.For all you picture hounds, there is a full-page color picture of the completed dish for every recipe. That's right. Every...single...one. (I keep Kindle for PC installed on both my laptop and desktop computers for just such books as this. The pictures look good on my Kindle Fire (the 7" one), but they look spectacular on a large HD monitor. Every little detail... You foodies know what of I speak. Sigh!)Ingredients are given in both metric and American tsp/tblsp/ounces etc. (I read somewhere recently that the U.S. is one of three countries left hanging on to non-metric measurements. Surely we will eventually bow to the majority, but I hope it's after I'm no longer cooking. In the meantime all my new kitchen measuring cups and spoons have both standards clearly imprinted, so I don't miss out, or get confused. Just a suggestion...) The whole cookbook has been edited with the view to international distribution. But, the one thing, the only thing, I've found which wasn't "translated" for Americans is the oven temperature, which is given in Centigrade and "gas mark". But the internet is full of converters, so no biggie.Chapters are as follows:Mezze (appetizers,etc.)--19 recipesBreads and Grains--9 recipesSoups, Stews, and Tagines--12 recipesRoasts and Grills--22 recipesSalads and Vegetables--26 recipesDesserts and Sweet Treats--12 recipesA grand total of 100 and I'm determined to cook my way through all of them.There are a number of recipes for lamb, but beef can be easily substituted, a lesson learned from an old American friend married to an Iranian who always said she was a better cook than his mother (high praise indeed). I live in a small town, surrounded by small towns, where a variety of lambs cuts are expensive and not readily available. I don't know if the author would approve; I just know it can be done. (If you're interested, the book which made my friend into a "better than my mother's" Persian cook is "Persian Cooking" by Nesta Ramazani and is still in print and available on Amazon. It's fabulous beyond words and thorough, but be warned, there are no pictures.)Any unfamiliar spices (sumac, for example) are easily obtainable online from vendors like Penzey's (the best, IMHO). Persians are very fond of fresh herbs in quantity, nothing unusual, but if you fall in love with this cuisine, you might want to grow some of your own, quite easily done in pots on a window sill in a pinch.Just a few words about rice cooked Persian style: It is heavenly. Fluffy, tender, toothsome, aromatic, every grain separate from its neighbor. Fixed plain or fancy, it is hands-down the best prepared rice I've ever eaten. And it reheats beautifully for leftovers. You will never fix rice any other way.This isn't a collection full of ingredients that you've never heard of or wouldn't recognize on the grocery shelf. The recipes are clearly written, easy to follow. Techniques are simple and successful results should be well within the reach of the average home cook. This would be a fine introduction to one of the world's great cuisines. Highest recommendation!

One of my favorite cookbooks of all time.Absolutely delicious. Good explanations.For unfamiliar cooks, most ingredients you might have difficulty finding in your usual grocery store can be ordered on Amazon, which makes Persian food really accessible. Some of the flavors and ideas might be shocking, but for the adventurous lover of fabulous food, this is a great place to start.Dishes I've made from this cookbook include:Saffron chicken with fennel and barberry (phenomenal. one of my favorite chicken recipes ever)Walnut and pomegranate chicken (truly unique. and quite tasty)Lamb with tomato and black garlic (good. turns out I'm not a huge fan of lamb)Lamb and apricot stew (didn't love it - recipe not at fault, I just learned that these aren't flavors I'm into)Fish with tamarind cilantro sauce (amazing. truly delicious.)Bejewlled rice (fantastic. hard not to binge on)Bulgur salad (good)Lemony quinoa salad (good)

Superb instruction to Persian food. Second volume is excellent also.

I love this book! I have it in French and just got the English version of it for a friend as a gift but the book came folded in the corner :/Please use a better packaging for a paperback book instead of just using a bag! It does not hold well !

I love this cookbook! In fact, I also have Bazaar by the same author. The recipes are well written, not complicated, and every recipe I've tried has turned out. I can't get some of the spices locally, but I've ordered them online. I don't know how the recipes would taste if ingredients/spices were substituted.

I am a big fan of the Ottolenghi cookbooks - Jerusalem, in particular - and over the last few years, I've come to love the flavor profiles of food from the Middle East and Central Asia. However, as much as I love the recipes in Jerusalem, they are definitely 'weekend' recipes - I have yet to make anything that took less than 45 minutes, and I often feel as if I need a sous chef. The great thing about Persiana is that you have a similar intensity of flavor and liberal use of spices, herbs, and vegetables, but the recipes are a lot more user-friendly.I especially recommend this cookbook for "mixed" (i.e. vegetarians and meat-eaters) households, as there is enough in here to keep everybody happy. Although, TBH, I think there are just about enough hearty non-meat dishes in here to justify the purchase even for strictly vegetarian households.

I seldomly write an amazon review but this time i HAD too,forget the excellent quality of paper and beautiful pictures in the end you want to make a meal out of ur cookbook and not use it as a coffee table book right? the recipes are amazing if you love mediterenean/persian/arabic meals you will LOVE this,every recipe was easy to follow and more importanty every recipe HAD A PICTURE! The ingrediants are available in most supermarkets , a MUST add to ur cookbooks

Amazing cookbook! Having had a Persian husband, I learned to cook many, many Iranian dishes over the years and was always looking for ways to speed up the preparation process for the elaborate Persian recipes. Sabrina Ghayour cooks exactly the way that I like to cook Persian food, and, lucky for me, loves to cook the same exact recipes that I came to love! Her selection of spices is both traditional and very creative. Perfect that she includes many of the other classic and delicious dishes from other Middle Eastern countries as well. I love this cookbook and, unlike most cookbooks, I will be able to cook every single recipe in the whole book. If you want a very practical approach to the exotic and delicious Persian cuisine, this is most definitely the cookbook for you!

Persiana gives us a glimpse into the world of Iranian cuisine. As it is sandwiched between the Middle Wast and the Indian subcontinent, the cuisine is a blend of both. A more subtle spice palette makes for dishes with flavour without heat. An interesting book with excellent photography and written with flair.

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Adorei as receitas que não são complicadas. Muito bom livro!

Sono molto contenta di questo acquisto, il libro ha delle ricette interessanti sebbene alcune siano le più classiche che è facile trovare anche altrove o conoscere già (per questo non ho dato le 5 stelle). Per il resto, è un libro che si legge anche volentieri e poi online l ho acquistato ad un prezzo scontatissimo.

Great recipe book. Love the pics and easy to follow directions.