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Cooking in Iran: Regional Recipes and Kitchen Secrets
Najmieh Batmanglij was exiled from Iran 39 years ago. She was living in France where she did not speak the language or have proper documents—and above all, she was pregnant. Out of a nostalgia and yearning to connect with her roots, she wrote her first cookbook, Food of Life , as a kind of love letter to her children. She wanted to share with them all the good things she had experienced growing up in a traditional family in Iran.
Over the years, Food of Life has been called “the definitive book on Persian cooking” by the Los Angeles Times and “the Persian cookbook Bible” by Iranians and others. Food of Life was followed by six more cookbooks including Silk Road Cooking, which according to the New York Times, read like “a good novel—once you start it’s hard to put down.” But as she worked on these books at home in America, a fantastical dream took hold—a craving to revisit Iran and celebrate the specialties and traditional dishes of each region.
The challenges that faced her—emotional, political, and logistical—were daunting, but she felt she had to do it. She knew from her Silk Road research trip to China twenty years earlier that, under the bulldozer of modernity, Iran too would soon lose many of its traditional ways, special cooking techniques, and small artisanal workshops. Najmieh was determined to capture and preserve them before that happened.
After five years of overcoming obstacles, meticulous planning, and ten thousand miles of traveling the length and breadth of Iran—cooking with local cooks, visiting workshops, and developing recipes—Najmieh’s dream has been realized with the creation of Cooking in Regional Recipes and Kitchen Secrets . This book is a distillation of those past five years. It is an authoritative exploration of a cuisine whose cultural roots are among the deepest of any in the world.
Najmieh takes us with her on an extraordinary culinary from the daily fish market in Bushehr, on the Persian Gulf, where she and her host buy and cook a 14-pound grouper in a tamarind, cilantro, and garlic sauce, to the heart of historical Isfahan, in central Iran, where she prepares lamb necks in a yogurt, saffron, and candied orange peel sauce topped with caramelized barberries. Traveling north to the Caspian Sea, she introduces us to the authentic Gilaki version of slow-cooked duck in a pomegranate and walnut sauce, served over smoked rice; and the unique flavors of a duck-egg omelet with smoked eggplant and baby garlic. Lingering in the north, in tribal Kurdistan, she treats us to lamb-and-bulgur meatballs filled with caramelized onions and raisins in a saffron sauce. Dropping south, to Bandar Abbas on the coast, she teases our palate with rice cooked in date juice and served with spicy fish, while in Baluchistan she cooks spiced goat in a pit overnight and celebrates the age-old method of making bread in hot ashes.
At every village and off-the-beaten-track community, Najmieh unearths traditional recipes and makes surprising new discoveries, giving us a glimpse along the way of the places where many of the ingredients for the recipes are grown. She treks through the fields and orchards of Iran, showing us saffron being picked in Khorasan and pomegranates in Yazd, dates harvested by the Persian Gulf, pistachios in Kerman, and tea and rice by the Caspian.
With more than 250 recipes and 450 photographs, this updated edition of Cooking in Iran is packed with inspiring ideas and practical tips—everything you’ll need for recreating these glorious dishes so that you can embark on a culinary journey of your own.
Over the years, Food of Life has been called “the definitive book on Persian cooking” by the Los Angeles Times and “the Persian cookbook Bible” by Iranians and others. Food of Life was followed by six more cookbooks including Silk Road Cooking, which according to the New York Times, read like “a good novel—once you start it’s hard to put down.” But as she worked on these books at home in America, a fantastical dream took hold—a craving to revisit Iran and celebrate the specialties and traditional dishes of each region.
The challenges that faced her—emotional, political, and logistical—were daunting, but she felt she had to do it. She knew from her Silk Road research trip to China twenty years earlier that, under the bulldozer of modernity, Iran too would soon lose many of its traditional ways, special cooking techniques, and small artisanal workshops. Najmieh was determined to capture and preserve them before that happened.
After five years of overcoming obstacles, meticulous planning, and ten thousand miles of traveling the length and breadth of Iran—cooking with local cooks, visiting workshops, and developing recipes—Najmieh’s dream has been realized with the creation of Cooking in Regional Recipes and Kitchen Secrets . This book is a distillation of those past five years. It is an authoritative exploration of a cuisine whose cultural roots are among the deepest of any in the world.
Najmieh takes us with her on an extraordinary culinary from the daily fish market in Bushehr, on the Persian Gulf, where she and her host buy and cook a 14-pound grouper in a tamarind, cilantro, and garlic sauce, to the heart of historical Isfahan, in central Iran, where she prepares lamb necks in a yogurt, saffron, and candied orange peel sauce topped with caramelized barberries. Traveling north to the Caspian Sea, she introduces us to the authentic Gilaki version of slow-cooked duck in a pomegranate and walnut sauce, served over smoked rice; and the unique flavors of a duck-egg omelet with smoked eggplant and baby garlic. Lingering in the north, in tribal Kurdistan, she treats us to lamb-and-bulgur meatballs filled with caramelized onions and raisins in a saffron sauce. Dropping south, to Bandar Abbas on the coast, she teases our palate with rice cooked in date juice and served with spicy fish, while in Baluchistan she cooks spiced goat in a pit overnight and celebrates the age-old method of making bread in hot ashes.
At every village and off-the-beaten-track community, Najmieh unearths traditional recipes and makes surprising new discoveries, giving us a glimpse along the way of the places where many of the ingredients for the recipes are grown. She treks through the fields and orchards of Iran, showing us saffron being picked in Khorasan and pomegranates in Yazd, dates harvested by the Persian Gulf, pistachios in Kerman, and tea and rice by the Caspian.
With more than 250 recipes and 450 photographs, this updated edition of Cooking in Iran is packed with inspiring ideas and practical tips—everything you’ll need for recreating these glorious dishes so that you can embark on a culinary journey of your own.
728 pages, Hardcover
Published November 2, 2018
4 people are currently reading
237 people want to read
About the author
Najmieh Batmanglij
20 books33 followersNajmieh Batmanglij, hailed as “the guru of Persian cuisine” by The Washington Post, has spent the past 30 years cooking, traveling, and adapting authentic Persian recipes to tastes and techniques in the West. Her cookbook New Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies, was called “The definitive book of Persian cooking” by the Los Angeles Times; her Silk Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey was selected as “One of the ten best vegetarian cookbooks of the year” by The New York Times; and her From Persia to Napa: Wine at the Persian Table won the Gourmand Cookbook Award for the world’s best wine history book of 2007. She is a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier and lives in Washington, DC, where she teaches Persian and Silk Road cooking, lectures and consults with restaurants around the world. Her most recent book is Happy Nowruz: Cooking with Children to Celebrate the Persian New Year.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 14, 2019
A wonderful addition to Najmieh Batmanglij's oeuvre; I figured it would be a rehash of New Food of Life, with pictures, but I have liked it better and better each time I open it. I've only made a few of the recipes -- Salad Shiraz (which is pretty ordinary; but she also offers a Kurdish variation, which uses sumac and Pomegranate molasses instead of lime juice) and Barley Soup (not what I'd expect!) -- both of which were delicious.
I've done enough cooking from New Food of Life that I have a sense of Persian recipes in general, and Batmanglij's recipes specifically, and I think her recipes have improved. There were things I just didn't quite understand in her earlier books ("put pan [of cooked rice] on a wet surface," for instance; now it's "put pan on a wet kitchen towel"); fortunately, my husband was able to tell me how Persian cooks in his experience had done things. This cookbook seems to have evolved a bit.
Other recipes I want to try are the Azerbaijani Vegetable and Fruit Casserole (tas kabab-e Ardabil), something my husband loves but hasn't eaten in many years; the Skillet Kebab (since I don't even have the desire to try making actual koobideh, the kebab made from ground lamb or beef, grilled on flat skewers over coals); Oven-Baked Chicken, Eggplant, and Barberry Rice (also Azerbaijani); and several recipes from the Persian Gulf, which had the most interesting recipes to me: Red Lentil Soup; Roast Chicken with Dates, Walnuts, and Sumac; Spicy Okra, Lamb, and Potato Braise; and Lamb and Rice with Potato, Onion, and Turmeric. All of them look good, the directions make sense, and they are feasible, using some Persian ingredients that I already keep on hand: dried Persian limes, rose water, dates, lime juice, ground sumac, and barberries (YUM! sort of like really tart but not bitter dried cranberries); and some new ingredients, such as orange blossom water, tamarind paste, date molasses, and grape molasses, all of which I got online at persianbasket.
And an added bonus: really wonderful pictures from every province/region of Iran. I do wish she wasn't so prominent in so many of them, but nevertheless, they add a lot to the book.
After I make a few more of these wonderful recipes, I'll update my review. Noosh-e joon! ("eat it to your health!")
I've done enough cooking from New Food of Life that I have a sense of Persian recipes in general, and Batmanglij's recipes specifically, and I think her recipes have improved. There were things I just didn't quite understand in her earlier books ("put pan [of cooked rice] on a wet surface," for instance; now it's "put pan on a wet kitchen towel"); fortunately, my husband was able to tell me how Persian cooks in his experience had done things. This cookbook seems to have evolved a bit.
Other recipes I want to try are the Azerbaijani Vegetable and Fruit Casserole (tas kabab-e Ardabil), something my husband loves but hasn't eaten in many years; the Skillet Kebab (since I don't even have the desire to try making actual koobideh, the kebab made from ground lamb or beef, grilled on flat skewers over coals); Oven-Baked Chicken, Eggplant, and Barberry Rice (also Azerbaijani); and several recipes from the Persian Gulf, which had the most interesting recipes to me: Red Lentil Soup; Roast Chicken with Dates, Walnuts, and Sumac; Spicy Okra, Lamb, and Potato Braise; and Lamb and Rice with Potato, Onion, and Turmeric. All of them look good, the directions make sense, and they are feasible, using some Persian ingredients that I already keep on hand: dried Persian limes, rose water, dates, lime juice, ground sumac, and barberries (YUM! sort of like really tart but not bitter dried cranberries); and some new ingredients, such as orange blossom water, tamarind paste, date molasses, and grape molasses, all of which I got online at persianbasket.
And an added bonus: really wonderful pictures from every province/region of Iran. I do wish she wasn't so prominent in so many of them, but nevertheless, they add a lot to the book.
After I make a few more of these wonderful recipes, I'll update my review. Noosh-e joon! ("eat it to your health!")
October 22, 2021
This is the best Iranian cookbook I have read, hands down. The author describes a short history and customs of the major Iranian geographical states and then in depth their related cuisines. The spice recipes alone are worth the read. But there is so much more. I came away with a bevy of must try recipes and an increased appreciation for the complex and long standing food histories of the Iranian people. Bravo!
February 24, 2020
Such beautiful pictures and stories of her travels through Iran. The recipes look great and I can't wait to try some of them out. A very large book, but feels like a pretty thorough reference for highlights of Iranian food.
February 17, 2019
Gorgeous! Stunning pictures of Iran, its people and its food.
Recipes - Most have a ton of ingredients and yet the steps are straightforward. Very impressive tome!!
Recipes - Most have a ton of ingredients and yet the steps are straightforward. Very impressive tome!!
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June 7, 2019641.5955 B333c 2018
March 11, 2021
It had a ton of great history and beautiful photos that really made it a very beautiful cookbook to look through.
April 7, 2020
Gorgeous photos of of the recipes and of the places Ms. Batmanglij visited. Very informative with short texts on local histories and food production. This could be a "coffee table book" it's so beautiful.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews