The legendary cuisine of Persia

305 Pages·2017·22.103 MB·English

by  Margaret Shaida

the legendary cuisine of persia

Margaret Shaida
Grub street • london
Published by
Grub Street
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London, SW11 6SS
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Copyright this new edition © Grub Street 2017
Text copyright © Margaret Shaida 2000, 2004
Preface copyright © Alan Davidson 1992
Foreword copyright © Gregory Lima 1992
Photography by Regula Ysewijn
Food styling by Kathy Kordalis
Food styling assistant Pippa Leon
Cover and book design by Daniele Roa
First published by Lieuse Publications 1992
A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-910690-36-9
The moral right of the author has been asserted
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior
permission of the publisher.
Printed and bound by Finidr, Czech Republic
Contents
Aknowledgements � � � � � � � � � � � 6 Stuffed Vegetables � � � � � � � � � 185
Foreword � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 7 Egg Dishes:
Omelettes and Others � � � � � � 195
Introduction � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 9
Yoghurt Dishes
and Salads � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 206
The Heritage of Persia � � � � � � � �11
Pickled Pleasures � � � � � � � � � � �217
Iran’s Destiny � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �17
Conserves and Preserves � � � � 225
Festivals and Legends � � � � � � � 23
Beverages:
In a Persian Kitchen � � � � � � � � �31
Cooling Refreshments � � � � � � 235
Bread: First Things First � � � � � 57
Desserts and Delicacies � � � � � 245
Rice: Sumptuous Dishes � � � � � 64
Sweetmeats and
Stews and Sauces � � � � � � � � � � 100 Other Confections � � � � � � � � � 260
Soups: Through Thick Master Recipes � � � � � � � � � � � � �281
and Thin � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 128
Grills:
‘Hot’ and ‘Cold’ Foods � � � � � � 285
Beneath the Bough � � � � � � � � 150
Glossary � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 286
Meat Dumplings:
Hidden Treasures � � � � � � � � � � 163 Bibliography � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 288
Stuffed Meats and Roasts � � � �175 Index � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 290
Acknowledgements
T
he number of people who have contributed to the appearance of this
book are beyond count. Many of them I have never met. Many others
are long dead. They are the generations of Iranian men and women who
have created these recipes of such originality and enduring delight. They
are the true authors of this book and I am happy to be able to acknowledge
their inspiration and contribution.
However, my thanks must also go to a great number of people whom I
have had the privilege of meeting. To Mrs Shamsi Rast who brought her
skills and laughter to my kitchen in Iran and to the late Mrs Maria Tajadod
who brought her wide knowledge to my kitchen in England; to Mrs Fatimeh
Khorsandi whose awareness of both the history and the techniques of fine
Persian food inspired me; to Mrs Maheen Fatehi for her ‘southern’ skills
and Mrs Simeen Bahram for her ‘northern’ skills; to Mrs Pouran Ataie who
was especially generous with her time and knowledge – she tested many
of the recipes and suggested many others; to a great number of friends who
shared with me the hints and myths that form an integral part of the Persian
kitchen; and to the many people who so enthused me with their knowledge
and love of Persian food.
I should also like to express my thanks to Professor Theodore Zeldin and
Mr Alan Davidson for their quiet encouragement. It was through them that
I was able to widen my awareness of culinary history at the Oxford Symposia
of Food and Cookery. I also received great assistance from Mrs Hilary Laurie
who gave me the benefit of her time and considerable experience.
Special thanks go to Mr Nasser Engheta for his invaluable assistance
and to Mr. A. Ghoreishi, both of whom imparted to me their deep love
and extensive knowledge of the history and languages of ancient Persia.
Above all, my thanks go to my long-suffering and patient family who
put up with my moods and experiments with great equanimity; to my
mother-in-law who taught me the first lessons of love and skill that are
such important ingredients of Persian food; to Batul for her advice and
recipes, and, most especially, to my husband Hassan without whom I would
never have become aware of the legendary cuisine of his homeland. His
devotion, interest and generous spirit have sustained me over many years.
6 • the legendary cuisine of persia
Foreword
T
he title ‘Legendary’ strikes the right note for this book. Time and again
over the last twenty years, while I have been working on food and
cookery, mainly from a historical viewpoint, I have been struck by the
number of roads which lead back to Persia. This is not, of course, a com-
pletely new idea; there have been scholars in the past who have discerned
the Persian influence in many other cuisines. Laufer’s great work Sino-
Iranica has served as a beacon to illuminate for such scholars the paths
which led from Persia to China and back again. But in my belief it is only
now that people are beginning to realise the full extent of these ancient
influences, and how much of what is familiar on our own tables may be
traced back, ultimately, to the land of Persia.
Margaret Shaida’s book, with its wealth of historical matter, will intensify
this realisation. But this is not all it will do. Since it is the work of a mar-
vellously skilled cook, with a gift for explaining to others how they can
emulate her exploits in the kitchen, the recipes with which the book is
studded will spread enjoyment far and wide. I speak from experience. She
has for some time had the pleasant custom of providing a small banquet
before the annual Oxford Food and Cookery Symposium, inviting some
of the participants from overseas. Each of these banquets has been a mas-
terpiece; a spectrum of delicate flavours and textures, a visual delight.
This combination, to which I thus emphatically draw attention, of his-
torical illumination with practical recipes for delicious food is something
which invites a little more explanation. I recently found myself discussing
a medieval cookery text with a man who saw it purely and simply as a
source of recipes which might (or might not) work if adapted for use in
the 1990s. When I speculated about the true date of the recipes, he displayed
with vigour his lack of interest in this. ‘After all,’ he said, ‘it’s the recipes
themselves that count, isn’t it? Do they work? Do the dishes taste good?
There aren’t any other questions.’
Perhaps he was only seeking to condemn, by a venial exaggeration of his
own attitude, any contrary one, on the lines that the important questions
which pose themselves over a plateful of food are historical, sociological,
etc, rather than how it tastes.
However, I thought to myself, the ideal situation is surely to have it both
ways: not only to have delicious food on the table, but also to get the facts
right about where the recipes came from and what their geographical and
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social contexts originally were, and what changes have taken place in them
and why, and so on. The history of a dish is, to my mind, a romantic thing,
and although it would be absurd, every time one eats a piece of bread, to
insist that the whole panorama of the history of wheat and indeed of the
other cereals used for bread and of the evolution of the myriad different
kinds of loaf should flit through one’s mind – although, I say, this would
be carrying things much too far, the fact is that a considerable enhancement
of the pleasures derived from good food may be had by being aware of and
alert to such aspects when the setting makes this appropriate. (And, I would
add, if any setting makes it appropriate it must surely be a Persian setting.
For what other country can claim for its cuisine such a long history and
one so rich in fructifying effects both westwards and eastwards?)
Here, anyway, is a book which follows, and with great success, what seems
to me the right prescription for a really good food book; and Margaret
Shaida is to be warmly congratulated on her achievement.
alan davidson, london
8 • the legendary cuisine of persia
Introduction
I
n those long gone days when the trade caravans carrying the silks of
China, the saffron of India, the frankincense of Araby and most of the
gold of Rome criss-crossed Iran from every direction, the question might
rise in the caravanserais as to where was the centre of the world? The answer,
the Persians might argue, is Iran where you can bask in the fragrance of
the most temperate of climates, fill your flasks with the finest wines, listen
to the profoundest poets, and enjoy the most delicious food. He might
concede that as to the wine, the climate and the poetry his judgement could
be subjective, but the total centrality and superiority of the food would be
too obvious for argument.
These notions are hard to disprove. To the north is the frozen tundra of
the Russian steppes, to the south the blazing sands of Arabia, east are the
monsoons of India. Iran, with its four distinct seasons, could seem perfectly
temperate by such comparisons, the more so by its remarkable invention:
the qanât. This enabled most of the population to live in the sunshine
virtually every day of the year. The towering mountains tore apart the rain
clouds, keeping the bad weather in other countries and making Iran almost
a desert but for the qanât which brought the perennial waters of the stormy,
snow-capped mountains through hand-dug channels deep beneath the soil
dozens of miles to the otherwise arid, sandy plain below, and made it bloom
in literally tens of thousands of oasis villages. Often brilliantly, with orchards,
diverse crops and qanât-fed drinking water to quench the thirsts of cities.
The same often-forested mountains provided the pasture for the flocks – the
meat and dairy, as well as the wool for the Persian carpets upon which
woven gardens the meals were served. Aside from the sturgeon and caviar
fisheries, rice paddies and citrus groves of the Caspian littoral where the
rainfall is heavier than England, most of the land is under cloudless skies.
At night the stars fall down, almost into your lap, they are so bright and
seemingly near. Which may account for some of Persia’s more celebrated
poets being highly accomplished astronomers, as was Omar Khayyam, or
for the Star of Bethlehem to rise in these skies, for between dusk and dawn
the Magi hardly had to use the magic to find the road.
But, if as some now sadly believe, Persia is no longer at the centre of the
world, if Hafez, Saadi and Rumi’s nightingales no longer sing as sweetly
among the rose bushes to the strings of the târ, if the vineyards of Shiraz
which Gibbon believed “always triumphed over the laws of Mohammed”
have become fallow fields, and storm now rages over Persia’s sunshine and
shadows, it leaves the country only with the most delicious food.
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