A Persian feast for the new year

I felt my mother-in-law looking down from heaven with concern as I spooned chicken consommé powder into the Persian Noodle Soup from the new cookbook "Persian Food From the Non-Persian Bride and Other Kosher Sephardic Recipes You Will Love!" by Reyna Simnegar (Feldheim Publishers, 374 pages, $34.99). As the mother of five boys, the author acknowledges the need to take some shortcuts here and there.

The story of how an International Economics graduate who grew up in Venezuela became an authority on Persian (Iranian) kosher food is often hilarious. Simnegar recounts how her Jewish Iranian mother-in-law taught her the secrets of Persian cuisine so that her grown-up son wouldn't starve.

I've found a soul sister in Simnegar because I am also a non-Persian bride. I learned to cook when my mother-in-law came for a visit that lasted seven years. It can be intimidating to prepare an unfamiliar cuisine, but this author has a gift for untangling the secrets and simplifying the process for others. It's a welcome resource as my family celebrates the Persian New Year, which began March 20 and continues for 13 days.

Simnegar discovered her Sephardic Jewish heritage at age 12 when her aunt whispered it to her. She didn't even know there were Iranian Jews until she met her husband.

"I really thought he was joking," she writes. "I thought that just like Persepolis lay in ruins, any trace of the descendants of Queen Esther and her people were laid in ruins." The history of Jews in Iran goes back 2,700 years, and small Jewish communities maintain a presence among their Muslim neighbors there today.

Simnegar initially only planned to assemble a recipe guide for her "future daughters in-law who will need guidance on how to make their husbands happy." Her judicious time-savers should be appreciated in years to come, no matter who's doing the cooking.

In addition to recipes for Jewish holidays, Sabbath days, and busy weeknights, Simnegar's book highlights the history of Iranian Jews and has a section on finding kosher ingredients. (It's not difficult to cook kosher Persian food; the main challenge is to separate meat from dairy.) Cooking and grocery-shopping video tutorials can be found on the author's website: www.kosherpersian food.com.

A classic is reborn

"Is this Persian?" my husband, Mohammad, asked. With pistachios ground into the meat and a pomegranate glaze, the meatballs tasted like food from the country he had left 32 years ago. But his mother had never made these meatballs. Were they from a different region? Or were they a new creation?

Pistachio and Pomegranate Meatballs is one of 330 recipes in the 25-year anniversary edition of Najmieh Batmanglij's tome on Persian cooking "Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies" (Mage Publishers, 640 pages, $54.95). It's a beautifully photographed mix of Persian-inspired creations and classics, cradled in poetry, that also serves as a primer on Persian culture, ritual and traditions. Since my mother-in-law passed on, I'd turned to the previous edition regularly. This 640-page edition will surely answer any question I'd ever ask.

Chapters on breads and pastries, preserves and candies have been on my testing menu as I plan my spring holiday entertaining. While my oven will never turn out perfect Middle Eastern bakery-style flatbreads, the other recipes have given excellent results. Not all recipes are for everyone. Lamb brain patties, for example, won't be frying in my kitchen anytime soon, nutritious though they may be.

Iranians prefer basmati rice, and even those who have switched to brown basmati will switch back to the fluffy, long white grains for Persian New Year dinners. I noticed with skepticism Batmanglij's addition of rose water to the rice in the new edition. Basmati rice is aromatic enough, I thought. But I was surprised. It didn't taste too floral to serve with savory foods; it just took the basmati flavor to another level. My husband ate an entire bowl full, sprinkled with tart powder of sumac berries, before I finished making anything to go with it.

Beware of the boiling times given for her rice recipes, though. While she does stipulate that cooking times will vary depending on the rice variety, I have never cooked any white rice longer than her minimum cooking time without it turning to mush.

An abundance of herbs, fruit, citrus, flower waters and saffron perfumes Persian dishes. Artistic presentation is sometimes whimsical and often elegant, yet nutritious and even healing. "I believe that the same qualities that govern the Persian arts -- a particular feeling for the 'delicate touch,' letafat -- govern the art of Persian cuisine," writes Batmanglij.

Either cookbook will help American cooks, or the youngest generation of Iranian-Americans, discover the art of Persian cooking.

Catherine Dehdashti, a freelance writer from Eagan, can be reached at cdehdashti@yahoo.com.