Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies (4oth Anniversary Edition)

The 40th Anniversary Edition ofFood of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremoniesby Najmieh Batmanglij contains more recipes and more photos. Each recipe has been restructured for more clarity, including tips and suggestions from her fans over the past 40 years.Food of Lifeprovides 400+ authentic Iranian recipes as well as an introduction to Persian art, history, and culture. The books hundreds of full color photographs are intertwined with descriptions of ancient and modern Persian ceremonies, poetry, folktales, travelogue excerpts and anecdotes. This book is a labour of love that began in exile, after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, as a love letter to Najmiehs children. It is the result of 40 years of collecting, testing and adapting Persian recipes for todays kitchen. All the ingredients for cooking Persian food are now readily available throughout the U.S. enabling anyone from a master chef to a novice to reproduce the refined tastes, textures, and beauty of Persian cuisine. Food-related pieces from the 10th centuryBook of Kings, and1,001 Nightsto the classics of Persian poetry, the humor of Mulla Nasruddin, as well as Persian miniatures are all included.Each recipe is presented with steps that are logical and easy to follow. Readers learn how to simply yet deliciously cook rice with its golden crust tahdig, the jewel of Persian cooking, which, when combined with a little meat, fowl, or fish, vegetables, fruits, and herbs, provides the perfect balanced diet.Najmieh Batmanglij, is an acclaimed chef, best-selling cookbook author, and cooking instructor. She is also the co-founder and executive chef of the award winning Persian restaurant Joon, in Vienna Virginia. Najmieh was hailed as one of seven immigrant women who changed the way americans eat byThe New York Times, and The Grande Dame of Iranian Cooking by Mayukh Sen inThe Washington Post. Her latest bookCooking in Iran: Regional Recipes & Kitchen Secrets, was the culmination of tens of thousands of miles of travel through Iran. It was chosen as one of the best cookbooks of 2018, and called magisterial byThe New York Times.Batmanglij views preparing a meal not only as a culinary experience, but also as a means to bring family and friends together. She encourages her readers to use her books as she was taught in Iran, to cook, to laugh, to tell jokes and stories, to recite poetry, and to enjoy the meal. Over the past 40 years, Batmanglijs books have acted as a both a beacon and a bible to Iranian-American and mixed-ethnicity families in the English-speaking world. Her life and her work meet at the vortex of feminism, tradition, ceremony, and the nourishment of body and mind, proving that none of these concepts need be foreign to one another.