Savvima Review & Giveaway of Persian Food from the Non-Persian Bride
March 22nd, 2011 Print
Congratulations to Mindle, winner of the giveaway!!
This post features:
- A Savvima review of the just released cookbook, Persian Food from the Non-Persian Bride by Reyna Simnegar.
- A chance to be entered to win a free copy of Persian Food from the Non-Persian Bride by commenting below about your favorite foreign food.
Reyna Simnegar, originally from Venezuala, took a crash-course in Persian cooking taught by her future mother-in-law before heading down the aisle to marry her Persian groom. Sephardic food, much like its people, is colorful, flavorful, and full of spice. To borrow a phrase from Reyna, the 374 pages worth of recipes featured in Persian Food from the Non-Persian Bride are “a spa for the palate.” And the more than 100 photos that accompany the recipes are a visual feast for the eyes.
Aside from the many Persian dishes, Reyna includes Moroccan dishes such as Matboucha (Moroccan Tomato And Roasted Pepper Dip) and Dafina (Moroccan Shabbat Stew), and she even managed to sneak in a carefully selected sampling of non-Sephardic recipes such as Smoked Fish Salad With Candied Walnuts and Avocado (which even her Persian family and friends willingly eat). But you won’t find kugel and tzimmes in the index. Are you fearful that these recipes will be too exotic to prepare? With unabashed chutzpah Reyna guides her fellow non-Persian cooks how to cut corners on traditional Persian recipes. Just please don’t tell her mother-in-law.
Reyna explains in vivid detail how a traditional Persian table is laden with breads (the water challah I tried tasted heavenly), dips, and salads as well as fresh fruit, raw vegetables, and herbs. The Shirazi salad, a take on the classic Israeli salad, tasted delicious with fresh mint and a dressing of lime juice and olive oil. This course of a Sephardic meal is always my favorite and the selection of dips, appetizers, and breads in Persian Food was more than enough to satisfy my appetite.
Yet Reyna continues to tempt the taste buds with herb-laden fish such as Reyna’s favorite Baked Salmon with Green Relish, and stews such as Chorosht’e Gime ba Gorje Farangi (Mini Meatballs and Zucchini Stew).
I knew I had to try the Mini Meatballs and Zucchini Stew since Reyna quips how her husband loved this dish so much upon eating it he immediately bought her a new bracelet. I can say the stew was quite tasty and well received though, unfortunately, in my case it did not produce a bracelet. Reyna, please tell me what I did wrong?! I’m willing to try again. Reyna lovingly pokes fun at Persian stereotypes with anecdotes such as these. Her sincere love for Jewish rituals and the Persian culture in particular resonates throughout the book.
Code, otherwise known as Persian Chicken Shabbat Stew, is a superb stand-in for traditional Eastern European cholent. This dish has chicken, rice, and chick peas and the aromatic blend of spices will have your mouth watering long before Shabbos lunch.
Rice demands an entire section in Persian cooking and Reyna offers a Persian rice tutorial along with many recipes for this bread-like staple. And if you can manage to save room for dessert you’ll be tempted by exotic recipes such as Saffron Ice Cream and Persian Cream Puffs. The cookbook also features traditional menus for Shabbos and the holidays.
In anticipation of the arrival of Moshiach we are told Jews from the far corners of the world will be reunited. Today’s Jewish world is in fact smaller than ever. So too we are experiencing a culinary-ingathering as we learn from one another how to prepare and appreciate the unique flavors and dishes of our Jewish sisters from different cultures and traditions. Food is a wondrous potion for bringing people together and Reyna’s cookbook, Persian Food from the Non-Persian Bride, is another way we can learn to appreciate one another.
To be entered to win a copy of Persian Food from the Non-Persian Bride leave a comment below telling us your favorite “foreign” dish (whether you’re Ashkenazic and love Dafina or Sephardic and can’t get enough Gefilte Fish) before Tuesday, March 29, 2011.
To purchase Persian Food from the Non-Persian Bride click here.
My favorite foreign food is Malawach!
My favorite foreign dish is a real hungarian gulyas soup! Yes gulyas is a soup and not a stew!!
Begin as a beef stew using only wine and not water until it covers all the small cubed beef!
After an hour cooking add all kinds of veggies and cumin. Add more water and cook it for another hour. Prepare the home made dumplings and drop them into the soup.
You get the best flavor when you are cooking it outdoor in BOGRACS (cauldron) http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_AtBfmvLsPiA/TAQyt7I8m6I/AAAAAAAAADA/0g5C2lhwibE/s1600/bogracs1.jpg
Which I’m planning on doing and throw a hungarian party where you are gonna be invited! I Have the pot already!
wow this is so cool more amazing recipes i would love to try
so far my favorite foreign food is godjgija its a buckarian meat pocket that tastes so good and need to be prepared in a special way
I would looove this cookbook. the title is perfect for me
… I was eating persian food almost ever day while pregnant with both my boys… its my favorite and I never learned how to cook any of it! I always have to order in to enjoy the delish flavorful natural enjoyable persian food! pick me! I’d use every page of this cookbook! and I am not one ounce persian… blonde and fair 
My favorite foreign food is persian rice with tadig!! Reyna’s recipe and step by step guide on her website helped me master my favorite dish and now I am able to make it at home! She is the best!!!! I love experimenting with new flavors from all over the world and would LOVE to try more recipes from her book!
Sorry, I forgot to add my information in all my excitement!
We love morrocan salmon. Shabbos lunch favorite!
This is a tough one…but I’d have to say dafina! In high school, I would often go to my morrocan friend’s house for shabbos. In addition to the delicious salads and appetizers, I always looked forward to the dafina! The meat was soft and succulent, and the rice, potatoes and chickpeas were so flavorful. I’ve tried to make it in the past, but it never seemed to come out right. I would like to make another (hopefully successful!) attempt at cooking an authentic, proper dafina, and this cookbook may just be the right one to show me how!
Our favorite meal is chicken meatballs w/ green beans in a tomato sauce, served over rice.
My sephardic friend in France made this for us when we would visit her, she knew our family LOVED it!
I love Yemenite jachnun and kubana!
My ex-husband is Tunisian Israeli, and his mother used to make Kifta (not kufta) ever week to serve with the homeemade couscous and soup and chicken. Kifta is ground beef, I think, surrounded by a dough from semolina wheat, and then fried. Delicious.
This is hard since I’m half ashki and half sphard so what’s considered foreign – I love it all! I guess I’m not Indian so I would love to learn some Kosher Indian recipes or an Ethiopian stew!
I have always loved trying food from around the world – persian kubida (kebabs) with rice, raw egg yolk (wonder if they still do that) and a red spice I don’t know the name of; fesinjon another Persian delight made with chicken, walnuts and pomengranite concentrate. Or what about Indian chicken korma (made with coconut milk) or a beef dupiaza – of course served with chapatis. Oh – and my Turkish husband would be in heaven if I would spend hours upon hours making buyos – which is a little-known pastry, similar to borekas but using a dough that soaks in oil an entire night(!) and is then stretched thin like phyllo pastry. With cheese and potato filling it’s food for a king. If you want something a little more “westernized” I go for a pot roast recipe I found years ago on a Jewish website, and has become a staple for yomtov seudot.
This is a difficult question because I love all middle eastern food. I guess I would have to say anything with lamb.
My favorite is moussaka!!
My mother in law is persian and I love eating all the traditional persian food she makes especially all the rices (orange rice is my fave). I’d love a copy of this cookbook so I can make something special for her when she comes to me for shabbos!
My favorite foreign dish is Chinese wontons!
I really like Morrocan fish ball
anything with cumin….mmmm
I’d love a copy of this! I really hope I win this!
I am as Ashkenaz as they come but I LOVE spicy flavorful foods and embrace every opportunity to eat it-Indian, Moroccan. Mexican, Syrian, Persian, you name it! I’ve always been intimidated by Persian and Syrian food because they have a reputation for being difficult and time consuming. Apparently there are shortcuts!!! I’m so excited. My favorite foreign food would have to be kibbeh. My husband’s aunt through marriage (the only family Sephardic connection we have) makes the best I’ve ever tasted! Hot dipped in chummus-nothing compares!
I’m Chasidish and I dig my best friend’s Iraqi KUBE! http://shemtovtaamtov.wordpress.com/2007/10/01/kuba-bamya/
I love Kube and Shwarma!! Yumm
my favorite foreign dish would have to be persian jewelled rice. I’ve only made it a couple of times since it’s so time consuming, but it is amazingly good. it’s made with caramelized orange peel, pistachios and spiced with saffron – I salivate just at the thought! I would love to have this cookbook, especially if some of the recipes are just as good!
Jerusalem Mixed Grill…YUM!
I love Indian curries! I also love a good tahdig!
My favorite foreign dishes are the ones my Hungarian grandmother used to make- for example ruckertcrumplie (baked eggs and potato dish with sour cream butter etc) and urengulushka (cinnamon pull-apart cake)!
I love sambusak
My favorite comfort food is Shakshuka!!
But if I win that cookbook then I will replace the Shakshuka with a Persian delicacy!!!
WOW!! I am so happy to see so many people like exotic foods! I have to agree with Rachel, one of my favorite rices is Jeweled rice! I adore it! I also love Polo Shirin (orange rice)…absolutely amazing! I am sure you will all love this cookbook!
I also love Venezuelan and South American foods like Arepas (specifically Reina Pepiada) with chicken and avocados…also Chilean empanadas…my next cookbook is all about the un-unkown yet incredibly delicious kosher Latin American food! Get ready for a spicy and super exotic cookbook!
THank you for sharing!
Reyna I love your videos! Not that familiar with sefardic food but loved the syrian cheese and kaak I got from my neighbor for Purim.
My favorite foreign dish of all time is Dulce de Tres Leches – “Cake of Three Milks” – a delicious Cuban/Latin cake drowning in a combination of whole milk, evaporated milk, and sweetened condensed milk. I like to make a merengue topping and take a kitchen torch to it to give a beautiful toasted look. The only problem with this particular dessert is that if you have leftovers, you are certain to weigh 10 lbs. more by the end of the week. Luckily, it is EXTREMELY rare to have leftovers.
My favorite dish is Dolma. Stuffed tomatoe or green pepper. It smells great and it looks so beautiful and colorful. Did I win the book? I hope so.
My favorite “foreign dish” is any variety of dairy Indian Food. I remember once as a child having this Indian dish with cheese balls in a rich tomato sauce of some kind all over perfectly cooked rice. I was small and with my parents when ate this meal at an Indian restaurant in New Mexico. I salivate just thinking about. Ever since then, any time I get the opportunity to eat Indian, I try to order something that I think may be the dish I’m looking for, but without success. Alas, my search goes on….
My mom is Persian and would love it if I would learn Persian cooking!!
My favorite dish is khoresh sabsi with rice and tahdig!!
I got to say that my favorite foreign dish is “sambuseh”- Syrian cheese filling wrapped in this yummy dough. My Syrian friend introduced me to this appetizer at a Chanukah party and I fell in love with it.
the persian dessert faludeh which is a rice noodle sorbet…you cant get enough of it
I have always loved lach majeens. I was first introduced to them years ago in high school by my good friend, whose mother is Ashkenazic, but who often cooked Sephardic dishes for her husband and for her friends. I haven’t made these in some time. I have my friend’s recipe in my recipe file – I should really take it out and make some soon!
I love the roasted garlic. It’s so easy to make and it spreads like butter on warm fresh Challah on Friday night.
I love persian food and eat at colbeh restaurant in roslyn and great neck, ny as often as I can! My favorite is taadig. Who could resist crusty rice?
I could eat a full meal of just Moroccan cigars – delicious!
My fav is baklava. yummy and gooey.
I have to pick just one?
I made the Polo Germez (red rice with onions) from the cookbook for Friday night and it was AWESOME! My husband said it’s better than paella, and since he lived in Spain for 3 years, that’s saying a lot!
http://koshereye.com/side-dishes/866-red-rice-with-onions-polo-germez
ooooh- ANYTHING Mediterranean! I would LOVE to win this cookbook!!!
My favorite foods are of course anything Italian. But, Lately I have been experimenting with a lot of Moroccan and middle eastern foods for my husband. I think he would love if I could whip up some Persian cuisine!
I love Kash-O-Bademjan and Lamb Shish Kabob (Barreh Kabob)! Persian cooking is a very healthy way to eat and grilled fish/meat and veggies is a perfect example. I would love this cookbook to learn how to perfect the delicious dishes found in it.
My favorite dishes are Sambusak! Can’t wait to try some recipes,
My favorite is the Moroccan fish that my neighbor makes for Shabbat. I don’t normally like really hot food but, even with all the peppers she puts in, it is delicious!
favorite foreign dish – hard to narrow it down as I love food in general. let’s say indian – I love a good curry!
I love aloo gobi and other Indian curries. Yum!
my husband is persian and im as ashkenaz as they come! I need this cookbook so i can surprise him and cook the foods that his mother cooks!
I posted on the 23rd – and was checking back to see if you’ve picked a winner yet. Today’s my birthday (not telling you how many), and I’m waiting eagerly to see if I’ll get a surprise gift!!!
Happy Birthday! We have many more giveaways scheduled so don’t give up trying.
I love to read international cookbooks and even cook from them sometimes,too. Reyna your cookbook is very beautiful, inspiring and user friendly! Lately my favorite foreign foods have to be Carne De Cabessa Burritos/Taquitos(Tongue with Lime,Cilantro, and Onions), Polo Adas/
Rice with Lentils,Carmelized Onions,and Raisins, and Khoreshe Karafs/Celery and Beef Stew. So good!!! Thank Goodness for your blogs too!
Michelle Elihu