A few thousand years of Persian Cooking at a Glance

You know more about Persian food than you might think. When you ask for oranges, pistachios, spinach, or saffron, you are using words derived from the Persian that refer to foods either originating in the region or introduced from there, for Persia was a great entrepôt of the ancient and medieval worlds. The land was the first home of many common herbs, from basil to cilantro, and to scores of familiar preparations, including sweet and sour sauces, kababs, and almond pastries.

Such preparations are most delicious in their original forms, which you will find in the recipes in this book. All the recipes come from the land Europeans have long called Persia. That name is the Hellenized form of Pars, the southwestern province that was the homeland of the rulers of the first Persian empire. They, however, called themselves Iranians and their country Iran, words derived from Aryan, the name of their ancestral tribes. Nowadays the words are used interchangeably. They describe a people whose civilization and cuisine are ancient indeed.