Dates filled with nuts & ‘sar shir’, a Persian-style cream; the ‘skin’ from boiling milk. [Read more...]
Pakoras (Spicy Tempura) in the Pakistani Manner
Sunday, July 25, 2010 By 32 Comments
Pray, Love and Eat
Guest Post written by Baba, my father.
Every child has a lucky day; mine was Thursday. It was the day Agha, my father, would take my brother and I to meet our grandparents and cousins inside Lahore’s Old City. [Read more...]
A Picnic Potato Salad in the Afghan Manner: Borani Kachalu
Sunday, June 20, 2010 By 35 Comments
Baba tells me that Bobby Darin’s Dream Lover would play repeatedly at picnics with his friends in 1960s Lahore. But for real affectation, there had to be some Françoise Hardy. Baba also tells me that if you didn’t know her hit La maison où j’ai grandi, or at least pretend to know it, then you were essentially a nobody.
And there were no picnic invitations for nobodies. [Read more...]
Roasted Beet ‘Carpaccio’ in the Persian Manner: Borani-e-Labu
Sunday, April 11, 2010 By 25 Comments
“A monarch, regardless of being a queen or a king, must defend his or her land and treat the people with justice,” declared the Sassanian Empress Porandokht, (AD 630-31). An advocate of sexual egalitarianism, she was the first female monarch to rule over the Sassanian Empire. Under her 16-month rule, before she died, Empress Porandokht signed a peace treaty with the Byzantines and reformed her empire by re-structuring and lowering taxes.
Every era has had their crop of strong women, and Mader, my paternal grandmother, was most certainly one from hers. [Read more...]
Borani Esfanaaj-Yoghurt and Spinach Dip in the Persian Manner
Sunday, March 14, 2010 By 35 Comments
This recipe won the competition on Food 52 for “Your Best Spinach Recipe”. It will be published in the Food 52 book by HarperStudio. Here is the link.
In Memoriam- for Mader and the innocent victims who died on Friday, March 12th in Lahore…
Asked what one thing he wanted from the outside world before being hanged, a prisoner once said, “Bring me a bottle of Shalimar, to remind me of the best things in life.”
Feeling a little flat all day, after hearing about the 10 suicide bombings which took place in my hometown of Lahore, I took a little walk after work to our local department store. I went to the Chanel counter to apply Chanel No. 19 to my wrists. Bergamot and sweet cut grass, the scents of my grandmother, Mader, who left us 20 years ago this March. [Read more...]
