Friedericke in Persia, and others: How do I spell Nuruz, and do you have any recipes?

[Needleroozer]

I love to cook from other cultures- we do lots of middle eastern and Indian foods, so I have most of the spices, etc. but I do not have any recipes. I heard of a new cookbook on NPR this morning that was about cooking with kids for Nuruz, and it sounded wonderful.

Do you have a cookbook recommendation for me for basic middle eastern recipes, or anything special you'd recommend for me to try? I have a friend who comes over every couple of months to cook with me, and we love to cook things from other countries- I would love to do a middle eastern feast soon- I am thinking of making kibbe from scratch- it has been years since I made this, using fresh lamb and grinding it myself. We had it raw the first meal, then made sort of a meatloaf from it the next day. I love that stuff!

I digress, but would love recipe/cookbook ideas.
Thanks!

[Needleroozer]

I got so caught up in my kibbe story I forgot to ask if you are celebrating Nuruz on Thursday, and if so, what your menu looks like. Share?

[OnTheBrink]

I used to work with a Persian woman and we'd have to have a Persian New Year celebration, just for her (Although, when we wanted to have a Christmas party, she had a fit, but that's another story). Anyway, I remember her handing out recipes for meals for us to bring. We had hummus, tabouleh salad, baba ganus (I am totally butchering spellings--lamb stew). The feast was fun!

[Needleroozer]

I used to work with a Persian woman and we'd have to have a Persian New Year celebration, just for her (Although, when we wanted to have a Christmas party, she had a fit, but that's another story). Anyway, I remember her handing out recipes for meals for us to bring. We had hummus, tabouleh salad, baba ganus (I am totally butchering spellings--lamb stew). The feast was fun!

Thanks, Michella,
I have all those recipes and they are fairly common dishes. And for fun and fyi, baba ganoush (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_ghanoush) is an eggplant dish made by roasting and pureeing the eggplant. One of my faves. I definately could make a lamb stew- I have some fine recipes for that, but these are all things I make all the time. Hmmm. I want some far out fantastic new recipes! :)

I think it is interesting that the woman was so forceful in having her holiday celebrated and was so resistant to celebrating others. As someone who celebrates other cultures (and most especially their foods, lol), I find that frustrating.

Thanks for sharing your ideas!

[Carol in Cal.]

Once a month we would meet for dinner. We selected country or region and each brought food from there--we rotated responsibilities for main dishes, desserts, soups, sides or salads, and appetizers.

The most useful cookbooks for this for me were the Betty Crocker International Cookbook and the United Nations Women's Cookbook. These both had recipes that tasted pretty authentic but WORKED with American measurements and reasonably locatable ingredients.

I do have some other individual ethnic cookbooks, covering Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Armenian, German, French, and Indian food; but the two books above are the ones that I keep coming back to.

[Amira]

There are a lot of different ways to spell it depending on what area of Asia is celebrating it.

This link (http://amiralace.blogspot.com/search/label/Kyrgyzstan-%20Nooruz)has information about celebrating Navruz in Central Asia, especially Kyrgystan.

This link (http://amiralace.blogspot.com/2005/03/nowruz.html) is more generally about Navruz.

This link (http://amiralace.blogspot.com/2005/03/nowruz.html) is about some traditional foods for Nooruz (with a recipe for boursak, a Central Asian fried dough that is very popular on all holidays).

This link (http://amiralace.blogspot.com/2007/03/sumalak.html) is about the sumalak/samanu that is very traditional for the holiday.

This link (http://amiralace.blogspot.com/2007/03/sumalak_28.html) is my attempt at sumalak.

And this link (http://amiralace.blogspot.com/search/label/Central%20Asia-%20Recipes) has some general Central Asian recipes that you might use.

And I think that's everything I have about Navruz. Can you tell this is one of our favorite holidays? We'll be celebrating on Saturday with all our friends from Central Asia.

[OnTheBrink]

Thanks, Michella,
I have all those recipes and they are fairly common dishes. And for fun and fyi, baba ganoush (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_ghanoush) is an eggplant dish made by roasting and pureeing the eggplant. One of my faves. I definately could make a lamb stew- I have some fine recipes for that, but these are all things I make all the time. Hmmm. I want some far out fantastic new recipes! :)

I think it is interesting that the woman was so forceful in having her holiday celebrated and was so resistant to celebrating others. As someone who celebrates other cultures (and most especially their foods, lol), I find that frustrating.

Thanks for sharing your ideas!

Oh that's right! It's been so long (like maybe 18 years?) I forgot!

[Needleroozer]

The most useful cookbooks for this for me were the Betty Crocker International Cookbook and the United Nations Women's Cookbook. These both had recipes that tasted pretty authentic but WORKED with American measurements and reasonably locatable ingredients.

Thank you! Having the proper measurements is important. Thanks for the suggestions!

[Needleroozer]

Oh that's right! It's been so long (like maybe 18 years?) I forgot!

Thanks for helping out, even if it has been so long! I have been craving lamb stew since you posted yesterday, lol.

[Needleroozer]

There are a lot of different ways to spell it depending on what area of Asia is celebrating it.

This link (http://amiralace.blogspot.com/search/label/Kyrgyzstan-%20Nooruz)has information about celebrating Navruz in Central Asia, especially Kyrgystan.

This link (http://amiralace.blogspot.com/2005/03/nowruz.html) is more generally about Navruz.

This link (http://amiralace.blogspot.com/2005/03/nowruz.html) is about some traditional foods for Nooruz (with a recipe for boursak, a Central Asian fried dough that is very popular on all holidays).

This link (http://amiralace.blogspot.com/2007/03/sumalak.html) is about the sumalak/samanu that is very traditional for the holiday.

This link (http://amiralace.blogspot.com/2007/03/sumalak_28.html) is my attempt at sumalak.

And this link (http://amiralace.blogspot.com/search/label/Central%20Asia-%20Recipes) has some general Central Asian recipes that you might use.

And I think that's everything I have about Navruz. Can you tell this is one of our favorite holidays? We'll be celebrating on Saturday with all our friends from Central Asia.

Amira,
Thanks for all the great links and suggestions! Off to check out the links.