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Food for Thought: I Ran to Make This Persian Gulf Style Shrimp

Nancy Leson
/
KNKX
Najmieh Batmanglij's Persian Gulf style shrimp with Herbs and Tamarind.

Nancy Leson was just over the moon about the Persian cooking class she'd recently taken from cookbook author and teacher Najmieh Batmanglij.  I took one look at Batmanglij's site and immediately found recipes I had to try. 

Batmanglij's name was new to me, but she's been a favorite of Nancy's for 30 years. 

"I've been cooking out of her book Food of Lifefor nearly 30 years. Najmieh is, to my way of thinking, the Julia Child of Persian cooking," she said.

Batmanglij was in town to talk about and cook from her new book Joon: Persian Cooking Made Simple. Joon, meaning "life, is a term of endearment in Farsi," Nance told me.  "Like I might call you Stein Joon or you call me Nancy Joon."  

Credit Nancy Leson
Nancy at the class. Cookbook author and teacher Najmieh Batmanglij in white.

After  reading the recipe for Persian Gulf style shrimp I had to try it.  The recipe has 20-plus ingredients, including cinnamon and ground cloves, which seemed a strange combination with shrimp. 

What I got was a dish full of unexpected flavors that worked perfectly.  This is definitely not a weeknight recipe but one of those wonderful discoveries you know you'll be making again and again. 

While I was cooking up the shrimp, Leson was busy at her house with Batmanglij'sSkewered Lamb Kabobs, a mixture of ground lamb, sumac powder, lime zest, garlic, saffron and plenty more.

Credit Nancy Leson / KNKX
/
KNKX
Nancy's kubideh -- ground lamb kababs.

She served them with this chelow -- saffron steamed rice with golden crust.

Credit Nancy leson / KNKX
/
KNKX
Saffron steamed rice with golden crust.

 

"A wise man sits on the hole in his carpet" – Persian Proverb

Dick Stein joined KNKX in January 1992. He retired in 2020 after three decades on air. During his storied radio career, he hosted the morning jazz show, co-hosted and produced "Food for Thought" with Nancy Leson and wrote and directed the Jimmy Jazzoid live radio musical comedies and 100 episodes of Jazz Kitchen.