The Bottom Of The Pot By Naz Deravian
Discover > Product Recs > The Bottom Of The Pot By Naz Deravian
A cookbook review is one of my favorite topics to write on. It combines my love for trying new recipes and my passion of putting in words, my thoughts. This week’s book arrived in the mail some days back and sat safe in my closet for 1 whole day as I attempted to safeguard it from my little people army.
I remember lovingly unwrapping it from the package finally one evening when the house had gone silent, and taking in the deep navy hued, hard covered beauty. The Bottom of the Pot: Persian recipes and stories by Naz Deravian.
The book begins with a narrative of a family meal being enjoyed by the Iranian family of the writer, Naz. Immediately, I feel connected to Deravian’s writing. It is like a beautiful memoir, introducing an authentic cuisine that she belongs to.
Despite several attempts at trying to recollect, Naz cannot remember the last meal she had in Tehran, before her family had to flee the country in the midst of the Iranian Revolution and hostage crisis. It was 1980 and she was a mere eight years old. She begins the book with giving us a sense of her mom’s generous cooking style and her parents love for entertaining.
Naz, who is now living in California, has written the book with two audiences in mind: those who are curious but not familiar with Persian food and a younger generation of Iranians who maybe living abroad like her but crave the food they grew up on.
Like any good book, the story begins with the prologue an ends with an epilogue. In between we are make acquaintance to intriguing Persian foods and so many stories. Cooking for this writer is mostly intuitive, where your taste buds tell you when to use what and when the dish is perfect.
The Recipes
The recipes in this book are by far the most uniquely named ones I have ever come across. I truly enjoyed trying to pronounce the Persian names of the dishes and the stories that they came with. There are a variety of never heard before flavors of dips like the Kashki Bademjan or the Eggplant (What wine goes well with eggplant?) dip, the Boorani yeh Kadoo, a dip made from summer squash and yogurt and the Adasi- a lentil dip.
There is plenty of freshness in the book with Sabzi khordan- a platter of fresh greens and alluviums like spring onions, radishes, cilantro and mint.
The pomegranate is a recurring ingredient in many dishes, with it featuring in a pomegranate walnut stew called the Khoresh Fesenjan, the Zaytoon Parvardeh or the pomegranate marinated olives and the Aash-e-Anaar- tart pomegranate soup. She says these flavors remind her of home.
The chicken dishes are plenty nice as well, the Tahcheen-r-Morgh is a layered chicken and saffron rice (how long does rice last?) dish which starts off with washing the rice no lesser than ten times to wash away the starch. The chicken thighs (What wine goes well with chicken thighs?) are cut into bite sized pieces and the end result is a beautiful golden-brown crunchy layer of rice from the bottom of the cooking pot that is upturned on to the serving dish.
Deravian’s book and her blog of the same name “The bottom of the pot” is actually the name of a dish, “Tahdig”. Tah means “bottom” and dig means “pot”. This sunny-toned crunchy rice dish is one of Persia’s finest culinary staples made with plenty of butter, olive oil and saffron water. The eureka moment of the dish comes when you flip the pot over and the “tahdig” releases perfectly in one piece. This technique comes with years of cooking expertise and not everyone can nail at one go.
Desserts
The dessert section has recipes for the baklava cake, the famed Persion halwa and the traditional Iranian sherbet, a drink made with rose flower syrup, water and ice.
I'm specially enticed by the Roulette cake. It’s like a cake roll, stuffed with rose scented whipped cream, pistachios, lots of strawberries and crushed rose petals. It does seem complex, but the end result of a gorgeous looking cake is enough to tempt me into making it.
This cookbook makes generous use of herbs, spices, rose petals, dates, feta, yogurt, nuts (how long do nuts last?) and saffron. Every recipe is a story in itself with headnotes that last paragraphs as the writer recollects time periods and memories.
I admit the recipes in this cookbook are best suited for a cook with advanced skills. There are a majority of simple ones too. But overall, I wouldn’t recommend it to beginner cooks.
That being said, you have to buy the Bottom of the Pot. Even if it’s just to admire the gorgeous rose petals strewn on several dishes, or the stories that are so multi layered and vibrant.
Curious? Buy Bottom of the Pot on Amazon.
Want to make the most of your recipes? Try cooking using the sous vide method for an even better result. Check out our guide to sous vide cooking here.
