Mr. Shopkeeper checks up on Mrs. S' seasoning while he thinks she isn't looking.

The first one is at Anderson & Co on Friday 22nd June. The menu price is £40 per head, and here’s the official blurb:

We are proud to be able to welcome you along to our sixth event at Andersons. We’ve almost learnt where everything is now, so it’s kind of getting easier.

Befameh – sharm! (which is ‘come dine with us’ in farsi)…

If you are interested, please give Lisa a ring on 020 7469 7078 to make a reservation. Space is limited.

The second pop-up Persepolis this Summer will be at Bambuni in Nunhead on Friday 13th July. We haven’t ironed out all the nitty gritty, but it will be a meze style menu, mostly vegetarian, and cost £35.00 per head. The price will include dessert and tea or coffee. Bambuni is licensed, and purveys some jolly exciting wines and beers. Space is again limited, and the event is already filling up. Call Huey on 020 7732 4150 to make your booking.

Every country/province/village/household makes it differently, but the principles are the same: meat or chicken is layered with vegetables and fruit and baked in a fragrant tomatoey sauce. In Turkey ‘tas’ means bowl, and tas kebab is usually prepared contained within an inverted bowl in the oven: the Persian version we offer here is much simpler. Unlike most of the khoreshts (stews) of Iran, Tas Kebab is usually eaten with bread (although we have it with rice, as per the photo, otherwise there are clamours that it is ‘not a proper meal’). It is hearty fare, but economical, as the ingredients are usually varied according to season and market price. I usually make it with the left over bits of veg in the bottom of the fridge hydrator (you know, that stick of celery, the soggy carrot, the slightly squidged tomato….). It is really lovely with cooking apples or quince when they are available. My mother-in-law normally uses chicken (as below) as it is ‘better for us’ (she watches far too many health programmes on Persian satellite telly), but occasionally she will prepare it with baby lamb kufteh. It’s a complete doddle to make.

*that’ll be the former for Mr. Shopkeeper, and the latter for Mrs. S.

Ingredients (to feed 4-6)**:

• 1 chicken, skinned and cut into 8
• 2 onions, sliced
• 1 leek, washed and roughly chopped
• 3 sticks celery, washed and cut into fat chunks
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon lime powder
• salt and black pepper
• 2 carrots, scraped and cut into fat sticks
• 1 green pepper, washed and chunked
• 6-8 mushrooms, wiped
• 1/2 small butternut squash, peeled and chunked
• 3 medium waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into slabs
• 200g prunes (soaked if necessary)
• 1 large aubergine, washed and cut into 2cm cubes
• 2 tablespoons good tomato puree
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon olive oil for cooking

My this is easy. But we might have mentioned that already. Rinse the chicken and pat it dry. Layer the onion, leek and celery into the bottom of a fairly deep oven tray. Arrange the chicken on top, and sprinkle it with the spices and seasoning. Dot the rest of the vegetables and the prunes evenly around and on top of the chicken.

Mix the tomato puree, tomatoes and olive oil together, and add around one glass of cold water. Pour the liquid over the chicken and veg, cover the tray properly with tin foil and bake in a pre-heated oven (gas mark 5, 190C) for around an hour and ten minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables tender. Serve with warm bread. Or rice.

**As in the ingredients we used on this occasion. Experiment. Go on. Let us know how you get on.

Anyway – it’s on 11th May, it’s in the shop, and it starts at 7.30 pm. Although it’s free, you need to let us know if you are coming as space will be limited. The event will comprise four poets reciting in their original language, each followed by a recital of their work in translation. Our samovar will be on, and there will be cakes…

More details here.

See you there….

The ones we sell in the shop are Lebanese in style and are made by the lovely people at Dina Foods. They are all suitable for vegetarians, and are made with syrup rather than honey so vegans get to enjoy them too. There are eight varieties: everyone has their favourites, but it is hard for the uninitiated to remember which is which, and they all have different names. So to help you choose more efficiently in future we offer this little guide…

• 1) Diamond paklava – this is the one that everyone knows, and remains the most popular choice. In Greece and Turkey they tend to be cut much larger. They can be filled with any nuts: we like them best when the baker uses walnuts.
• 2) Assabee – filo finger pastries filled traditionally with almonds, although ours are often stuffed with cashews.
• 3) Kulwuskur – these are the most buttery of the lot. Soft half moons of flaky pastry wrapped around syrupy cashews.
• 4) Boukage – shaped like a flower, or an open parcel. Filled with cashews or almonds.
• 5) Bourma – nests of sticky shredded pastry filled with pistachios or almonds.
• 6) Namoura – fragrant coconutty almondy syrupy semolina cake. Soooo good. Also uses the aliases ‘basposa’ and ‘shamali’.
• 7) Coconut and pistachio – well, yes, it’s just that really. Think old-fashioned coconut ice, with pistachios in the middle.
• 8) Kataif – the Dougal of the cake world. More shredded pastry with nuts up it.
• 9) Ma’amoul – which isn’t paklava at all, but is equally wonderful. Soft buttery shortbread filled with dates/nuts. The oval ones contain pistachio and the round sugar-dusted ones walnut, whilst the plain round ones and the nutty fingers contain dates.

Make sure you swat up on this, as we reserve the right to test you on it next time you are in the shop. See you soon for your next fix….

Orange blossom water is actually the distilled blossom of sour oranges. Which always strikes us as being really odd. You know, the fact that something with such a sweet smell can come from something which offers its culinary antithesis. Wonderful thing, nature, eh?

Please note: orange blossom needs to be used VERY VERY SPARINGLY. Got that? It can kill a recipe at twenty paces. A little goes a very long way indeed. This is not to say it is a bad thing – it is wonderful, but potent.

Our guess is that you originally bought your bottle of orange blossom water to make a cake or some syrup, as this is the most common usage of the stuff. It creeps into a myriad Middle Eastern confections: paklava, ma’amoul, faloodeh (sorbet)… Anyway, don’t lob it in the bin with the rest of Aunt Mildred’s dodgy chutney and that mouldy chilli paste you bought back from Marrakech. Orange blossom water is useful for all sorts of other things. Here’s our top 10:

• Put a few drops in your iron and you’ll come out smelling of blossom time and again;
• Use it as a facial toner: it is mildly astringent and perfect for sensitive skin;
• Add a few drops to ice cubes to pep up anything from a glass of tap water to a Pimms;
• Add a splash to your cocktails: it works really well with gin. Try the Persepolis Bahar Special: gin, grenadine, orange flower water, a dash of tamarind, splodge of lemon, top up with pomegranate juice… Don’t forget the paper umbrella.
• Add a dash to smoothies: great with any fruit/yoghurt combo;
• Whisk just a hint of the stuff into salad dressings – it will keep your guests guessing;
• Sprinkle over fruit salad (along with some cinnamon) to add a new slant to an old classic;
• Add just 1/3 teaspoon to a mug of hot chocolate to increase its happy quotient;
• Pop a few drops in a bowl of water and leave it near a radiator (unless you are posh enough already to have a humidifier) to scent the air;
• Mix with brown sauce, balsamic vinegar, onion, ginger and sesame oil for an ace marinade for practically anything.

And there you have it. Rather than being stuck with the stuff you’ll be rushing out to buy another bottle before you know it.

• April 16th: the next Persepolis cookery school (see below). These take place at Anderson & Co, and cost £100 a head. Places are very limited….
• April 20th: the next Pop-Up Persepolis, also at Anderson & Co. £40.00 per head. Bookings now being taken. Menu to follow.
• May 11th: An evening of Persian poetry, organised in conjunction with the Poetry Translation Centre. Five or six Iranian poets (working in translation) will be here to entertain you. There will be refreshments (we are nothing if not hospitable), and the event is free. You do need to let us know you are coming however, as IT WILL BE BUSY.

We are also getting out and about a bit – do come and see us if you can. Thanks to the British Council, Mr. and Mrs. Shopkeeper will be at the Abu Dhabi Book Fair from 28th March – 1st April. And then we’ll be at the Big Green Book Shop on the evening of May 18th (just to prove that South Londoners do occasionally cross the river), chatting and signing books. And from May 29th – May 31st we’ll be dusting off our passports again and heading up to Yorkshire, Cumbria and Lancashire to do some lunchtime talks about stuff, care of these nice people.

So we’ll see you soon, yes?

Catchy little tune, no? We’d like to kid you that this is actually Mr. and Mrs. Shopkeeper on their day off. But it wouldn’t be true. The singer-artiste is Sandy, who is the clown of the Persian music world. This is actually a good thing, as a lot of Iranian music is either cheesy pop or morose ballad. Sandy’s songs are relentlessly happy and always danceable.

Ah, you want to know about the dancer-artiste. Thought you might. Khordadian is Iran(in the diaspora’s) King of Dance (a Persian Michael Flatley, if you will), and is famous as much for his dance instruction DVDs as he is for performing. He too seems to be a constantly happy chappie.
The style of music is known as Bandari – dockers music, or the equivalent of our sea shanties. Except bandari music is perennially popular, whereas ‘What shall we do with a drunken sailor?’ is perhaps a tad out of vogue now.

Anyway, this was all by way of a little fanfare to announce that Nowrooz, the Persian New Year, is all but upon us. Our warehouse is filling with sweets, our goldfish have been ordered, and our sabzeh is soon to be planted (see the Persopaedia if you want to know more). This year will be 1391, and the New Year is at 05:14:27 on 20th March.

If you’ve never been to our shop, the month of March is as good a time as ever to visit*. You can get a little of the Nowrooz atmosphere by watching this short film – but best of all come by. Our samovar is always on…

*If you want to celebrate the New Year but live too far away to come shop in person, don’t forget that we’re happy to post stuff. Check out our on-line shop, or just pick up the phone.

There are wraps, paninis and gluten free ciabatta rolls, all of which we serve hot to go (or to scoff while you’re shopping, like). Because we’re silly, we’re marketing them as PerNinis (geddit?). And there are regular baguettes, for the more conservative amongst you (Iranians like baguettes).

Our first week’s menu comprised the following:

• Grilled saffron and lemon chicken smothered in a dilly mayonnaise;
• Houmous with apple, celery and walnut, topped with za’atar pesto;
• Aubergine kookoo (omelette) with tamarind and date relish;
• Halloumi, tomato, sundried tomato pesto and basil.

Go on: you’re drooling already. And the menu will grow. As soon as Mr. Shopkeeper buys Mrs. Shopkeeper a blackboard.

Now this is how it goes – in order for this to work, you need to come in and, well, patronise us. If you see what we mean. BUY SANDWICHES in other words. Otherwise we’ll sulk, and then we won’t do them any more. And if we get busy then in a month or so we get a coffee machine too (Mr. S. has promised).

So we’ll see you at lunchtime tomorrow? Or at least next time you shop, you’ll come in hungry yes?

Our very first graduates: Zanne, Tom, Jo and Suzannah.

Last night saw the inaugural Persepolis Cookery School, at Anderson & Co. in Bellenden Road. What do you mean you didn’t know about it? It’s been on our website, Twitter feed and Facebook page for a while now – and in the newsletter. Pay attention!

It was billed as a ‘masterclass’ – but that tag is far too grand for wee cornershopkeepers. It was, rather, a chance for our first ever ‘students’ to get a close look at what really goes on in the Persian kitchen. To laugh at how very clumsy Mrs. Shopkeeper is. To ask as many questions as they like. To try their hands at making some of the stuff that was on the menu. And, most importantly, to sample some of the fare.

It was a chance for us to cook stuff the way it ought to be cooked (without cheating andusing a rice cooker etc), to meet some really nice people who (astonishingly) seemed really interested in what we had to say, to show off a bit (we’re always nothing if not honest), and to have a night off shopkeeping.

In the four hours that the class lasted we made ash reshteh (which is always the mark of a good Persian chef – the Farsi word for chef is ashpas, or soup-maker), kookoo sabzi (posh omelette), bogoli pulao (broad bean rice) with ab-gusht (chickeny citrussy stock), dolmeh (stuffed aubergines and vine leaves) and sholeh zard (saffron rice pudding). By the end of it we were all very hungry…so we sat down and ate it. The bits that didn’t get eaten got bundled up as take out for those left behind.

Participants got an apron, a souvenir 8-page booklet with the recipes featured, and, most excitingly, a really amateurish little certificate.

Think it sounds like your sort of fun? We enjoyed ourselves so much we’ll be doing it again. Watch this space for details of the next one…