Persiana

Can you do a link. I can't find it. It sounds gorgeous. I need a new cook book like ........
I tried a Mumsnet recipe from the times, one of their budget ones. It was chicken breasts, asparagus ,spinach, mozzarella and cherry tomatoes. For two people it cost £10 . And the picture included35 cherry tomatoes on the vine. Mumsnet budgets and mine do not coincide. No wonder they all seem to be in debt.

www.amazon.co.uk/Persiana-Recipes-Middle-East-Beyond/dp/184533910X
I think you would need to have a few ingredients in the store cupboard to start with, but beyond that I don't think the recipes are particularly costly. My OH has just come back and commented that a fresh pomegranate was 1€50 in Lidl, but I think in the UK you can just buy the fresh seeds. I keep lots of different grains (bulgar wheat, pearl barley, pearled spelt, quinoa etc), but I think you could just keep one or two and substitute.

I make my own pickled lemons, if you are interested. It's very easy. And bulgar wheat/cous/cous/pearl barley/quinoa salads are permanently in my fridge, because we are in and out all the time. Then we just add feta or diced chicken or egg or whatever else we may fancy, with freshly picked herbs and salad, and olives. As you can also heat them up, they are very versatile.

I love the sound of the lamb and sour cherry.

Baked spinach omelette was taught to me by an Iranian friend years ago, just making up a normal omelette mix and baking it rather than frying it, and then being able to slice it when cold, has proved very useful over the years.

The lamb and sour cherries recipe is here
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/apr/12/persiana-recipes-sabrina-ghayour-cookbook
That is what tempted us into buying the book.
Interesting about the pickled lemons, I might try that when the big juicy lemons start coming into the markets from the south.
I have also been doing a really simple Claudia Roden recipe recently which is just pearled spelt (farro in Italy), cherry tomatoes, red onion, parsley and olive oil.
We eat a lot of tortilla and ordinary frittata (usually with whatever is abundant in the garden), but the added herbs and spices are fabulous. We made hot cross buns for the neighbours at Easter and got lots of eggs in return, so eggy dinners are on the menu a lot...

I had an Iranian boyfriend, and was most taken aback when he took me to a Persian restaurant in London in the early 70s, and as a sort of appetiser we had raw eggs served in their shells in egg cups, just slightly warmed, with a good sprinkling of sumac!

When I was working in a café I had a customer who used to teach English in Iran. I once asked him if he could order his bacon sandwich in Persian. He came out with a very impressive sounding sentence and then told me he was asking for some cooked pig meat in two pieces of bread, but it was as close as he could get