We are delighted to welcome Naz Deravian as the guest of our inaugural Salt + Spine Cookbook Club Dinner Party. We were first introduced to Naz through her wonderful blog, Bottom of the Pot. When the blog became a cookbook, it was everything we hoped for: beautiful, with superb recipes and Naz’s poetic, often nostalgic, knowledgable voice shining through.

Naz highlighted some of her favorite Persian cooking ingredients on our Instagram feed this week, including her preferred basmati rice: Royal Chef’s Choice. She advised us to look for very long grains when buying basmati. The rice should not be stark white - a creamy, off-white shade indicates the rice has been aged and will be more fragrant. Please visit Naz’s blog to learn to make a very special rice dish, Sabzi Polo, abundant with summer green herbs.

As always, we love to hear from you and see what you’re cooking. Be well! (tag your social media posts with #TCKatHome and #TalkCookbooks)