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My cookbook: "Tehran to New York"

On the Norouz day of 2020 spring, I finally published my book. The manuscript is titled: "Tehran to New York: A culinary bridge between Persian and Western cultures" and aims at presenting a unique blend of classic and contemporary Persian recipes, as well as samples of Western-style cuisine, offered in a Persian context. It is important to build bridges between cultures, and not walls. This book aims at constructing a bridge between the Persian and Western cultures. The book may be ordered here: https://www.amazon.com/Tehran-New-York-culinary-cultures-ebook/dp/B0861H47GS/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=tehran+to+new+york&qid=1584810930&sr=8-1  

Miso meatballs

In times gone by, when we used to do our shopping in 99 Ranch in Jersey City, I had an agreement with my dear cousin to buy a never-bought-before ingredient every time. As a result of that ritual, I tried many great Asian ingredients such as shrimp paste, assorted Asian noodles, gochujang, mushroom soy sauce for the first time. Those time are indeed gone; so is my habit of only filling up my shopping basket with a very limited subset of ingredients.
My recent discovery is Miso, the Japanese Umami-packed fermented soybean paste which I use in almost everything nowadays. The presented meatballs, though having a weak Asian accent which is introduced by Miso and soy sauce, can be used in more general applications such as a meatball sub or plate of spaghetti and meatball pasta.

Ingredients:
1.1 Pound (~500 gr) 85/15 ground turkey, cold
4 scallions (green halves only), finely chopped
1 TBSP corn starch
2 TBSP low sodium Soy sauce
2 TBSP white Miso
1 TBSP ginger puree
1 TSP salt (cut in half, in case your soy sauce is not low sodium)
Sauce:
1 TBSP oil
1 TBSP garlic puree
1 TBSP white Miso
3 TBSP tomato paste, diluted to ½ cup with the addition of water or optionally Mirin


Mix all the meatball ingredients, kneading well until a sticky mince is reached. Form small meatballs (half an Inch [~1.5 cm] of diameter) from the mince. In case the mince is too sticky, spray your hand palms with some vegetable oil to be able to form perfectly shaped balls.
Let the meatball cure in the fridge overnight. This optional step results in the textural transformation of meat to a more firm state. At the risk of your balls getting deformed during cooking, you can omit this stage.
To cook the meatballs, put a large pan on medium-high heat and let it get hot. Add the oil and meatballs and cook one side for one minute. Add the garlic and cook the other side for another minute. Dissolve the miso in the tomato solution and add to the pan. Let the sauce thicken and the meatballs cook through.
The sandwich can be declared as "made from scratch," since I also baked sandwich bread rolls using this Turkish bagel recipe.

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