A few weeks ago on a Saturday I thought I was throwing together a straightforward shrimp and rice dish from a beautiful new cookbook I’d purchased – what I actually was doing was creating a veritable masterpiece. It was my first foray into Persian cooking, and, true to form, I had skipped all of the boring pages on the region’s unique rice cooking technique and set my sights on making a meal without thoroughly reading the recipe, besides the ingredient list. I invited a friend over for a “quick dinner” before going out, but a brief review of my text messages from that evening documents a spiral into fear and anxiety surrounding the “scary” recipe, the “many steps” of which I was “carefully reading out loud to myself.”

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