Farida’s Azerbaijani Cookbook

Spring is coming. With its colors, liveliness and freshness. Where I live we’ve been seeing trees blooming and hearing birds chirping for quite some time already. I took a picture of our neighbor’s beautiful tree in full bloom (our apricot tree is lazy, it’s just starting to bloom, slowly) a couple of days ago, during my morning stroll with the baby. Loved the pink flowers.

One of the major holidays in Azerbaijan - Novruz - is associated with spring. It symbolizes the awakening of the nature. Novruz is celebrated on March 21, the first day of Spring, but the joyful preparations for the holiday begin far in advance, from early March.

Celebrating Novruz is fun. Growing the wheat sprouts Samani, cleaning up the house, jumping over bonfire, knocking at the doors for treats, visiting the family, the elderly, cooking, baking Novruz desserts pakhlava (baklava) and shekerbura, and sharing them with neighbors, friends and family are some of the wonderful things that happen in Novruz.

I will be posting some recipes of the food, including the desserts, typically prepared for Novruz. So, don’t go anywhere Or if you go, come back and cook with me!

Happy Spring!