As many of you know, to commemorate our 25th Anniversary as a non-profit organization, ZAGBA is compiling a 25th Anniversary Community Cookbook. Your participation is critical to the success of this exciting project, as we need your help to create a comprehensive collection of delicious dishes that we will refer to often as we decide what to cook as we feed our family, entertain our guests, and celebrate our heritage.

 

PART 1 - SUBMIT YOUR RECIPE(S) TODAY:

 

We are asking for recipes from all of YOU -- our current local ZAGBA community as well as former community (the Zarathushti students, professionals, and families who have lived in New England sometime over the past 25 years or even previous to that).

• Please submit your Parsee, Persian and other recipes (Indian/Pakistani, continental, multicultural) to tanazyadav@gmail.com using the format provided at the end of this email message. Think of the signature dishes you are famous for – the ones others are always requesting you to make! Multiple submissions from members of your family are fine. We are looking for all types of recipes – categories may include Appetizers & Beverages; Eggs, Vegetables & Lentils; Side Dishes, Main Dishes, Breads & Biscuits; Desserts; Chutneys & Pickles; Masalas; Other. We will decide final category names and sections as we get your recipes.
• Next to each recipe please include your name(s) and where you currently live (e.g. Nashua, NH). As an option you may include 1) something related to the recipe (e.g. it was handwritten for me by my grandmother at the airport when I left Bombay in 1956 to study in the US) and/or 2) something related to when and why you came to the Greater Boston area and where you are now.  Please limit this optional part to 25 words or less.
• Please reach out to former ZAGBA members and send this email to them to invite them to participate in this historic community project.
• Recipe submission deadline:  June 30, 2009
• Please help us meet the deadlines and send in your recipe today or as soon as possible, as we want have this cookbook compiled and published, ready for sale at ZAGBA’s 25^th Anniversary Gala event on July 25, 2009.

• This keepsake cookbook will be spiral bound and approx 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 in size – the number of pages will depend on your submissions. We hope this commemorative collection will be on the kitchen shelves of all ZAGBA families and their friends for years to come. This cookbook will be sold for $10. Please pre-order the cookbooks for yourself, your extended family, your neighbors, and friends. They will make a wonderful gift for friends interested in ethnic cooking and for your children as a special reminder of the recipes of their heritage, a gift that will become more meaningful as they get older and move out to their own homes.

• Please indicate how many cookbooks you would like to purchase when you submit your recipe(s) so we can plan how many to print.

In addition to your recipes, our Community Cookbook will have a Resource Section with advertisements from Indian, Pakistani, Persian, Middle Eastern grocery stores, restaurants, and caterers in the New England Area.  These are places where we can buy spices and fresh ingredients; go out to eat with family and friends, or have special occasions catered. In order to be listed in the Resource Section of the cookbook, we have created three simple ad sizes with very affordable advertising rates – ¼ page at $25, ½ page at $50 and a full page at $100.

 

·         Please contact ethnic food markets and restaurants you visit and the ones that are located near where you live and work to ask them to place an ad in our Commemorative Community Cookbook. We have created a packet to take with you: 1) a formal letter describing who we are, the cookbook project and an ad form with details of how to submit their ad, 2) sample sizes of the advertisements.  Please print out copies of these to take with you to the businesses.

 

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·         Please emphasize to these businesses that these keepsake cookbooks will be on the shelves for many years and their ads will be seen repeatedly over the years.

 

 

·         Also mention that with these very affordable rates, a single visit by a family to their business could more than cover their cost for the advertisement and our members will see their ad, recognize their support of our project, and consider visiting their business next time they are in a particular region.

 

We thank you in advance for your support of this project, 

 

Community Commemorative Cookbook Committee

 

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Electronic Recipe Submission Format:

 

Please cut and paste this part into an email or document and submit your recipe using this format (one recipe per sheet), adjusting the spaces as needed.  Send to: tanazyadav@gmail.com

 

1. Name of Recipe – If in another language, please provide traditional name and translation:

2. Name of person(s) submitting recipe:

3. Where you live: city & state/province (or city & country if outside of US/Canada)

4. Optional part:  25 words or less about the recipe and/or about your connection to the ZAGBA community or the Boston area.

5. Ingredients with amounts needed (please use non-metric measures such as pound, cup, oz, tsp and Tbsp) and descriptions, if necessary (large tomatoes, small mangoes)

6. Recipe instructions:

7. Number of people this recipe serves (Serves 4) or Number of items (this makes about 24 cookies)

8. Additional Notes or Suggestions: (i.e. can be served with white rice or naan… usually served on happy occasions… may be frozen and baked later… may be cooked ahead of time

9. May we contact you if we need additional recipes?             Yes, please.            No, thank you.                         Please provide preferred contact method (phone or email).
10. I would like to purchase _____ cookbooks.

 

Please note that the cookbook committee reserves the right to all editing, inclusion & placement considerations, and other final decisions.