Author Q&A - Kylie Mirmohamadi
All the good things author Kylie Mirmohamadi has been reading, eating, inpsired by and loving lately.
Welcome Kylie Mirmohamadi! You might remember that Germaine listed Kylie’s debut novel in last episode’s top five and we are thrilled she has since agreed to drop in to take our Something to Eat and Something to Read Q&A.
Kylie is a writer and academic from Melbourne/ Naarm, her first novel, Diving, Falling was published by Scribe in September 2024.
1. What were you reading and cooking while writing your novel Diving, Falling? How is this different from when you're not writing?
I was writing Diving, Falling over the stage in the pandemic when there were restrictions and lockdowns. My adult daughter returned home temporarily for some of this time, and my husband, who had always travelled regularly for work, suddenly wasn’t, so we were all here and cooking up a storm every night. We’re fairly food-focused in any case, but we did some EPIC cooking during this period.
As always, Yotam Ottolenghi, Noor Murad, and Sami Tamimi’s recipes were in heavy rotation: some favourites were/are Miso Butter Onions (good as a side, but also great just with sourdough), Stuffed Aubergine in Curry and Coconut Dal, Chicken with Miso, Ginger and Lime, Confit Tandoori Chickpeas (my go-to recipe for home, and also to take as a contribution to other people’s tables), Chicken with Caramelised Onion and Cardamom Rice, Stuffed Aubergine with Lamb and Pine Nuts, Lamb Bolognese with Okra, and Pan-fried Okra with Tomato, Olives, and Haloumi.
I always turn to cooking as stress relief, and this was definitely the case during that time of global anxiety. Having to worry about the small things – Will this turn out? Have I timed it properly? Can I substitute this for that? – displaces the large worries, if only temporarily. We cook well together –competitively at times, I confess! – and enjoy spending time in the kitchen. My specialty is following recipes, while my husband is more into free-form. He’s a very good cook (especially of Persian food) as is my daughter.
The time when I was writing Diving, Falling was a deeply inspiring and creative period for me, and this was reflected in, and enhanced by, what I was reading. I returned to reading poetry in a huge way; I love the way it captures emotion, and how it shows language’s pure possibilities. I read and thought upon and loved the work of Louise Glück, Anne Sexton, and the wonderful Australian poet, Felicity Plunkett, whose poems were very resonant for me (there is a shout-out to her ocean poems from A Kinder Sea in the acknowledgements). Other reading highlights were Elizabeth Taylor’s A View of the Harbour (that cool style of post-war British women’s writing!), Elizabeth Harrower’s novels, Natasha Brown’s Assembly, and Daniela Krien’s (translated by Jamie Bulloch) Love in Five Acts.
I’m always an avid reader and I read a lot. When I’m writing, I tend to avoid reading anything too close to what I’m writing about, and this means that I encounter new forms and stories all the time. Reading in translation is great for this process and I’ve discovered many great books and writers this way. Reading and walking book-end my days, and this pattern rarely changes, whether I’m actively writing or not.
2. What are you currently reading now?
I’m reading Don DeLillo’s Americana and Danzy Senna’s Colored Television.
I’ve never read DeLillo before, and he was recommended to me by my friend, Yumna Kassab, who is a huge fan of him as a literary stylist. This book is wonderful and (as the title suggests) it’s redolent with observations about America. It feels sometimes like the whole country in a paragraph.
Colored Television is just such a great novel! It’s funny and insightful and super intelligent and has so much to say about race.
I’ve also just finished Cécile Wajsbrot’s novel Nevermore (translated by Tess Lewis), which is about a translator who goes to Dresden and is attempting to translate a section of To the Lighthouse into French. She had me at Virginia Woolf to be honest, but this is a very beautiful and attentive book about time and language and loss.
3. How do you most enjoy eating in summer - cooking or going out?
I like both! I enjoy local pub beer garden dinners and I think Japanese restaurants are perfect for Summer evenings (and all year round). I really like how Japanese food, and especially sashimi and sushi, is immensely satisfying and yet doesn’t feel like overload (no matter how much I eat).
Summer cooking for me is vegetable-heavy, though I like preparing and making vegetarian food in any season. We eat salad and/or herbs and yoghurt with most meals, and this is a great way to enjoy food over the warmer months. Iranian cuisine is renowned for its use of herbs as a main ingredient and we make a lot of kuku (like a frittata) in Summer, which we often eat with smoked fish. I use a recipe from Najmieh Batmanglij’s majesterial cookbook, Food of Life.
Summer cooking sometimes requires a gin and tonic as a chef’s drink. It’s only fitting.
4. What's your go-to comfort recipe or food?
It has to be dairy. I turn to lasagne and macaroni cheese, but most of all, since I discovered it, I make Labaniet alzahar (Rice with Yoghurt, Roasted Cauliflower, and Fried Garlic) from Falastin. This dish is pure comfort. Pure comfort!
5. In Diving, Falling, you describe the family home so evocatively that it becomes a character in itself. The main character, Leila, lives in this glass house overlooking the river and often drinks her morning cup of tea looking out at the view. How much of your sense of place is intertwined with any rituals you have around mealtimes?
Rituals around mealtimes are my thing! I love being in my kitchen as the day ends, prepping and chopping, and then pouring a glass of wine and sipping while I cook. I often listen to music in the kitchen too – Lana del Rey and The National are among my favourite cooking music companions, though I do have a complete kitchen music playlist as well. There is stained glass in that room and the light hits it at just the right time in the evening for cooking.
My other ritual is not about place, but I always put a cow figurine given to me by a friend on the table when we have guests, and for special dinners. The cow is golden and covered with nazar symbols and I call her ‘the holy cow’. I sometimes put a Persian poetry book on the table too, and Shahnameh at New Year. It’s a small way to honour a culture that has brought such joy and rich texture into my life, and into my food life too.
6. You get to invite four writers (living or dead) over for dinner. Who are they and what will you cook?
What a great question! I would cook a collection of dishes that would definitely include the two okra dishes from Falastin and the Tandoori Confit Chickpeas from Ottolenghi Test Kitchen. I would also make (or make my husband make!) the iconic Iranian dish Ghormeh sabzi (a lamb dish with black lime, herbs, and beans) and koobideh kebab. Also a slow-roasted meat, perhaps Andrew McConnell’s Cumulus Inc. lamb shoulder, and rice, salad, herbs, yoghurt, and flat bread to go with it all.
My writer guests would be:
Yumna Kassab. And even though it is perhaps not polite to make your guests cook, we have a tradition of making Middle Eastern feasts when we are together, so I would strongly hint that she contribute her amazing tabouli and her tahini sauce.
Deborah Levy, because she’s so cool and clever and I suspect she also knows how to cook. She would bring good wine.
Ursula Le Guin, because she’s Ursula Le Guin! I think her space crone energy is exactly what a table needs; she would be intelligent and funny and her wise presence would make the world feel safe, for the duration of dinner.
George Eliot (though I guess we’d call her Mary Ann). Could you imagine talking to her about Middlemarch? Also about how much has changed, and hasn’t.
Thank you Kylie for sharing your answers. And, thank you for being one of our wonderful subscribers. We will be back in a fortnight with a new episode. In the meantime, happy reading and eating,
Germaine and Sophie x