Customer Reviews

The Middle Eastern Kitchen

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am the happy owner of three cookbooks written by Ghillie Basan: Modern Moroccan (which I have owned for quite a while now), Classic Turkish Cooking (which I bought more recently) and, since January, this gem: The Middle Eastern Kitchen. Imagine my joy when I found out last December that Ghillie has more cookbooks coming out!

The outline for this book is rather unusual for a cookbook: each ingredient has its own chapter. Each chapter is packed with information on the particular ingredient (how it grows, appearance and taste, buying and storing, manufacturing, medicinal uses, culinary uses --- if relevant for the ingredient). And then there are 2 or 3 great recipes using the ingredient.

The ingredients covered in the book are signature ingredients for the Middle Eastern cuisine, from the more common (yogurt, cheese, chicken, fig, date, cherry, chickpeas, rice, almonds, cinnamon, coriander, bay leaf, thyme, onion, garlic, spinach, just to name a few) to the more obscure (for instance sheep's tail fat, quince, carob, nigella, mastic, sumac, melokhia).

The recipes Ghillie has to offer are amazingly good (as usual). The bold flavors of the Middle Eastern cuisine are really done justice. If you like flavorful food, I can highly recommend this book --- the recipes are straightforward, but the results are amazing.

The Middle Eastern Kitchen isn't your usual Middle Eastern cookbook: it offers a narrowed focus on more than 75 ingredients used in the cuisines of Iran, Turkey, Oman, Saudi Arabia and others, discusses shared culinary traditions, and packs in over a hundred recipes based on knowledge and use of these key unique ingredients. Add special photos by Jonathan Basan and you have a presentation piece which goes way beyond most generic Middle Eastern cookbooks.

I read anythying by Ghillie Bassan. She is good reading and knows what she is talking about. Ghillie won't steer you wrong and no, I have never had any contact with her. I had never heard of her before I got into Mid-East cooking.

There are some many excellent recipes in this very good cookbook, I particularly like the daikon salad with nigella seeds which I make often for lunch.