Customer Reviews

Moro: The Cookbook

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

 

 

This book is an absolute joy - obviously Sam & Sam really love their food; using all natural ingredients, (but not to the extremes of Crank's) they re-create the recipes they found during a 3-month trip round Spain, Morocco and Algeria, prior to setting up their 'Moro' restaurant in the UK.

They bake their own sourdough bread every day, using their own sourdough yeast, make their own yogurt and somehow find ingredients that most of us have never heard of (but they give a comprehensive list of suppliers at the back).

The recipes are simply described, with lots of practical advice and little anecdotes about their discovery of the recipes in tiny restaurants - for example, queuing up outside a hole in the wall that only sold lentil soup! But what a soup!

Think Spain - think paella (usually a hotch-potch of rice and everything thrown in to produce a gluey mass) - but this book resets that impression with a series of recipes that are light, tasty, unusual and definitely NOT stodgy!

Beautifully illustrated and lovingly written, you really feel the atmosphere of the Spanish/Muslim cookery surrounding you as you get drawn, drooling, into this gorgeous book.

I'm not sure if it's just me but it seems like the authors from the UK are writing books that are much more than vehicles for there current pet project restaurant (unlike most name droppy American/New York chefs).

To me Moro has a depth in its approach that is more akin to Bertolli's Cooking by Hand than Battalis Babbo. If you are hungering for a comprehensive exploration of the multi-facets of Spanish cooking at its simplest and least clichéd Moro is the book for you.

Honestly its worth it just for the mackerel recipe midway through the book. A butterflied fish cooked hot and quick and then dressed with olive oil, garlic and paprika. A revelation and a brilliant recipe for any struggling bistro chef to boot.

This is a fabulous book, with such depth and breadth each time you go back to flip it open something new catches your eye. That said, authenticity is prized over simplicity, and many of the dishes I enjoyed in Spain and wanted to recreate at home are surprisingly time-consuming if not complex to make - potatas bravas and potatas tortilla are 2 examples. However the rice dishes are outstanding and it's a wonderful education in using spices such as saffron and smoked paprika.

This isn't a book for mid-week suppers or beginning cooks looking for everything condensed into a 5 easy steps. But the food it helps you produce is outstanding and its a great couch read.

This cookbook has some of the most deliciously sophisticated recipes,
I would highly recommend it for basic meals and dinner parties.

Wonderful book. Can't wait to start using it. Came when promised.
Thank you.

One of the best cookbooks I have seen. Every recipe is a gem.

I like this cookbook, but I have yet to make anything from it. It is definitely a cookbook for a person who knows their way around the kitchen. The recipes also seem really pork heavy.

i loved the book but there were too many Spanish recipes for my taste. As I live in Spain not too usefull. however anyone wanting mediterranean food would find it of use.

I received Moro and I was very disappointed, and I intend to return it. Since the word "Moro", or "Moros" refers the the Muslim Arabs from Morocco, hence Moors, who ruled Spain from 7-11 to 1492 and were responsible for the vast studies in science, mathematics, optics, pharmacology, dentistry, anatomy, botany, architecture, hyrdaulics, astronomy, irrigation, and many other fields, and that knowledge was later tramsmitted to the West and brought it out of its Dark Ages and into its so-called "Renaissance" (how can something be reborn into, or restored to, a thing that it never was?), the title suggested that the recipes would be for authentic Spanish Muslim recipes. I was aghast when I realized that most of the recipes include pork and alcohol, both forbidden to Muslims, and that many of them are Arab recipes far removed from those used by Muslims in Spain. Frankly, the inclusion of pork and alcohol is highly offensive to Muslims, if not a direct insult. It is akin to a book on kosher cuisine whose recipes include pork. I urge Muslims to NOT buy this book. Yousef Salem