Nile Style: Egyptian Cuisine and Culture: Ancient Festivals, Significant Ceremonies, and Modern Celebrations (Hippocrene Cookbook Library) [Hardcover]

Amy Riolo (Author)

Book Description

Series: Hippocrene Cookbook Library | Publication Date: March 28, 2009

From classics like Fava Bean Puree, Yogurt with Honey, and Egyptian Whole-Wheat Pita Bread, to tempting Lamb-Filled Phyllo Triangles and Peanut, Coconut, and Raisin Baklava, "Nile Style" spans the range of the Egyptian kitchen with recipes that will appeal to every palate! It includes 23 full menus showcasing, 150 easy-to-follow recipes and much more.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 220 pages
• Publisher: Hippocrene Books (March 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0781812216
• ISBN-13: 978-0781812214
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #220,330 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #25 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > African
  • #40 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > Middle Eastern

More About the Author

Amy Riolo is an internationally recognized expert known for fusing the worlds of cuisine, culture, and history in her work. An award - winning author, popular lecturer, food historian, food writer, culinary consultant, and cooking instructor, she was dubbed the "Cook to the Kings" by a Cairo newspaper in 2008.

Her first book, Arabian Delights; Recipes & Princely Entertaining Ideas from the Arabian Peninsula has received rave reviews (Capital Books). Her second book Nile Style; Egyptian Cuisine and Culture (Hippocrene Books) won the World Gourmand Award for "Best Arab Cuisine Book" in the United States in 2009. Her most recent book, The Mediterranean Diabetes Cookbook, (American Diabetes Association) was released in March 2010. Her work also appears in Aliza Green's The Fishmonger's Apprentice and Sheilah Kaufman's Upper Crusts, and The Canola Gourmet.

Amy's popular lectures range in topics and include everything from Middle Eastern business and dining etiquette to the history of all Mediterranean cuisines, and understanding cultures through cuisine.

She has been an invited guest speaker for Georgetown University, The Smithsonian Institution, The National Museum of African Art, The Walters Art Museum, The Kennedy Center, The Textile Museum, The Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt, The Embassy of Yemen, Welcome to Washington International, Montgomery College, Les Dames D'Escoffier, The Culinary Historians of Washington, Montgomery College, The Bibliotecha Alexandrina, The Egyptian Cultural and Education Bureau, The Baltimore-Luxor-Alexandria Sister City Committee and the Mycological Association of Washington, DC.

Amy also makes frequent appearances on numerous television and radio programs both in the United States and abroad including Fox TV, CBS, Montgomery and Fairfax County TV, Nile TV, The Travel Channel, Martha Stewart Living Radio, WHYY, and many others. She also develops recipes, writes content, and hosts instructional cooking videos for Harris Teeter, US Apple Association, and others.
Amy writes freelance articles for Cooking Light Magazine and her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Cornell Alumni Magazine, Popular Anthropology Magazine, and Egyptian newspapers and hundreds of blogs. She is also the author of a blog called Dining with Diplomats (www.diningwithdiplomats.blogspot.com).

A graduate of Cornell University, Amy has experience in vocational, recreational, and children's instruction, as well as corporate team building and cultural/culinary events. Her knowledge of the Italian, French, Spanish, and Arabic languages has enabled her to interpret many cultures and cuisines with intimacy and ease. Her goal is to teach her philosophy of cooking and dining with both pleasure and health in mind. She regularly teaches cooking classes at Sur la Table in Arlington, Virginia, CulinAerie in Washington, DC, and for private organizations and parties.

A successful culinary consultant, Amy enjoys developing menus, recipes, training seminars, and themes for corporations, restaurants, and hotels. Amy is also a Guest Curator for museums where she incorporates sensory components like scent, touch, and taste into exhibits. She also works with curators to create menus and décor which represent the theme of new collections.

Amy is a member of The International Association of Culinary Professionals, Culinary Historians of Washington, Les Dames d'Escoffier (Global Culinary Initiative), Cornell Club of Washington (Restaurant Ser
ies Planning Committee), Baltimore - Luxor - Alexandria Sister City Committee (chairperson), and the World Digital Organization in Luxor, Egypt (Honorary Member). Amy is based in the Washington DC, area and leads culinary tours to both the Mediterranean and Middle East.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Egyptian Food, November 12, 2010

By 

Mayflower Girl "amazon-junkie since 1996" (Albany, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Nile Style: Egyptian Cuisine and Culture: Ancient Festivals, Significant Ceremonies, and Modern Celebrations (Hippocrene Cookbook Library) (Hardcover)

I've been married to an Egyptian guy for 8 years--and ever since, I've been searching out Egyptian and Middle Eastern cookbooks. I have all of the main Egyptian ones, including Claudia Roden's "New Book of Middle Eastern Food", Samia Abdennour's "Egyptian Cooking", Sally Elias Hanna's "Dining on the Nile", Collette Rossant's "Memories of a Lost Egypt," and Magda Medhwany's "My Egyptian Grandmother's Kitchen."

The recipes in "Nile Style" are easy and accessible to the average American--yet they are pretty much authentic. I wondered from the description if I'd be receiving ancient, but unpalatable, recipes--but that's not the case. All of the recipes here are used by Modern Egyptians--and are still very much a part of every day Egyptian cuisine. What I liked about Amy's book in particular was that she offers some things I haven't seen in others--such as the drink recipes (basically layering different fruit nectars) as well as the restaurant recommendations for not only Cairo, but also Alexandria and Luxor. She also includes recipes from Southern Egypt which is typically ignored in most other cookbooks which focus on mainly Cairo, with some fish recipes from Alexandria. I also learned about the dessert truffles, which I had never heard about.

Her recipe for aish baladi is the best I've found. I couldn't find the unprocessed bran in my local stores, so I substituted toasted wheat germ (cereal aisle) and it worked very well. She includes the Egyptian-home style favorite "macarona bechamel"--which is similar to Greek pastito. The Egyptians I know use a typical French bechamel when making it, but I liked learning Amy's approach which mixes chicken/beef stock with the milk. It makes a very rich meal, slightly lighter. Her hawashi dough is excellent--very close to the stuff one finds on the street, but her filing was not traditional for me. I think "My Egyptian Grandmother.." does a better job with her mixture of ground meat, allspice, chopped carrot, green pepper, and garlic. Her fuul is a bit boring--I think I would have preferred to see some more variations--such as cooking/mashing the fuul with garlic, onion, tomatoes, and tahini, etc. Heating up a can of fuul isn't really a recipe to me. :) See Claudia Roden for how to actually cook the dried beans. The chicken shwarma was very good and one of the best I've found for doing it at home. Nothing is going to compare to something roasted on a vertical roaster--but this is good. I recommend squeezing some fresh lemon juice on it as you take it out of the oven. The masa'a was good--and I tried the unorthodox suggestion of adding cheese on top which my family loved. I also loved her serving suggestion for fattah in using the ramekins.

The book contains lots of dessert recipes--and the few I've tried have been good. I like how she including the baklava with cream recipe--as it's a wonderful variation that many Americans have never had. I'm also eager to try the double chocolate baklava.

Although not mentioned (or perhaps I missed it), you can always use ground beef for any recipe calling for ground lamb. It won't be exactly the same--but it works well and nearly every recipe that calls for ground lamb is made with both in Egypt.

The book has some nice pictures and is a good, if small, size. If you are at all interested in Egyptian cooking, I highly recommend adding it to your library. I'd also recommend Claudia Roden's and Sally Elias Hanna's books as well. Those are the ones I keep coming back to.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely worth it for a freebie! Good recipes., December 8, 2010

By 

MsReadalot (California) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nile Style: Egyptian Cuisine and Culture: Ancient Festivals, Significant Ceremonies, and Modern Celebrations (Hippocrene Cookbook Library) (Kindle Edition)

I'm an American that has been married to an Egyptian/Armenian for 30 years, and I can tell you these recipes are the Real McCoy. If you've never tried Middle Eastern cooking, this is an excellent starting point. Different and delicious, I make them all the time in rotation along with meat loaf and mac and cheese. And the recipes are fairly simple with almost everything available at your local market. Give it a try!

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent recipes and culinary history, December 27, 2009

By 

a customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nile Style: Egyptian Cuisine and Culture: Ancient Festivals, Significant Ceremonies, and Modern Celebrations (Hippocrene Cookbook Library) (Hardcover)

This book provides a wealth of culinary history along with tantalizing recipes, allowing the reader to understand the context of each dish. The author, Amy Riolo, has traveled extensively in Egypt, and she includes excerpts of her experiences in the book. As a result, Nile Style is fun to read as travel literature as well as a cookbook. With the home cook in mind, Amy has a adapted the recipes for easy after-work cooking. I especially enjoyed learning about and cooking with exotic ingredients like orange blossom water, molokhiya, and baby okra.