May Cookery Book Club - Middle Eastern month

[HuevosRancheros]

This month we are having a vague Middle Eastern theme - Jerusalem (Ottolenghi) and Persiana (Sabrina Ghayour) have grabbed our imagination, but other books can definitely be shared - let us know what you like cooking
give us more books to buy

I've just got the books. Sitting with a cup of tea to read through them.

McKayz that is my actual dream morning

It was lovely. DD goes to play group on a Monday so it's nice to have some peace.

I love Persiana. Can't wait to start trying things.

I live in the Gulf and before I moved here I was seriously obsessed with Ottolenghi. But now I am actually here I can see that real Middle Eastern food is nothing like what is in these books.

It is simple fare, not mucked about with, designed to be prepared and cooked on the move with few ingredients and minimal equipment. I.e. No lemon zesters and no Poggenpohl kitchen. What these books offer is poncey middle class British recipes which sometimes use vaguely Middle Eastern style ingredients.

Most Emiratis I know would shudder at the thought of chopping up dates and throwing them in a salad. They are meant to be enjoyed in their own right and come in a hundred different varieties, all of which taste different.

My tea tonight was
Flat bread
Houmous (just plain, nobody does flavoured houmous here)
Kibbeh
Cheese samosas
Olives
Fattoush
Chicken kebabs marinated in Arabic spice mix

No ponciness at all. If I was pushing the boat out I would have gone for some stuffed vine leaves too. Or some lamb and rice.

As if it couldn't get worse, I died a little inside when faced with Jamie Oliver's Comfort Food shawarma recipe. Blasphemy

So, whilst I don't mean to piss in anyone's pilaf, don't be fooled into thinking you are getting real Middle Eastern food from Ottolenghi or Persiana - I'm sure it's perfectly delicious but if you want authenticity, find a Lebanese restaurant (or an Emirati one if you live in London), go in, befriend the chef, ask them all about how they make their bread, or houmous, and pay him or her to give you and your foodie friends a cooking class when the restaurant is quiet and then write down their recipes. That's what I do here! If you can find a book called Sarareed by chef Khulood Atiq, this is a good intro to real Emirati food if anyone is interested.

whoa, I see your point perfectly, and I agree. But I still think persiana is a very good authentic book. What I cool at home will never taste like the lebanese restaurant I grew up near. That's mainly because parsley tasted like parsley, tomatoes like tomatoes etc. But the persiana recipes are good, simple ones.
Baba ganoush like my mother makes is inexistent in britain, the aubergines have no seeds here. :)
I do envy you for your dinner though :)

That's interesting who

I'll be honest though, I don't really care
I love Jerusalem. It may not be authentic everyday food, but it is food that excites me, surprises me, introduces me to flavours I've never had before or considered even, and it pleases me.

I think it's a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't. When we covered Every Grain of Rice by Fuschia Dunlop, which was supposed to be authentic Chinese food, there were some recipes in there that were so simple that they almost weren't recipes. Spinach stir fried with a bit of garlic etc. But I can imagine that that is an everyday dish. It just doesn't stand out as a new and exciting recipe to try. (I loved the book by the way, another one that excited, surprised, pleased etc :))

So yes, ottolenghi could have pared the recipes down a bit, made them more everyday and authentic, but then maybe people wouldn't be so inspired to try them when flicking through the book?

I like to think of Jerusalem as authentic but maybe not everyday, but special occasion food :)

Don't really care if it's not authentic - I just love those kinds of flavour combinations and its a bit more exciting than grilled meat on pita bread :-)

whoamireally DH's PhD supervisor was a lovely Indian lady. She is back in India now so she is the real McCoy who grew up and lives in India. What I have learned from her cooking is that I don't actually like real Indian food. I prefer British Indian fare.

I spent a large chunk of my childhood in Hong Kong and my family is from there. I don't think most British will like real Cantonese food.

I like Ottolenghi and I'm under no illusion that it's anglicised. He will have to to become successful here.

Im happy as long as the food taste good.

heuvos I had stir fried green beans today. Sliced garlic, beans into wok, a splash of shaoxing wine, and a sprinkle of salt. I cook that a lot because it's so darn easy

Two I hope you didn't misunderstand me!
Not saying there is anything wrong with simply stir fried veg!!
It's just that that is what I would do myself, if I were cooking in a hurry and didn't have a recipe to follow. It is simple, quick, and tastes good :)
So when I get a recipe book, I am hoping for new ideas, possibly slightly more complicated things to cook.
That said, from EGOR one of my favourite new-to-me things was the smacked garlicky cucumber. Still not complicated or using a million ingredients, but delicious and something I'd never done or eaten before.

No heuvos not misunderstood at all. I'm saying indeed it's a very normal everyday dish. And not very exciting isn't it? But as comforting as a bowl of plain white rice.

I just wrote a very long and boring essay on the subtle differences between not only Cypriot, Greek and Turkish food, but the differences between villages and families, all different but all still authentic, then lost it in a MN/Safari black hole.

Ottolenghi's food is a mishmash of Jewish Israeli and Palestian/Lebanese food as his partner was Arabic and he's Jewish, of course it won't be the same as you'd find in a Lebanese restaurant. likewise I've yet to find koupepia/dolmades/yaprak dolma that taste like my Auntie makes, or I do, or my Mum/Nanna but the flavour combinations are very similar, still authentic, it depends where you're coming from and now living in, food and recipes mutate, it's natural surely. I can't even remember the rest of the waffle I wrote but there was something about still trying to find the definitive houmous method for me, trying Honey and Co's next, I to never eat flavoured houmous/hummus

I agree with you whoami and I doubt you'll find many of us that don't, doesn't mean the overall flavour combinations aren't authentic though and would depend on whereabouts in the ME you're based and what ingredients are freely available there.

Bottom line though, the food is fteaking delicious. This isn't a quest to find the perfect Middle Eastern dish, just chatting about yummy food!

I think we are all agreed

And Two it may not be "very exciting" but it is a million times better than the English/British way of cooking veg that I was brought up on - plain boiled

ha ha of course Ottolenghi is not "Authentic" agree though who cares; its delicious. I live in the middle of rural wales will have to travel a long way to ask my local lebanese restaurant for their recipes.

going to make the Houmous with lamb and Aubergine with Chermoula tonight from Jerusalem but can't buy Coriander of Parsley in the town I live in (i grow them but not ready yet) so I will have to improvise and use some mint that's what cooking is all about, no?

I love poncey food.

Just been in shop on way back from pre-school and no Aubergines either; they usually have them. So going to have to use Courgettes so it's not even going to be authentic Ottolenghi

Do you have lidl or Aldi haywire? If you do they sell it reasonably cheap and it freezes well and you can use direct from frozen. The herbs that is not the aubergine.

Thanks Pantah freezing herbs is a good idea. stupid question but do you chop them first? The tiny town I live in has a small co-op, a newsagent that sells basic veg and a fantastic butchers and that is about it but the next town along about 10 miles away has a lovely little Nepalese shop (has a Gurkha regiment stationed there) where I can get huge bunches of Coriander will try it next time. (and an Aldi)

I just need to plan more in advance with this kind of cooking I used to live in cities, Bristol, Oxford and London etc. and could be more spontaneous but have now been in the countryside for 8 years or so; you get used to adapting recipes for what you have, necessity is the mother of invention and all that.

I don't bother as they crumble up easily when frozen but next time I'll chop off the stalks and freeze separately, spent ages digging bits of mint stalk out of my couscous the other evening

haywire the poncey supermarket starting with a h has them in the freezer. Do you have one nearby? I have to say i thought I live in a rural backwater. I keep seeing things in the waitrose magazine that's not available in my local branch. Your post gave me an appreciation when people complain they can't get zaatar.

Btw I can't seem to keep my coriander plant alive. It is my plan to keep a herb garden after we move. I dream if having a garden like Nigel slater.

We have a small Waitrose about 40 min away and a lovely town with a great weekly market and good deli 8 miles away so it's not too bad but you do need to plan ahead if you want something a bit specialist. I have used Oregano in place of Zaatar but must get some; I read in Jerusalem that it is Hyssop which is a plant I think I have in the garden so maybe I can dry my own!

The flip side of living here is that I have a massive vegetable plot and huge greenhouse so can grow lots of herbs and veg and soft fruit. Coriander is a bit trickier than most herbs as it bolts at the slightest stress, too hot, to cold, too wet, too dry I just plant lots throughout the summer, and let it go to seed if it does bolt so I can use the seed the next year. N.B My garden is a work in progress though and looks nothing like Nigel's.

Have made the Jerusalem Houmous mmmm tasted good and you will all be relived to know Panic Over, DH is working in Bristol today so he has secured us some aubergine's and Coriander; will report back later.

Today I made the Armenian green lentil, garlic and spinach soup from veggiestan - seriously good :)
Probably not particularly suited to this weather, but it was still fantastic.
The flavours were deep and comforting, it had more of a stew consistency than a soup - could have added more water, I guess, but I was happy with it as it was. Can definitely see it becoming an autumn/winter staple :)

Love Middle Eastern cookery, particularly Persian food. My husband is Persian and I have found Ariana Bundy's 'Pomegranates and Roses' to be a very good cookery book. The food tastes authentic, the illustations are delightful and it contains little stories and anecdotes which are charming.

Just had Jerusalem aubergine croquettes for lunch. Didn't really rate them. Just friedness really as per any other croquette. The aubergine didn't add much. DC didn't eat any!

madding that's a shame re the children. the only reason i see to put an effort to make croquettes is to hope they will eat them. With ketchup.