Tara Wigley

Very well written, with a sensitive treatment of the political situation. It acknowledges the challenges faced by the Palestinian people with a sympathetic unbiased perspective. Interspersed between the food sections are occasionally heartwarming and all too often heart-wrenching profiles that don't pull any punches but don't resort to inflammatory rhetoric like Yasmin Khan did in Zaitoun: Recipes from the Palestinian Kitchen. The two books are quite similar in many respects, same subject show more matter and format, but this one is so much better. The other can be safely avoided.

The photography is gorgeous and artistic, and showcases both the food and the people and terroir behind it.

The recipes look fantastic, they are well introduced, well formatted, and clearly written. The quantities for most ingredients are listed in both cups/oz as well as grams, which is extremely helpful.

Overall the approach is respectful of tradition yet playful. Indicative of someone who has a deep understanding of the cuisine, its ingredients, and is able to apply modern techniques to achieve something new while preserving the spirit of the old. As opposed to his restaurant partner Yotam Ottolenghi, who often seems to get carried away with weird flavour combinations that don't always work out, Tamini sticks a little bit closer to the mainstream, while still putting his personal twist on things. For instance, he innovates with elements of traditional dishes, such as using panko instead of ground almonds in muhammara, or replacing molokhieh with spinach and okra.
As a result, there are quite a few recipes that look like they sprang from the kitchen of a modern upscale restaurant, while retaining the essence of the traditional recipe upon which they are based, and still accessible for the home cook in a normal kitchen with regular ingredients. There are also lots of creative vegetable dishes, which tends to be a weak area in many cookbooks.

I look forward to trying a bunch of the recipes in this book, something that I can't say for a lot of the cookbooks I've read recently. show less

Almost every recipe I've made from this book is a keeper, and some are "make this for guests". One, with haricot verts and tofu, was merely good, but I didn't sear the tofu properly, so that might have been my fault.

Things I've made:

* Roast cabbage with tarragon and pecorino (we roast a lot of veg, but this never would have occurred to me)
* Pasta alla norma
* Roasted asparagus with almonds, capers, and dill (easy)
* Quick okra with sweet-and-sour dressing (very easy)
* Chickpeas and Swiss chard show more with yogurt
* Gigli with chickpeas and za'atar
* Tofu and haricots verts with chraimeh sauce

Two weaknesses, though. The SIMPLE acronym for recipe attributes is precious and a complete failure. It is too much work to memorize. Is "M" for minutes, like 30 minutes or less? No, "S" is for "short on time". He should have called the book "Simple", then used icons, like a clock face with a 30 next to it.

Also, the recipes are occasionally too UK-specific. Asking for "dried red peppers" in the US is just not specific enough. Do you want ancho, New Mexico, chili de arbol, negro, pequin, or what? Another example is specifying barberries without a substitute. I can look up workarounds for these, like finding other recipes for pasta alla norma that use red pepper flakes. But I shouldn't have fix up recipes like that.

With those caveats, still five stars. show less

It's funny, deeply knowledgeable and it's poetry. My epectations weren't very high but I was very impressed. Decidedly not a must have, but very much a fun to have.

I wish there weren't so many recipes in here that I would like to try. I read the German translation from the library, but I might just have to buy it in English.