Yasmin Khan (2) (1981–)

Best for:
Those looking for a cookbook filled with gorgeous photos as well as stories from the people who prepare the recipes.

In a nutshell:
Travel and food writer Khan visits cities throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories, meeting with Palestinians to learn about their food, as well as their lives under occupation.

Worth quoting:
‘I stay hopeful because I believe apartheid will eventually be defeated.’
‘I understand that you want to share our culture, but you can’t discuss show more Palestinian food without talking about the Occupation.’

Why I chose it:
We spent Christmas at the home of a friend’s mother, who kindly gifted us this book, with the only knowledge that we were vegetarian and liked to cook. While the book itself does have some meat recipes, it is primarily full of delicious vegetarian fare.

Review:
This cookbook is unlike any I’ve ever read before. In addition to being filled with recipes that I cannot wait to try out, the author focuses on the lives of the people who create this delicious food. As evidenced by the quotes above, which come from people Khan met with in her travels across the OPT, it is great to share these recipes with the world, but the stories of the Palestinian people need to be shared. And that includes the stories of the challenges they face under occupation in keeping their way of life.

Khan visits Palestinians living in Haifa, Akka, Jerusalem, Nablus, Jenin, Gaza, Bethlehem, Nazareth and The Galilee, and shares recipes for mazzeh, salads, soups mains, and desserts. There are so many that I want to eat right now, from roast red peppers with olives and capers, to seared halloumi, to lentils with chard and tahini to pomegranate passion cake. I plan to get started on making them this weekend.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Keep it show less

There is an issue with this book that must be addressed before getting to the food related content. Despite the author asserting that the purpose of the book is to celebrate Palestinian culture rather than make political statements, there is belligerent anti-Israel rhetoric laced throughout. Lest one think that such an inflammatory attitude is inherent to telling the story of the Palestinian Kitchen, the contrast with the much less biased approach taken in the similar "Falastin: A Cookbook" show more by [actual Palestinian] Tami Samimi is striking.

Politics aside, the recipes are mostly traditional, but several fall flat on being actually useful, such as the following:
"Cook the bulgur wheat in a pan of boiling water according to the packet instructions."
WTF kind of recipe is this?! As with many people, I get my ingredients from a Middle Eastern market where they tend to be packaged in generic plastic bags that don't include any information beyond the contents and weight of the package. If I already knew what to do with it, I wouldn't need a cookbook!

The author also comes across as something of a culinary tourist reporting on what she witnessed during a whirlwind trip over spring break rather than an actual expert in the cuisine. The travelogue style presentation, complete with complaints about airport security and jetlag, doesn't help. As a result, certain weird things happen, such as odd misspellings (beyond the Britishisms), inexplicably substituting Indian naan in place of Arabic khubz, and repeatedly gushing over how much she loves za'atar as if it was a recent discovery.

A warning for American readers: The recipes are calibrated for a British kitchen, in terminology (e.g. aubergine not eggplant, hob instead of stove, etc.), with metric sizes for canned goods that don't always match what's available in the US, and oven temps given in C and gas #s that are foreign to an American cook.

The photography is gorgeous but much of it is only loosely associated with the recipes and narrative, and often looks like stock vacation photos, such as a panoramic city scene framed by a rainbow, aerial views of a beach, etc.

One nice touch is that in addition to a conventional index, there is a separate list of the dairy-free, gluten-free, and vegan recipes, sorted by categories. show less

An attractive book, appetizing pictures, nice stories, but we found the recipes very difficult to follow. The recipe for a favorite dish of ours left out many ingredients thereby jeopardizing the depth of taste.

A lovely well written book on not only the food, but the people, area and culture of the Palestinian people.
I would encourage anyone interested in food to read this book.