Olives, Lemons & Za'atar: The Best Middle Eastern Home Cooking

Description

Tangy lemony tabbouleh, smoky, rich baba ghanouj, beautifully spiced lamb shank... the recipes in Olives, Lemons & Za'atar provide something irresistible for every occasion. These dishes represent the flavours of Rawia's Middle Eastern childhood with recipes copied faithfully from family cookbooks (her mother's most treasured harissa), and then developed with a creative flourish of her own. Her food is deeply personal and so she includes the classics but also the Mediterranean influences that come from summer holidays in Spain and living in Bay Ridge, the old Italian neighbourhood in Brooklyn. The result is a sensational cross-cultural mix and provides you with everything you need - pickles, yogurt, bread, mezze, salads, stews etc - to enjoy the best home cooking and share the most convivial Middle Eastern hospitality.

Rawia Bishara opened Tanoreen in 1998 as a tribute to her mother's rich culinary heritage and over the years it has won countless accolades. She teaches at the renowned DeGustibus Culinary School and her recipes have appeared in Plate Magazine, New York Magazine and The New York Times. Rawia now runs the restaurant, a unique family-owned and operated enterprise, with her daughter Jumana.

As well as the expected houmous, falafel and baba ganoush are Palestinian specialities and Middle Eastern-American fusion dishes. The two recipes I tested were smocked wheat berries with lamb (freekeh bel lahmeh) and cauliflower salad (salatet zahra). One thing was instantly apparent: the author's love of spices. My kitchen was filled with wonderful aromas.' * Delicious magazine * 'Rawia Bishara's Olives, Lemons and Za'atar is bursting with vibrant colours and flavours of the Middle East. * Food & Travel magazine * This beautiful book is a 'collection from the heart' writes Rawia Bishara[...]Her cooking is a joyful celebration of her upbringing in Nazareth, where her mother made olive oil, vinegar and 'jewel-coloured jam'[...]Recipes are wholesome yet bursting with flavours. * The Simple Things *