The Mezze Cookbook: Sharing Plates from the Middle East

Description

The 140 home-cooking recipes in this book explore the regional diversity of Middle Eastern sharing dishes, from Lebanon and Iran to Turkey and Syria. Divided by style of dish, each chapter features both meat-based and vegetarian dishes, along with suggested mezze-style menus and a glossary of terms and ingredients. From Roasted Cauliflower with Sweet and Smoky Tahini Sauce to Date Pastries with Fig Ice Cream, Middle Eastern Mezze is packed with both traditional and modern takes on this age-old method of sharing food.

Lebanese Salma Hage, from Mazarat Tiffah (Apple Hamlet) in the mountains of the Kadisha Valley in north Lebanon, has more than 50 years experience of family cooking. She learnt to cook from her mother, mother-in-law and sisters-in-law, and spent many years working as a professional cook. This is her third book, after The Lebanese Kitchen and the James Beard award-winning The Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookbook.

"With so many enticing dishes it could be near impossible to know where to stop. As ever with a Phaidon publication, the photography is stunning, and a nice touch is the numerous double page spreads featuring multiple dishes laid out as a mezze selection that's been eagerly dug into. The Mezze Cookbook is a book packed with dishes that are healthy, flavourful and well balanced, and a wonderful way to explore the rich variety and cuisine of the Middle East at home."-LondonLamppost.com "Beautiful... A vibrant collection of exciting and exotic sharing-plate recipes."-Stir It Up Magazine "Take your Mezze to the next level... Salma Hage serves up a tasty selection of small dishes to tickle your taste buds with delight."-Vegan Food & Living "A very good and rather clever thing to have in your culinary armoury."-Western Morning News "Mezze feast... Invite friends over for a Mediterranean supper."-Simply Vegan Magazine "This book is packed with both traditional and modern takes on this age-old way to share food."-Tasting Table "The Mezze Cookbook is a gift-quality volume which reflects how most of us eat... or would like to... There are plenty of beautiful photographs to inspire and tempt and to give a bit of confidence to the novice cook. There is nothing too taxing and one won't be expected to buy any specialist equipment... is an ideal gift for any keen cook who could be looking for easily achieved dishes which are a little different from the usual fare... This will become a well-used volume."-MostlyFood.co.uk "A glossy guide to creating an array of sumptuous sharing dishes."-The Guardian "The sub-title, Sharing Plates from the Middle East, could scarcely be more cutting-edge. Some of the most fashionable tables in London are laden with these tantalising, spicy nibbles... Despite living in London since the Sixties, (Salma Hage) has 'always craved the social food from my homeland'. A delicious litany follows: 'labneh, babaganoush, hummus... Kibbeh, freekeh, ful medames'... Lucid and detailed, Hage's recipes provide the template for the tastes of the Lebanese table. As for the sociability, it's up to us."-BreadandOysters.com "[A] cornucopia of recipes from the Middle East, and many of the 135 dishes are naturally vegetarian."-HuffPost "There are so many good things in Salma Hage's The Mezze Cookbook [...] including excellent ways with vegetables. She's a master of the genre: generous in spirit and fundamentally hospitable."-Evening Standard "Readers embark on a journey of mezze recipes that are approachable and make you want to gather your friends and family for a mezze party."-CulEpi