Staff Picks: A Feast for Arab American Heritage Month
by emjane
Arab American Heritage Month is a wonderful reminder to visit AADL’s ample cookbook collection! I highly recommend making a trip to the 641 shelves on the second floor of the Downtown Library and flipping through any books that catch your eye. But if you’re looking for some curated selections, try out some of these favorites below!
Cardamom and Lime: Recipes from the Arabian Gulf by Sarah Al-Hamad | Request Now
This cookbook is a dream to flip through, with large pictures of every dish and easy-to-follow instructions. Al-Hamad shares both the Arabic name and the English equivalent for each recipe and provides a paragraph of relevant information before the recipe itself, giving historical and locational context for each offering. I’m looking forward to cooking the Potato “Chops” (p. 41): small lamb patties encased in a potato and rice mixture and then fried in vegetable oil. I’ve not made anything like them yet, but they sound delicious!
Zaitoun: Recipes from the Palestinian Kitchen by Yasmin Khan| Request Now
Though solidly a cookbook, Zaitoun is enhanced by a strong travelogue woven throughout the recipes. Khan shares her experiences traveling to the regions from which her recipes originate, giving Zaitoun some extra “meat” even if you don’t intend to cook anything from it. However, I found myself making notes of several recipes I’ll want to return to: particularly those for breads and desserts. As soon as I make up my own za’atar (with a recipe helpfully provided on p. 36), I’ll make the herbed focaccia (p.43)!
Arabesque: a Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon by Claudia Roden | Request Now
In Arabesque, Roden has sectioned her book into the three geographic sections: Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon. By organizing the book geographically, rather than by type of dish, it highlights the similarities and differences in the cuisine across these three countries. Instructions are clearly written, so even those less experienced with cooking Arabian cuisine can find success, and nearly every recipe comes with a picture. She also begins the book with recipes for some of the specialized ingredients like preserved lemons that, depending on where you live, might be tricky to find in your grocery store. I’m most excited to try the recipe for Chicken with Tomato Pilaf (p.194), though I’m going to be patient and wait until tomatoes are in season so I can cook with fresh ones!
Sweet Delights from a Thousand and One Nights: Traditional Arab Sweets by L.B. Tauris | Request Now
This cookbook wasn’t what I expected – rather than the gorgeous glossy photos prominent in most recipe books, Sweet Delights is all business! That’s because, it turns out, it’s much more than a typical recipe book. Instead, Tauris takes historical recipes from primary sources and shares that original version, followed by a traditional version (where they start looking more like the way today’s recipes look, rather than a paragraph of text), and then often followed by several modern variations. Each recipe is rated on its difficulty, ranging from “easy” to “for the experienced cook” and the many variations allows the baker to pick a version that best suits their tastes and abilities. I most enjoyed seeing how recipes morphed over time, and how modern versions of pastries from around the world have roots in Arabian tradition.
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