The Kitchen Without Borders: recipes and stories from refugee and immigrant chefs by the Eat Offbeat chefs

 It's a while since I've reviewed a cookery book but I saw this being talked about on Twitter and decided it was something special. It brings together 70 recipes from around the world, but more importantly it introduces us to the fourteen chefs behind these dishes - their backgrounds, their stories of 'coming to America', the food that reminds them of home. Originally from places as far apart as South America and Africa, through the Middle East to Afghanistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka, all of them have found a new home in New York, and a new family in the kitchens of Eat Offbeat catering company.

Sparked initially by a desire to recreate the hummus made by their Syrian grandmother, siblings Manal and Wissam Kahi founded Eat Offbeat in 2015, from the start having a mission to introduce New Yorkers to quality food from around the world, and, perhaps more importantly, to offer quality jobs for refugees and immigrants eager to share a taste of their homeland. For the chefs, cooking their favourite meals is a bond with home and family. To the diner, it's a way to experience other culinary traditions, and to see 'incomers' as more than statistics.

The recipes start with appetizers and dips, and follow through salads and soups, grain dishes, both vegetarian and meat main courses to desserts and drinks - and everything is mouth-watering. The instructions are clear and look easy to follow, photographs of the finished dishes are so tempting, and I've already book-marked a selection to try - salads of cucumber and tomato with lemon-sumac or lime-mint dressings; Chef Bashir's Chicken Karahi from Afghanistan, which stews the meat in turmeric, garlic and tomato sauce; Chef Mariama's mustard and lemon marinated Chicken Cilantro from Senegal; or maybe Chef Hector's recipe from Venezuela for Hallacas tamales stuffed with pork and beef (though the banana leaf wrapping may have to be replaced by rather prozaic aluminium foil), and to round off a meal either (or both) of the recipes for Baklava, one from Iraq, one from Iran.

For most of the recipes the ingredients are familiar - as in Riz Gras, a Guinean dish of rice, chicken, cabbage and carrots, or Sri Lankan Kowa Varrai, a dish of coconut and cabbage to be served alongside spicy curries - it's just the different combinations of vegetables, or additions of spices, which turn them into something extraordinary. Some of the spices and flavourings may be a little unusual, but are probably available from a large supermarket or specialist shop (or failing that, there are suggestions of where to buy them on-line). And, if like me you're often adrift with the US method of measuring ingredients there's a handy conversion table at the back of the book. 

From May 15, 2020, to May 15, 2021, (including any preordered copies that ship during this period), Workman Publishing will donate 2% of the cover price for every copy of The Kitchen without Borders cookbook sold in the United States and its territories, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and European Union member states, to the IRC, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing humanitarian aid, relief and resettlement to refugees and other victims of oppression or violent conflict, with a minimum contribution of $25,000 USD. For more information, visit rescue.org/cookbookand https: //www.workman.com/kwob. No portion of the purchase price is tax-deductible. For additional information about the IRC, see rescue.org.

The Temporary Bride; a memoir of love and food in Iran by Jennifer Klinec

"A relationship was a mathematical formula: the correct variables of age, beauty, morality and finances were entered and the output was a successful, peaceful marriage. It couldn't be, therefore, that their Iranian son could feel desire for someone six years his senior, someone who didn't come to him pure and untouched. I was an amusing visitor from another world and soon enough I should return to it, fading quietly into an anecdote ..."

 review by Maryom

The Temporary Bride is a cross between autobiography, cookbook, traveller's tale and romance; an account of how one Western woman went to Iran looking for traditional recipes and found love.
Jennifer Klinec was born in Canada to Hungarian-Croatian parents, moved to England, spent weekends away from her corporate job in travelling to as many exotic, out-of-the-way places as possible, then gave up that life to set up her own cookery school. Her speciality was the re-creation of unusual but authentic recipes, with nothing altered or tamed down to suit British palates: not the food served in restaurants but that consumed at home.
Eventually this culinary curiosity took Klinec to Iran, where, covered almost head-to-toe, she began to learn the art of Persian cookery in a family kitchen in the city of Vazd. This strange westerner with independent ideas at first repels the son of the household, but slowly he becomes intrigued by this woman who is so very different to the bride imagined for him .... and the couple find themselves falling in love. How can their story have a chance of a happy ending in a country where both law and custom is against them?

Now sometimes autobiographies can be a little dry and lacking in emotion - the events happened too long ago to have any real feeling attached to them or the reader is too aware of how the 'story' will end - not so here! The writing style feels almost like fiction, giving an immediacy to events, and I was lured in by the mouth-watering descriptions of food, the sights and smells of Iranian streets and kitchens, and then fear of
conducting what is essentially an illicit love affair under the watchful eyes of both family and state. Klinec builds the atmosphere with a masterly touch, making the reader feel there in the moment, whether cooking delicious sounding meals, struggling with bureaucracy for a visa extension, or stealing kisses in hidden alleys.
Mixing with families, becoming temporarily part of them, allowed Klinec to experience Iran and its customs from an unusual,intimate, angle. Whether you're interested in cookery, travel or just a plain old-fashioned love story, there's something for all here. I've only one quibble - it would be nice to have recipes for some of the simpler dishes.
 Every page held me fascinated - but did the story end happily? Read it and see.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Virago
Genre -autobiography, travel, cookery,

Almond Bar: 100 Delicious Syrian Recipes by Sharon Salloum

review by Maryom

Australian chef Sharon Salloum started to cook at an early age, helping her mother and aunts prepare traditional Syrian food for family and friends, and went on to open Almond Bar, a Sydney restaurant specialising in a mix of old favourite dishes and modern adaptations, all drawing on her Syrian heritage....and now here are those recipes for you to try at home.

There are recipes for sauces and dips, finger food, sharing plates, salads, mains and deserts, to cover every occasion from a quick snack to full-on dinner party - through them all run the distinctive flavours of the Middle East - rosewater, pomegranate, tahini and za'atar spice mix. Some may already be familiar like falafel and bulgar wheat salad, but, to me at least, most are new and exciting dishes.

So where would I start? - the kaftas on the front cover, I think. A fairly simple recipe of spiced minced lamb especially if made in their alternate 'meatball' shape rather than experiment with holding on a skewer. It's also inspired me to try making Ashta, Syrian clotted cream, and then of course try it in the tempting desert recipes such as Rose of Damascus and Semolina Fudge. There's even a recipe for making traditional arish cheese but that may be getting a little too ambitious.

Most of the recipes have gorgeous accompanying photographs and the brief introduction to each from the author gives an additional insight into the dish - something that makes it a fascinating book to read, even if you don't test the recipes out. I'm sure you'll want to though.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Jacqui Small
Genre - cookery, Syria

World Food Cafe Quick and Easy by Chris and Carolyn Caldicott

review by Maryom

Chris and Carolyn Caldicott took a break from running their World Food Cafe in Covent Garden and went on a trip in search of new recipes - not just the fortnight or month-long trip of the average holiday-maker, though. They travelled by boat through Burma, Laos and Bangladesh, on foot through Chile and Bhuttan, with reindeer herds in Lapland, on quad bikes and by plane in Namibia, by rickshaw in Vietnam,on the bullet train in Japan, a 1950s Oldsmobile in Cuba and went on a road trip through history in Syria - the sort of trip that most of us could only dream of! And then, there's the foodie ideas they came home with, which after all was the reason for the trip.

It's an eye-catching book with a lime green and shocking pink cover as vibrant as the food within. The book is divided into sections for each country visited - with lots of photos of the places, people and food.  Each country's section starts with a description of the Caldicotts' travels and a general introduction to the cuisine of the region, followed by recipes. Most of these use familiar everyday vegetables in totally unexpected ways - a leek and broad bean dish from Bangladesh, a Bhutan recipe for asparagas or a potato and mushroom bake from Namibia. There are recipes for salads, stews, snacks, breads, desserts and drinks - all vegetarian, though how anyone would miss meat with these dishes I don't know. The emphasis, as you may guess from the title, is on quick and easy cookery rather than fiddly and complicated and, as far as I can tell from merely reading, they live up to that description - most seem to involve popping a few ingredients in a pan, simmering or frying for a while, maybe adding a last-minute extra - and that's it!

I've two minor gripes - I'd have liked to see nutritional info for the recipes and the index only gives the names of dishes, not the ingredients, so it isn't easy to find a recipe for, say, chickpeas or broccoli.
 
As well as being a delight to browse through, I can imagine that this will become a well-used, well-thumbed cookbook.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Frances Lincoln
Genre - cookery, travel

Buy World Food Cafe: Quick and Easy: Recipes from a Vegetarian Journey from Amazon

Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking by Anya von Bremzen

review by Maryom

Anya van Bremzen grew up in Russia, emigrating to the US in 1974 at the age of 10. There, she discovered her Soviet-diagnosed 'incurable' disease wasn't life-threatening at all, abandoned  her early musical ambitions and became a food writer, but never forgot the tastes and dishes of her motherland. Subtitled a Memoir of Food and Longing this book is her attempt to tell the history of the Soviet Union through its people's relationship to food.

 From pre-revolution indulgence, through Leninist aestheticism and grain requisitions, the starvation years of WW2, cooking in communal kitchens or the more private but shoddier Khushchev era flats to Gorbachev's anti-alcohol years and the eventual collapse of the USSR this turned out to be more of a history book than cookbook but I was totally fascinated. Drawing on  her parents' and grandparents' history, Anya von Bremzen brings the past to life in a very personal way - food, after all, plays a central part in all of our lives and is perhaps one of the easiest ways to really get 'inside' a different era or culture. 

I was surprised to find that the Soviet diet wasn't all stale bread and thin gruel, though admittedly many foodstuffs were only available regularly to the elite and queuing for hours was part of everyday grocery shopping. Starting in pre-Revolution 1910, each decade is represented by a 'signature' dish;  kulebiaka - a pastry stuffed with fish, mushrooms and rice for which the description 'fish pie' seems woefully inadequate; gefilte fish as served by  Ukrainian cousins; Russian home made 'hamburgers'; Stalin's favourite Georgian lamb stew; cornbread to represent Khushchev's fixation with this 'foreign' grain; salat Olivier which graced every festive table; a special recipe for borshch; a Central Asian pilaf and blinis, the most traditional of Russian foods. The 1940s alone have no recipe but are represented by the ration-card issued to the starving population of Leningrad during its 900 day siege, when the daily food allowance dropped to 125 grams of bread.
Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking is a book full of nostalgia and yearning for a food-culture now disappearing under fast food brands familiar and identical the world over. It is more of a history than a cookery book but if the dishes mentioned have tempted you (they did me) there are recipes for them at the end of the book

Maryom's review - 5 stars

Publisher - Doubleday

Genre - non-fiction, history, cookery, Russia 
Buy Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking from Amazon

The Curious Cookbook by Peter Ross

A Culinary Curiosity
review by Maryom

The Curious Cookbook is an amazing little book that gives a fascinating glimpse into Britain's culinary past.

The recipes date from 1390 to as recently as 1940, all taken from cookbooks of the time and have accompanying notes about their context. The food ranges from the mildly different - a flower strewn omelette or fruit pudding stuffed turnip - to the wildly extravagant  - a mythical beast created by joining a cockerel and a pig - to the plain obnoxious - artificial milk made with bruised snail. 
Many of the earlier dishes were obviously intended for display at the tables of the rich - the time taken to prepare stuffed and gilded meat dishes or create sculptures from marzipan or sugar would be beyond the means of  anyone without kitchen staff - but what struck me most throughout was the use of strange ingredients. Viper soup, badger ham and stewed sparrows are mentioned on the cover but there are also recipes including porpoise, peacock, otter, tortoise, larks and squirrels - none of which we'd dream of eating these days! I was certainly surprised to discover sparrows and starlings being recommended in a ration cookbook from the 1940s. Other recipes seemed only a little out of the ordinary and there are quite a few I feel inclined to try.
Mostly these are not recipes as we expect today -  no careful measuring of ingredients or detailed instructions. The authors of these cookbooks expected their readers to know how to gut a fish, skin a rabbit or make a batch of pastry, and were more concerned with sharing ideas than giving how-to guides.

An intriguing book for anyone with an interest in history, cooking or both.

Maryom's review -  5 stars
Publisher - British Library
Genre - Non-Fiction, Cookery, History

You can buy a copy from British Author

Pomegranates and Roses by Ariana Bundy

 More than a cookbook...
 review by Maryom

To say Pomegranates and Roses is a cookbook is an understatement. It's really a lavishly illustrated celebration of Persian life and cookery that will transport you straight to the Arabian Nights.
Yes, it is full of delicious-sounding recipes that I for one am longing to try, but interspersed with family memoirs, notes on Persian customs and culture and the Unani philosophy that blends cooking and medicine. Ariana Bundy was brought up in pre-revolution Persia and brings that era to life with her many memories of  watching, fascinated, in her grandmother's kitchen, of country feasts, colourful Persian weddings or sitting under the pomegranate trees drinking hot fragrant tea.
Having said that, it isn't a book to lie neglected on the coffee table.The recipes aren't difficult and for the most part don't require special, hard-to-obtain ingredients - some of them may require a trip to the specialist shelves of a large supermarket but most will be found easily, perhaps even already in your kitchen cupboard. It's just the way things are combined that makes the difference - for example chicken cooked with oranges and saffron, or baked eggs with chicken,nutmeg and cloves. There are simple salads, slow-cooked stews, drinks and preserves, even kababs to liven up the BBQ.
Pomegranates and Roses is a gorgeous, fascinating book even if you don't try out the recipes but do! They're exotic enough to be tempting but not weird enough to be off-putting. the best way to test recipes is to get in the kitchen and make them.  I'm intending working my way through, probably not very quickly, and posting the results on my Maryom's Home Page blog 

Maryom's review - 5 stars

Publisher - Simon & Schuster
Genre - Non Fiction, Cookery


Buy Pomegranates and Roses: My Persian Family Recipes from Amazon

Perfect Pies and Tarts by Moyra Fraser

review by Maryom

Perfect Pies and Tarts is one of a number of WI cookery books published by Simon & Schuster and contains over 50 recipes for sweet dessert pies, tarts, flans, traybakes etc etc. Suitable for everyone from the complete novice to the more experienced baker.

There are 8 basic pastry recipes included (or go for the easier option and use bought ready made pastry). I actually rather thought I knew all there was to know but was surprised to discover some new suggestions for pastry - a chocolate hazelnut crust and one incorporating creamed coconut.
The fillings cover, well, almost everything - from the traditional - lemon meringue, Bakewell tart or mince pies - to more unusual -panna cotta fig flans or chocolate and muscatel flan.

There are plenty of mouthwatering photos throughout to tempt you into baking - the difficulty might be deciding which to pick first.

I won this through a 'what's your favourite tart' competition on Twitter but my favourite isn't included. It's not really surprising though as it's a personal twist on Bakewell Pudding with (homemade) sloe and apple butter covered by a frangipane topping.

My only criticism is that there are no 'food values' given for the recipes - calorie count, amount of fat, fibre, salt etc. In a household where we have to be careful with fat intake, this kind of information is essential and I think all recipes should include it.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars

Publisher - Simon & Schuster

Genre - non-fiction, cookery, WI

Buy Perfect Pies & Tarts (Women's Institute) from Amazon

Cooking for Christmas

Among Maryom's Christmas presents were 2 exciting cook books!

Firstly a "serious" cook book from the proprietor of Britain's largest organic delivery box scheme. Although I've never actually used Abel and Cole for groceries, as a firm believer in growing-my-own veg their thinking mirrors mine - in cooking and eating what is in season rather than importing produce from the far side of the world. The snag to this is that sometimes I find myself stuck in a rut, serving the same old meals over and over again.
Not any more!!
This book is chock-a-block full of easy-sounding recipes, divided by seasons - so no more being lost trying to find something to make with the runner bean or beetroot glut from the allotment or trying to put aubergines or courgettes in the same dish as parsnips or swedes.
A great book for anyone who 'grows-their-own' or who just wants to try to eat more seasonally.

Publisher - Collins
Genre - Non-Fiction,Cookery

Buy The Abel & Cole Cookbook: Easy, seasonal, organic from Amazon


On a slightly more humorous note - a book on baking for the family pet.
A range of fun bakes made with ingredients that are easily found in the kitchen or on the supermarket shelf. Although they are all aimed at dogs they actually look quite appealing to me - although I will avoid the tripe recipes - a taste I have not managed to acquire. Some are vegetarian, some have fish, some have meat - there is even a Christmas cake and a muffin recipe.

Publisher - Parragon Books Ltd
Genre - Non-Fiction, Cookery, Pets

Buy Doggie Biscuits from Amazon

Eating In by Sue Lawrence

Get Cooking!
review by Maryom

The EdBookFest follow up may be over but we're staying with the Scottish theme just a little while longer with the latest cookery book from popular food writer and previous Masterchef winner Sue Lawrence.

As you can tell from its title it's all about eating in - but not just pulling something out of the freezer and reheating! It's full of (fairly) simple but impressive looking recipes. There's over 100 to choose from- with something for almost every occasion from Anniversary dinner for 2 to feeding the team or having the neighbourhood round for drinks - and all with a Scottish twist.
I found lots of my old favourites in there - such as shortbread and Scottish tablet ( if you're not familiar, it's a sort of superior fudge not readily available outside of Scotland and I've been longing to know how it's made for a long while) - and lots of interesting new twists - serving haggis with nachos or creating a Cullen Skink pie. And if you're not familiar with Cullen Skink.. or Parten Bree .. or Stornoway Black Pudding, there are interesting little snippets of information and history to introduce you to these, and other, traditional Scottish foods.

There are lots of recipes I would like to try but first on the list has to be Crunchie Puds - basically smashed up crunchies in cream - that has to be a 'no skills required' recipe if ever there was one.

At a personal level I would have found it helpful to have had nutritional information included. Whether from life style choice or medical necessity, most people are interested in the fat, calorie, protein composition of a meal and the information would have been really useful.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - HachetteScotland
Genre - Adult, Non-Fiction,Cookery

Buy Eating in from Amazon

New Year - new hobbies Tender: Volume 1, A cook and his vegetable patch by Nigel Slater

Cookbook and Gardener's Handbook in one.
review by Maryom

So, was one of your New Year resolutions to eat a healthier diet? maybe eat less meat - whether for health or environmental reasons? to take more exercise? Put them all together and you get - digging your garden, growing your own veg and then eating it!

There are plenty of gardening books out there whether you're a beginner or an expert and plenty of cookery books to match but, in

Publish Post

Tender: volume 1, A cook and his vegetable patch, Nigel Slater brings the two together in a gardening book written from the cook's perspective. He covers the vegetables he grows in his London back- of - terrace garden from asparagus to turnips with basic sowing and growing information for each vegetable, suggestions on which varieties to grow for performance and taste, and plenty of recipes to use your hoped for glut; for example, there are a dozen recipes for courgettes and their grown-up relative, the accidental marrow, a dozen more for parsnips, eight for pumpkins and over two dozen ways to cook and eat potatoes. Slater is encouraging us throughout this book to stop considering veg as a mere supporting act to meat but to bring them forward into a starring role, though not all the recipes are totally vegetarian.

This definitely falls into the 'big, thick book' category at over 6oo pages filled with mouth-watering recipes and gorgeous photos, and there's a danger that it could be beautiful but unused. Find yourself a copy of Tender, read some of it and you'll soon find yourself wanting to share the delights of fresh-from-the-garden home grown veg.
I received my copy of Tender: volume1 for Christmas last year. There's now a second volume of Tender all about fruit - I have to put that on my wish-list ready for next Christmas!

Publisher - 4th Estate
Genre - Adult's Non-Fiction


Buy Tender: Volume I, A cook and his vegetable patch from Amazon

7 Day Low Fat Low Salt Diet Plan by Carolyn Humphries

An unusual sort of book for us to review - but I found it cheap - very cheap- in a sale at The Works and due to Hubby being on a VERY low fat diet I'm always on the lookout for new ideas.
It's mainly aimed at low fat replacements for family favourites - Spaghetti Bolognese, Scotch Lamb Stew, even Baked Fish and Chips - but with some slightly unusual ones - Vitality Moussaka or Ratatouille Summer Pudding. There's everything from breakfast ideas to planning your meals for the week and even low fat cakes, biscuits and deserts.
I found some slight drawbacks to this book - it's a 1999 edition and I think some of the advice on the nature of fats may have changed since then - for instance there is no mention of trans-fatty acids anywhere. There are no photos of any prepared dishes. A far bigger problem, though, to the novice low fat cook is that although all the recipes are calorie counted, there's no figure for the fat or salt content. Since this book was published this kind of information is generally given in books and magazines and on food packaging. It's probably more useful for someone looking to just modify their diet in the general direction of lowering fat and salt than for someone cutting back severely due to health problems.

It's not, to be honest, the best cookbook I've got and it's certainly not the glossy coffee table sort that are gorgeous to look at and read even if you never cook anything from them, but it is a practical guide to low fat, low salt cooking.

Maryom's review - 3 stars
Publisher - Foulsham
Genre - Non-fiction, Cookery

Buy 7-day Low Fat, Low-salt Diet Plan from Amazon