Learn to COOK - Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon
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List Price: $35.00
Our Price: $23.10
Your Save: $ 11.90 ( 34% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Knopf
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.592927
EAN: 9780307264985
ISBN: 030726498X
Label: Knopf
Manufacturer: Knopf
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: 2006-10-31
Publisher: Knopf
Release Date: 2006-10-31
Studio: Knopf
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Editorial Reviews:
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In the 1960s Claudia Roden introduced Americans to a new world of tastes in her classic A Book of Middle Eastern Food. Now, in her enchanting new book, Arabesque, she revisits the three countries with the most exciting cuisines today—Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon. Interweaving history, stories, and her own observations, she gives us 150 of the most delectable recipes: some of them new discoveries, some reworkings of classic dishes—all of them made even more accessible and delicious for today’s home cook.
From Morocco, the most exquisite and refined cuisine of North Africa: couscous dishes; multilayered pies; delicately flavored tagines; ways of marrying meat, poultry, or fish with fruit to create extraordinary combinations of spicy, savory, and sweet.
From Turkey, a highly sophisticated cuisine that dates back to the Ottoman Empire yet reflects many new influences today: a delicious array of kebabs, fillo pies, eggplant dishes in many guises, bulgur and chickpea salads, stuffed grape leaves and peppers, and sweet puddings.
From Lebanon, a cuisine of great diversity: a wide variety of mezze (those tempting appetizers that can make a meal all on their own); dishes featuring sun-drenched Middle Eastern vegetables and dried legumes; and national specialties such as kibbeh, meatballs with pine nuts, and lamb shanks with yogurt.
Claudia Roden knows this part of the world so intimately that we delight in being in such good hands as she translates the subtle play of flavors and simple cooking techniques to our own home kitchens.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Outstanding recipes and loved the history presented
Comment: Extremely impressed with this book, after I received my own copy I purchased a copy for my son who is a foodie. The recipes are exotic enough to make them interesting and I loved the history presented for each region.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Comment: Such a joy to read and pure pleasure to prepare the dishes. While the recipes are grouped by country, an American will likely mix across cuisines to produce a meal.
The mezza recipes are incredible. Perfect party food.
Well researched and written. Beautiful photographs. Cinnamon and spice and everything nice!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Some good, some bad
Comment: This is a beautiful book full of gorgeous photos and tasty dishes. However, I bought it expecting to find recipes with directions and techniques and it is lacking in this area. When a dish requires "2 eggplants," please specify: large, small, maybe a weight? There are a lot of different ideas of what the "average" eggplant looks like. Especially when there's no photo of the dish, and I've never cooked or eaten it before. Then there were some rather impractical dishes; I usually don't cook two whole chickens or several pounds of fish at a time, for example. I understand that some recipes are better for entertaining, but I bought this cookbook (as I buy all my cookbooks) as a way to try EVERYDAY recipes for my family, and I feel it failed in that respect. I am by no means a bad or inexperienced cook, and I've eaten some authentic (home-cooked) versions of these foods while traveling in areas mentioned in the book, but I still need more direction. Even after reading through the entire book (all the info about ingredients, history), I still felt lost at times. Say what you will, I am disappointed.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon
Comment: What a beautiful, well laid out, and enjoyable read this cooking book is.
It brings the feel and culture of the countries into the recipe sections. The meals that I have tried are excellent, very easy to follow.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Like exploring the world without leaving your kitchen
Comment: "Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon" shares a delightful collection of recipes, each of which makes you feel as if you are experiencing a vibrant part of another culture. From Talaş Böreği, which takes you into the kitchens of Turkey, to Moroccan Briwat Bi Tamr (Dates Rolls in Honey Syrup), spending time with this book is akin to taking a culinary trip around the Middle East. Each chapter includes an introduction to the cuisine & history of the part of the world it seeks to represent. It is in sections like these that we learn, for example, about Lebanon's history as a feudal state and how interactions between Sunni Muslim, Greek Orthodox and Ottoman culture influenced the cooking we recognize as Lebanese today. Such socio-historical tidbits are sprinkled throughout the book, while chapters are organized into sections about "starters & meze," "main courses," and "desserts." Many recipes are accompanied by mouth-watering color photographs, so that this well-bound, artistically presented book would make a lovely coffee table book when you're not using it in the kitchen. Most of the dishes I tried were truly delicious, opening my eyes to new spice combinations and flavors. It was not until this book, for instance, that I would have thought to add cinnamon, pine nuts and currants to a meat dish (vegetarian meat dish in our kitchen, but the principle is the same), nor would I have thought to add pomegranate molasses and cumin to a salad. On one or two occasions I wasn't thrilled by the final result, but one cannot expect to fall in love with every recipe in a cookbook, especially one that is composed of meals so dissimilar from what you eat on an everyday basis. Recipes do assume that you have a firm grasp of basic cooking principles but at no point is this a hindrance. With internet access just a step away it is an easy thing, after all, to verify what "stiff egg whites" look like (Alton Brown did an entire show about this) or what greek-style yogurt is. Overall this book is a worthy addition to any collection - if you buy it and want my advice, make the Briwat Bi Loz (Almond Pastries in Honey Syrup) first. Not only are they easy to make, but the combination of crispy fillo, crunchy almonds and sweet syrup is hard to resist. Variations with confectioners sugar & orange blossom water are included for even more delightful exploration of this Moroccan dessert.
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