23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
So far...excellent!, Sep 11 2011
By Heatha - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Purple Citrus And Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean (Hardcover)
I heard Silvena Rowe on the Splendid Table last Saturday 9/3/11 and it really caught my attention so I ordered this book that evening. I finally had a chance to sit and read the evening of Friday 9/9/11 and read through it all that evening. It caught my interest the way a good novel does. The next day I went shopping for ingredients and I spent part of today (Sun 9/11/11) harvesting the rest of the ingredients from my own garden and cooking. I'm always nervous with a new cookbook, because even when the recipes read well, you just never know how well the recipes have been tested. I think they did a good job with this book.
I made the following:
Hummus: A perfect recipe for when you want to make hummus out of dried garbanzos you've cooked yourself. The flavor is great, but the techniques specified really push it to perfection because the resulting texture is exactly right. Hummus sandwiches are my work-a-day lunch staple and I think those sandwiches are going to be brilliant from now on.
Monkfish Shwarma: I felt like this was a big risk, marinating fish in an acid marinade overnight, I was afraid of accidental ceviche and rubbery fish. I did not grill it, as you would for more traditional shwarma but ran the fish under the broiler. It was so full of flavor and the texture was perfect. This is going to be a go-to recipe as well.
Pomegranate Molasses: I am so excited to have a recipe for this that is so easy. I love this ingredient. I used honey instead of sugar and it came out great.
Eggplant, Aleppo Pepper and Pomegranate Spread: This recipe caught my attention because I had bought some Aleppo pepper a few weeks before buying the book and because of the reference to the pomegranate molasses above. I decided to make this instead of the babbaganoush recipe recommended for serving with the monkfish recipe above. Another winner!
I hope the rest of the recipes I try are as good as these.
22 of 25 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
I'm sending this book back -- can't find the ingredients!, Oct 2 2011
By i4abuy - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Purple Citrus And Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean (Hardcover)
Like some other reviewers I was drawn to this book by the NPR interview with the author. I used the "look inside the book" feature and read that it was "Filled with mouthwatering recipes that can be made using surprisingly simple and easy-to-find ingredients." That was all I needed to order the book.
Easy-to-find? Maybe from a restaurant supply house in London, but not in my market: nasturtium flowers, salsify, blood oranges, quinces, lavender flowers, garlic scapes, zucchini flours, nigella seeds, hemp seeds, poussins, whitebait, mullet, rose petals, kadaifi pastry, passion fruit, hazelnut flour, nettles. And, while pomegranates are available, their season where I shop is brief. There are few recipes without unavailable ingredients and the book seldom suggests alternate ingredients.
It is also a bit annoying in the quantities of ingredients -- often 14 ounces of ground meat, 5 ounces of lamb, 7 ounces of cheese. Those are not the sizes available in my market. Perhaps this is a translation of quantities for an English market? And it would have been helpful if the author had suggested which dishes to serve with other dishes.
I really wanted to like this book (and I can see why others do) because the pictures are beautiful and, yeah, my mouth is watering (in a good way). Yum. But most of the recipes look like the food you should order in her restaurant, not expect to recreate in your home. For me, there are too few useful recipes to justify the price of the book, or the space on my cookbook shelf.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
wonderful book, Sep 17 2011
By haia - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Purple Citrus And Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean (Hardcover)
different and new recipes with beautiful colorful pictures ,it was something new i already made 8 or 10 recipes like
roasted chicken with honey zaatar ,eggplant with pomegranate spread , yougart & feta dip
baba ghanosh ,zucchini motabel ,rice pilaf with apricots & chickpeas
smoked eggplant salad with hazelnut ,lentil borek
and so many good and tasty recipes
you must buy it