A Book of Middle Eastern Food
Claudia Roden, 1968, Alfred A. Knopf
In 1985, while living in New York City, I met Fadia Jawdat and Nadra Holmes. Both women had moved to the States to escape the never-ending conflicts in Lebanon. They supplemented their income by moonlighting at catering companies. The Good Table, which I owned, was among the places where they worked. This was the start of an important friendship, which would include many shared meals, and continues to this day. You’ve been introduced to Fadia before through her previous contributions to the Cook’s Gazette.
Dinners at Nadra’s and Fadia’s apartments were my first introduction to the real food from the region, especially dishes from Lebanon. Both women are superb cooks. I learned much from watching them and taking notes in their kitchens. While many of their recipes have been passed down from family members, they both used the same book as a reference, Claudia Roden’s Book of Middle Eastern Food.
In this volume, Roden focuses on food from four areas: Persian cooking from Iran, Arab preparations from Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, Turkish cuisine, and North African cooking, especially dishes from Morocco. She provides recipes and precise instructions for rice dishes, kebabs, salads, savory pies, pilafs, and sweet pastries. The recipes are anchored in childhood memories, and collected from travel around the Middle East. As she puts it:
Every dish reminds me fondly of someone. I hear their voice as they described it and remember the taste and event when they cooked it.
Her book is my bible for preparing Middle Eastern food.
Recipe
Geisi Polow: Iranian Rice Pilaf with Lamb and Apricots
Love this quote! Powerful description of the human intimacy in cooking.