Born in 1936 to a Syrian-Jewish family in Cairo, Claudia Roden studied in London to become a painter before becoming engrossed by the stories and recipes of Britain’s expatriate Egyptian community. She began teaching Middle Eastern cooking from her home, hosting the BBC series “Claudia Roden’s Mediterranean Cookery” and becoming a prolific food journalist and cookbook author. She is best known for two publications: A Book of Middle Eastern Food, a cookbook first published in 1968 that remains an important influence on top chefs around the world, and The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York, an opus on Jewish cooking that provides a detailed history of Jewish holidays and recipes from the diaspora. The Book of Jewish Food won the James Beard Foundation Cookbook of the Year Award and the National Jewish Book Award. Roden is the President of the Oxford Food Symposium and, in 2022, was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her services to food culture.
Roden has updated and expanded her popular 1968 cookbook for a more savvy and knowledgeable audience. While still filled with old favorites, the third edition acknowledges food processors and other handy kitchen tools, as well as this generation’s preference for lower-fat recipes. Not that every recipe is changed; many are not, but Roden does attempt not to rely too much on butter and oils. Begin your meal with mezze, derived from the Arabic t’mazza, meaning “to savor in little bites.” Try Cevisli Biber (Roasted Pepper and Walnut Paste) spread on warm pita bread. Serve with Salata Horiatiki (Greek Country Salad) and then move on to a main dish of Roast Fish with Lemon and Honeyed Onions or Lamb Tagine with Artichokes and Fava Beans. The cookbook wouldn’t be complete without sections on rice, couscous, and bulgur — try Addis Polow (Rice with Lentils and Dates) or Kesksou Bidaoui bel Khodra (Beber Couscous with Seven Vegetables). Finish with a traditional dessert like Orass bi Loz (Almond Balls).
Originally published in 1972 and hailed by James Beard as “a landmark in the field of cookery,” this new version represents the accumulation of the author’s years of extensive travel throughout the ever-changing landscape of the Middle East, gathering recipes and stories. Now featuring over 800 recipes, including the aromatic variations that accent a dish and define the country of origin: fried garlic and cumin and coriander from Egypt, cinnamon and allspice from Turkey, sumac and tamarind from Syria and Lebanon, pomegranate syrup from Iran, preserved lemon and harissa from North Africa. Roden has worked out simpler approaches to traditional dishes, using healthier ingredients and time-saving methods without ever sacrificing any of the extraordinary flavor, freshness, and texture that distinguish the cooking of this part of the world. Throughout these pages Roden draws on all four of the region’s major cooking styles:
- The refined haute cuisine of Iran, based on rice exquisitely prepared and embellished with a range of meats, vegetables, fruits, and nuts
- Arab cooking from Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan—at its finest today, and a good source for vegetable and bulgur wheat dishes
- The legendary Turkish cuisine, with its kebabs, wheat and rice dishes, yogurt salads, savory pies, and syrupy pastries
- North African cooking, particularly the splendid fare of Morocco, with its heady mix of hot and sweet, orchestrated to perfection in its couscous dishes and tagines
From the tantalizing mezze—succulent bites of filled fillo crescents and cigars, chopped salads, and stuffed morsels, as well as tahini, chickpeas, and eggplant in their many guises—to the skewered meats and savory stews and hearty grain and vegetable dishes, here is a rich array of Middle Eastern cooking.
Ingredients:
Serves 4
