Arab Table: May Bsisu

By JULIETTE ROSSANT The cuisines of the Arab World stretches from Morocco to Iraq and Oman (see map). Syrians, Lebanese, and Iraqis (to name a few) often argue about whose is the greatest Arab cuisine, just as French, Italian and Spanish cooks argue about the greatest European cuisine, and follow suit in borrowing from one another, creating versions of the same dish, and rivaling each other for the best ingredients. It is best to take advantage of such rivalry and find a book like The Arab Table (Harper Collins 2005) that explores the riches of each tradition. Lucky for us, May Bsisu is a wanderer. She was born in Amman, Jordan, of a Palestinian father and Lebanese Jordanian mother. She lived in Beirut, Lebanon, during her schooling and then moved with her Palestinian husband to Kuwait, England, and eventually the US in Cincinnati, Ohio. May starts her book with a brief introduction to the food of each country. For Syria, she writes, "Aleppo, in the north bordering Turkey, is recognized in the Middle East as a temple of haute cuisine and is known throughout the Arab world for making the finest sweets." (p. 7) She has a guide to ingredients, including more unusual ingredients like freka, the marvelous roasted grains of green wheat used in Chicken Freka with Ground Beef (p. 184) and jameed the sour sheep's milk cheese essential for Lamb in Creamy Sheep's Milk Yogurt (p. 205). May has recipes for spice mixes from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Yemen (pp. 40-41) as well as a recipe for zaatar (p. 38), the spice blend used across the Arab World as a topping for bread and as an ingredient in many cold and hot dishes. The Saudi Spice mixture is used to make kabsa, Saudi Arabian Slow-Cooked Lamb (p. 213) flavored with saffron, cardamom, cinnamon and allspice. She also has a recipe for Grandmother Nazleh's Seven-Spice Mix (p. 73) for use in kibeh nayeh [sic], the steak tartare of Lebanon. Each recipe has a story attached about how other regions would make the dish or how she came across the best example. May also has in depth sections on the food of religious holidays like Eid Al Adha (the feast ending the hajj or pilgrimage) (pp. 90-1) and Ramadan (pp. 258-66). There is a whole section on kibeh, Middle Eastern ground meat patties, starting with an explanation on pages 224-225, then recipes like Kibeh in the Tray (p. 227) and Potato Kibeh (p. 232-3) followed by a section on kafta, a related meatball dish and its variations (pp. 233-241). Closing the book is a chapter on drinks and one on desserts featuring some of the splendid sweets from Aleppo and Beirut with intriguing names like Znood Al Sit or Ladies' Arms (p. 305) and the less poetic kunafa bi jibin or Shredded Pastry with Cheese (pp. 307-10) a marvelous confection of crisp shredded dough cooked in butter and stuffed with sweetened cheese. It is crisp and creamy, sweet and decadent. Anyone who has eaten it in a great pastry shop in Aleppo, Amman or Istanbul never forgets where they had their best kunafa: Appreciation for the traditional techniques and fine ingredients that go into a great Kunafa certainly add to my love for this dessert. And whenever I make it, I am reminded of my father, skillfully manipulating buttery shreds of phyllo in his fingers–attired as always, in a business suit and dress shoes. (p. 311) The only warning to the reader is to beware the transliterations of Arabic words, in case you know any of the dishes or ingredients form elsewhere. Like most recipe writers of Arab cuisine in English, May does not attempt to standardize her spellings: her "kibeh" would more likely be spelled kibbeh for starters, since in Arabic the word doubles its b's. However, this is a small shortcoming in return for a such trove of Middle East treats. Sample recipes: LisaEkus.com Book details: Publisher Amazon.com Barnes & Noble Previous articles: [Cookbook Reviews - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging, cookbooks --> back to superchefblog