Zaitoun: Recipes from the Palestinian Kitchen

by Yasmin Khan

Overview

A New Yorker, Guardian, BookRiot, Kitchn, KCRW, and Literary Hub Best Cookbook of the Year

A dazzling celebration of Palestinian cuisine, featuring more than 80 modern recipes, captivating stories and stunning travel photography.

Yasmin Khan unlocks the flavors and fragrances of modern Palestine, from the sun-kissed pomegranate stalls of Akka, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, through evergreen oases of date plantations in the Jordan Valley, to the fading fish markets of Gaza City.

Palestinian food is winningly fresh and bright, centered around colorful mezze dishes that feature the region’s bountiful eggplants, peppers, artichokes, and green beans; slow-cooked stews of chicken and lamb flavored with Palestinian barahat spice blends; and the marriage of local olive oil with earthy za’atar, served in small bowls to accompany toasted breads. It has evolved over several millennia through the influences of Arabic, Jewish, Armenian, Persian, Turkish, and Bedouin cultures and civilizations that have ruled over, or lived in, the area known as ancient Palestine.

In each place she visits, Khan enters the kitchens of Palestinians of all ages and backgrounds, discovering the secrets of their cuisine and sharing heartlifting stories.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324002635
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/05/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	238 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Yasmin Khan is food and travel writer, broadcaster, and human rights campaigner based in London. She is the author of two cookbooks, The Saffron Tales and Zaitoun.

Editorial Reviews

02/01/2019

For many, Palestinian cuisine remains a mystery. How does it compare to other Levantine traditions? What is authentic considering the region's unique political situation? Khan (The Saffron Tales) offers a practical look at several food scenes in the Occupied Territories, including Jerusalem, Haifa, and Bethlehem. A former aid worker, the author visited the area several times while writing this book. The focus here is on home cooking, but Khan also takes inspiration from restaurants and specialty shops. Interspersed among the recipes are thoughtful profiles of various cities, which give a glimpse of life in Palestine, including how people shop, cook, and eat. While Khan is honest about the difficulties, this is an optimistic book that celebrates the culture. Recipes emphasize local ingredients and include freekah with butternut squash and kale; Gazan beef, chickpeas and Swiss chard; and semolina and rosewater slice. There are also versions of well-known dishes, such as hummus, baklava, and chicken schawarma. VERDICT Closer to Joudie Kalla's recent Palestine on a Plate, but with a more modern approach, providing a more accessible take than Yotam Ottolenghi's Jerusalem, this is an excellent choice for home cooks interested in the region.—Devon Thomas, Chelsea, MI

Library Journal

Zaitoun: Recipes From the Palestinian Kitchen is valuable not just for the dishes Khan learned from local women and translated from restaurant meals…but for the heartfelt portrait she so deftly paints of this shattered but resilient region.

The New York Times Book Review - Christine Muhlke

★ 11/19/2018
Food writer Khan (The Saffron Tales) celebrates the vibrant flavors of Palestinian cuisine in this excellent new work. She provides a marvelous array of mazzeh (Palestinian mezze), including different varieties of hummus and falafel, as well as asparagus with eggs and za’atar, and spinach and feta parcels. Salads, a staple in the Palestinian diet, are unfussy, with such offerings as fattoush and tabbouleh. Soups—including a roast pumpkin, sage, and maftool soup and a lentil soup with walnut and cilantro paste—are tantalizing, rich, and comforting. Main course dishes include roasted eggplant with spiced chickpeas and tomatoes; a spicy shrimp and tomato stew; and lemon, cumin, and green chili sea bass. Desserts are also superb; there’s a pomegranate passion cake and banana and tahini ice cream with date syrup. Khan also provides a helpful list of pantry staples to keep on hand (dried fruit, nuts, yogurt, za’atar). Throughout, she includes photos of Palestinian people and landscapes, giving the reader a deeper and welcome glimpse into life there. (Palestinians, for instance, are urged not to buy herbs grown in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, as it “gives the settlements a sense of viability and permanence.”) Khan’s cookbook is a thoroughly enjoyable exploration of the region’s food and culture. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Yasmin Khan is a human rights campaigner and storyteller as well as a recipe writer, and the three strands of her work are illuminatingly woven into this, her new book, Zaitoun, an important collection of recipes and stories from the Palestinian kitchen. This is a politically engaged and hungry travelogue, and it is also an inspirational recipe book, and one that anyone who loves food will want to cook from, will need to cook from."

Nigella Lawson

"This is the best kind of cookbook, one which tells you about people through the stories of their food. Compelling reading, gorgeous pictures—and the most delicious recipes. I can’t wait to start cooking."

Ruth Reichl

"A zingingly evocative collection of personal stories…Calling it a cookbook does it a disservice. Zaitoun deserves to be read as much as cooked from."

Guardian (UK) - Tim Lewis

"A big bowlful of delicious Palestinian recipes, plus lots of insightful and moving stories."

Yotam Ottolenghi

"Part cookbook and part travel journal, this work is full of recipes, photos, and stories from Palestine. It is bright in flavour and colour and will teach you about this incredible nation through dishes like slow-cooked stews of chicken and lamb flavored with Palestinian barahat spice blends"

BookRiot

"As a Palestinian who grew up in Jerusalem, I have been conditioned to be wary of any non-Palestinian trying to share our story and our culture with the world…Very quickly I found myself in tears at just how beautifully and accurately she has captured the essence of our Palestinian culture. Yasmin Khan you have done Palestinians and our story justice, your understanding of the nuances of our culture and history is unparalleled."

Reem Kassis

"Yasmin Khan draws on her vast experience as a storyteller, cook, human rights activist, itinerant traveler and writer to create a moving, empathetic, hugely knowledgeable and utterly delicious book."

Anthony Bourdain