A New Celebration of Palestinian Cuisine
‘Falastin,’ a new cookbook, captures the depth of a recipe — such as the preserved stuffed eggplants excerpted here
Books from the Yotam Ottlolenghi empire of six restaurants in London have long given vegans a lot of inspiration, even if they’re mainly vegetarian affairs. The latest, Falastin: A Cookbook, was written by Sami Tamimi, the executive chef and founding partner of the Ottolenghi restaurant group, and Tara Wigley, a long-time Ottolenghi recipe writer, developer, and coauthor). In the foreword, Ottolenghi writes that the new book picks up where Jerusalem, co-written by he and Tamimi, left off.
Ottolenghi is Israeli; Tamimi Palestinian, and it is in Falastin that Palestinian cooking and ingredients are the focus, their cultural connotations and significance described amid lush, transportive photography by Jenny Zarins. This is not even a vegetarian cookbook, as it includes meat and fish recipes, but the vegetables that are here are given such exciting treatment that it’s a worthwhile addition to one’s shelves.
