By Linda Dangoor
Waterpoint Press, £16.99
Style: Simple home-style food with an Iraqi slant.
Premise:
Dangoor follows in the footsteps of Claudia Roden in documenting and preserving the recipes of her childhood, "out of a desire to teach my nephews and their generation how to cook the Iraqi dishes they loved so much". She describes the book, which has just been shortlisted for the Gourmand World Cookbook Award, as "a personal collection of my favourite family recipes handed down from one generation to the next". A smaller second section has recipes developed by Dangoor.
Sounds unusual:
Recipes, like slow-cooked brown eggs (beyth al t'beet) and aromatic almond milk pudding (muhllabi) made me want to rush off to my kitchen via the nearest Middle Eastern grocer. Dangoor's commentary on the basic ingredients and dishes make the book a good read and useful kitchen stand-by.
