The Jewelled Kitchen

I really need to stop drooling as I review cookbooks. It doesn't seem healthy even though the recipes in this book seem both delicious and incredibly healthy!

In comparison of other similar recipe books. The Jewelled Kitchen for me has both similar and different recipes which I really appreciate. It's a well-designed book with lovely photos (I would have preferred photos of the countries as well) and the recipes are simple to follow. I was also excited to see tagine recipes which will be the first recipe to try for me!

I love cooking eastern mediterranean food and this book has given me some new recipes that I can't wait to try. The photography is 1st class and inspiring, I particularly like the jewelled rice dish with the crusty bottom.

Jewelled Kitchen: A Stunning Collection of Lebanese, Moroccan, and Persian Recipes by Bethany Kehdy contains a nice collection of Lebanese, Moroccan and Persian recipes. I love how Kehdy included basic recipes and methods to help prepare the recipes found in her cookbook; information how to stock your pantry and where to buy supplies through suppliers listed in her cookbook.

Throughout the cookbook are beautiful color photos illustrating recipes.

Some of the recipes you'll find include: Blackened Sea Bream; Slow Cooked Broad Bean & Tomato Stew; Shipwrecked Potato Boats, Corn On the Kobab with Pistachio-Saffron Butter; Jewelled Rice; Carrot Salad with Cumin & Preserved Lemon; Lamb & Herb Stew; Slumbering Chamomile Chicken; Preserved Lemons; Paneer Cheese; Thin Flatbread; Lebanese Clotted Cream with Dulche de Leche & Caramelized Bananas; Pomegranate & Rose Quark Summer Cake; Tahini & Chocolate Brioche.

Recommend.

Review written after downloading a galley from NetGalley.

This is really lovely from start to finish. So many yummy sounding recipes, that I want to try them all. I also enjoyed the pantry section at the end as a way of 'spicing' up the pantry.

I loved the combination of traditional and modern. What pictures there are to accompany the recipes were gorgeous, and from the few recipes I tried the flavours divine. It was a new type of cooking for me, and there was plenty to suit every type of eater.

Easy to understand, great photos and delicious recipes....this is the one you need to buy and keep in the kitchen at all times

A lovely book that brought back memories of a Lebanese friend, when were both working in Wales in the 1980s. He would phone his mother and his first question was to ask her what she was cooking for dinner, he missed the food and her cooking so much, particularly dolmas. He would tell me all about the food and now, here they all are!
Nicely laid out with chapters according to food type. Some of the ingredients sound so very exotic, yet I am familiar with some but mostly because of food programmes on the television.
I'm pleased to see a lovely recipe for tabhouli with masses of parsley and just a small amount of bulgur wheat.
There' is a very useful Pantry section with a very good description of all the ingredients. The author has gone to much trouble to make these recipes as easy as possible for Western cooks to follow, as she explains, she never was taught precise measurements, that cooking for her is more of a sensory experience.
I loved reading her bio, what an interesting life she has so far lived.
In fact the only thing I didn't like was the font used for the headers

This is an aptly named jewel of a recipe book: over 200 pages of recipes for some of the best dishes from the Middle East and North Africa. At the same time as I look at this recipe book, I am reading “The Poisoned Well” about the history of the same geographical area since WWI. Politically much of it is (and has been for many years) a mess, but the one thing that they do incredibly well is the food – as this book attests.
So far I have made about 14 of the recipes, have many more meals from the book planned, and have not met a recipe yet that I didn’t like very much indeed. The salads are all excellent. They use generally common ingredients, but often in new (to me) and interesting combinations. And there are so many exciting things to do with simple lamb mince! I haven’t even started on the fish recipes yet – they all look wonderful too. The names of the dishes are an invitation to cook and set your mouth watering: “Dynamite Chilli Cigars”, “Sumac Scented Chicken Parcels”, “Shaved Beetroot, Radish and Grapefruit Salad”, “Aubergine-wrapped Fingers” – and my favourite title – “Oxtail with Oozing Okra”.
The recipes are all very easy to follow, with extensive instructions, timings, and suggestions for substitutions for difficult to source ingredients. The recipes are not generally expensive to make, and often no more than two are needed for a perfectly balanced meal - though it is easy to get carried away.
Each recipe has the quantities in both metric and imperial measures, which means that everyone can readily use the recipes without having to continually consult a conversion table.
The two frequently used ingredients in these recipes that are not common in Western cooking are Sumac and Pomegranate (molasses and seeds). Sumac is used in tablespoon quantities. I was a bit loathe to use so much at first, but eventually realised that the quantities are correct and that it does not overwhelm – rather complements the dishes. I have generally avoided whole pomegranates as I had in the past found them so messy, and once I had managed to finally extract the seeds I had given up the will to live – or at least to use them in a recipe. This book gives clear instructions on how to quickly, simply and without mess deseed the fruit – a revelation to me, and worth the price of the book, even without the amazing recipes. I am now a confident pomegranate deseeder, and using the seeds all over the place. No spoilers here – buy the book and see.
Not all the recipes are accompanied by pictures, but most are. Also not all are traditional recipes – some have the author’s take on a traditional meal. But they are no less impressive for that.
The book will provide anyone with a range of ideas for simple light meals, banquets and buffets, meat, fish and vegetarian dishes – basically any type of meal you could want. An amazing addition to anyone’s cookbook collection.

A beautiful and mouthwatering book for anyone interested in or with a taste for North African and Lebanese cookery. Kehedy has set this book out in the normal fashion of starters, chicken, meat, seafood, vegetarian and sweets interspersed with amazing photography of many of the finished dishes taken in authentic table settings. The photos alone make you want to get straight into the kitchen and plan a meal. I have quite a few books about North African cooking as I love the food and I would highly recommend this one as it is written by someone who has grown up with the cuisine, learning first hand from her family in the kitchen. Although there are ingredients and spice mixtures which are not always easy to find in the western supermarket, I liked how there are instructions for producing these and alternatives are also given such as the use of cranberries in place of barberries. There is also a glossary of terms at the back which is a useful addition.
I particularly liked the vegetarian recipes which look amazing and sound so tasty.
Now, all I need to do is decide which recipe to make first!

A very well-laid out book filled with the author's observations and experiences in Lebanese, Persian, and Moroccan cuisine. Beautiful photographs, especially in the salad section, encourage you to try your hand at these well-explained recipes. Definitely a jewel for your cookbook shelf.

There are a lot of Middle eastern cooking book out at present, this one is up there with the best of them. The recipes are easy to follow and very well explained, including a little about the actual dish. The photographs are amazing, and the book is beautifully presented. At the end of the book, there is a short explanation of the more exotic ingredients, which is very useful. I will certainly be making some of these fabulous authentic dishes.
I was amazed at the authors short bio at the start of the book, what a full gambit of experiences, it is easy to see why this is such a great book that show her love and understanding of the meaning of food.

Absolutely STUNNING cookbook. The pictures are beautiful & the recipes very well thought out & explained.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A former Miss Lebanon and Texas born, Kehdy's blog, Dirty Kitchen Secrets, has long been a favourite of mine because of its spirited reinterpretation of what people in North Africa and the Middle East eat. There's new versions of classic dishes such as freekeh, pilafs and sweet milky puddings all designed to take into account our modern busy lives. It's not a new book, rather it is a re-launch, but in the light of the recent popularisation of these cuisines by people such as Ottolenghi and the husband and wife team at Honey & Co, it is a timely reminder that Kehdy got there earlier.