Middle East

Palestine on a Plate, by Joudie Kalla

Palestine on a Plate, by Joudie Kalla

There are a lot of broadly Middle Eastern cookery books around at the moment. In the last few months, I’ve cooked from Ottolenghi’s peerless Jerusalem, and Levant by Anissa Helou, and now Joudie Kalla’s excellent Palestine on a Plate. All of these books share a common sense of identity, of place, and of history. The [...]

Books

Chicken sofrito

Chicken sofrito post image

A lot of the food I cook at the moment is about convenience. Not ‘convenience’ in the sense of ‘piercing the film on some ready meal and throwing it into a microwave’, but convenience in terms of getting the best results with the least effort. That doesn’t mean that my food is becoming ‘bad’ – there’s a [...]

Food & drink

Lamb shawarma, or Mother’s Day lunch

A Middle Eastern street food classic, a lamb shawarma – spicy, subtle and wonderfully rich meat, served in pitta bread.A Middle Eastern street food classic, a lamb shawarma – spicy, subtle and wonderfully rich meat, served in pitta bread.

It’s Mother’s Day today. It’s a bittersweet experience, the pleasure of seeing our kids with their homemade cards and bunches of daffodils tinged with the regret of not being able to give my own mum the same things, not being able to hug her and tell her I love her any more. It gets easier [...]

Food & drink