|
From the Middle East, the
Mediterranean , North Africa and India comes
an array of brightly flavored marinated salads
and appetizers, spicy, sensuous stews, light
fish dishes, savory flatbread's chicken dishes
seasoned with lemon, garlic and herbs and rich
but simple cookies and pastries.
Pamela Grau Twena's
introduction to Sephardic culture began on a
blind date. Her future husband came from a
family of Iraqi Jews who had immigrated to
Israel. She was a non-observant Jew from
Hollywood whose encounters with Jewish food
had been limited to her grandmother's matzoh
ball soup, a semiannual brisket, and an
occasional cheese blintz. Twena's
mother-in-law ushered her into a world of
flavorful dishes. Captivated, she coaxed out
the recipes, which had been passed through
generations but never written down. Beginning
with her husband's extended family, she went
on to interview members of the Sephardic
community (the term for Jews with ancient
roots in Spain), persuading them to open their
kitchens to her and divulge their coveted
recipes. The result is a collection of 175 of
Twena's favorite recipes from Morocco, Libya,
Algeria, and Tunisia in North Africa; from the
Ottoman communities of Turkey, Rhodes, and
Greece; from Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, and
Iran in the Middle East. |
