Olive Trees and Honey : A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World

Rating:
Summary: You Don't Have to be a Vegetarian
Review: I was introduced to this wonderful book as a resource for an article that I'm writing about Sepharidic dishes for "Jewish Woman" Magazine. What a treasure trove! Not just of vegetarian Jewish recipes, but of the lore behind them. Marks talks about the history of cooking among Jews from Italy to Uzbekistan, and explains the "why" and "how" of typical ingredients from anise to yogurt. This is one of those rich, evocative cookbooks that you'll want to read in bed, like a good novel.

Rating:
Summary: An absolutely fabulous cookbook
Review: One day in a Border's I saw a book that looked like it was titled "The Shepards Cookbook". I bought it since it looked interesting, and it wasn't until I got home later that I realized it was a Sephardic cookbook, and not a shepards cookbook. I had never given Jewish cusisine much thought since it was so terrible. That book opened my eyes, and I've come to realize that it is only the mainstream Jewish food that is common in American that is terrible. Jews in the rest of the world eat quite well.

I have purchased quite a few Jewish cookbooks since then, and Olive Trees and Honey is my latest. It doesn't have any pictures of food, which I always take a sign of a good cookbook. Instead it has maps of the progress of food across the world. On one page I learned about the progress of stuffed cabbage from Persia and how its name changed as it moved from land to land. The recipes give a nation or region of origin, and most have variations, and all have the local names given. The recipe for "Greek Marinated Fried Eggplant" for instance has varations for "Georgian Fried Eggplant in Walnut Sauce", "Indian Fried Eggplant", "Moroccan Fried Eggplant and Pepper Sauce", "Persian Fried Eggplant in Yogurt", and "Sephardic Fried Eggplant".

One thing I like is that there seem to be a lot of recipes for pumpkin. Pumpkin is wonderful, as long as it isn't pureed and made into a stupid little pie. A CURSE ON PEOPLE WHO MAKE PUMPKIN PIES! There is also a good section on soups, and an interesting map that goes along with them explaining which parts of the Middle East and Europe are dominated by which color of lentili soup. It is simple, really, Europeans eat green lentils and Middle-Easterners eat red lentils.

The section on rice is the only one that I am dissappointed with. Not as lengthy as I would have liked, and a nice Spanish vegetarian paella would have been a welcome addition.

Overall, I'm completely satisfied with my new cookbook. It is well worth the price.