HEART & SOUL
THIS IS A BOOK about Palestine – its food, its produce, its history, its future, its people and their voices. It is a book about the common themes that all these elements share, and how Palestine weaves narrative and cooking into the fabric of its identity. The two go hand-in-hand.
Recipes are like stories: events brought to life and shared in the making and telling. They are passed from one person to the next, and in that movement, some details change, others come to the fore, while others will be left by the wayside. And stories are like recipes: a series of individual experiences blended together to create a whole. Where stories and recipes intersect is the nexus, the point, of this book. Rather than telling ‘a’ story or ‘the’ story of Palestine, then, we’re telling lots of stories.
Falastin is a new kind of Palestinian cookbook: a collection of over 110 recipes we hope you’ll cook, eat, love and make your own. It’s the culmination of Sami’s lifetime obsession with Middle Eastern food and cooking – born and raised in East Jerusalem, relocated to London, and a founding member of the Ottolenghi brand. It’s also about Tara’s decade-long obsession with Middle Eastern food and home cooking – raised in London and adopted into the Ottolenghi family.
This is an edited extract from Falastin by Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley (Ebury, $49.99).
PULLED LAMB SHAWARMA SANDWICH
SERVES 8
Begin this recipe 1 day ahead.
3 onions, 1 roughly chopped and the other 2 quartered into wedges
2 garlic bulbs, 1 cut in half horizontally, and 8 cloves from the second bulb roughly chopped
21/2 cm (25g) piece of ginger, peeled, roughly chopped
21/2 tbs flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
11/2 tbs each ground cumin and ground coriander
2 tsp each smoked paprika, ground turmeric and ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 cup (60ml) apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
2-2.5kg lamb shoulder, bone in
700ml good-quality chicken stock
Juice of1/2 lemon, to serve
SUMAC YOGHURT
200g Greek-style yoghurt 1/4 cup (60g) tahini
11/2 tbs lemon juice
2 tsp sumac
TO SERVE (ANY OR ALL OF THE FOLLOWING)
2 roma tomatoes,1 red onion, thinly sliced Parsley leaves, picked, to serve Mint leaves, picked, to serve8 store-bought pita breads
