Moorish
Vibrant recipes from the Mediterranean
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- $24.99
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
'I've been submerged in the cuisines and food culture of Spain and Italy for well over a decade and explored the many regions of these magnificent countries with their markedly different styles and nuances. Throughout the years I've become more and more intrigued by the regions where the Moorish influence has left a pronounced mark and combined seamlessly with the local flavours and ingredients to produce an exotic, full flavoured and vibrant cuisine.'
Within these pages, Ben Tish explores this further with over 100 mouth-watering recipes guaranteed to delight anyone who eats at your table. Spices, fruits and incredible flavours that the Moors introduced, such as cumin, cardamom, saffron, coriander, ginger, apricots, watermelons and pomegranates were absorbed into the cultures of Spain, Sicily and Portugal, creating big flavoured dishes with a sun-soaked, exotic taste of North Africa and the Arabic world combined with local heritage, all of which can be found in this book.
With chapters such as breakfast, brunch and bread, grilling and smoking, fresh, and sweet and sour, Ben offers his own interpretations of these classic recipes, including shakshuka, red prawn crudo, spiced venison and quince pinchos, wood-baked Moorish chicken pine nut and raisin pie, slow cooked fish and shellfish stew with saffron and star anise and octopus and smoked paprika with black beans and rice.
This food to share and enjoy, bringing a little extra flavour to your kitchen.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
London chef Tish uses Moorish influence as a launchpad for this exuberant, if culturally freewheeling, debut. The Moors Muslims who colonized areas of Spain and Italy for centuries firmly stamped their mark on southern European cuisine, and here Tish presents solid if sometimes curious takes on Moorish cooking. A chapter titled "Fresh" includes a watermelon salad with blue cheese, toasted walnuts, and Moscatel vinegar as well as a fried squid that's coated with chickpea batter and served with orange aoili, and includes sardines al saor a Venetian Jewish dish because "it is such a lovely plate of food that I can't bring myself to exclude it." No matter the food is inventive, often brilliantly so: fish cured in bergamot juice is topped with spicy Calabrian sausage, and venison skewers are coated with quince glaze. He pairs rice and black beans (known in Spain as Christians and Moors) with tender simmered octopus, and a puff pastry chicken pie a signature dish at Tish's Alhambra Palace restaurant is cooked on a charcoal grill. Desserts are standouts: cassata is colored forest green with Iranian pistachios, and cookies are made with lard (to weed out hidden Jews and Muslims during the Spanish Inquisition) and toasted flour. Home cooks will delight in Tish's alluring, Moorish-inspired recipes.