King Solomon's Table
A Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World: A Cookbook
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A definitive compendium of Jewish recipes from around the globe and across the ages, from the James Beard Award-winning, much-loved cookbook author and “the queen of American Jewish cooking” (Houston Chronicle)
Driven by a passion for discovery, the biblical King Solomon is said to have sent emissaries on land and sea to all corners of the ancient world, initiating a mass cross-pollination of culinary cultures that continues to bear fruit today. With Solomon’s appetites and explorations in mind, in these pages Joan Nathan gathers together more than 170 recipes, from Israel to Italy to India and beyond.
Here are classics like Yemenite Chicken Soup with Dill, Cilantro, and Parsley; Slow-Cooked Brisket with Red Wine, Vinegar, and Mustard; and Apple Kuchen as well as contemporary riffs on traditional dishes such as Smoky Shakshuka with Tomatoes, Peppers, and Eggplant; Double-Lemon Roast Chicken; and Roman Ricotta Cheese Crostata. Here, too, are an array of dishes from the world over, from Socca (Chickpea Pancakes with Fennel, Onion, and Rosemary) and Sri Lankan Breakfast Buns with Onion Confit to Spanakit (Georgian Spinach Salad with Walnuts and Cilantro) and Keftes Garaz (Syrian Meatballs with Cherries and Tamarind).
Gorgeously illustrated and filled with fascinating historical details, personal histories, and delectable recipes, King Solomon’s Table showcases the dazzling diversity of a culinary tradition more than three thousand years old.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this, one of her best books to date, Nathan, a James Beard Award winning author and authority on Jewish food, explores the origins and evolution of Jewish cuisine around the world. Nathan's comprehensive yet condensed history begins with King Solomon, who ruled a kingdom rich with diverse foods and cultures; follows traders and merchants as they traveled and settled along the Spice Routes; and explains how Sephardic cooking morphed into the more well-known Jewish food traditions of Eastern and Central Europe. The 170 recipes explain the cross-cultural embrace required of Jews as they moved around the globe, and include Syrian-Mexican chicken that incorporates both apricots and chipotle peppers and El Salvadoran latkes made with yucca and served with cilantro cream. Each recipe is prefaced with an engaging origin story that further helps explain the complex Jewish food story. Eastern Europe meets South America in a Brazilian-Belarusian fish recipe acquired by Nathan while in Recife, Brazil, for a wedding; T'beet is a medieval Iraqi Sabbath chicken dish cooked with spices, coconut, and rose petals; and shakshuka, which hales from Ottoman North Africa, is said to be what women made in the short time they had between when their lover left and their husband arrived home for a meal. This is a cookbook to be read and savored for its stories as much as its recipes. Nathan, with her passionate and unceasing search for Jewish cooking traditions, has made an important contribution to Jewish history and culture.
