PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Julie Ann Sageer is the host of the Emmy-nominated Cooking with Julie Taboulie and the upcoming Julie Taboulie's Lebanese Kitchen, airing on PBS stations nationwide. Born in Central New York and raised in the Finger Lakes, her warm, welcoming way in the kitchen lends a vibrant quality to the flavourful food she shares. Leah Bhabha graduated from Cornell and moved to San Francisco where she worked at Boulettes Larder. Following a year at Food & Wine, she began her own website, One Hungry Pickle.
Julie Taboulie's passion for Lebanon and its rich cuisine is evident in her new cookbook. Her enthusiasm and attention to detail reaches the reader on every page -- you can almost smell the delicious food! -Barbara Abdeni Massaad, author of Man'oushe: Inside the Street Corner Lebanese Bakery Julie Taboulie's wonderful cookbook makes it easy to create vibrant, mouthwatering, made-from-scratch Lebanese dishes at home, without cutting any corners. Her recipes open up a whole new repertoire of Lebanese classics, even for those of us who grew up eating the cuisine at home. A must for anyone who loves Middle Eastern food, and for any 21st-century kitchen. -Salma Abdelnour, author of Jasmine and Fire: A Bittersweet Year in Beirut I have been waiting for a while for Julie's cookbook ... and the wait was so worthwhile! This book brings into your home the luscious and exotic richness of Lebanese cuisine, along with its tips and tricks, in such an accessible and entertaining way. The photos, the stories and the recipes are all a gift to savor. -Pati Jinich, chef, author, and host of Pati's Mexican Table on PBS Sageer so loved her mother's lemony tabbouleh salad as a child in upstate New York that she earned the nickname Julie Taboulie, a moniker she uses on her PBS cooking shows. She evokes that memory and many others in this collection of recipes for Lebanese foods, from familiar hummus (presented with a handful of variations) to surprises such as panfried patties made with chickpeas, potatoes, and bulgur; a yogurt soup with lamb dumplings; and pickled baby eggplant stuffed with peppers. Sageer's outlook is encouraging, but occasionally she falters on logistics. A narrow-diameter dowel-style rolling pin is recommended or required or both, but she never explains why. There are two almost identical recipes for chicken shawarma, one with spices listed and another with a spice mix cross-referenced. But despite these missteps, there are enough fresh ideas to make the volume worthwhile. A clever technique extracts every drop of flavor from onions that are caramelized until they are almost black for lentil and rice mujadrah. Lamb pastries from the town of Ba'albek combine lamb, pine nuts, and pomegranate molasses. A glossary covers ingredients and equipment and then suggests retail sources, including the author's own website. --Publisher's Weekly
