What is a sirocco?
If the striking cover of Sabrina Ghayour’s new book Sirocco doesn’t lure you in, and have you dreaming of fragrant spice markets and exotic locales, the first line ought to. It begins with a definition of sirocco: “a hot dry wind blowing from east to west, sometimes described as warm, spicy and sultry.”
Technically, a sirocco blows from the south, carrying hot and humid air from northern Africa across the Mediterranean Sea, but don’t let that stop you getting swept away.
Sabrina Ghayour is a celebrated cook and food writer, born in Iran but raised in England. Her first cookbook, the award-winning Persiana, was a more traditional take on Persian and Middle Eastern cookery. In that book, she sought to demystify Middle Eastern cuisine, with recipes that were authentic yet accessible for the home cook.
In Sirocco, she takes the natural next step: bringing Middle Eastern flavours and concepts into Western-style dishes, adding a little bit of colour to your cooking repertoire.
Don’t be put off by ‘fusion’ cooking
Clumsy, forced attempts at blending two cuisines have given fusion cooking a bad name, but not all fusion is bad. Eastern and Western cooking traditions have been blurred and mingled and borrowed for millenniums.
Ask any migrant community and they’ll tell you how they add little touches of home to the Western dishes that they make. It’s simply a matter of cooking with the ingredients you’ve got in your pantry, the organic product of living in two worlds. From that deep familiarity with the ingredients you’ve grown up with, comes an easy creativity.
“My heritage has given me great insight into understanding the favourite ingredients and flavours of Eastern cuisine, which gives me confidence using Eastern ingredients,” says Sabrina. She looks at classic British dishes − fish and chips, scones or a martini, for example − and can’t help but think they could be improved with a little pomegranate molasses, or perhaps a piece of preserved lemon, a spoonful of harissa, or a sprinkling of saffron, sumac or za’atar.
As a cook straddling two cultures, she has the benefit of cherry picking the best of both worlds: “the recipes are all inspired by flavours of the East but use the fresh produce, techniques and cookery styles of the West.”
And so meatballs become lamb, apricot and fennel seed lollipops, just as simple, but with spices and dried fruit you may not think to add, and drizzled not in gravy but a yoghurt and tamarind sauce.
A simple seared steak is rubbed with rose harissa, and cooked without fuss, just as you normally would.
The English-by-name crème Anglaise is flavoured with lime and basil, and topped with a persimmon and black pepper compote.
She calls this style of cooking “unique but familiar”. Our favourite food experiences are usually either comforting or exciting, and her recipes are a delicious combination of both, at once.
If you love Ottolenghi’s recipes, but are sometimes daunted by the ingredients or method, this is the book for you.
Like Yotam Ottolenghi’s food, Sabrina’s recipes are vibrant and fresh, they look great and they’re made for sharing, yet hers are more straightforward.
Divided into breakfasts, bites and snacks, salads and sides, mains, and desserts, these are dishes you can cook on a weeknight. Her methods are simple and her ingredient lists are short, requiring only a handful of new pantry staples.
“I realised that many people feel the pressure to follow recipes down to the letter, but Middle Eastern recipes aren’t rigid that way,” she writes.
“If you are missing an ingredient, don’t stress – just leave it out.” In home cooking, it’s about making do with what you have.
There’s only one thing this book is lacking, according to its author: splashes of oil, food stains and dog-eared corners. She wants you to take the recipes and make them your own. Make them so many times that you no longer even need to look at the book.
Cook the book
Source: Hachette Australia
Source: Hachette Australia
Source: Hachette Australia
