Samarkand: Recipes and Stories From Central Asia and the Caucasus
£4.70
Winner of the Guild of Food Writers Food and Travel Award 2017
‘This is a book to delight food lovers, travel hounds and history buffs alike.’ The Telegraph
‘As an armchair traveler, I was led by Caroline Eden’s firsthand account of journeys to the Uzbek city of Samarkand and other exotic destinations, then lured into the kitchen by Eleanor Ford’s fine recipes’ New York Times
‘A particularly expansive and ambitious example of the genre. Imagine a Lonely Planet guide to Uzbekistan and beyond, with a hundred recipes.’ LA Times
‘I am LOVING it! So interesting to see so many familiar but also lesser known recipes! Beautiful pictures too! Love the styling! Love it!’ Sabrina Ghayour
Over hundreds of years, various ethnic groups have passed through Samarkand, sharing and influencing each other’s cuisine and leaving their culinary stamp. This book is a love letter to Central Asia and the Caucasus, containing personal travel essays and recipes little known in the West that have been expertly adapted for the home cook. An array of delicious dishes will introduce the region and its different ethnic groups – Uzbek, Tajik, Russian, Turkish, Korean, Caucasian and Jewish – along with a detailed introduction on the Silk Road and a useful store cupboard of essential ingredients. Chapters are divided into Shared Table, Soups, Roast Meats & Kebabs, Warming Dishes, Pilavs & Plovs, Accompaniments, Breads & Doughs, Drinks and Desserts. 100 recipes are showcased, including Apricot & Red Lentil Soup, Chapli Kebabs with Tomato Relish, Rosh Hashanah Palov with Barberries, Pomegranate and Quince, Curd Pancakes with Red Berry Compote and the all-important breads of the region. And with evocative travel features like On the Road to Samarkand, A Banquet on the Caspian Sea and Shopping for Spices under Solomon’s Throne, you will be charmed and enticed by this region and its cuisine, which has remained relatively untouched in centuries.
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by Auntie Deadly
Bought this as a Christmas gift and apparently it’s fantastic. I only give it four stars because I haven’t tried it out myself, but the recipient, who loves to cook and tries out many different world cuisines, rates it highly.
by Amazon Customer
These dishes are extraordinary conjuring up unfamiliar tastes and combinations of tastes. There are enough options without meat to keep vegetarians satisfied. A wonderful journey through an unfamiliar part of the world.
by D.Colman
Beautifully produced book that celebrates the food of this fascinating region but also gives anecdotal & historical titbits about each region and its traditions. Use of images of the famous local textiles as backdrops to many pages add to the Central Asian flavour.
by Rosemary Standeven
This is a lovely cookbook, looking at the various cooking traditions along the old Silk Road. Samarkand – and indeed the whole Silk Road – have long been on my bucket list. I know now, I am never likely to get there, but trying the recipes is a very nice consolation prize.
The author introduces the book:
“I was on such a journey that I decided to write this book. The idea was to bring together the cuisines of seven ethnic groups who had left their mark on Samarkand over the centuries – the Tajiks, Russians, Turks, Jews, Koreans, Caucasians and the Uzbeks themselves. … And at the heart of it all was Samarkand, which has sat at the crossroads of food culture for centuries. As a mere city its location is narrow but its scope is extraordinarily wide.”
So far, I have made thirteen of the recipes – all were good, and most I would make again. Some – such as the ‘Melting Potatoes with Dill’ – were simple and exquisite.
Because of my being in a wheelchair, I cannot do the actual cooking on a stove or in an oven. I do all the preparation, and then direct my husband to do the cooking and serving. Unfortunately, he is unable to eat any solids – so does most of the work, and usually only gets a sniff of the finished meal as a reward. One exception, was the ‘Chicken, Potato and Prune Hotpot’, where he was able to strain the juices for a clear, but very tasty soup. So, that night we both had an excellent meal. Also, because of our abnormal domestic set up, we tend to cook a meal to last two days. A number of recipes were even better the next day, such as the ‘Spring Lamb and new Potato Dimlama’, as the flavours had time to meld. This was also true of the ‘Buckwheat Kasha with Caramelised Mushrooms’, which was an outstanding type of comfort food – definitely to be repeated.
Other recipes I would highly recommend are: ‘Chapli Kebabs’ (Afghan mincemeat patties); ‘Mountain Jew Omelette’ (an excellent mix of egg and chicken); ‘Azerbaijani Lamb with Chestnuts’ and the ‘Samarkand Plov’ (rice dish with carrots, spinach and steak). For side dishes, there were ‘Roasted Cauliflower with Pistachio and Tarragon’; ‘Glazed Beetroot and Leaves’ (I substituted spinach for the beetroot leaves); ‘Tomatoes, Dill and Purple Basil’ (done several times with tomatoes from our garden, but with green basil) and ‘Pumpkin with Uighur Seven Spice’. The latter gave a very nice spice mix to add to the pantry, and is also a very good reason to buy this book. Anything that preserves even a tiny bit of Uighur culture in the face of Chinese government genocide has to be applauded.
There were a few new ingredients for me – most notably pomegranate juice (have used the seeds and molasses a lot, but not previously cooked with the juice). And there is much more dill used that I have been used to in the past. A lot of the recipes are not a radical change to my normal fare, but have introduced some lovely new combinations of ingredients and flavours. I still have many more recipes to try. ‘Sesame, Almond and Ginger Brittle’ and ‘Candied Quince with Chopped Nuts’ are on my to-do list, but may need to wait for a special occasion.
The recipes are generally very easy to follow, with lots of lovely photographs of the finished products. Most can be adapted to ingredients you can easily get, or have in your store cupboard. The only problem we found, was that the timings given were often too short to cook everything properly. That might be our style of cooking – but just to warn you. I’ve made lots of notes on the recipes, so next time (and there will be next times), I will know what to expect.
I definitely recommend this cookbook – for the recipes as they stand, or just for the ideas. Enjoy!
by Amazon Customer
No exaggeration, this book is SO beautifully written that it makes you want to start planning an epic adventure to this magical and UN discovered part of the world immediately! The food of this region just makes you wonder, in part amazement and part intrigue, at how it is possible that these stunning dishes are not widely known outside of Central Asia. Being of Asian origin, I immediately warmed to the flavours and subtlety of spices used in many of the recipes. There’s an unexplainable, yet reassuring sense of comfort you get from turning each page and seeing a dish that hails back from a time when women / parents and Grandma’s cooked hearty and love injected meals for their families… Recipes spanning generations, using seasonal produce. There’s a beautiful history to almost every recipe and you won’t get bored by the mystical imagery they conjure. For me, it’s the excitement of the ‘new’, but the comfort of the ‘familiar’ that draws me to this beautiful book. The travel writing is simply stunning and I can easily use this book in the kitchen (I’ve made several dishes already – the lamb cooked with chestnuts is simply soul warming, yet exquisitely complex in flavour with the use of fennel seeds), as well as take it up for a night time read.
by Tania
Great book with exciting recipes made with products easy to find in local groceries, especially for UK based cooks. Those who grew up in soviets (as I was) will find it a revelation to learn that there are more than one variety of plovs, including vegetarian and fish versions! Personal travel stories of the authors add a particular touch. They do mention however a dish or two here and there but recipes were not included in the book-vegetarian plov from mountain jews is missing but sounds too delicious! Not a great variety of vegetarian dishes, understandably as the stans are usually meat loving countries. But ideas for salads and some sides made up for it.
by Jess
Everything I’ve prepared so far has been delicious! The book itself is beautiful with lots of information and photos about central Asia, and there’s a great range of recipes which are easy to prepare. A wonderful purchase for anyone interested in this part of the world, or interested in trying some new food!
by Amazon Customer
A delightful book of travel vignettes and recipes from all over the lands from Turkey to China,with beautiful pictures. The recipes are very clearly written — I’ve tried about half a dozen to date and every one of them has been tasty and easy to follow. In other words, if you do what they say — you get delicious food! There are only a very few obscure ingredients, the secret to this food is the combinations of fresh and dried fruit, meat, spices, vegetables – fresh and zingy with real flavour!
This was also a book I couldn’t put down — sat down and read it straight through before I even cooked a thing. I have travelled in Central Asia and the results of this book were authentic. It brings back happy memories and has expanded my confidence in cooking things I would not have tried to make myself otherwise.
Love it! For the price of a book, you can travel the Silk Road, and eat happily and healthily, enjoy!