Saffron Shores: Jewish Cooking of the Southern Mediterranean (ISBN 0811830527)

Amazon.com Review:
Though most of us think of Jewish cooking as Eastern European in origin, there's an alluring second traditional Jewish cuisine, that of the Mediterranean. Joyce Goldstein's Saffron Shores explores the most southerly branch of this exotic repertoire, which includes the spice-infused dishes of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. Goldstein, who pursued Italian- and Spanish-Jewish cooking in Cucina Ebraica and Sephardic Flavors, is ideally suited to introduce this largely unexplored and delicious cuisine; she offers 100 recipes for a wide range of dishes--appetizers through sweets--including don't-miss treats like Lamb Tagine with Prunes and Honey, Baked Fish Stuffed with Almond Paste, and Cumin Flavored Meatballs with Onion Jam and Spicy Tomato Sauce. Simple in conception, and mostly easy to do, the dishes work well for modern cooks who want something "different" without going to great lengths to get it. Beginning with a brief history of the cooking, and presenting its flavor profile (like that of the Jews who settled in the Ottoman Empire, the Southern Mediterranean palate favors vivid spiciness with the likes of cumin and cinnamon, plus a penchant for sweet-and-sour combinations), she then introduces the tempting recipes. Of special interest is a section on savory pastries like Iraqi Chicken and Chick Pea Pastries and Lebanese Spinach Turnovers, "labors of love," says Goldstein, that are nonetheless worth a cook's involvement, and sweets, such as Syrian Rice Pudding and Raisin and Walnut Jam Tart. (Also included is a recipe for preparing boxed couscous that finally makes the most of this obvious convenience.) With holiday menus and color photos throughout, the book is truly welcome. --Arthur Boehm

Delightful Resource for KosherCuisine. Great for Foodies too:
`Saffron Shores' is the first of Joan Goldstein's Jewish Mediterranean cuisine books I have read, and it is easily the best book of Jewish cuisine I have read and reviewed. I say this with the reservation that there are several books on Jewish cooking out there which have excellent pedigrees, such as Claudia Roden's `The Book of Jewish Food', so you may have to take my opinion with a grain of salt. That said, I still believe this is an excellent book on Jewish cooking and an excellent book on southern Mediterranean cooking. I am surprised this book makes no mention of the fact that that Ms. Goldstein is the author of a really excellent general book of Mediterranean recipes entitled `The Mediterranean Kitchen', published in 1992 by Morrow. While there are dozens of good, well-known books on Mediterranean food by a pantheon of authors headed by Paula Wolfert, Claudia Roden, Nancy Harmon Jenkins, and Clifford Wright, Ms. Goldstein has a light touch in all of her books which make her recipes especially easy to follow. The very first thing which impresses me about `Saffron Shores' after the delightfully designed dust jacket is Ms. Goldstein's history of the Jewish peoples after the Diaspora, especially the Shepardim who, unlike the Askenazim of eastern and central Europe, settled around the Mediterranean in lands dominated by the Arabic, Moorish, Berber, and Ottoman cultures of Islam. This essay goes far to explain the similarities between Islamic cuisines and the Jewish `dhimmis' who on average had a better time of things under Islam than their Northern brethren had under Christians. The next thing that impressed me and should impress you is the sketch of Jewish kosher dietary laws. As a gentile, what I knew about these traditions and laws was entirely based on hearsay. My only surprise with this description is that the primary categories of food (fleishig, milchig, parve) are named in Yiddish not Hebrew or Spanish or any other language more familiar to the Shepardim than the Askenazim. The kosher dietary laws are not only covered in general, they are also discussed as they are applied to the major holidays of the Jewish calendar, including the Sabbath, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Hanukkah, Purim, and Passover. `Saffron Shores' means primarily the modern lands of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, also known collectively as the Maghrebi. As such, reading this book immediately sounds like an echo of writings by Paula Wolfert. Among the appetizers are the classic chickpea preparations, olive dishes, and salt preserved lemons. I also detect Ms. Goldstein's drawing a bit outside the lines when she selects some dishes. The `Savory Pastries chapter includes dishes from Iraq and Lebanon. Closer to home, the Maghrebi, we have the b'stilla, a version of savory pie of North Africa which seems to pop up in some form or other in every Mediterranean land from Morocco to Armenia. Among soups, there are several recipes for specific holidays including Passover and Rosh Hashanah. Lentils and fava beans are the stars in many of these recipes. Some recipe headnotes include comments which reveal some parallels between Jewish and Islamic (Ramadan) fasting traditions and meals designed to break one's fast. A large number of fish recipes seems quite natural, as fish with scales seem to have very few limitations on cooking technique and we are talking about the shores of the Mediterranean here. This section includes a Moroccan tagine, fish with couscous, and fish with citrus. All very Moroccan. I am tickled to see fish braised here, as I was just a bit surprised to read fish braising recipes in a book dedicated to braising. Chicken is another Jewish / Mediterranean culinary favorite. The chapter on same has the usual tagines, couscous dishes, and roasts, but no Frenchy game bird dishes here, thank you, as kosher rules forbid food killed in the wild. More Moroccan inspired b'stilla recipes appear here. As chicken was rare in North Africa and more valuable for its eggs than its meat, many of the chicken dishes are specifically allocated to important holidays. What would a North African cuisine be without a few lamb dishes done in a tagine? I'm surprised to see some sausage recipes here. This is simply a reminder that sausages do not have to be made with pork. It is fun to see in North African cuisine some dessert themes which made their way all the way to Vienna at the high tide of the Ottoman incursion into Europe. As raw sugar is uncommon in the desert, desserts are made mostly with dried fruits, nuts, and honey, and are typically done in small portions. This is not a scholarly book, but it was created with scholarship from scholarly sources in English, Arabic, and French. For scholarly sources, see the excellent bibliography at the back of the book, especially the works of Ms. Wolfert and Ms. Roden, which will be much more accessible than most of the other works. For one who cooks for a family that observes Jewish dietary laws, this book should be a delight. I can easily imagine the constraints of kosher cooking can lead to a limited palette without some inspiration, as you will find in this book. General readers who are fond of the cuisine of the Maghrebi will also find much to enjoy in this book; however, if you already have a sizable collection of books on North African and Mediterranean cuisine, you may find a fair amount of overlap. All in all, I recommend this book to foodies and strongly recommend it to kosher foodies.

Spicy `Shores' of the Mediterranean:
author of Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family from the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles November 29, 2002 Celebrated cookbook author and chef Joyce Goldstein can trace her bloodline to a Russian shtetl, but her heart and soul lie in the Mediterranean. In "Cucina Ebraica" (Chronicle Books, 1998) and "Sephardic Flavors" (Chronicle Books, 2000) she explored Italian Jewish and Spanish Jewish cuisine, and now, to round out the trilogy, in "Saffron Shores" (Chronicle Books, $35) she continues her Mediterranean culinary journey with the exotic cuisine of the Maghreb: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, even including related Judeo-Arabic countries like Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran. "I have been cooking this food for I cannot tell you how many years," said the former chef/owner of the renowned Mediterranean restaurant Square One in San Francisco. "When I was doing research for `Sephardic Flavors,' I realized the subject was so huge I couldn't do it all in one book, so I covered the northern Mediterranean in `Sephardic Flavors' and the southern Mediterranean in `Saffron Shores.' Here the style of cooking changes with a lot more spices and herbs and additional uses of fruit, but, of course, there is some overlap." Notable for its absence is Israeli cuisine. "I left it out because it's a hodgepodge," she explains. "The last time I was in Israel I was served sashimi and Thai-flavored something or other, and I thought, sorry, I didn't come here for that. Israeli cuisine is a melting pot, a lot like America. Whoever is there is cooking Romanian food, Italian food, Yemenite food. Is there Israeli cuisine? I think it's fusion, so I didn't give it much attention. It's not pure. I'd rather go back to the sources." Indeed, each recipe reflects Goldstein's impeccable research and attention to detail, and regional differences are carefully noted. For example, for the Cumin Flavored Meatballs, Goldstein offers Moroccan and Syrian variations. But she never sacrifices flavor for authenticity, adding a touch of orange to the sfenj (Moroccan Chanukah donuts), for example, and adjusting the spices in various dishes. "The spices of North Africa are really vibrant, just incredible, so much fresher and more intense than those we can buy here," she said. "To make these recipes taste right, I often had to double them." More than just a recipe collection, "Saffron Shores" traces the history of Jewish life in these exotic lands and its impact on the cuisine. We learn that unlike the Ashkenazim, who preserved their Judaism by isolating themselves, the Sephardim were more involved in the communities in which they lived. "They shared recipes and culinary traditions with their non-Jewish neighbors," she writes. "Their food reflected the cuisine of their homeland but adapted to follow the kosher laws." Because the Sephardim were more active in the community, in trades and in business, there was a greater exchange of ideas between Jews and Muslims, and the similarity in recipes between Jews and their non-Jewish neighbors is striking, she notes. "On the other hand, certain (Eastern European) dishes, when you think of them, you know they are Jewish. I have many Russian cookbooks, but I don't see too many recipes in there for brisket or tzimmes. There's not as much overlap between the Jewish and non-Jewish dishes. Some of the ingredients are the same, like cabbage and potatoes, but the recipes don't track the same way that the Sephardic ones do." A tireless researcher, Goldstein combed cookbooks from the area, written in French, to capture the authentic tastes and aromatic flavors of such dishes as Iraqi Chicken and Chickpea Pastries, Lamb Tagine with Prunes and Honey and Moroccan Chicken and Almond Pie. The latter, known as B'Stilla, Goldstein calls "a masterpiece of Moroccan cuisine." And while most of the recipes are easy to prepare, favoring the use of fresh, local ingredients over the labor-intensive method, the savory pastries that Goldstein calls "labors of love" are worth the extra effort, she said. Teams of women would prepare them together for special occasions, a tradition that is sadly dying out. Goldstein suggests families create their own traditions by preparing these bistels, briks or buraks together. "Anything that is fried is appropriate for Chanukah. The Tunisian briks are rounder in shape and contain egg, as compared to the bistels from Morocco and buraks from Algeria," she explains, "but they all can be fried." For those who can't think of Chanukah without potatoes, there are potato filled briks from Tunisia. But Goldstein offers a variety of fillings for these pastries, from beef or lamb to feta cheese to chicken with chickpea to spinach with pine nuts. Depending on the region, the dough may be phyllo, yeast raised, short crust or semolina, and the pastries may be baked as well as fried. These spice-infused pastries make an alluring addition to any Chanukah table. And for Ashkenazic Jews, what an exotic change from latkes. >Cumin Flavored Meatballs With Onion Jam and Spicy Tomato Sauce 1 pound ground beef 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley 2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander (cilantro) 1 tablespoon ground cumin 11/44 teaspoon cayenne pepper 111/42 teaspoons salt 11/42 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1. Light a fire in a charcoal grill. (You may also use a skillet heated over medium-high heat.) 2. In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients. Mix well, form into 16 oval meatballs wrapped around skewers, or into eight oval patties. 3. Grill or cook in oil on a hot pan until browned on all sides. 4. Serve with onion jam and tomato sauce. Serves four. Moroccan Chanukah Doughnut 2 envelopes active dry yeast 11/44 cup sugar 11/42 cup warm water 4 cups all-purpose flour 11/42 teaspoon salt 2 eggs, lightly beaten (optional) grated zest of 1 orange 11/44 cup canola oil, melted margarine, or melted unsalted butter (optional) 111/42 to 2 cups warm water or part water, part orange juice Peanut or canola oil for deep frying Granulated sugar for sprinkling or warm honey for dipping (optional) 1. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the water. Let sit until foamy, about 10 minutes. 2. Pour into a large bowl and gradually stir in the flour and salt. 3. Stir in the eggs, zest, and 11/44 cup oil, margarine or butter, if using. 4. Stir in just enough water or water and juice to make a soft and elastic dough. 5. Knead well, with a dough hook or by hand, on a lightly floured surface, until the dough is elastic, smooth and shiny. 6. Roll the dough into a ball, place in an oiled bowl and turn to coat. 7. Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled (111/42 to 2 hours). 8. Oil your hands. Divide the dough into 20 balls about 2 inches in diameter. 9. In a deep saucepan or wok, heat 3 inches of oil to 365 F. 10. Take a ball of dough, make a hole in the center, and pull it out to make a doughnut shape. Deep fry a few at a time until the donuts are puffed and golden. 11. Using a slotted spoon or skimmer, transfer to paper towels to drain. 12. While still hot, sprinkle with granulated sugar or dip in warm honey. Serve warm. Makes about 20 donuts.

Great purchase!:
absolutely fantastic book. With a bookshelf of cookbooks I rarely use I was debating on purchasing this book. I am glad I did!

A Sephardic Splendor:
This book is a MUST HAVE for anyone wishing to create a table that captures the Jewish cullanary experience of the S. Mediterranean.