• Cookbooksgalore on May 23, 2025

  Nearly returned it for a refund. Many of my cookbooks are on Kindle and it burns me that there is no common standard to have a navigable table of contents for each chapter with hotlinks to the recipes. The best have drop-downs for each chapter, so reading on a laptop you can see everything, and you can quickly flit through the book, following your fancy. Some have a table of contents after the title page of each chapter - good, but not as convenient. This book you have to wade through several pages of descriptive writing in each chapter to find the table of contents. Note to author IF I CAN'T FIND A RECIPE I CAN'T COOK THE RECIPE

• MWFhome on March 20, 2014

  This book changed how I approach seasonings, providing creative inspiration for many wonderful meals and dinner parties. Love it. The dishes are as good if not better than what is served in her restaurant (Oleana).

• jenno on January 21, 2010

  LOVE Ana Sortun. Whenever Im in the Boston area, I always make sure to go to Oleana and it is always the highlight of my trip. Four out of five stars because recipes are a bit too labor intensive but i guess thats why her restaurants are so successful! But as a professional chef myself, I appreciate and respect the skill required and ingredient combinations in the recipes.

• nakedbeet on December 27, 2009

  I love the concept behind this book, grouping recipes by spice combinations. One of my favorite cuisines but this also has a modern approach to Middle Eastern cooking that can be incorporated into other recipes.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Beet tzatziki

  • hibeez on February 18, 2025

    This was excellent! Happened to have a cooked beet in the fridge, so it came together quickly. Used frozen dill.

• Braised beef short ribs with vanilla-glazed carrots

  • mirage on January 16, 2010

    The carrots were not bad but....odd, but the short ribs were excellent.

• Caramelized onion tart with poppy seeds, bacon, and dates

  • smtucker on December 10, 2017

    This tart was absolutely delicious. One does need to plan in advance by making the Crick-Crack dough a day ahead. Rolling the dough was simple and not too fussy. I chose not to add the bacon. I made an herbed goat cheese which I had planned to substitute for the bacon, but in the end, we ate the cheese mixture with crick-cracks alongside the tart. I was worried that the dates would seem too sweet, but the flavors balanced nicely. I made one tart equal to about 4 individual tarts. Intense flavor so we found that just a quarter of a tart was plenty for one person.

• Chickpea crepes (Socca/farinata)

  • mjes on August 06, 2021

    This is my go-to socca recipe (ignoring the Parmigiano) whenever I've had a failure from another cookbook.

• Cranberry beans stewed with tomato and cinnamon

  • inflytur on September 27, 2020

    A luscious but not overly spiced dish. Don't forget to add the mint before serving. It lifts the flavors. Serve warm or at room temperature. If using Rancho Gordo beans only par-cook them before stewing or they will become too soft and fall apart.

• Grilled skirt steak with tomato, caramelized butter, and cumin

  • mirage on June 26, 2010

    Used flank steak - Very Good

  • MWFhome on March 20, 2014

    This dish is easy to make if you have time for a simple homemade tomato sauce. I took the ingredients on a holiday weekend with friends, reduced quantity of butter and served yoghurt on the side. Sauce was delicious and the dish very pleasing.

  • dc151 on May 02, 2021

    Really liked this- kids would've liked it better if yoghurt was on the side. Served with a tomato pilau and homemade pita bread.

• Ground beef and pistachio kebobs

  • mirage on June 26, 2010

    Very good. Made as patties.

• Halibut cakes with olive oil-lemon sauce

  • MWFhome on March 24, 2014

    Delicious and easy, these held together well with three large red potatoes and 1.75 lbs of fresh halibut. Sauce was a perfect accompaniment. Definitely sprinkle the spice on the finished cakes. Will try again with a little less potato.

• Halibut cooked in milk with cinnamon, fried almonds, and spinach

  • hibeez on March 03, 2018

    Do not ignore the instructions to salt the fish. I did so once and the taste was significantly diminished. Excellent dish, that comes together quickly. Spinach can be steamed ahead of time. Milk mixture can be made ahead of time and reheated to cook fish.

• Harissa: North African chile paste

  • smtucker on June 21, 2015

    Best Harissa I have found. The Urfa peppers are stellar. Found at Sevan, Amenian Market, Watertown.

• Homemade sujuk

  • mcvl on October 12, 2011

    Sunday, 9 October 2011 I've used this mix of spices three times now, first in the original recipe, then as seasoning for lamb burgers, and most recently as seasonings for a large flat lamb meatloaf. I've been making Claudia Roden's kofta bil sania, ground meatloaf in a tray, for 25 years. She tops hers with tomato paste, and I had always followed suit, but not this time. My tomato guys had no plum tomatoes in this strange year, so I was trying to work with what I had by making tomato paste with regular tomatoes. That doesn't work, or at least I can't make it work, but I did have a large pot of beautifully reduced small regular tomatoes. OK, so the flat tray ground lamb seasoned with Sortun's sujuk spices plus finely ground onion, garlic, basil, dill, and mint, then heavily topped with a loose tomato reduction. Oh my. Good good good. This is our new flat meatloaf -- I'll never go back.

• Hot buttered hummus with basturma and tomato

  • mirage on June 26, 2010

    Very good

• Lamb steak with Turkish spices and moussaka

  • mirage on June 26, 2010

    didn't make the moussaka - the lamb was very, very good!

  • MWFhome on June 30, 2014

    Both are delicious.

• Mashed potatoes with fenugreek

  • mirage on June 26, 2010

    I liked this a lot, but not everyone did.

• Muhammara: red pepper and walnut purée

  • mirage on June 26, 2010

    Very very good! Didn't bother with the eggplant, though. Served w/homemade pita.

• Palace pilav: bulgur with pine nuts, almonds, pistachios, and mulberries

  • mcvl on April 23, 2020

    Nice. Had to modify it severely because I cannot chew (oral surgery deferred thanks to Covid-19), so used almond butter instead of nuts, then added green olives to zhuzh it up (probably not needed if whole nuts are used). Ate with a side of Seemore beet sausage (recommended).

• Panforte

  • Jane on October 13, 2017

    This was quite a bit of work. I had to make the candied orange peel (not hard but just needed forward planning) and chopping the dried fruit and nuts was time consuming. But the results were delicious. I made it in an 8” square pan and cut into small squares rather than the traditional round pan and wedges as I was serving it to a crowd. I baked this for 30 mins rather than specified 20 as I felt at 20 it would be too sticky (all other panforte recipes I have bake for 30-40 minutes). The ginger flavor was quite pronounced from the candied ginger and the ground ginger so dial this down if you aren’t a ginger fan. Lovely after dinner sweet treat especially at Christmas.

• Paopao cocktail

  • mirage on June 26, 2010

    Delicious - but very sweet.

• Scallop pizza with leeks and fennel seed

  • mcvl on June 29, 2023

    Used this for flavor suggestion rather than as a recipe: scallop cream soup with scallions and fennel seed. V. good.

• Seared sea scallops with orange-saffron butter and rice cakes

  • mcvl on October 12, 2011

    10 October 2011 No rice cakes (too carby), lemon zest and orange zest but only lemon juice, no o.j. (also too carby), otherwise flat out one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten in my whole life. Lots of leftover orange saffron butter, hard not to eat it straight out of the bowl. One odd note, however: Ana thinks scallops contain a lot of sugar. No, they don't.

• Shrimp with kasseri cheese, fennel, and fenugreek wrapped in shredded phyllo

  • mirage on June 26, 2010

    Good, but not worth all that butter and fat. A little greasy feeling.

• Sliced summer tomatoes with basil and walnut tabouleh

  • mjes on August 06, 2021

    This is a non-traditional tabouleh variant, If you are a fan of good tomatoes, walnuts, and bulgur you will love this version.

• Smoky eggplant purée with pine nuts and Urfa pepper

  • mirage on January 16, 2010

    Scott didn't like this but I loved it. So did the ladies.

• Spicy fideos with chickpeas, vanilla, and saffron

  • MollyB on June 15, 2018

    Pretty labor intensive but a wonderful vegetarian dish. I've made it several times. With only two of us eating it, I find it's worth making a whole batch of the sauce and freezing half.

• Spoon lamb

  • MWFhome on May 15, 2014

    Made Sartun's Spoon Lamb, essentially braising the meat in red wine, using bone-in section of lamb leg, which was thicker than the chops recommended. It required several hours in a crockpot beyond the 2 1/2 hours in the oven to achieve the meat falling off the bone stage described in the recipe. The flavors are delicious, and this worked well. Sauce is not a thickened gravy, so the dish is lighter than you might expect and relatively quick to prepare if planning ahead.

• Squash kibbeh with brown butter and spiced feta

  • MWFhome on March 20, 2014

    Made with butternut squash for vegetarian dinner, several times. It's really good. Not necessary to shape in coffee cups but this presentation makes it fancy for a dinner party. Allow time to prepare.

• Steamed mussels with leeks and smoky paprika

  • mirage on August 03, 2010

    Broth is very good, but Mussels are Excellent.

  • br22 on September 01, 2017

    This is a great recipe. The flavors are fantastic; even as left overs brought gently to temp and tossed with some whole wheat spaghetti.

• Sweet potato bisteeya

  • mcvl on September 29, 2015

    I used the aromatics and seasonings from this recipe to make twice-cooked sweet potatoes, and they were great but too intense to use at the center of the plate. I think in the future I would use the mixture as a spread on toasts or crackers.

• Boston Globe by T. Susan Chang

  ...compelling and elegant enough to make the price of innovation -- a splattered, oily, floury workspace covered with discarded pans, measuring cups, gadgets, and peelings -- seem pretty reasonable.

  Full review