A House with a Date Palm Will Never Starve: Cooking with Date Syrup: Forty-One Chefs and an Artist Create New and Classic Dishes with a Traditional Middle Eastern Ingredient by Michael Rakowitz

  • Pancakes with clotted cream and Basra date syrup [Philip Juma] (page 27)

    from A House with a Date Palm Will Never Starve: Cooking with Date Syrup: Forty-One Chefs and an Artist Create New and Classic Dishes with a Traditional Middle Eastern Ingredient A House with a Date Palm Will Never Starve by Michael Rakowitz

    • Categories: Pancakes, waffles & crêpes; Breakfast / brunch; Iraqi
    • Ingredients: plain flour; caster sugar; milk powder; baking powder; full fat milk; eggs; butter; date syrup; clotted cream
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Notes about this book

  • Shelmar on November 27, 2024

    New Yorker Rakowitz is a second-generation Jewish refugee from Basra. During and after the U.S./Iraqi war Rakowitz became obsessed with the #2 export from Iraq: date syrup. As an artist, Rakowitz won a commission to place on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, a replica sculpture of Lamassu, a Sumerian statue that was damaged by U.S. bombs, then destroyed by ISIS. Rakowitz' replica was made with 10,000 Iraqi date syrup cans. For the installation, Rakowitz threw a dinner party featuring date syrup. That dinner became the impetus for this cookbook. The recipe contributors range from major chefs, cookbookers, and critics, to cooks with no previous presence on EatYourBooks. The contributors are predominantly connected to London and are mostly Middle Eastern. Recipes range from traditional to modern inspirations to mere substitution for other sweeteners. Date syrup is measured from cups down to teaspoons.

  • DKennedy on April 27, 2022

    Date syrup with tahini - delish - p. 34

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  • ISBN 10 1908970499
  • ISBN 13 9781908970497
  • Published Aug 20 2019
  • Format Hardcover
  • Page Count 240
  • Language English
  • Countries United States
  • Publisher Art / Books

Publishers Text

With recipes by 41 popular chefs and food writers such as Alice Waters, Yotam Ottolenghi and Marcus Samuelsson, this cookbook focuses on the many uses of date syrup

Date syrup has been central to Iraqi cooking and home life for centuries. In this unique book, a fusion of contemporary art and food, Chicago-based Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz (born 1973) and 41 celebrated chefs present delicious dishes using this staple of Middle Eastern cuisine.
In early 2018, Rakowitz unveiled a winged bull sculpture on the Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square, a life-size replica of a Mesopotamian lammasu made from thousands of date syrup cans. The artist’s choice of material was laden with historical significance: for decades, until the industry was decimated by war and disease, dates had been Iraq’s second biggest export after oil.
As his winged bull sat upon the Fourth Plinth, Rakowitz invited chefs from around the world to create new and classic recipes using date syrup. Chefs and food writers including Yotam Ottolenghi, Alice Waters, Claudia Roden, Reem Kassis, Prue Leith, Jason Hammel, Nuno Mendes, Thomasina Miers, Giorgio Locatelli and Marcus Samuelsson answered Rakowitz’s call, creating dozens of sweet and savory dishes with date syrup, now collected in this cookbook.
Easy step-by-step instructions and gorgeous photographs enable the reader to make these recipes at home. Ranging from the traditional to the innovative, with everything from simple brunch dishes, salads and sides to mouthwatering mains, cakes, desserts, drinks and condiments represented, the recipes in this volume showcase the richness of a humble ingredient. This special book will appeal to anyone who loves the cuisine of the Middle East and is interested in the politics of food in that troubled region.