The Sephardic Table: The Vibrant Cooking of the Mediterranean Jews-A Personal Collection of Recipes from the Middle East North Africa and India

About this book

Pamela Grau Twenas introduction to Sephardic culture began on a blind date. Her future husband came from a family of Iraqi Jews who had immigrated to Israel. She was a non-observant Jew from Hollywood whose encounters with Jewish food had been limited to her grandmothers matzoh ball soup a semiannual brisket and an occasional cheese blintz. Twenas mother-in-law ushered her into a world of flavorful dishes. Captivated she coaxed out the recipes which had been passed through generations but never written down. Beginning with her husbands extended family she went on to interview members of the Sephardic community (the term for Jews with ancient roots in Spain) persuading them to open their kitchens to her and divulge their coveted recipes. The result is a collection of 175 of Twenas favorite recipes from Morocco Libya Algeria and Tunisia in North Africa; from the Ottoman communities of Turkey Rhodes and Greece; from Syria Lebanon Egypt Iraq and Iran in the Middle East;