C O O K B O O K · Boustany (my garden)
I love how cookbooks make us imagine tastes, flavours, scents. For an instant they can make you connect all the senses just by reading the recipes, while the ingredients and cooking methods intimately tell about different cultures.
Magazines often make me restless, I rather retreat with a cookbook when I get the chance. Often, I buy one at the beginning of a holiday and read it kind of front to back. This summer I bought ‘Boustany’ (meaning ‘my garden’ in Arabic) by Sami Tamimi; a tribute to Palestinian cooking. “It is a testament to finding solace and inspiration in the kitchen, even during the most challenging times.”
The book has many wonderful recipes in them, all using seasonal vegetables, whole staple foods and many lovely spices. Sumac is one of the spices which instantly transports you to other places. Sumac is a ground red berry with a special tangy taste. Through history it was often used in seasons where lemons were not available to provide a nice acidity to dishes. Sumac grows wild on dry, rocky soil in the Mediterranean, East Asia and Iran. The berries are picked just before they ripen and dried in the sun. You mostly use sumac as a sprinkle on top of dishes, as it doesn’t need to be heated to release its flavour.
Another beloved and much used ingredient is Za’atar (a mixture of wild oregano, sumac, sesame seeds and sometimes salt). This type of oregano grows wild especially in the mountains of Syria, Palestine and Jordan where every spring families go out to pick the leaves. I once shared the documentary ‘Foragers’ on the harvesting and oppressing politics around Za’atar and akoub by Palestinian filmmaker Jumana Manna.
For Sami Tamimi, preparing the food of his homeland is an act of resilience and keeping his culture alive. “As a Palestinian, seeing everything that’s happened, I’m doing my bit by introducing more and more people to the culture, to the food, to what happened there. Because I feel like the more we talk about it, the more we put it under the spotlight, the more positive things will happen.” (Tamimi in an interview; Reuters)
*I found both Sumac and Za’atar at the local organic store (Ekodis, Amsterdam) from the brand Palestinian Gardens