The Turkish Cookbook

I LOVE Turkish food, and have always been searching for an English language cookbook which does it justice. A few days ago, I received a copy of The Turkish Cookbook: Regional Recipes and Stories by Nur Ilkin and Sheilah Kaufman. Not only does this book deliver great recipes, tips, travel notes, and historical facts - it looks great, too. Each dramatically different Turkish region is highlighted by lush geographical and mouthwatering food photos. The book is so beautiful that when I'm done using it in the kitchen- I quickly move it to the coffee table for guests to enjoy. If I were allowed to keep only one of my hundreds of cookbooks (for a cookbook author this is like having to choose between children) - I would choose this book. I could eat from it every day for the next year and not get bored. Even though I have been researching and collecting Middle Eastern recipes, history, and lore for the past fourteen years - I still learned a great deal from this book. In fact, I found it so interesting that during a recent lightening storm and power outage - I woke up at 4:00AM and finished reading it with a flashlight!!! After being transported to such mystical locations as Istanbul, the Aegean Sea, Marmara, and Anatolia, I was actually thankful for the storm. Enchanted with visions of cream filled phyllo pastries and homemade jams dancing in my head, I sweetly fell back to sleep at 7:00AM. Have you ever attempted to reproduce a recipe from a cookbook only to have it fail because it wasn't tested properly? That won't happen here. Veteran cookbook author and editor Sheilah Kaufman patiently tests her recipes two, three, and sometimes four times to make sure they're consistent. I know this because I (and many others) happily tested some of the recipes for her. Nur Ilkin eloquently recounts the history of her childhood in Turkey, and reveals the great culinary fortune of having parents from different regions. The wife of the former Turkish Ambassador to the US, Ilkin is the ideal culinary and cultural ambassador of her homeland. If your knowledge of Turkish cuisine is limited to kabobs and baklava....you'll love the variety of recipes found in this book. Great vegetarian recipes include bulgur, lentils, greens laced with sweet, smokey spices and garnished with creamy dairy.Soups and main dishes are easy and innovative while the desserts conjure up images of both Ottoman palaces and Mediterranean farm houses. Best of all- many of the recipes in this book use ingredients we already have on hand, while satisfying our creative sides by combining them in unique ways. The innovative regional approach used by Ilkin and Kaufman uses only the healthiest and freshest ingredients--from fresh fruits and yogurt to vegetables, fish, poultry, and meat. According to them, "healthful and tantalizing, simple and delicious, Turkish cuisine is well on its way to becoming the next big trend in cooking as more and more attention is being paid to it as the original Mediterranean diet." With books like this, it's easy to see why.