The best of Korean and Egyptian Cuisines by Amina Elshafei.
Amina Elshafei was born in Saudi Arabia from a Korean mother and an Egyptian father, so the cultural influences behind her cooking are rather inventive and unique.
She moved to Australia at the age of four, and in 2012 she was selected out of 7,500 applications to appear on Masterchef Australia. She finished in the top 12.
I cook the food I love to eat by taste and flavour rather than by the book.
Amina now writes a regular monthly recipe column for Australia’s Women’s Weekly magazine and runs her own cookery classes and catering business. Amina’s Home Cooking, published in the UK by Lantern, an imprint of Penguin Books, is her first book.
This cookery book is very family orientated. The cover shows several people tucking into a beautiful meal – sharing food together. There is a heartwarming foreword by Amina’s sister, Eman.
The book teaches you what ingredients to stock for a Middle Eastern Pantry from baharat to barberries to pomegranate molasses and for a Korean pantry – from black fungus to dwangjang paste made from fermented soy beans and toasted seaweed.
The recipes are divided into sections including:
- Starters such as pomegranate and walnut salad (find the recipe below), kimchi pancakes and skewered beef and vegetables
- Vegetables, legumes and grains recipes such as Egyptian broad bean falafel, Korean buckwheat noodle salad and lentil rice
- Seafood recipes including slow braised baby octopus, sumac-crusted trout with heirloom tomato salsa and a seafood tagine wtih chermoula
- Poultry recipes such as quails stuffed with couscous, Mum’s spicy chicken and spicy, sticky Korean chicken drumettes
- Meat recipes including Middle Eastern baked eggs, slow-braised lamb shanks with baby onions and dates and okra and beef stew
- Desserts such as kataifi pastry with milk custard, semolina slice with coconut and a rose petal fruit salad
Each recipe is introduced by a short paragraph describing its origins and influences, and any family memories the author may have of it. You really are brought on a family culinary journey with this book.
Beautiful photographs by Luisa Brimble throughout bring the book to life.  It’s a nice chunky book, not quite paperback, not quite hardback. The cover is hard, but flexible – it’s a pleasure to hold and turn the pages and savor all the photographs and recipes.
You can find Amina’s Home Cooking on Amazon and in all good bookshops. You can follow Amina on Twitter and Facebook.
Book:Â Amina’s Home Cooking
Author:Â Amina Elshafei
ISBN:Â 978-0-14-379773-9
UK Publication Date:Â 29 October 2015
Cover:Â paperback
RRP: £18.99 (UK)
Pomegranate and Walnut Salad
Ingredients
- 50 grams walnuts
- 1 pomegranate cut in half
- large handful fresh parsley roughly chopped
- 2 fresh ripe tomatoes cut into very small cubes
- 1 Lebanese (short) cucumber seeded and cut into very small cubes
- 1/2 red capsicum seeds and membrane discarded, cut into very small cubes
- 1/2 red onion finely chopped
- 1 tsp sumac
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (I use Pomora - see link in sidebar)
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
- Shetland sea salt
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This recipe card may contain affiliate ingredient and equipment links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200 C. Place the walnuts on a baking tray and toast in the oven for 5-7 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool, then roughly chop.
- Hold a pomegranate half over a large bowl and, using a wooden spoon, tap the pomegranate hard to release the arils (seeds). Repeat with the other half.
- Add the walnuts, parsley, tomato, cucumber, capsicum, onion and sumac to the bowl.
- Stir in the olive oil, lemon juice and pomegranate molasses and toss to combine. Season with salt to taste and serve immediately.
Notes
GIVEAWAY
Lantern, the UK publishers of of Amina’s Home Cooking RRP £18.99 have kindly offered one of my readers the opportunity to win a copy of her fantastic cookery book.
HOW TO ENTER
For your chance to win a copy of Amina’s Home Cooking RRP £18.99 enter using the Rafflecopter form below. Come back and tweet about the giveaway every day for more chances to win!
TERMS & CONDITIONS
This giveaway is open to UK entries only. Entrants must be age 18 or over. The winner will need to respond within 30 days of being contacted; failure to do this may result in another winner being selected.
The prize is offered and provided by Lantern Publishing. The prize is to win a copy of Amina’s Home Cooking RRP £18.99. There is no cash alternative and the prize is not transferable.
There is no entry fee and no purchase is necessary to enter this giveaway. The promoter (Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary) reserves the right to cancel or amend the giveaway and these terms and conditions without notice.
Entry into our giveaways will be deemed as acceptance of these terms and conditions.
If you need some help using Rafflecopter, here’s a quick clip to show you how. Rafflecopter will pick the winner at random from all the entries received. I will be verifying entries and any automated entries or those who have claimed they have made the mandatory blog post comment and really haven’t will be disqualified. It’s mandatory!
Closing date is midnight (that’s 00:00 hours, 12 am on Sunday night/Monday morning) on Monday 9 November 2015 (GMT) and the winner will be announced shortly afterwards.
Visit my Giveaways Page for other fab giveaways!
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Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary was sent a copy of Amina’s Home Cooking for review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are our own. This is not a paid post. This post also contains an Amazon affiliate link, highlighted in orange, which means if you click through and make any purchase at all via Amazon we will get a small commission and you will be helping to support our family.
Roasted Pumpkin Soup with Fried Sage and White Truffle Oil
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It looks right up my street! My boyfriend is of Persian origin and born in Iran so I love experimenting with middle eastern food. I also love Korean food and theres quite a few Korean restaurants in London now so if her recipes have that influence as well then that is very intriguing! Fingers crossed x
To help improve my cooking skills x
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try new recipes
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Amina’s intriguing heritage mix means this is sure to be a fascinating book!
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