Giveaway: Pomegranates and Pine Nuts

Moroccan Citrus Salad from The Jewelled Kitchen on eatlivetravelwrite.comHaving once represented Lebanon in the Miss World pageant, Bethany Kehdy is now seeking to win fans over to the cuisine of Lebanon and the Middle East. Her new book, Pomegranates & Pine Nuts (Duncan Baird, October 2013) is designed to bridge the gulf between the traditions of ancient and modern culture and features Lebanese, Moroccan and Persian recipes.  Kehdy herself is half-American, half-Lebanese. She blogs about Middle Eastern food at www.dirtykitchensecrets.com, organizes Food Blogger Connect (the London food blogging conference I had the pleasure of attending this past summer), and runs “Taste Lebanon” food tours in conjunction with the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism.

pomegranates-and-pine-nuts-the-jewelled-kitchen-coverWith gorgeous photography by Sarka Babicka, this book is a veritable journey to the Middle East and Northern Africa through over 100 original recipes that make what many consider “exotic” very approachable and do-able. It includes a section on the “Middle Eastern and North African Pantry” where some common ingredients are explained and which gives you a good idea of the types of ingredients you’ll need on hand as “staples” for many of these recipes.  There’s also a “Basic Recipes and Methods” section which gives you the base ingredients/ components of many of the dishes and it a great place to start and in case you’re missing some of the specific ingredients required in some of the dishes, there’s a handy “Suppliers” section too where you can find a list of stores stocking them.

Having travelled in Morocco but not the Middle East, some but not many of these dishes were familiar to me so I have a lot of them bookmarked “to try” 😉 We had friends over the other weekend who are always up for trying something new so I decided to make a couple of Bethany’s recipes for them starting with the Chicken Basteeya – traditionally a sweet and savoury dish made with pigeon meat (!) inside phyllo pastry and layered with eggs and crushed almonds.  This version calls for chicken, not pigeon, and whilst it has quite a few steps, it’s pretty straightforward to make – and I made it in advance, simply reheating it when we were ready to eat. It’s best eaten the day it’s made but it didn’t fare too badly as leftovers the following day…

Chicken Basteeya from Pomegranates and Pine Nuts The Jewelled Kitchen on eatlivetravelwrite.comNext up, I couldn’t go past the cover recipe for Moroccan Citrus Salad.  I had actually watched this be prepared back in London in July by a professional food stylist and had fallen in love with the look of it. I hadn’t tried it until I made it a couple of weeks ago and I can definitely say that I will be practising my citrus cutting techniques for next summer when I am sure this dish will grace many of my tables. So simple, so pretty but so tasty.

Here are three of the many (many) shots I took that day of the salad. You can see I was a little bit in love with it!

Moroccan citrus salad at Food Blogger Connect London on eatlivetravelwrite.comMoroccan citrus salad by Bethany Kehdy on eatlivetravelwrite.comMoroccan Citrus Salad from The Jewelled Kitchen on eatlivetravelwrite.comAnd here’s what came out of my kitchen.

Moroccan Citrus Salad from Pomegranates and Pine Nuts on eatlivetravelwrite.comLooks complicated, huh? Well not really. And that’s what I love about many of the dishes in this book – yes there are a few steps to follow but nothing particularly challenging or difficult in terms of cooking skills. It’s the flavours and the colours and the suggested presentation that makes this food spectacularly beautiful and “bookmark worthy”. If you love Middle Eastern/ North African food, you’ll definitely want a copy of this book. Now, here’s the good news!

Win one of two copies of Bethany Kehdy’s Pomegranates and Pine Nuts (US/ Canada)!

That’s right – thanks to the kind folks at Random House Canada, I have two copies of Pomegranates and Pine Nuts up for grabs for readers in the US and Canada!

To enter:

1. Leave a comment below telling me why you’d like to win P&P.

2. For a bonus entry, tweet the following message:

I entered to win Pomegranates & Pine Nuts by @Bethanykd from @eatlivtravwrite + @RandomHouseCA  http://bit.ly/1bWpWlp

Then come back to leave me a comment telling me you did.

Contest closes on Tuesday, October 15th 2013 at 6pm EST. Winner will be chosen by random.org and will be notified by email on October 16th 2013.

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Disclosure: Random House Canada provided me with a review copy of Pomegranates and Pine Nuts. I was not required to post about this, nor am I being compensated for doing so. All opinions are my own.

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Congratulations to Jess, JJT and Catrina – the winners of my Mastering the Art of French Cooking giveaway. I’ll be in touch with you to get your mailing details!

26 thoughts on “Giveaway: Pomegranates and Pine Nuts”

  1. The Basteeya was wonderful. I will admit to missing the pigeon somewhat, but chicken was a fine substitute. The pastry held up even to reheating in microwave at lunch. A sauce helps a bit.

    The citrus salad was beautiful but utterly forgettable.

    One of my favourite memories of Lebanon was indeed the food – so I’m excited for Mardi (and me?) to try some mor recipes from this book. If there’s a section on sweets, I’m REALLY excited. The sweets in Lebanon are among the best in the Middle East, based on my travels. 😉

    Oh, I paired an Ontario Gewurztraminer from 2008 with the Basteeya. Thought it would work well with some of the spices, and the hint of rose petal on the nose brought me back to that region.

    Reply
  2. Just starting to learn to cook so when I went to my first Lebanese restaurant last week and was blown away by the food I was inspired to try this cuisine at home. Am a grad student on a limited budget and with limited time , so would greatlu benefit from a free copy. Tweeted the above test. Looking forward to more great recipes. Steph

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  3. I can see why you’re in love w the salad. It’s beautiful. The
    citrus slices look like umbrellas from an overhead view.
    Just beautiful!
    That would be the first thing I’d make if I won a copy of the book.

    (I tweeted, too!)
    Thanks, Mardi.

    Reply
  4. I have never tried any morroccan recipes and would love to! We love to cook but these are out of our comfort zone and I would love to attempt them.

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  5. unable to work due to disability, my favorite way to spend my time is with cook books, and playing in my kitchen… this book sounds like delightful addition to my playground!

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  6. Mardi- I think your citrus salad skills are right up there with Emily’s! Well done, it looks absolutely ravishing. Thanks for sharing, good luck everyone and sahtein 🙂 x

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  7. I would love to win a copy of this book because Bethany knows hows her flavors. She knows the story behind it and why it works. She does not throw the old from the window but also embraces the new. Very excited for her. What a journey!

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  8. I would love to get Bethany’s book to graduate from just making my own hummus to exploring the vast array of celebrated Lebanese foods!

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  9. I would love to win a copy of Pomegranates and Pine Nuts! I’ve done a little bit of traveling in the Middle East and had the opportunity to eat some Lebanese and Persian food. I’d love to know how to replicate it at home! That salad is gorgeous.

    Reply
  10. We need more books in the world that celebrate the food of the Middle East and North Africa! I would love to read more myself…

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  11. WOW, this look gorgeous! I would love to win the book; I honestly have no experience cooking Lebanese, Moroccan or Persian food (just a few eating it!) so I would love to learn.

    Reply

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