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2+ Works 240 Membros 6 Reviews

About the Author

Includes the name: Ana Sorton

Obras de Ana Sortun

Associated Works

FOOD & WINE Chef Recipes Made Easy (2012) — Contribuinte — 20 cópias

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Nome padrão
Sortun, Ana
Nome de batismo
Sortun, Ana
Data de nascimento
1967-09-30
Sexo
female
Nacionalidade
USA
Local de nascimento
Seattle, Washington, USA

Membros

Resenhas

Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
 
Marcado
fernandie | outras 4 resenhas | Sep 15, 2022 |
This cookbook is based on an Middle Eastern-themed bakery in Cambridge, Mass. The authors, Ana Sortun and Maura Kilpatrick, opened the bakery in 2008, after years of travelling and research.

The theme of the cookbook, and of their cooking philosophy, is accurately described in the following quote from the book: "We believe in learning the rules before we break them, so we study technique, ingredients and recipes constantly."

I do not regularly prepare middle eastern dishes. Other than falafel, couscous and barley, and a version of Persian rice pilaf, I do not often work with ingredients typical to that cuisine. Not even hummus! Also, I generally dislike eating flowery flavors, which sometimes pops up in the recipes and dishes. This recipe collection is apparently not strictly traditional, and appears to include some rather innovative dishes!

Most of the vegetable-based dishes look delicious; I am planning a meal with few a few of the veggie dishes, some dips and some of the flat breads and crackers. The recipes demand that I attempt them, and they look easy enough for me to do so.

**Edited to add results of recipe testing**
I cooked 5 recipes from the book, and found only 2 of them to "work." By "work," I mean turn out edible, and/or resembling the photo or description.

The Whipped Goat Cheese with Almonds and Raisins was a success, although it is really just goat cheese with things mixed in, so I am not surprised that one worked.

Persian-Style Carrots and Black-Eyed Peas is a good recipe, too. Lovely spices, and great flavor.

The Pita Bread recipe did not turn out as promised! Using the exact measurements, the dough was so wet it was not a dough, it was a runny batter. It rose and smelled lovely, but was too wet and sticky, and did not bake in a flattened state. It tasted delicious, but it was neither flat nor did it have a pocket. I felt confused and betrayed!

Spicy Tomato Bulgar Salad was good, but the bulgar didn't soften, or fluff, or fully absorb the cool vinaigrette after soaking for 10 minutes as instructed by the recipe. Or an hour. Being used to chewy, not pebbly bulgar, I had to add some boiling water to improve the dish. Unless the desired texture result was pebbles, I would have to say this is a fail. The taste was average.

The Yellow Split Peas with Za'atar Spiced Almonds (again using the exact measurements) came out as a fluid dip rather than the lusciously thick and fluffy result from the photograph. The taste was great, but the consistency was like creamy salad dressing.
**

The recipes are divided in the following categories:
Breakfast,
Meze,
Flatbreads (my favorite chapter),
Savory Pies,
Cookies and Confections,
Specialty Pastries, Cakes and Desserts,
and
Beverages.

The ingredients and dishes are beautifully photographed. I wish I lived near the bakery, so I could sample the pastries and breads, and meals how they are really meant to be served. With the success rate that I had, I can not recommend this to people not familiar with preparing similar cuisine styles.
** edit ended**

**eARC Netgalley**
… (mais)
 
Marcado
Critterbee | outras 4 resenhas | Apr 16, 2018 |
Soframiz is a book written by the owners and staff of Sofra Bakery and Café and it's sister restaurants Oleana and Sarma, all in the Boston metro area. Soframiz is not a book of traditional Middle Eastern cookery, but I like it anyway because it provides a range of interesting Middle Eastern-style recipes that can be made in a home kitchen. Sofra is foremost a bakery so this is not a balanced book about preparing a multi-course Middle Eastern meal. The foods presented here are more useful as appetizers, desserts, and picnic food – sweets, savory bites, wraps, and interesting salads.

Soframiz is not a vegetarian cookbook yet a lot of recipes do not contain meat. There are a few reasons for this. First, Sofra is primarily a bakery with a substantial carry-out business and, generally speaking, There are lots more meatless baked goods and salads than there are ones containing meat. then, Sofra, Oleana and Sarma are linked to a CSA vegetable farm so many recipes use seasonal products from that New England farm. In addition, Middle Eastern traditional cuisine, while not at all vegetarian, is derived largely from the foods of the countryside, where meat is a luxury and local dairy, fruit, and vegetable products provide the daily diet. As a result, thus this book has many more vegetarian recipes than not.

The book's expository writing is a bit uneven and could have used some tighter editing, but the recipes are detailed. I wish there were more pictures of the finished foods. Here Ten Speed has opted for large-format photos of a few items rather than smaller shots of each dish. That means that the reader might sometimes want to go online to understand how the final product is presented. This is inconvenient but does not detract from the value of the book.

I think Soframiz will appeal most to an experienced cook, especially a cook who likes baking. While some of the recipes are fairly advanced, a mid-skilled baker should be able to do very well. A novice might find some recipes daunting, but with the help of similar recipes available online, a confident beginner could give them a try.

I received a review copy of "Soframiz: Vibrant Middle Eastern Recipes from Sofra Bakery and Café" by Ana Sortun and Maura Kilpatrick (Ten Speed) through NetGalley.com.
… (mais)
½
 
Marcado
Dokfintong | outras 4 resenhas | Nov 28, 2016 |
According to Ana Sortun and Maura Kilpatrick, sofra refers to “everything you prepare for the table: food, place settings, glassware, décor, linens.” In Iran, it refers to the cloth spread on the floor that the food is placed on when people eat. To me, there really is a special kind of satisfaction and fellowship eating that way.

I remember when a lovely Urdu couple from Iran invited me to an Eid celebratory dinner. I was the only Anglo, so I asked my hostess if we were sitting at the table on my behalf. She smiled and confessed they thought I would be uncomfortable with a traditional Persian dinner. I assured her that with the many friends in college and living for a time with three Malay women, I was used to it. We quickly shifted the dishes to a sofra on the floor, settled down without the plates and silverware and enjoyed our meal in new camaraderie. As the meal was ending, she said, “Food eaten with silverware is never as satisfying and never tastes as good.” I thought of her and that relaxed and abundant hospitality while reading Soframiz, a cookbook celebrating the delightful foods of the Middle East, focusing on breakfast, mezza, and baked goods.

Soframiz opens with Shakshuka, eggs poached in spicy tomato sauce, a dish I make once a month at least. They call for three special ingredients, Maras Pepper (special red pepper flakes), Hawayej (a Yemeni spice blend), and Zhoug (a Yemeni spice sauce with recipe in the book). I make delicious shukshuka without them and so do many other places. I am curious, perhaps if I find some Maras pepper without having to order it online, I might try it, but already they have made me unhappy because I know this recipe can be delicious without insisting on special ingredients unlikely to be in the home kitchen. Why couldn’t they write Maras Pepper or red pepper flakes? It’s really not sacrilege to use an alternate ingredient.

I expect there to be some specialty ingredients in a cookbook, particularly in a cookbook that features ethnic cuisine, but these chefs go beyond that. They specify specific Calasparra rice or Baldo rice and Cubanelle peppers instead of rice and peppers and so on throughout the book. They even suggest specific onions such as Ailsa Craig or Vidalia instead of simply saying a sweet onion. There is no recognition of the limitations of home kitchens and non-metropolitan grocery stores. If they would only suggest alternatives for those of us with more ordinary pantries, I would find their specificity less troublesome.

Soframiz is full of beautiful pictures of delicious looking foods that get me thinking, I want to make this, I want to make that, and I have to make this one now. But then I read the recipes and see some ingredients that I would have to mail order and move along. What can I make now? Thankfully there are quite a few that I can manage. I already have tahini and zaatar and sumac, so I am not without some of the ordnance I need for this culinary battle. There are also a few recipes that do not require special ingredients. For future cookbooks, they should let home cooks know when we can make a perfectly fine dish with other options (such as in the shukshuka recipe).

I love the pictures and the idea of this cookbook. I would love to go to their bakery and try everything on the menu. I will also be trying some of the recipes that I lack the ingredients to make. I am a confident cook, sure enough to know that I can approximate the flavors with spices I can blend myself. I will blithely use red pepper flakes instead of Maras pepper and the dish won’t be a disaster. It won’t be perfect, but it will be good. That flexibility to allow us to make something close by simply allowing that while red pepper flakes won’t be perfect, they will be tasty is sorely needed.

There are some delicious vegetarian dishes as well as meat dishes. The Pantry section has a recipe for Shawarma spice that I will have to try. This is a good cookbook. I think it could be better with a more flexible mindset that recognizes the realities of home kitchens.

I was provided a copy of Soframiz by Blogging For Books.

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2016/10/31/soframiz-by-ana-sortun-an...
… (mais)
1 vote
Marcado
Tonstant.Weader | outras 4 resenhas | Oct 31, 2016 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
2
Also by
2
Membros
240
Popularidade
#94,569
Avaliação
½ 3.7
Resenhas
6
ISBNs
5

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