by Einat Admony
IACP Award Finalist
“SHUK shouts ‘Cook me!” from every vibrant page.”
—Boston Globe
“Fascinating. . . . This energetic and exciting volume serves as an edifying deep dive into Israeli food market culture and cuisine.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
With Shuk, home cooks everywhere can now inhale the fragrances and taste the flavors of the vivacious culinary mash-up that is today’s Israel. The book takes you deeper into this trending cuisine, through the combined expertise of the authors, chef Einat Admony of Balaboosta and food writer Janna Gur. Admony’s long-simmered stews, herb-dominant rice pilafs, toasted-nut-studded grain salads, and of course loads of vegetable dishes—from snappy, fresh, and raw to roasted every way you can think of—will open your eyes and your palate to the complex nuances of Jewish food and culture. The book also includes authoritative primers on the well-loved pillars of the cuisine, including chopped salad, hummus, tabboulehs, rich and inventive shakshukas, and even hand-rolled couscous with festive partners such as tangy quick pickles, rich pepper compotes, and deeply flavored condiments. Through gorgeous photo essays of nine celebrated shuks, you’ll feel the vibrancy and centrality of the local markets, which are so much more than simply shopping venues—they’re the beating heart of the country. With more than 140 recipes, Shuk presents Jewish dishes with roots in Persia, Yemen, Libya, the Balkans, the Levant, and all the regions that contribute to the evolving food scene in Israel. The ingredients are familiar, but the combinations and techniques are surprising. With Shuk in your kitchen, you’ll soon be cooking with the warmth and passion of an Israeli, creating the treasures of this multicultural table in your own home.
IACP Award Finalist
“SHUK shouts ‘Cook me!” from every vibrant page.”
—Boston Globe
“Fascinating. . . . This energetic and exciting volume serves as an edifying deep dive into Israeli food market culture and cuisine.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
With Shuk, home cooks everywhere can now inhale the fragrances and taste the flavors of the vivacious culinary mash-up that is today’s Israel. The book takes you deeper into this trending cuisine, through the combined expertise of the authors, chef Einat Admony of Balaboosta and food writer Janna Gur. Admony’s long-simmered stews, herb-dominant rice pilafs, toasted-nut-studded grain salads, and of course loads of vegetable dishes—from snappy, fresh, and raw to roasted every way you can think of—will open your eyes and your palate to the complex nuances of Jewish food and culture. The book also includes authoritative primers on the well-loved pillars of the cuisine, including chopped salad, hummus, tabboulehs, rich and inventive shakshukas, and even hand-rolled couscous with festive partners such as tangy quick pickles, rich pepper compotes, and deeply flavored condiments. Through gorgeous photo essays of nine celebrated shuks, you’ll feel the vibrancy and centrality of the local markets, which are so much more than simply shopping venues—they’re the beating heart of the country. With more than 140 recipes, Shuk presents Jewish dishes with roots in Persia, Yemen, Libya, the Balkans, the Levant, and all the regions that contribute to the evolving food scene in Israel. The ingredients are familiar, but the combinations and techniques are surprising. With Shuk in your kitchen, you’ll soon be cooking with the warmth and passion of an Israeli, creating the treasures of this multicultural table in your own home.
Reviews-
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Starred review from August 5, 2019
Admony (Balaboosta), who owns the restaurants Balaboosta and Taim in New York City, and Gur (Jewish Soul Food) excel at crafting recipes for Israel’s flavorful melting-pot cuisine, and they organize this fascinating cookbook around eight shuks, or markets. They include Tel Aviv’s Levinsky Market, which houses a stall selling roasted seeds and nuts and a spice store that traffics in potions and powders reputed to “drive away an evil eye, lift a curse, or help you find your soul mate.” Dishes are equally intriguing: a chopped salad of avocado and kohlrabi highlights the country’s abundant produce. Traditional selections and clever inventions intermingle, the latter exemplified by challah braided around mushrooms and za’atar, and, in a chapter on stuffed items, a cake of cabbage leaves encasing a filling of pine nuts, almonds, pistachios, ground beef, and rice. A chapter on couscous includes a brace of stews for ladling over the pasta, as well as two options for creating couscous from scratch. A grilling primer features whole fish, kebabs, and arayes—pitas stuffed with beef and lamb and cooked over a flame. Sidebars range from suggestions for optimizing Israeli salad to an explanation of the evolution of date syrup. This energetic and exciting volume serves as an edifying deep dive into Israeli food market culture and cuisine. -
September 1, 2019
A shuk is an open-air marketplace found in towns and cities across Israel, where one can buy fresh, local ingredients. Israel's multicultural cuisine includes hints of Persian, Moroccan, Ethiopian, Yemenite, and Iraqi tastes. This cookbook, coauthored by New York restaurateur and chef Admony and food writer Gur, is a flavorful tour through Israeli dishes yet accessible enough for an American home cook. Recipes feature Israeli staples from salads, rice, meats, flatbreads, and soups as diverse as the country itself. Commonly used ingredients include pomegranates, tahini, and cauliflower; the authors' cultural notes provide context for the recipes and a better understanding of the region and cuisine. Most intriguingly, interspersed between the recipes are profiles and photographs of eight of the author's favorite shuks and suggestions on when to visit. VERDICT A colorful, flavorful tour of the many tastes of Israel, as well as many other Middle Eastern favorites, nicely packaged for home chefs.--Jennifer Clifton, Indiana State Lib., Indianapolis
Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
