Saffron Shores: Jewish Cooking of the Southern Mediterranean

by Joyce Goldstein

Book Overview

Celebrated chef and author Joyce Goldstein has a gift for sharing her extraordinary knowledge of unusual and delicious cuisines in such an approachable and joyful way that they quickly become part of the home cook's repertoire. In Saffron Shores , she brings to the table the sensual aromas and exquisite flavors of the Southern Mediterranean in a celebration of its rich Jewish heritage. From Morocco comes a vibrant orange salad strewn with olives;...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811830527
• ISBN13: 9780811830522
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (CA)
• Length: 189 Pages
• Weight: 2.17 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 8.7" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Another great cookbook

I'm currently bulking up my Jewish and Kosher cook book collection. If you're doing the same, you NEED Joyce Goldstein's books. They photography is stunning and the recipes are easy to follow. The ingredients are easy enough to find and there's nothing too exotic. It's a welcome change from the massive amounts of Ashkenazim cookbooks on the market.

A Sephardic Splendor

This book is a MUST HAVE for anyone wishing to create a table that captures the Jewish cullanary experience of the S. Mediterranean.

Great purchase!

absolutely fantastic book. With a bookshelf of cookbooks I rarely use I was debating on purchasing this book. I am glad I did!

Spicy `Shores' of the Mediterranean

author of Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family from the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles November 29, 2002 Celebrated cookbook author and chef Joyce Goldstein can trace her bloodline to a Russian shtetl, but her heart and soul lie in the Mediterranean. In "Cucina Ebraica" (Chronicle Books, 1998) and "Sephardic Flavors" (Chronicle Books, 2000) she explored Italian Jewish and Spanish Jewish cuisine, and now, to round out the trilogy, in "Saffron Shores" (Chronicle Books, $35) she continues her Mediterranean culinary journey with the exotic cuisine of the Maghreb: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, even including related Judeo-Arabic countries like Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran. "I have been cooking this food for I cannot tell you how many years," said the former chef/owner of the renowned Mediterranean restaurant Square One in San Francisco. "When I was doing research for `Sephardic Flavors,' I realized the subject was so huge I couldn't do it all in one book, so I covered the northern Mediterranean in `Sephardic Flavors' and the southern Mediterranean in `Saffron Shores.' Here the style of cooking changes with a lot more spices and herbs and additional uses of fruit, but, of course, there is some overlap." Notable for its absence is Israeli cuisine. "I left it out because it's a hodgepodge," she explains. "The last time I was in Israel I was served sashimi and Thai-flavored something or other, and I thought, sorry, I didn't come here for that. Israeli cuisine is a melting pot, a lot like America. Whoever is there is cooking Romanian food, Italian food, Yemenite food. Is there Israeli cuisine? I think it's fusion, so I didn't give it much attention. It's not pure. I'd rather go back to the sources." Indeed, each recipe reflects Goldstein's impeccable research and attention to detail, and regional differences are carefully noted. For example, for the Cumin Flavored Meatballs, Goldstein offers Moroccan and Syrian variations. But she never sacrifices flavor for authenticity, adding a touch of orange to the sfenj (Moroccan Chanukah donuts), for example, and adjusting the spices in various dishes. "The spices of North Africa are really vibrant, just incredible, so much fresher and more intense than those we can buy here," she said. "To make these recipes taste right, I often had to double them." More than just a recipe collection, "Saffron Shores" traces the history of Jewish life in these exotic lands and its impact on the cuisine. We learn that unlike the Ashkenazim, who preserved their Judaism by isolating themselves, the Sephardim were more involved in the communities in which they lived. "They shared recipes and culinary traditions with their non-Jewish neighbors," she writes. "Their food reflected the cuisine of their homeland but adapted to follow the kosher laws." Because the Sephardim were more active in the community, in trades and in business, there was a greater exchange of ideas between Jews and Musli

Delightful Resource for KosherCuisine. Great for Foodies too

`Saffron Shores' is the first of Joan Goldstein's Jewish Mediterranean cuisine books I have read, and it is easily the best book of Jewish cuisine I have read and reviewed. I say this with the reservation that there are several books on Jewish cooking out there which have excellent pedigrees, such as Claudia Roden's `The Book of Jewish Food', so you may have to take my opinion with a grain of salt. That said, I still believe this is an excellent book on Jewish cooking and an excellent book on southern Mediterranean cooking. I am surprised this book makes no mention of the fact that that Ms. Goldstein is the author of a really excellent general book of Mediterranean recipes entitled `The Mediterranean Kitchen', published in 1992 by Morrow. While there are dozens of good, well-known books on Mediterranean food by a pantheon of authors headed by Paula Wolfert, Claudia Roden, Nancy Harmon Jenkins, and Clifford Wright, Ms. Goldstein has a light touch in all of her books which make her recipes especially easy to follow. The very first thing which impresses me about `Saffron Shores' after the delightfully designed dust jacket is Ms. Goldstein's history of the Jewish peoples after the Diaspora, especially the Shepardim who, unlike the Askenazim of eastern and central Europe, settled around the Mediterranean in lands dominated by the Arabic, Moorish, Berber, and Ottoman cultures of Islam. This essay goes far to explain the similarities between Islamic cuisines and the Jewish `dhimmis' who on average had a better time of things under Islam than their Northern brethren had under Christians. The next thing that impressed me and should impress you is the sketch of Jewish kosher dietary laws. As a gentile, what I knew about these traditions and laws was entirely based on hearsay. My only surprise with this description is that the primary categories of food (fleishig, milchig, parve) are named in Yiddish not Hebrew or Spanish or any other language more familiar to the Shepardim than the Askenazim. The kosher dietary laws are not only covered in general, they are also discussed as they are applied to the major holidays of the Jewish calendar, including the Sabbath, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Hanukkah, Purim, and Passover. `Saffron Shores' means primarily the modern lands of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, also known collectively as the Maghrebi. As such, reading this book immediately sounds like an echo of writings by Paula Wolfert. Among the appetizers are the classic chickpea preparations, olive dishes, and salt preserved lemons. I also detect Ms. Goldstein's drawing a bit outside the lines when she selects some dishes. The `Savory Pastries chapter includes dishes from Iraq and Lebanon. Closer to home, the Maghrebi, we have the b'stilla, a version of savory pie of North Africa which seems to pop up in some form or other in every Mediterranean land from Morocco to Armenia. Among soups, there are several recipes for specific holidays includi