OLIVES LEMONS & ZAATAR:THE BEST MIDDLE E - Tapa dura

It's no big surprise that we've been drooling over the pages of Rawia Bishara's beautiful new cookbook Olives, Lemons and Za'atar. Taking inspiration from her cosmopolitan childhood growing up in New York and holidaying in the Med, Rawia has created a book full of cross-cultural cooking. With chapters dedicated to breakfast, mezze, salads, soups and stews, main courses, sides, pickles and sauces and desserts you're guaranteed to find something to satisfy your spice craving. For a fresh but filling salad the classic tabbouleh is a must try, packed with fragrant parsley and sweet plum tomatoes, no mezze would be complete without it! Or for the ultimate winter warmer the spiced lamb shanks are perfect. Tender slow cooked meat in a richly spiced sauce, all that's needed is a crispy warmed flatbread and you have the ultimate comfort food.--Grace Parry "Eat. Travel. Live "

Every time I go to Tanoreen, my vegetarianism flies out the window. My favorite item on the menu is the lamb-stuffed baby squash. The dish is elaborately flavored--the yogurt is sour, the spices sweet, the lamb gamy and the squash earthy. This interplay of flavors is found throughout Bishara's menu, and also in her new cookbook, Olives, Lemons & Za'atar, published this spring. The tome is as colorful as the cuisine it depicts, with photos of the Nazareth hillsides, family picnics and open-air markets. Under the heading, "The Pantry," is a list of ingredients--pomegranate molasses, bulgur, mastic sumac and many others--essential for concocting the dozens of breakfast dishes, mezzes, salads, soups, stews, mains, pickles, sauces and desserts found inside the book.--Naomi Zeveloff "The Jewish Daily Forward, 4/13/2014 "

The recipe below, from the newly released cookbook Olives, Lemons & Za'atar by Rawia Bishara of Brooklyn's acclaimed Tanoreen, is an authentic reflection of traditional Middle Eastern versions.--Shannon McCook, The Perfect Summer Peach Muffin "Parade.com, 4/7/2014 "

Her roots and experience make it easy for home cooks to navigate. It's well written and filled with stories of her childhood, one in which her mother made her own goat cheese, distilled vinegar, dried herbs and made olive oil and then used the crude remains for soap. There is much in this book for the vegetarian to adore. There's falafel and all the favorite mezze dishes from hummus to baba ghanouj; salads including tabouleh, as well as veggie stews; homey egg dishes; and an amazing array of sauces that will keep cooking interesting. Peter Cassidy's beautiful photographs in Nazareth and of the food are worthy of note.--Gail Ciampa, Journal Food Editor "Providence Journal, 4/28/2014 "

Rawia Bishara's new cookbook, Olives, Lemons & Za'atar, keeps the family in mind. Like so many home cooks I know, it's clear through Bishara's stories and recipes that her food comes from a place of love for feeding family. Though the finished dishes are foreign and exotic, they ring with notes of familiarity. She builds flavors using ingredients you already know and love (and probably already have in your pantry) as the foundation, then dresses them with a Middle Eastern finish you can't resist. Maybe that's the elegance of well-written international cuisine: At the root of every dish you can find something fairly familiar. Eggplant, an American farmers-market favorite, takes on new life in Eggplant Salad, Eggplant Napoleon and Stuffed Eggplant in Tomato Sauce. Chickpeas prove they're good for more than just making hummus. Try them in her Chickpea and Fava Bean Breakfast. Though, if we're being fair, Bishara's hummus recipes are exquisite as well. She gives readers recipes for everything from stocks and sauces to the larger dishes you'll use them in, like the vibrant and fresh Lamb and Vegetable Soup. Ease yourself into Middle Eastern food slowly, with a recipe that feels familiar to you and your family, then build your repertoire from there. Give the Brussels Sprouts with Panko (below) a try to begin, and watch your culinary world open right up.--Mallory Viscardi, Olives, Lemons & Za'atar -- Off the Shelf "Food Network Blog, 7/18/2014 "

'A food business needs love and care, ' says Rawia Bishara, chef and co-owner of Tanoreen, a popular Middle Eastern restaurant in Brooklyn. 'I don't think anything is harder than this if you're doing it like you're supposed to -- with love.' Bishara, 59, would know, she opened her restaurant in 1998, and her cooking continues to draw praise from food critics. Earlier this year she published a cookbook collecting Palestinian recipes from her childhood in Nazareth.--Rawia Bishara and Ousila Rafai: Serving Up a Labor of Love "Feet in 2 Worlds, 9/5/2014 "

Outstanding Cookbooks of 2014 Can Change Lives - Olives, Lemons & Za'atar, by Rawia Bishara, Kyle Books, 224 pages, $29.95 Rawia Bishara is a Palestinian Arab chef from Nazareth, Israel, who runs a Brooklyn restaurant called Tanoreen. Her place has been awarded a Michelin star despite its downmarket focus: Middle Eastern home cooking. Her recipes are relatively simple and focus on building flavor from humble ingredients. Legumes like chickpeas and lentils get plenty of play, useful for building meatless suppers. Lamb, chicken and fish are presented in both traditional and innovative forms. Israel is far away, but Bishara's cuisine, shaped in Brooklyn, uses ingredients Americans should be able to find.--Andrew Z. Galarneau "The Buffalo News, 12/9/2014 "

Bishara's cooking combines Middle Eastern techniques with Mediterranean flavors. But she takes cues from other cuisines, too. An eggplant napoleon is an ode to its principal ingredient, as well as an inspired marriage of textures: layers of feathery fried eggplant rest daintily between smears of baba ghanoush. Musakhan--flatbread topped with sumac-spiced chicken, slow-cooked onions, and almond slivers piled high, and sliced like a pizza--is a near-perfect harmony of sweetness and pungency.--Katherine Stirling, Tables for Two "The New Yorker, 7/5/2010 "

Olives, Lemons and Za'atar [is] the story of how the food of a Nazareth childhood became destination cuisine. [Rawia Bishara's] food has been called 'narcotic, ' but now there's relief for some of the far-flung junkies.--Katherine Lanpher "Aljazeera America, 2/14/2014 "

For 16 years, Bishara--whose first name means 'storyteller' in Arabic--has been telling stories through the recipes she serves up at her popular Bay Ridge restaurant, Tanoreen. Now, Bishara is really living up to her name by putting those dishes down on paper, with her debut cookbook, Olives, Lemons & Za'atar. The book, which Bishara will sign at the BookMark Shoppe on March 4, is comprised of 135 recipes that celebrate her Middle Eastern roots, while also spicing up some old favorites. For Bishara, creating dishes that are delicious is more important than being entirely authentic. A staple in Bay Ridge since 1998, Tanoreen's menu is inspired by the food that Bishara, a Palestinian, experienced growing up in Nazareth in northern Israel. Fans of the eatery will find many of their favorite dishes in Olives, Lemons & Za'atar--such as Bishara's knafeh, her take on a sweet cheese-filled pastry, which was featured on the Food Network show "The Best Thing I Ever Ate." But Bishara also concocted many new recipes just for the cookbook.--Sarah Iannone "Brooklyn Daily, 3/3/2014 "

Draws on the co-author's food-loving Palestinian-Arab family life in southern Galilee and her experiences as the proprietor and chef of Brooklyn's Tanoreen restaurant to present a collection of traditional, adaptable Middle-Eastern recipes, including Red Snapper in Grape Leaves and Cheese Knafeh.