Salma Hage, a Lebanese housewife from Mazarat Tiffah (Apple Hamlet) in the mountains of the Kadisha Valley in North Lebanon, has over fifty years' experience cooking. Learning to cook from her mother, mother-in-law and sisters-in-law, and, helping to bring up her nine brothers and two sisters, taught her well how to cook for the whole family. She has also spent many years working professionally as a cook and is the author of The Lebanese Kitchen (to be reissued in June as The Lebanese Cookbook), The Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookbook and most recently The Mezze Cookbook: Sharing Plates from the Middle East.

 

This title may be Salma's most approachable to date with 140 recipes that are simply prepared and meant to be shared. Mezze is similar to tapas where dishes are prepared and presented in a manner which triggers those gathered around the table to slow down and start conversations all while experimenting with different flavors from the many offerings.

Kale and chile rolls, Cod goujons with garlic dip, and Fried potatoes with preserved lemon and mint are a few examples of the recipes you will find here. The pastries and breads chapter offer Sweet blessed buns, Halloumi-stuffed loaf, and Spinach and walnut tartlets. Salma finishes up with sweets and drinks which highlight all the flavors of the Middle East with recipes for Tahini brownies, Arabic coffee mousse, and Rose and cardamom shortbread. There is something for everyone in this stunningly photographed book.

Our  takes you inside this title and features the following 

 

Special thanks to the publisher for providing the materials for our EYBD Preview above as well as offering two copies of this book in our giveaway below. Please remember Eat Your Book members receive 30% off Phaidon titles when using the link provided.

The publisher is offering  two copies of this book to EYB Members in the US, UK, CA and AU. One of the entry options is to answer the following question in the comments section of this blog post.

Which recipe in the index would you try first?

Please note that you must be logged into the Rafflecopter contest before posting or your entry won't be counted. For more information on this process, please see our step-by-step help post and this forum post. Once you log in and enter your member name you will be directed to the next entry option - the blog comment. After that, there are additional options that you can complete for more entries.

Be sure to check your spam filters to receive our email notifications. Prizes can take up to 6 weeks to arrive from the publishers. If you are not already a Member, you can join at no cost. The contest ends at midnight on April 14th, 2019.