Honey & Co.: The Cookbook

Wonderful recipes with the lovely backstory on how the couple met, fell in love and started their business. A bit pricey, but after checking the book out of the library, I knew it would cost me more to copy all the recipes I wanted than making the purchase!

I have found this cookbook delightful to read for the stories of a marriage, their restaurant as a joint endeavor, and the authors' evident love for food and respect for their guests. To my practiced palate, the recipes sound good. They seem both traditional and inventive. I'll be making a lot of them.I have tried only one recipe--the zucchini-dip--but it is a keeper. I will make it all summer long.

Brief review and then an index =--------------------------------------= The author recommends the "mushroom and cumin sfiha" as the dish to cook if you're only going to cook one dish from this cookbook. So of course, that's the first dish I made. It's good, but it's not great. I think he's wrong about it being the best dish out of all these dishes. Full disclosure, I adore mushrooms but I am not tremendously fond of cumin as the primary flavor. I then made the "borekitas", which are headed by a cute, brief story about developing the recipe that happily also offers a variety of alternate filling possibilities if you want to experiment. These are delicious, and closely mimic the borek a Turkish friend made for me, so I'm quite happy to have a recipe to make personal-sized boreks. Both authors worked for restaurants within the Ottolenghi group. That influence and cooking style is very much present here. Even the book style, with the plush cover, is similar. However, this couple clearly has their own ideas about food. The food in Honey & Co spans a different range of recipes and regions than the Ottolenghi cookbooks do. The recipes in this book are approachable and my Israeli roommate would be delighted if I cooked them all. Since Amazon hasn't posted an Index yet for this book, and it doesn't appear in the Kindle version, I'll briefly cover the recipe selection. The book is broken into sections, where the beginning of each section tells part of the story of the authors meeting, falling in love, opening this restaurant, and the history/life in the restaurant. These stories are well-written and do a great job on conveying the personality of the chefs and the atmosphere of their restaurant. Welcome: Basic Instructions Base recipes Sweet spice Baharat Whole preserved lemons Preserved lemon slices Tahini Zehug Everything Mezze: Raw & Cured: Uri buri prawns Lamb kubbe nia Sea bream kubbe nia Sardines cured in vine leaves Mackerel cured in oil Cured sea bream with pomegranate juice Fresh veg. mezze Canned & Pickled: Cucumber pickle Sweet beet pickle Moroccan carrot pickle Canned peppers Canned artichokes Pink turnip pickle Tumeric cauliflower pickle Pickled chilies Bread: General notes Pita Bukhari bread Potato bread Ashtanur Griddle bread Lavoush Milk bun Dips, spreads and purees: Hummus Mashawsha Dinosaur eggs Matbucha Butternut & tahini dip with roasted hazelnuts Celeriac puree with burnt yogurt Zucchini dip with yogurt and mint Muhamra Baba ganoush Labaneh Baked & fried: Falafel Jerusalem-style falafel Haifa-style falafel Yemeni-style falafel Carrot & butternut fritters Zucchini & herb fritters Feta & spring onion bouikos Borekitas Cracked: Basic bulgar wheat Tomato & pomengranate tabbouleh Apricot & pistachio tabbouleh Crunchy root veg. tabbouleh Green tabbouleh salad Couscous & chickpeas in ras el hanut Kisir Fresh salads: Fig, goat cheese & honey Tomato & za'atar fatoush Beets & plums with rose-walnut dressing Artichokes and kashkaval Jerusalem water salad Spring salad Watermelon & feta Big Itzik Poached quince with curd cheese Peaches & goat cheese Light dinners: Lamb siniya Sea bream with grapes, cucumber and yogurt Beef kofta Pomegranate molasses chicken with bulgar wheat salad Prawns with orange, tomato & cardamom Lamb salad with Georgian plum sauce Mint & lemon chicken with apricots and potatoes Red mullet with artichoke and preserved lemons BBQ beef with tomato salad on griddle bread Pan-fried chicken liver with grapes on griddle bread Roasted sea bream with spring onions on griddle bread Rolled & wrapped: Beet kubbe soup Whole stuffed chicken with freekeh, almonds, pinenuts Gundi Stuffed vine leaves Stuffed sardines Mishmishiya Makshi Meatballs with peas, mint & yogurt Meatballs in sweet/sour/spicy tomato sauce Dushpra - cherries, lamb & sweet spice dumplings Slow cooked: Slow-cooked lamb shoulder Short ribs with dates, date molasses & potatoes Ox cheeks with quince and bay leaf Oxtail sofrito Patlican - lamb & eggplant stew Octopus in meshwiya sauce with celery salad Musakhan Madfunia Chicken pastilla Lamb shawarma Veggie: Mujadra with salad and tahini Mushroom & cumin sfiha Medias Isreali couscous, peas, preserved lemon, mint, goat's cheese Butternut stew with dumplings Cauliflower "shawarma" Veg. moussaka Badargani - eggplant rolls with walnut & pomegranate Eggplant sabich Savory cheesecake Dessert: Basic pastry Feta & honey cheesecake Chestnut cake with salted caramel sauce Marzipan and almond cakes with roasted plums Saffron and lemon syrup cake Honey parfait White chocolate, pine nuts, olive oil, & candied lemon zest Chocolate, cardamom & bitter orange Yogurt mousse with cherry & pomegranate granita Cherry, pistachio & coconut cake Marzipan cookies Maamool cookie Drinks: Cold drinks: Base sugar syrip Orange blossom iced tea Lemonade Elderflower cordial Roasted strawberry & rose iced tea Jasmine & green melon iced tea Plum & vanilla iced tea Quine & cinnamon iced tea Hot drinks: Hot cinnamon & rose infusion Persian lemon & fennel infusion Mint tea Turkish coffee

Fantastic cookbook! The recipes are nuanced and delicious, as well as being easy to follow. Every recipe we've tried has been delicious; the eggplant sabich is a favorite.

We made our first entree, lamb meatballs in a mint lemon yoghurt sauce with peas from this cookbook. Delicious! We are looking forward to trying many more recipes. Seller sent it in a timely fashion and in near new condition. Very pleased overall.

This cookbook is like the homey, comfy cousin to Ottolenghi's cookbooks (for whom they used to work). Still exciting, but somehow more approachable. I've made the pomegranate molasses chicken and Bukhari bread, and they both were great. Especially the bread, which you "go all Edward Scissorhands" on it and snip up into peaks and valleys, for lots of crunch and golden-brown tastiness when it's baked. Almost all the recipes look like something I'd want to make (if only I didn't have so many other cookbooks)---it's definitely a must-have for me.

Wonderful personal stories and recipes.

I really like this cookbook, their storytelling is beautiful and touching, and the flavor combinations are fantastic. The only difficulty I had was that there were occasional missing instructions in the recipes - how high to have the heat of the burner, whether or not to cover a pan while it is cooking for a long time, etc.