Thirty years ago, Claudia Roden's A Book of Middle Eastern Food was first published. The book was revised and expanded in 1985, acquiring the extended title, A New Book of Middle Eastern Food, and it has the voice, the background, the history, culture and attitudes of someone who has considered what they are doing. As does The Book of Jewish Food, published last year, which has so far won every food-writing prize imaginable.
Roden spent 16 years working on The Book of Jewish Food and found that "collecting recipes is like looking through a kaleidoscope with bits moving all the time, or trying to hit a moving target. It is the extraordinary diversity and richness that so attracted me to the subject 16 years ago, and its enormity and complexity that made me abandon it many times . . . When I decided (as I did several times) to give up, my editor, convinced me the only way to deal with the subject was to make the book a `personal odyssey', and to forget about trying to be comprehensive."
Alongside snapshots of Roden's family history and her own life, we are also treated to a book of extraordinary food culled from the four corners of the world, and a massive selection of dishes. For outsiders, she has effectively unveiled an entire cultural world, just as she did for the Middle East with her first book, and as she achieved with Mediterranean cooking with her book on that subject. "I suppose I do feel that wish, to open up a culture. Thirty years ago cookery writing was not considered worthwhile, and the Middle East was regarded badly by many people, who thought the food was nothing but sheep's eyes and testicles. And so I wanted to make the world attractive, to show how humorous the people were, and of course there was an element of nostalgia. That was also the case with The Book of Jewish Food: I wanted to explain to my children and grandchildren why I love it. If you don't know a world, you can't appreciate it."
The simple and obvious recipes are written down as they were told, and as such we can hear the voices and the histories of those who told their story to Roden. "At first I never went to restaurants," Roden says. "I remember working on the Middle Eastern book and ringing up the wife of the Moroccan ambassador. And she gave me lots of friends' addresses, and I asked: `Which restaurants should I visit?' and she said: `I have never been to a restaurant in Morocco!' Thirty years ago there simply wasn't a tradition of restaurants, even here."
She is faithful to the foods and recipes she hands down to us. "I'm not entitled to tamper with a recipe which might be hundreds of years old, and so while I may make things simple, I would never introduce anything foreign or strange into the food."
Claudia classics
Spanakopitta
Mediterranean Cookery, (BBC Books) with the television series that accompanied it, was one of the most significant books in opening up the flavours of the Med, and this is one of the quintessential Mediterranean dishes.
Serves 8
1 kg (2lb) spinach
1 onion, finely chopped
4 spring onions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil plus 6 more if using it to brush the pastry
4 tablespoons dill or parsley, finely chopped
4 eggs
250 g (8 oz) feta cheese
2 tablespoons kefalotiri or Parmesan cheese, grated
Large pinch of nutmeg
Pepper
500 g (1 lb) filo pastry
125 g (4 oz) melted butter (optional)
Preheat the oven to 190 C/375 F/gas mark 5.
First make the filling. Cut away the spinach stems and wash the leaves thoroughly. Drain and squeeze out the water, then shred the leaves. In a large saucepan gently fry the onion and spring onions in two tablespoons of the oil. Add the spinach, dill or parsley and stir until the spinach is soft and the liquid has evaporated. Allow to cool.
Beat the eggs lightly in a bowl. Add the feta cheese, mashed with a fork, and the kefalotiri or Parmesan cheese, the spinach mixture (drained of its juice), nutmeg and pepper and stir well. Brush a rectangular baking tin with oil or melted butter. The tin should be about 38 cm x 28 (15 inches x 11) or a little smaller than the sheets of filo.
Place half the sheets of filo at the bottom of the tin, one on top of another. Brush each sheet with oil or melted butter and let the edges come up the sides of the tin. Spread the filling evenly on top, fold over the edges of the filo dough and cover with the remaining filo, tucking the edges down the sides of the tin. Brush each sheet - and the top one generously - with oil or melted butter. Cut the pie into squares or diamonds with a sharp knife, but do not cut through to the bottom or the filling will leak into the pan.
Bake for about one hour or until the pie is crisp, golden and puffed up. Cut the squares or diamonds right through to the bottom and serve hot.
Gatto di Patate
From The Food Of Italy (Chatto & Windus): This book originally appeared in journalistic form, with photographs by Robert Freson, which did not make it into the book, unfortunately. I have cooked Gatto di Patate - potato cake - many times, and it is quite sublime. It is also very useful as a party dish.
1 1/2 kg (3 lb) floury potatoes
Salt
125g (4 oz) mozzarella, cut into small pieces 100 g (31/2 oz) provolone, preferably a sharp one, cut into small pieces
65g (2 1/2 oz) mortadella, chopped
65g (2 1/2 oz) salami, preferably Neapolitan, chopped
100g (3 1/2 oz) grated Parmesan
65g (2 1/2 oz) butter
4 egg yolks
Pepper
Good pinch of nutmeg
Breadcrumbs
Peel the potatoes, cut them in large pieces and boil them in salted water till soft. Drain and mash them to a puree. Mix well with the cheeses and salamis, the butter (leaving aside 1 1/2 tablespoons) cut into bits, and the egg yolks and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Butter a deep, oven-proof dish or cake tin and dust with breadcrumbs. Pour in the mixture, sprinkle the top with butter shavings and breadcrumbs and bake at 180C/350 F/gas mark 4 for about 30 minutes until golden. Turn out and serve hot.
Minty Carrot Chicken
From The Book Of Jewish Food (Viking): Among the strange wonders of this book is the story of the three Jewish communities of India. This recipe, from Cochin, is one of their marvellous creations. I think the garlic, ginger and chillies should be used in the dish.
3 large onions, sliced
3 tablespoons sesame or sunflower oil
2 Garlic cloves, crushed (optional)
Juice of 4 cm (1 1/2 inch) fresh ginger, crushed in a garlic press, or grated ginger (optional)
2 green chillies, slit and seeded (optional)
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 chicken, quartered, or 4 chicken pieces (skinned and boneless if you like)
Salt
600 g (1 1/4 lb) carrots, sliced lengthwise and cut into 1-inch lengths
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint leaves
Fry the onions in the oil till soft and golden, stirring occasionally. The next three ingredients - garlic, ginger and chillies - are optional. If you are using them, put them in now. Stir in the turmeric. Put in the chicken pieces and saute for about 10 minutes, adding salt to taste and turning the pieces over once. Then add the carrots and just enough water to cover.
Add a little more salt and cook uncovered for 15 minutes, or until the chicken and carrots are done and the liquid is reduced. Add the mint and cook for a few moments more. Serve hot with Indian bread or rice.
Imam Bayildi
From A New Book of Middle Eastern Food (Penguin): Imam Bayildi translates as "the priest fainted", though no one seems to know exactly why the dish should be so named. This is one of the great Turkish dishes.
6 long, medium-sized aubergines
150 ml (1/4 pint) olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar, or more
Salt
Juice of 1 lemon For the filling:
375 g (12 oz) onions 3-4 tablespoons olive oil 2-3 large cloves garlic, crushed Bunch of parsley, finely chopped 375g (12 oz) tomatoes, skinned, seeded and chopped
Salt
First make the filling. Slice the onions thinly. Soften them gently in olive oil, but do not let them colour. Add the garlic and stir for a minute or two until aromatic. Remove from the heat and stir in parsley and tomatoes. Season to taste with salt, and mix well.
Cut the aubergines in half lengthwise. They may be peeled or not, as you prefer. Scoop out the centres. Sprinkle the hollowed-out vegetables with salt, and leave to drain for at least half an hour (reserve the centre pulp for a stew or a salad). Then rinse each half with cold water and pat dry.
Fill each hollowed-out half with the filling and arrange the aubergines side by side in a large pan. Pour over them the oil and enough water almost to cover (about 150 ml/1/4 pint) mixed with a little sugar, salt to taste, and the lemon juice.
Cover the pan and simmer gently until the aubergines are very soft, about an hour. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Turn into a serving dish. Serve cold.