Flatbreads and Flavors

Flatbreads and Flavors is my favorite cookbook. It is by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. They've written a few more good cookbooks since then, but to me, nothing compares to their first. They have flatbread and other delicious recipes from India, China, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and the Americas. This is worth checking out from the library, or getting on ILL, or even buying. I once read that if you get at least one recipe from a cookbook, it was a worthwhile purchase. Well, this one has been worth it for my family!

Some of our family favorites are the batia roti from India on page 130 and the Uyghur naan on page 31. In fact, I took the naan to some Uzbek friends one time and they said it was pretty authentic- just a little undercooked. :) I also make the chilequiles (384) and tortilla soup (382)often. I use the pizza dough (334) as our standard recipe for pizza, although the boys prefer different toppings. I could list quite a few more delicious recipes from this book, but this is enough for now.

But my favorite thing about this cookbook are the memories it brings back. On my first day out in the Old City of Jerusalem, we stopped and bought some bread rings that we dipped in zatar, a Middle Eastern spice mix. When my husband was in Cairo a few years ago, he brought some zatar back, but I didn't know how to make the bread rings. When I got this book, I found the very recipe I had been looking for! It was wonderful to sit with my husband and dip the bread rings into zatar and remember my first day in Jerusalem. Even though I ate them again in the Old City, they will always remind me of the first day there.

I have a few other cookbooks that bring back memories like this. I'll post about them in the future.