Happily planted in Yorkshire, Sabrina shares the food love
September very truly is my favourite food and produce month of the year but there is no denying, that for some, it may be bittersweet. Signalling the end of summer (and there is no denying that we actually had a blazingly hot one), it means the cooler months are on their way. I’m a winter baby, so for me this is literally the beginning of my favourite seasons of all.
The bigger news is that just a few weeks ago, I released my sixth cookbook called Persiana Everyday - afollow-up to my first, filled with super quick, simple and flavourful recipes using ingredients mostly available in supermarkets.
Now people often think that everything I cook is Persian but that simply is not true as I’d be a bit of a one-trick pony and not really able to make it to having six books published. Persiana Everyday is a nod to Persian, Turkish, Greek and Middle Eastern recipes with a few authentic recipes in the mix but mostly lots of my own full-flavoured simple cookery (and sometimes even no-cookery) recipes that are accessible and easy to pull together and fast.
Let me give you some background into how this little baby was written. It was winter 2020, I was (not) enjoying my very first experience of home-schooling my step children.
Christmas had well and truly been stripped of us, we went into yet another lockdown and I was basically close to losing my marbles. Recognise that feeling?
But despite the hardship, I did in fact learn a very valuable lesson - that there is always more room to simplify cookery. Not just in timing, method and process but in the number of ingredients and ruling out unnecessary and often pricey speciality items in favour of using ingredients like garlic granules and curry powder, in innovative and discreet ways that just boost flavour!
I have chosen a lovely selection of recipes for you to try. My Muhammara is a lovely red pepper dip using shop-bought roasted peppers in a jar with a few other ingredients, blitzed together in a food processor. So much joy and flavour for a few minutes work, then there is a lovely one pan aromatic beef and tomato rice, lamb and aubergine kebabs (baked in the oven) and one of those cakes that may feel very familiar to many of you, marble cake but with my Sabrina-twist of a little nutty tahini.
I will be popping up at various book shops in York, Ripon and other locations as well as appearing at Ilkley Literary Festival on Saturday October 22. I hope, if you love simple recipes, you’ll get out and grab a copy and get cooking!
MY MUHAMMARA
Although this is very different from any of the dips I usually make, it is utterly delicious. While the classic recipe uses walnuts, I prefer the robust crunch of roasted hazelnuts, and I like to cut corners by using ready-roasted peppers in brine.
Not only can Muhammara be used as a dip, i
