Samarkand: Recipes and Stories From Central Asia and the Caucasus
Winner of the Guild of Food Writers Food and Travel Award 2017
'This is a book to delight food lovers, travel hounds and history buffs alike.' The Telegraph
'As an armchair traveler, I was led by Caroline Eden's firsthand account of journeys to the Uzbek city of Samarkand and other exotic destinations, then lured into the kitchen by Eleanor Ford's fine recipes' New York Times
'A particularly expansive and ambitious example of the genre. Imagine a Lonely Planet guide to Uzbekistan and beyond, with a hundred recipes.' LA Times
'I am LOVING it! So interesting to see so many familiar but also lesser known recipes! Beautiful pictures too! Love the styling! Love it!' Sabrina Ghayour
Over hundreds of years, various ethnic groups have passed through Samarkand, sharing and influencing each other's cuisine and leaving their culinary stamp. This book is a love letter to Central Asia and the Caucasus, containing personal travel essays and recipes little known in the West that have been expertly adapted for the home cook. An array of delicious dishes will introduce the region and its different ethnic groups - Uzbek, Tajik, Russian, Turkish, Korean, Caucasian and Jewish - along with a detailed introduction on the Silk Road and a useful store cupboard of essential ingredients. Chapters are divided into Shared Table, Soups, Roast Meats & Kebabs, Warming Dishes, Pilavs & Plovs, Accompaniments, Breads & Doughs, Drinks and Desserts. 100 recipes are showcased, including Apricot & Red Lentil Soup, Chapli Kebabs with Tomato Relish, Rosh Hashanah Palov with Barberries, Pomegranate and Quince, Curd Pancakes with Red Berry Compote and the all-important breads of the region. And with evocative travel features like On the Road to Samarkand, A Banquet on the Caspian Sea and Shopping for Spices under Solomon's Throne, you will be charmed and enticed by this region and its cuisine, which has remained relatively untouched in centuries.
Caroline Eden (Author)
Caroline Eden is a writer contributing to the travel, food and arts pages of the Guardian, Financial Times and the Times Literary Supplement. For BBC Radio 4's From Our Own Correspondent she has recorded stories from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Russia. She is also the author of three other books focusing on the former Soviet Union and the Turkic-speaking world, Black Sea (Quadrille, 2018), Red Sands (Quadrille, 2020) and The Land of the Anka Bird (Cornucopia Books, 2020).
carolineeden.com; Twitter and Instagram: @edentravels.
Eleanor Ford (Author)
Eleanor Ford writes about food, travel and recipes. She is also the author of Fire Islands: Recipes from Indonesia (Murdoch Books, 2019). Her writing has won awards from the Guild of Food Writers, Gourmand World Cookbook Awards and the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards.
eleanorfordfood.com; Instagram: @eleanorfordfood.