Sirocco: Fabulous Flavors From the Middle East

Sabrina Ghayour

If you can’t get away this winter, travel the world from home with British-Iranian chef Sabrina Ghayour’s Sirocco. Packed with gorgeous photographs, Sirocco is a treasure trove of recipes from the Middle East and Mediterranean.

The book is broken down into breakfast, snacks, sides, mains, and sweets, and almost every recipe has an accompanying picture that perfectly captures what the finished dish should look like. Surprisingly, most ingredients will be easy to find, although a few recipes call for more exotic elements, like nigella seeds for the Spiced Beet Yogurt, or rose harissa for the Loqmeh Spiced Lamb Kebabs. Potential drawbacks are the small font used in the book, the format of the recipes themselves (paragraph style instead of a numbered list of instructions), and it may bother some home cooks that there is no estimated time included for preparation. Overall, Sirocco will make a vibrant addition to your kitchen.