About the Book
A Finalist for the 2022 James Beard Foundation Cookbook Award (International)
Shortlisted for the André Simon Award
Longlisted for the 2022 Art of Eating Prize
A New York Times Best Cookbook of 2021 - A Guardian Best Food Book of 2021 - A Simply Recipes Favorite Cookbook of 2021 - A WBUR Here & Now Favorite Cookbook of 2021
The acclaimed author of Zaitoun returns with vibrant recipes and powerful stories from the islands that bridge the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
For thousands of years, the eastern Mediterranean has stood as a meeting point between East and West, bringing cultures and cuisines through trade, commerce, and migration. Traveling by boat and land, Yasmin Khan traces the ingredients that have spread through the region from the time of Ottoman rule to the influence of recent refugee communities.
At the kitchen table, she explores what borders, identity, and migration mean in an interconnected world, and her recipes unite around thickets of dill and bunches of oregano, zesty citrus and sweet dates, thick tahini and soothing cardamom. Khan includes healthy, seasonal, vegetable-focused recipes, such as hot yogurt soups, zucchini and feta fritters, pomegranate and sumac chicken, and candied pumpkin with tahini and date syrup.
Fully accessible for the home cook, with stunning food and location photography, Ripe Figs is a dazzling collection of recipes and stories that celebrate an ever-diversifying region and imagine a world without borders.
About the Author :
Yasmin Khan is an author and broadcaster who is passionate about sharing people's stories through food. Her critically acclaimed cookery books, The Saffron Tales and Zaitoun, chronicle her culinary adventures through Iran and Palestine, sharing recipes and stories that celebrate beauty and the power of the human spirit in regions more commonly associated with conflict. Before working in food, Yasmin was a human rights campaigner for a decade with a special focus on the Middle East. Ripe Figs is her third book.
yasminkhanstories.com / Twitter: Yasmin_khan / Instagram: yasminkhanstories
Review :
Once again, Yasmin Khan invites her readers to the table for both the dishes she serves and the stories she tells. The two must always go hand-in-hand, of course, for behind every dish there is a person, a family, a journey, a narrative: a story of movement, change and migration. Yasmin also manages to strike a tough balance: between serving food which is delicious and celebratory at the same time as telling hard-hitting (but also hopeful) stories
Food writing at its best: Yasmin Khan brings the people and stories behind these recipes to life, paying due respect to the hardships as well as the joy in what is a moving and beautiful book
You will want to make the dishes in this book because there's a reason to (other than that they taste good), because there's context, stories, people. This is a book with understanding, an appreciation of difference and a lot of love at its heart
One of the best food writers around
An inspiring, joyous, celebration of food and migration. Beautifully written and delicious. I love this book
Here is what Yasmin Khan does better than almost anyone: dive deep into the cuisine of a specific region of the world to create a compendium of recipes, stories, interviews, and stunning photos that transport you (with all five senses engaged) to that place. I know that sounds like a tall order?and even a little bit cliche?but somehow Khan manages to pull it off again and again, with depth, generosity, and a palpable love of listening and learning
Reading Ripe Figs, Yasmin Khan's moving and beautiful follow-up to her acclaimed cookbook Zaitoun, conjures images of clear skies, turquoise seas, and meze-laden tables filled with marinated olives, charred flatbreads, and grilled fish doused in lemon. It also pushes you to think deeper about the ever-diversifying Eastern Mediterranean, specifically Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus, where millions of refugees have arrived since armed conflicts drove them from their homes in 2015
A book of hope, sunshine and good food, it also shines a light on the plight of refugees in this diverse region
A brilliant cookbook that reveals the often overlooked plight of refugees and immigrants. Yasmin is a masterful storyteller who reminds us to keep an open heart and mind
Part cookbook, part travelogue, Ripe Figs is a celebration of the food of Greece, Turkey and Cyprus ... Shines a light on migration and the eastern Mediterranean's refugee crisis
A book of hope, sunshine and beautiful food, it also shines a light on the plight of refugees in this diverse region
There's many a plum-coloured, tearshaped fig in Yasmin Khan's new cookbook, Ripe Figs. More so though, there is strength, pain, hope, heroism, loss, and lots and lots of olive oil.
The book is a celebration of food but is also dedicated to migrants and the resilience of the human spirit because, even in challenging periods, people can always find communion around the kitchen table
Glorious photographs illuminate the recipes - nothing fancy, just what you'd hope to find in a taverna on a Greek island or in a remote village in Anatolia ... A master storyteller
Stunningly illustrated, Ripe Figs features over eighty vibrant recipes in which vegetables, fruit, herbs, spices and nuts play a starring role, including spiced cornbread with feta, Afghan spiced pumpkin, and pomegranate and sumac chicken
