The food has immediate “eat me” appeal’– Diana Henry, Sunday Telegraph’s 20 Best Cookbooks To Buy This Autumn Simply" is a cookbook with Persian-style recipes. The recipes look delicious, but I do have some questions about the ingredients. For example, what is "za'atar?" It's in my spelling dictionary, but I have never heard of it. A vendor cooking satay meat skewers at her stall in the Lau Pa Sat food centre. Singapore has announced that it will be nominating its hawker culture, comprising over 6,000 hawkers who provide street food local dishes, for a Unesco's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Hawker centres were started in the 1970s in Singapore by moving street vendors into purpose-built facilities. There are over 110 such hawker centres in the country. The announcement is reported to have angered some Malaysians, as both nations share a long street food culture heritage and similar dishes I have made nine of the recipes so far and only one didn’t quite cut it (lamb and mint kofte p78 since you ask - needed something more).

Simply by Sabrina Ghayour | Goodreads Simply by Sabrina Ghayour | Goodreads

I didn’t try any of the ‘Cakes, Bakes and Sweet Treats” section, as I tend to prefer savoury dishes, though did make the ‘Coriander & feta spiced loaf’. Sabrina’s introduction showcases her passion for her job, promising that all recipes have been tested… and tested… and tested again to keep them as simple and easy as possible. She mentions how she has learned from her readers what they enjoy most about her recipes and has adapted to focus on those aspects. Sabrina also encourages readers to substitute or omit ingredients and to experiment with the recipes to suit their own tastes. Sabrina Ghayour recipes from Simply: Easy Everyday Dishes Slow-cooked butterbeans with oregano, tomatoes and garlicStill, I did not feel deprived when I got to work on some of the other dishes. Ghayour’s recipes are always full of taste. In her brilliant book, Bazaar, she sometimes got carried away by her love of rose harissa. In Simply, many of the dishes I attempted had in common preserved lemons, tahini and the zest and juice of a plump lime. Transfer to a mixing bowl, add the cumin seeds and goats’ cheese and mix together until evenly combined. Brush the base of a 24cm round ovenproof dish or cake tin with a little vegetable oil. Lay a pastry sheet lengthways in the dish or tin with the ends overhanging the sides, then lay another pastry sheet widthways in the same way. Divide the chorizo filling in half. Fold the overhanging pastry into the centre, then gently crumple up the remaining 2 pastry sheets and arrange them on top. Brush all the exposed pastry and edges with beaten egg and sprinkle over the nigella seeds.

Flavour: The new recipe collection from the SUNDAY TIMES

The book is subtitled ‘easy, everyday dishes’, and for most of the recipes that is true. We did have one disaster – the ‘Tahdig e Makaroni’ looked fantastic in the book, a mince sauce encased in a spaghetti mould, but was impossible to get right. We ended up with something that looked like spaghetti Bolognese, but did not taste as good. Sabrina Ghayour's new collection of unmissable dishes in her signature style, influenced by her love of fabulous flavors, is full of delicious food that can be enjoyed with a minimum of fuss. With sections ranging from Effortless Eating to Traditions With a Twist, Simply provides over 100 bold and exciting recipes that can be enjoyed every day of the week. I did find some of the recipes a bit sweet for my taste, and tended to cut the sugar content by at least half. I also used crushed fresh garlic instead of the stated garlic granules. This is the second cookbook by Sabrina Ghayour that I have bought. While ‘Persiana’ (as the title suggests) is specifically about Iranian food, this book is more Persian and Turkish (and other cuisines) inspired cooking, often adapted to suit the availability of ingredients in Europe, and to be straightforward to prepare and cook.Each recipe has a photo (all the good books do!) – I love the simplicity of plating, with food pictured in the tray it was cooked on, or nestled in baking paper, all of which adds to the authenticity of the book. Most recipes also have a ‘simply delicious with’ section which refers to other recipes in the book that would make a good pairing. There is so much confidence in this book, that it even outlines which salt to use (Maldon sea salt flakes, in case you’re interested). Nasi lemak is a Malay fragrant rice dish cooked in coconut milk and pandan leaf. Traditionally, Nasi lemak is served with a sambal (hot spicy sauce) and usually includes various garnishes, including fresh cucumber slices, small fried anchovies, roasted peanuts, and hard-boiled or fried egg A woman prepares yomari, or Nepalese steamed dumplings, in Lalitpur. Yomari consists of an external cover of rice flour and an inner content of sweets known as chaku and the mild-based khuwa. They sell for about 65 Nepali rupees or 60 US cents per dumpling. The yomari were traditionally prepared as a specialty dish by members of the ethnic Newari community in Nepal for their festival, but demand became so great that they are now sold throughout the year. According to myth Kubera, the Hindu god of wealth and prosperity, liked the yomari so much upon tasting it that he foretold anyone who makes it will be blessed with wealth and prosperity

Simply by Sabrina Ghayour | Hachette UK Simply by Sabrina Ghayour | Hachette UK

Including Green hummus; Kabab koobideh; Persian tahchin; Tahdig e macaroni; Mamen Maleh’s borscht; Adas polow Read about more of my favourite new cookery books on London-Unattached. I’ve just been reading The Food Almanac by Miranda York, which comes highly recommended if like me you enjoy reading about food as much as discovering new recipes to try. And, Flavour byYotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage has given me a great new set of recipes to try too. I could easily eat my way through every recipe in this book and I’m really excited to try things like ‘Polow-e-bademjan-o-felfel’, a crispy rice dish with aubergine, and ‘Silk Road-style lamb and cumin pasta’, which sounds like nothing I’ve had before. If you’re in the market for a cookbook with plenty of simple and tasty dishes , ‘Simply’ by Sabrina Ghayour is a worthy contender. Recipes from Simply A man sells baozi, or Chinese steamed meat buns, at a business district in Beijing. The traditional Chinese dish is commonly eaten as breakfast. The baozi are steamed over high heat in a bamboo steamer. According to the legend, baozi has a long history, as it was invented by the Chinese military strategist Zhuge Liang during the Three Kingdoms period (third century AD) The food has immediate "eat me" appeal' - Diana Henry, Sunday Telegraph's 20 Best Cookbooks To Buy This AutumnA street food chef prepares bang trang nuong or Vietnamese pizza at a street food stall in Hanoi. Vietnamese pizza is a thin sheet of rice paper with many kinds of toppings, such as beaten egg, sausage, cheese, dried pork, and is a popular Vietnamese street food