Egyptian Flavors: 50 Recipes

Offering a broad range of dishes, this slim volume by Egyptian cooking blogger and YouTuber Dyna Eldaief manages to include the classics anyone familiar with Egyptian cuisine will expect. Thus, you'll find recipes for koshari (lentils and noodles in tomato sauce), roast chicken stuffed with fireek (green durum wheat grains), shar'riya bi-l-laban (sweet noodle pudding-like kugel) alongside instructions for baklava, falafel, stuffed grape leaves, baba ghanouj and other options that share wider Middle Eastern provenance. On top of that, Eldaief also features less well-known Egyptian dishes, from Egyptian petit fours (pettifore, traditional jam-stuffed butter cookies dipped in chocolate, often served during holidays) to the thin-sliced, breaded and fried cuts of lamb or veal known as bané or Egyptian schnitzel. All told, the variety of dishes and easy-to-follow instructions make for a good basic cookbook, perfect for those looking to expand their culinary horizons.