I followed this recipe from the cookbook, but added the spaghetti to give the dish some volume. Mushrooms are not native to the Arab world and are a new introduction to their cuisine brought about by modern infrastructure. This salad, though, plays with traditional flavours with modern ingredients. The salad is wonderful and light. I chose to use oyster mushrooms; they are now easily available in India, and I love their subtle flavour. They add an earthiness to the salad that

One of my favourite spices is sumac; it has a sharp sourness and a bright colour that I cannot resist. Sumac is an old spice, its name derived from the Semitic root "smq," meaning "red". The name has undergone various transliterations, "Sumach in Latin and Old French, and "Summāq" in Arabic, illustrating the old heritage of this spice. The botanical plant is called Rhus coriaria, a plant that grows abundantly in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. One interesting fact abou

This is a light summer salad perfectly paired with roasted meats. The richness of the fatty meats is cut by this light salad, which also adds a wonderful crunch. This salad is also wonderful on the mezze table, its lightness cutting through the richer dishes and small fried plates. The freshness of the cucumbers is balanced by the basil's earthiness, and the dish finishes with a pop of tartness from the lime juice. It is a wonderful summer cooling dish. The Turkish Cookbook i