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Samia Abdennour
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Egyptian Cooking: A Practical Guide Paperback – June 1, 1998

by Samia Abdennour (Author), Abdennour Samia (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 24 ratings
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Originally published in Egypt, this ever-popular guide to Egyptian cooking has now been revised for a North American audience. Egyptian cuisine has been influenced by several Mediterranean culinary traditions, including Turkish, Palestinian, Lebanese, Greek and Syrian. These nearly 400 recipes, all adapted for the North American kitchen, represent the best of authentic Egyptian home cooking.

From appetizers to desserts, some recipes included are `Arnabit musa a'a (Moussaka Cauliflower), Samak bi-l-tahina (Fish with Tahina Sauce), Kosa matbukha bi-l-zabadi (Zucchini Stewed in Yogurt), and Lahma mu'assaga (Savory Minced Beef). The chapters included are Mezze, Breakfast, Main Courses, Sweets and Desserts, Beverages, Kitchen Utensils, and Spices. This classic cookbook also includes a glossary of Arabic terms for ingredients, translated into English, and useful tips on shopping and using traditional cooking utensils.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    199 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Hippocrene Books
  4. Publication date
    June 1, 1998
  5. Dimensions
    5.75 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0781806437
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0781806435
  8. See all details
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About the Author

Samia Abdennour is the author of the bestselling Egyptian Cooking and Other Middle Eastern Recipes (AUC Press, revised edition 2005).

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hippocrene Books (June 1, 1998)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 199 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0781806437
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0781806435
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 24 ratings

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Samia Abdennour

Samia Abdennour

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
24 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Bronwyn Fletcher-Evans
5.0 out of 5 stars We have favourite recipes that we use all the time
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2015
Verified Purchase
Have used this book for many years. My husband originally bought a copy in Egypt but we unfortuneately either lost or misplaced from moving several times. Although the cover is now different the content is the same. We have favourite recipes that we use all the time.
Thank goodness there was a photo of the old cookbook on the site as we recognised the photo of the Egyptian man with bread on the front. We would have never guessed this was one and the same. Thank you
One person found this helpful
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Isis S. Mikhail
5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic for Egyptian Cooking
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2001
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This is a must have cookbook for anyone interested in Egyptian cuisine. Samia Abdelnour selected a variety of recipes that are easy to prepare with ingredients that are available locally. She cleverly included a glossary explaining the different foods, spices, kitchen utensils and also some useful hints. This is a value priced book considering the amount of recipes included in it. I have other Mediterranean cookbooks, but I find myself using this one more often. It's size makes it also very handy to use in the kitchen.
13 people found this helpful
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Karie L. Hansen
4.0 out of 5 stars Egyptian Cuisine
Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2010
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I am very happy with this cookbook. I look forward to cooking these recipes. I have had a few Egyptian meals and fell in love with their cuisine.
One person found this helpful
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Nevine Boktor
5.0 out of 5 stars we both love it.
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2017
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I have this book already, purchased it for a friend. we both love it.
One person found this helpful
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Khalil E. Barsoum
5.0 out of 5 stars Classical Egyptian, excellent guide book.
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2019
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Classical Egyptian, excellent guide book.
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kimberly al abid
5.0 out of 5 stars excellent
Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2013
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I bought this for someone marrying an egyptian and I almost kept it for myself. It had a lot of recipes that are useful.
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Kevo
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2015
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Love it. I've made two dishes and one desert..
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Sofia White
3.0 out of 5 stars No frills instuctions, good for basics of egyptian cooking....
Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2007
Verified Purchase
I've had this book for a couple of years now. This is a good book that gives a lot of Egyptian recipes made by every-day Egyptian people. I recognize many, many of the recipes as ones that are made by my husband's family. So I feel it is a pretty good source for the basics.

That being said, it leaves much to be desired with the instructions, which would be difficult for someone who doesn't really know how to cook or isn't already familiar with Middle Eastern cooking. For example, the recipe for Ta'maiya, or Falafel instructs you to soak the beans overnight, then drain and "mince" with dill, coriander, etc... Now if I took that literally and attempted to "mince" those items with a kitchen knife, the result would be a disastrous effort in futility and frustration. I know that I need to "mince" them in a food processor, and not your garden variety food processor, you need a good one (i use the cuisinart), to do it, otherwise you will quickly tire out your motor, and will have to process this recipe in about 8 batches, with rest time between each (like I used to do when I had a smaller Oscar food processor). Not to mention that she does not give any indication of how finely the mixture should be minced. This is one example of where some prior knowledge of Egyptian or Middle Eastern cooking (or cooking in general) is necessary to be successful at cooking some of her recipes.

The set up is also a bit annoying, with the recipes numbered, and indexed that way (the index gives the number of the recipe, maybe #198, which just happens to be on page 95.) This is hard to get used to and I can't imagine why it was done this way, unless that is the way cookbooks are written over in Egypt. Not to mention that you may have to do some running around as one recipe's ingredient list may have you running to 3 or 4 other recipes.

She has a good glossary, and list of spices in English and Arabic which is helpful, as well as a list of kitchen utensils that are used in Egypt.

Some of the ingredients are not accurately translated, such as "Tomato Juice" in the recipe for Tomato sauce, stewed. I am pretty sure that she is not referring to Campbell's tomato juice or V-8, instead it should be tomato sauce (like from the can), all the Egyptian people I know that make this dish use the tomato sauce from the can.

I felt that the biggest drawback of this book was, after having read it nearly cover to cover, was that there were hardly any recipes I was "dying" to try out. Usually when I read a cookbook, by the time I get to the end, I have a bunch of scrap papers stuck here and there marking recipes I'd like to try. Not so with this one. Maybe more pictures would have helped, maybe a little more "tasty" of a description, I don't know....something to tickle your taste buds and get you feeling a little hungry.... Perhaps some of the dishes were too mundane (would you want a basic American cookbook with directions for grilled cheese sandwich, scrambled eggs with salt and pepper, or mashed potatoes? This might be helpful if you wanted to know about the basics of everyday American cooking but not so appealing to actually hurry up and try to make)

The directions were too instructive, often 3 or four lines, and not written in a way that made the dishes sound appealing. (no one could guess how delicious ta'maiya is by reading the recipe, and that is unfortunate because there are probably countless delicious recipes in this book that just don't sound that great)

For example, minced meat with vegetables:

Mince beef with vegetables (in this case beef, onion, tomato, parsley, S & P) twice or pound until smooth. Shape into fingers, skewer, and grill basting 1-2 times with cooking oil, or shape into round cakes and fry.

I don't know about you, but I am not running out to the grocery store to get the ingredients to make this tonight!

This is a good basic Egyptian cookbook. There are few of them out there, so if that is what you are looking for specifically, get it because there is little else to choose from (believe it or not, one month after I bought this on Amazon, my father in law showed up with the exact same book that he had bought in Egypt!), and this does give you the basics of Egyptian cooking. I have ordered her other cookbook to see what's in it, as well as another Egyptian cookbook that I just spotted on Amazon. I am interested to see how both of those turn out to be.

If I was rating this book solely on the fact that it is specifically an Egyptian cookbook, I would have given it five stars based on the fact that it is only one of three I have found (one of the others is written by this author)

If I was rating it as a cookbook in general I would have probably have given it 1 or 2 stars because of the above comments.
9 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Houssein Gawad
5.0 out of 5 stars Right on recipes
Reviewed in Canada on May 24, 2019
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100% authentic
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HTW
1.0 out of 5 stars Appalling
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 12, 2005
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I was very excited when I ordered this book and thought an Egyptian cookery book by and Egyptian writer is the best way of finding out the right way of cooking delicious Egyptian food. I was however very sadly mistaken and certainly so disappointed that I felt I must write this review. This book is nothing short of appalling and a con. I am Egyptian so luckily I know some cooking principle not least of all is seasoning. This book rarely have any seasoning instructions. The recipes are awful and so sketchy they are more marginal than anyone can imagine. If you are not familiar with Egyptian cooking or if you are new to cooking generally then this book is the wrost start. You will be ill advised to cook any of the recipes or attempt them if you have family members or friends you want to feed. You should not use this book even to cook for yourseLf. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK it is the worst buy ever. I have never written a review in my life although I love books and quite often buy books from Amazon but I felt so strongly about this book I felt I must advise others. So if you buy this book you only have yourself to blame. This book has no relation to Egyptian cooking, does not give you the correct recipes, the recipes have only a fraction of the ingredients listed, the receipes are sketchy and all in all this book should be withdrawn from the market. I wanted to rate it -5 stars but unfortunately I did not have this option and was even unable to rate it zero as again this option in rating selection was not listed. The writer and the distributor and the printer should be ashamed of this book.
45 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on November 3, 2016
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great product and quality service.
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