Suqar

Love this book. A wonderful insight and uplifting look at Arabic cuisine.

I bought this book from Amazon as soon as it hit the shelves in early November. But I waited to write my review until I had personally tried and tested a number of the recipes.It’s been a long time since I bought a new desserts cookery book. With hindsight, I’ve stuck with Delia, Mary and Nigella for far too long and my ‘sweets’ repertoire had become as stale as a 3 day-old Victoria Sponge!So what made me decide to break out of the rut and buy a new book? Well, to be honest, it’s because I had the enviable delight of taste testing a number of the recipes in Suqar, whilst Lucy Malouf created her new delicious recipes for this book. Lucy would turn up each week to our Bridge sessions and bring along her latest creation for us to taste and critique. It opened up a whole new world of Middle Eastern sweets for me and I couldn’t wait to try some of the recipes for myself.First off for me to bake was the Pine Nut Toffee Tart with Orange and Rosemary. I’m not sure my version looked quite as fabulous as Lucy’s, but it was devoured by my book club friends and I had plenty of plaudits. If you have a sweet tooth, this is the recipe for you! I served it with the Scented Orange Cream and that has very quickly become a favourite in our household to go with almost any dessert or cake.Next off the pages was the Cream Cheese Ice Cream, which also went down well and makes a great accompaniment to a traditional Apple Pie.For Christmas day I made the Orange Blossom Possets with Pomegranate-Blood Orange Jelly. To give it a slight Christmas sparkle, I added some pomegranate seeds and a Holly Leaf to each one to decorate. Everyone said I must make it again and, even though I made more than enough, there were none left.Within a few weeks, the pages in my copy of Suqar are splattered with ingredients – always a sign of a great cookery book.There are so many recipes for puddings, pastries, ice creams, cookies, cakes, candied fruit and nuts in this book, that if I live to be 100, I doubt I will run out of ideas! It is such good value for money and even though not everything in there is to my taste, it is so jam-packed with recipes, there has to be plenty for everyone inside this delightful book. Go on, treat yourself. I’m glad I did.

I absolutely love my Suqar book.Greg Malouf is my favourite chef, and I am really enjoying learning and creating these beautiful recipes.My book was delivered really fast which was awesome.

I have yet to sample the recipies; but the book has been highly recommended.

Great book!!