Yashim Cooks Istanbul: Culinary Adventures in the Ottoman Kitchen

Yashim the Eunuch

by Jason Goodwin

Inspired by Jason Goodwin’s bestselling mystery novels, YASHIM COOKS ISTANBUL conjures a feast of Istanbul flavours, with dozens of recipes from meze and soups to pilaf, stews and fish. Recipes are combined with beautiful pictures and entertaining extracts from his thrillers.
Among classics like imam bayıldı and şiş kebab, readers will find less familiar recipes for beetroot pilaf, baked lamb, nettles and yogurt soup. There are instructions on how to prepare a sheep for forty people, klephtic style, and how to stuff mackerel.
Authoritative, entertaining and instructive, YASHIM COOKS ISTANBUL takes readers on a tour of traditional foodways in the eastern Mediterranean.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking

224 pages, Hardcover

Published October 27, 2016

About the author

Jason Goodwin's latest book is YASHIM COOKS ISTANBUL: Culinary Adventures in the Ottoman Kitchen.
He studied Byzantine history at Cambridge University - and returned to an old obsession to write The Gunpowder Gardens or, A Time For Tea: Travels in China and India in Search of Tea, which was shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Award. When the Berlin Wall fell, he walked from Poland to Istanbul to encounter the new European neighbours. His account of the journey, On Foot to the Golden Horn, won the John Llewellyn Rhys/Mail on Sunday Prize in 1993.

Fascinated by what he had learned of Istanbul's perpetual influence in the region, he wrote Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire, a New York Times Notable Book. 'If you want to learn,' he says, 'write a book.' Lords of the Horizons was described by Time Out as 'perhaps the most readable history ever written on anything.'

Having always wanted to write fiction, he became popular as the author of the mystery series beginning with The Janissary Tree, which won the coveted Edgar Award for Best Novel in 2007. Translated into more than 40 languages, the series continues with The Snake Stone, The Bellini Card, An Evil Eye and The Baklava Club. They feature a Turkish detective, Yashim, who lives in 19th century Istanbul.

YASHIM COOKS ISTANBUL is an illustrated collection of recipes, inspired by the cookery in his five published adventures.

Reviews

[Irka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of good and tasty recipes. I've tried:
-yoghurt soup
-bean salad
- kuru fasulye

And I can't wait to try others :)

[Alex Kinney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found some of the recipes themselves interesting enough, and others...included in the book for flavor, I guess, but even the author acknowleges that you are unlikely to want or be able to make them yourself. Add to that what felt to be slightly orientalist writing in the story interludes and you get a very meh cookbook. I cant help but feel as though the author found his writing to be far more poetic that it really is, to the point it really doesn't add much to the cookbook itself.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be fair, I don't generally read cookbooks cover to cover. I consider them generally. This one is spun off of a mystery series I've quite enjoyed. (It even seems to count as one of them, though that seems odd.) The protagonist, Yashim, is a wonderful cook. The descriptions of his cooking are part of what I like about the series.

Those descriptions are repeated here along with actual recipes. I'm not sure I'll be making these--I'm not the right sort of cook. But it was interesting enough to leaf through.

[Stephen Simpson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid recipes, including some that are not very common at all in other Turkish cookbooks, with simple instructions, generally easy-to-find ingredients, and ample pictures. The drawback? There are a lot of "classic" Turkish dishes that are not included, so this is definitely not a "core" cookbook. Also, the story interludes between recipes might entertain some, but I found them annoying.

[Monique Corbeil · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful book! I used it as a coffee table book; the description of the recipes and stories related to them are so interesting. To my surprise, the ingredients included in the recipes are easy to find in Montreal and really easy to execute Furthermore, the book itself is a real jewel.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gonna buy it! Full of great recipes along with the passages from the books where Yashim or another character prepared them.

[Dray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this cookbook has many somewhat rare recipes, its the stories that are the real draw.