I Can Cook Cooking is a rewarding and lifelong skill With some basic cooking knowledge a little practice and great recipes you can cook entire meals Cooking for your family and friends is a fun activity and a mouthwatering meal can take you to places that you have never been Are you ready to have fun cooking and eating A World of Food Every day people all over the world cook delicious and nutritious meals What they cook depends not only on the ingredients available to them but also on their country's food culture or cooking style A country s style of cooking is shaped over time by its culture economy climate and the land itself Cook Your Way Around the World You can explore the great cuisines of the world in your own kitchen The special flavors and wonderful aromas of a countrys food culture come from fresh ingredients and particular spices or herbs which you can find in your local supermarket or a specialty store Share with your family and friends authentic dishes from different countries that look great and taste even better You can cook mouthwatering food from different countries by following a few simple steps Some recipes involve combining just a couple of
A Healthy way Cooking Middle Eastern Food American and British medical studies have shown that Middle Middle Eastern food refers to the delicious food Eastern cooking styles can help to prevent health problems such as diabetes and heart disease An cooked by people living in the countries surrounding the Persian Gulf and some Northern African countries It blends local ingredients with European Indian and other Asian influences to create unique flavors Israeli study has also shown that they help people to lose weight effectively Flavors of the world Though the countries of the Middle East all have distinctive dishes there are many common ingredients and cooking styles These include the use of wheat barley garlic lemon and parsley along with dates nuts and spices All of these ingredients help to create healthy satisfying and aromatic foods Tabbouleh shish kebab and pilaf are well known Middle Eastern dishes Cooking Middle Eastern Food At Home You can cook a Middle Eastern dinner for your family easily at home How about a simple couscous dish followed by a tangy orange sharbat for dessert This book has seven recipes that you can follow to cook a meal on your own or with a little help from an adult Some of the recipes don t even involve cooking The recipes can be adapted to suit special diets too IORTH AMERICA EUROPE ASIA MIDDLE EAST The Middle East is a group of countries to the south and east of the Mediterranean Sea AFRICA AMERICA AUSTRALIA Sharbat or sherbet is a Middle Eastern summer favorite unlike the sherbet known in western cultures sharbat is a drink rather than a frozen
Middle Eastern Food Basics Traditions and Styles The Middle East is located between Europe Asia and Africa Over many centuries great civilizations have built the foundation of Middle Eastern cooking traditions and styles including the Mesopotamian civilizations and the Persian and Ottoman empires Traders also brought ingredients from Asia Africa and Europe to the Middle East Dates left figs center and almonds right are native to this area and commonly used in Middle Eastern cooking The Birth of Middle Eastern Food The first civilizations in the world to grow wheat developed in an area called Mesopotamia modern day Iraq between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for at least 10 000 years They also used staple foods such as barley pistachios figs and dates Between 550 BCE and 330 BCE the Persian Empire ruled the area adding rice poultry and fruit to Middle Eastern food The wandering Bedouin desert peoples introduced meat stews dairy products grapes almonds and coffee and Arab traders brought back exotic spices from Asia Later Influences The arrival of the Ottomans 1200s 1800s ce also saw the introduction of rice pilafs and honey flavored sweets North African foods such as couscous common in Morocco and Algeria spread to the Middle East and from the 1600s CE new foods from the Americas such as tomatoes and beans were introduced through Europe During the 1900s CE Jews settling in Israel brought dumplings and other northern European
Middle Eastern Sweets Regional Food Certain flavors ingredients and cooking methods are common throughout the Middle East However every country has its own specialties or a twist on favorite dishes The map below shows some of the countries that make up the Middle East and discusses the ingredients and special foods that are popular in each The distinctive ingredients Middle Eastern sweets are honey nuts and floral essences Baklava is a pastry filled with chopped nuts and drenched in honey Slivers of plotact top crunchy toffee in sohan and soft Turkish delight is often favored with rose water Turke Ira Iran Persian rice with lamb chicken or fisht served with vegetables and many types of flatbread Fresh or dried fruit such as plums apricots pomegranates and quince are popular Persian ice cream pictured and pastries are typically flavored with rose water mint and cinnamon Small meze lappetizer dishes begin meals known for dolmas of lamb and chicken stuffed or wrapped kebabs sausages vegetables pictured and and stews along with Black Sea masgouflgrilled spicy fish bread and rice Thick strong Turkish cof or cinnamon scented tea pictured is served TURKEY afterward Popular street food includes pizza like pide bread rings and chestnuts SYRIA LEBANO Mediterranean Caspian Sea Israel ISRAEL Syria and Lebanon Kibbe ground meat and crushed wheat paties or rolls is a Syrian specialty Lebanese food is often flavored with lemon and garlic and includes spicy kofta lamb meatballs and baba ganoush leggplant dip pictured Israelis KUWAIT families have always lived in the Middle East cook spicy EGYPT BAHRAIN QATAR SAUDI ARABIA UNITED ARAB EMIRATES people who have rigrated recently from northern Europe GULF STATES Red Sea Yemen recipes including blintzes pancakes pictured and honey YEMEN uses spicy mixtures such as hawajat and the chili and garlic based zhug The national Yemeni dish saltah la spicy meat stew eaten with flatbread pictured was influenced by Ottoman Turkish cuisine Gulf states Indian spices are widely used in the Gulf State countries because of a large Indian migrant population Seafood such as shrimp lobster and fish is popular as are lentils For dessert custard with cardamom rose water pictured is a favorite Egypt In Egypt falafels Ispicy bean patties pictured are as as creamy chicken
