Not every travelogue cookbook comes with cheery Instagram pictures touting “Look at what a lovely time I’m having! Don’t you wish you could be here with me?” While Yasmin Khan aimed to make her newest cookbook, “Ripe Figs: Recipes and Stories from Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus,” a story of borders, refugees and survivors, her own personal story seemed to get in the way.
Having suffered a miscarriage only two weeks before starting off on her journey, Khan found herself unable to initially connect in the ways she hoped to the cities she grew up loving. Instead she starts her book by opening her heart to us, sharing her sorrow as she finds her better choice is to first care for herself. To sit on her balcony in Athens eating ripe figs — because these remind her of childhood, her home and her community. Of being loved and feeling safe.
My love of cookbooks stems from their ability to transport me to a new time, place and culture. While an author may take me to the Tuscan coast, the Balkans, Iceland or Japan, it all circles back to me and my kitchen. A new cookbook takes a previously unknown world of food and connects it to my own personal journey.
But what of the personal journey of the foods themselves? What of the story of the comfort of ripe figs traveling from Athens, Greece through Khan’s London home to the table in front of me? Or the plates of griddled fruit served with dollops of tangy yogurt and drizzled with honey? How might a recipe carry the story of refugees as they uproot their lives and travel across the Eastern Mediterranean seeking a safe place to restart?
As Khan shares the journey of ingredients and flavors carried through the region from the time of the Ottoman Empire until today, her efforts to interweave travelogue, education, self-reflection, recipes and the stories of varied people into one proves seamless. She is open and relatable, and her journey is echoed in each dish.
There’s something tangible in the roasted chicken thighs marinated in pomegranate syrup, sumac, allspice, tomato, garlic and Aleppo pepper. This recipe was inspired by Mahmud Talli, a Syrian doctor and refugee to the Greek island of Lesvos, where he now runs his restaurant and volunteers at a local community center, aiding new arrivals to the island. The dish feels alive, sweet and comforting, yet also determined in the feisty sour and spicy flavors of the pomegranate and Aleppo pepper.
There’s a lot to unpack in the conversations Khan has over plates of braised lamb and okra or rose-infused cordials — stories of racism, civil war, frustration, anticipation, globalization, borders and hope. She shares all these with grace and dignity. I feel privileged to continue her journey beyond the pages of “Ripe Figs” and into my own kitchen — to the conversations her dishes spark at my own table and, hopefully, yours.
Who should buy this? Lovers of good writing and Mediterranean flavors.
“Ripe Figs”
By Yasmin Khan
W.W. Norton & Co. 304 pages. $35.
Erin Pride-Swaney is a home cook who loves cookbooks and writes about them on her blog, Edible Shelf. For more on the specific recipes Pride-Swaney tested, visit her Instagram @edibleshelf.
Smoky lima beans
Lima beans — also called wax or butter beans — hold up to longer cooking times, “making them perfect for slow-cooked stews,” Khan writes. Khan makes this dish on the stove-top for speed, but says that alternately, you can transfer the beans to an oven-safe dish, cover with foil, and bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. The feta is optional, but it does add a salty creaminess that is perfect foil for the smoky beans.
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 (14.5 ounces) can diced plum tomatoes
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1½ teaspoons dried oregano
1½ teaspoons sweet paprika
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 (15 ounces) cans lima beans, drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon shy of 1 cup just-boiled water
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped dill, plus more to serve
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley leaves, plus more to serve
⅔ cup feta cheese, crumbled (optional)
Salt and black pepper
Heat the vegetable oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and gently fry over medium heat for 12 to 15 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and cook for another few minutes, then add the tomatoes, sugar, oregano, both types of paprika, the cinnamon, 1 teaspoon salt, and a generous grind of black pepper. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the beans to the tomato sauce with the hot water and another ½ teaspoon salt. Cover and cook over low heat for 30 minutes.
Stir in the extra-virgin olive oil and herbs and cook for a final 5 minutes. Taste, adjust the seasoning, and sprinkle with more herbs, and with crumbled feta if you fancy it, just before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Makes 4 servings as part of a mezze, or 2 to 3 as a main course.
Pomegranate and sumac chicken
I love a great tray bake, and this one fits all the sticky-fingered flavors of a good barbecue, but with Mediterranean flair. Line your tray with aluminum foil to help with clean up. The pomegranate syrup can be ordered from Amazon (along with sumac and Aleppo pepper) if you have trouble tracking it down. You can also find the syrup at Whole Foods. Try The Spice House in Lynnwood for Aleppo pepper and sumac, or a specialty grocery store.
For the chicken:
8 large skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
3 tablespoons olive oil
For the marinade:
3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
1 tablespoon tomato paste
½ teaspoon ground allspice
2 teaspoons Aleppo pepper
1 teaspoon sumac
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
2 fat garlic cloves, crushed
Salt and black pepper
Place the chicken in a large bowl and pour all the marinade ingredients over it with 1½ teaspoons salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper. Using your hands, massage this into the chicken until it is evenly coated, then cover and transfer to the refrigerator to marinate for at least 3 hours.
When you are ready to eat, take the chicken out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature (this will take about 20 minutes).
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Place the chicken on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with the olive oil. Transfer the sheet to the oven and roast for about 35 minutes, or until the juices from the chicken run clear when it is pierced at the thickest part.
Makes 4 servings.
— Recipes reprinted from “Ripe Figs” by Yasmin Khan with permission from W.W. Norton & Co.
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