Falastin: our book

Falastin is a new kind of Palestinian cookbook: a contemporary collection of over 110 recipes we hope you’ll cook, eat, love and make your own. It’s the culmination of Sami’s lifetime obsession with Middle Eastern food and cooking – born and raised in East Jerusalem, relocated to London in his late twenties, and a founding member of Ottolenghi – and Tara’s decade-long obsession with Middle Eastern food and home cooking – raised in London and adopted into the Ottolenghi family.

The recipes come, therefore, from all sorts of places. Some are those Sami grew up with and which will always remind him of home. His father’s easy za’atar eggs, for example, or his mother’s buttermilk fattoush. Others are those most Palestinians grew up on: classics such as chicken musakhan or the upside-down rice cake, maqlubeh. One recipe – that for hummus – remains untouched from when Sami first published it in his second cookery book, Jerusalem. After all, there are some things that can’t be played around with or improved upon.