Bat Bot /Moroccan Bread and a Book Review

Grandmas are best cook in the world; they don’t have any fancy pastry training, chef training. Still they make best dishes. They don’t worry about calories; substitutions still makes healthy delicious food. Yes my Grandma was a best cook. When she comes to visit us, mom will clear the kitchen for her so that she will cook and mom does the cleaning and other things. So when I got a chance to review this book”In Her Kitchen: Stories and Recipes from Grandmas Around the World by Gabriele Galimberti I garbed it immediately.

Author Gabrele Galimberti of book”In Her Kitchen: Stories and Recipes from Grandmas Around the World” travelled around the world and collected stories and recipes from the 58 grandmas. This 250 page book is about cuisines of 5 of the 7 continents. The Author is photographer however photos are simple without any expensive photo styling or props. For each recipe there are 4 pages dedicated to it, first page includes the photo of grandma with ingredients spread around a table in her kitchen. Second page photo of dish she made .Third page includes her name and place and details about her in a paragraph. 4th page has recipe. There are 58 recipes in this book. Starting with Swiss chard and Ricotta Ravioli with Meat sauce ( Italy ) there are chicken vindaloo from (India) and also with some interesting ingredients like Finkubala/Caterpillars in tomato sauce (Malawi) and Honduran Iguana with rice and beans ( Cayman Islands). Last recipe of the book is also from Italy, Triamisu all toscanna.
I tried a simple bread recipe Bat bot /Berber Bread baked in a pan (Morocco). Only problem I found that recipe uses so much yeast. For a 4 cup all purpose flour using 1 ½ tablespoon yeast will make the bread so yeasty tasting. So I have to reduce the amount yeast while trying it. Since I am bread enthusiast I was able to figure it out easily but if you are novice you will find it difficult.
Recipes are written in vague manner than as expert version, may because of the different languages the some tips are lost in translation. Also book contains more non-vegetarian recipes than the vegetarian recipes. These are the vegetarian tamales( Mexico), Queso Humacha,( Bolivia) , Mujadara( Lebanon) , Spinach and cheese pie( Greece) Ratatouille from (France) Sadza( Zimbabwe) Koshari ( Egypt).
What I like about the book is a fun project, traveling around the world and connecting with people and collecting the stories and recipes. This is a simple cookbook with simple photos. It is different from usual cookbooks with breathtaking photography of dishes. In Her Kitchen is simple story cookbook you can read it in a kitchen table also enjoy some home cooking which is not depicted in any other cooks. More like traveling around the countries and learning cultures and cuisines.
I tried simple Moroccan bread Bat bot from the book. It is made with just flour, water, yeast and salt. Also bread is cooked in stove top. It is simple and delicious bread give it try sure you are going to like it. Try with some spicy curry.

*"I received complimentary copy of this  book from Blogging for Books for this review."*

Swathi

This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread.  All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.