Happy with these outcomes. I followed the recipes very precisely except with the arak, which is an anise-flavored spirit that was supposed to inflect the tomato-fennel sauce for the squid. I’m going to be honest: I love the taste of fresh fennel and I really don’t like Pernod and other fennel-based alcohol. I don’t like them for themselves and they tend to overpower any cocktail, even in very small amounts. So I really didn’t feel like picking up any variation on anise-flavored alcohol just for this purpose.
I’m inclined to focus on the sticky buns, which I liked a lot. A relatively simple prep in the context of the end product, and really delicious. The dough was easy to work with, and the amounts on everything felt extremely precise in a good way. (I really hate baking recipes where the add-ons like a caramel or spicing or nuts are ill-matched to the amount of dough you’re working with.)
The squid was good, but even for me as a fan of squid I might do it differently next time. I felt it needed a much harder cook on a pan or a grill with the bulgur wheat-sausage stuffing being fully cooked before the sear and then a spicier, more reduced tomato sauce on top of that, maybe? It was a bit bland. Maybe that’s me skipping the arak or Pernod.
Loved the flatbread recipe. It produced some different outcomes to some similar recipes I’ve used from other books, in a good way. I put spiced lamb, herbs and feta on some; onions and bell peppers on others; and some pesto I had around on a third set. All good.
There are a lot of cookbooks in this space, and she’s competing with many that might be your go-to book on particular recipes or preparations, but I think it’s worth giving this book a try. As I said, I think her take on her food and her experiences as a chef is worth the effort to read it, in addition to the recipes.