Host An Unforgettable Book Club Party

Boregs are traditional Middle Eastern filled pastries. The dough is paper-thin phyllo and the stuffing, though usually cheese, can be just about anything. This recipe is made with crumbled feta cheese, Parmesan cheese, and chopped baby spinach.

I have grown to appreciate tahini over the past couple of years. I love it in hummus and sauces, and I also have a pretty great tahini cookie recipe. So image my delight, as I was working on an Armenian menu for my book club post on The Sandcastle Girls, when I came upon tahini bread. I couldn’t wait to bake a batch of these tahini-filled sweet yeast breads topped with toasted sesame seeds. Delicious!

Armenian baked goods are quite a treat and these cookies, called mamoul, are no exception. The egg-shaped mamoul is stuffed with a nut filling, baked to a light golden brown and dusted with powdered sugar after baking. These cookies simply melt in your mouth.

Lamb loin chops are the most tender chops on the lamb and are, therefore, more expensive. However, they are well worth the extra expense. Lamb loin chops resemble little t-bones. They are best cut thick and grilled or broiled to medium-rare or medium doneness.

Joy the Baker recently posted a wonderfully, scrumptious Dark Chocolate, Pistachio & Smoked Sea Salt Cookies recipe on her website. (Joy adapted her recipe from Smitten Kitchen.) At about the time I was finishing off the last cookie, I began work on my post for The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian which is partly set in Syria during World War I. I wondered if I could play with this recipe and give it a bit of an Armenian/Middle Eastern twist. Joy’s recipe already had pistachios and sea salt, so I added some orange flavor and substituted the dark chocolate chips for bittersweet chocolate chips. The result: WOW!

A spicy tea from Afghanistan made with cardamom, ginger and cinnamon.

Halwa, meaning “sweet”, is typically made with butter, flour and sugar. This halwa is made with vegetable oil, semolina flour, sugar and cardamom.

Appetite pleasing spicy chickpea and tomato soup.

Chapatti is an unleavened bread from Northern India and Pakistan. It is similar to a tortilla and a perfect side dish for any soup or stew.

These delightful Persian treats are light and crispy. This recipe is adapted from the recipe found in Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran.