Lugma: Abundant Dishes And Stories From My Middle East
SynopsisPlot
For Noor, as a chef and co-author of two Ottolenghi Test Kitchen cookbooks, her career has been centered around taking bites of food and analyzing them to create the perfect dish. Raised in Bahrain and now based in London, Noor takes you on a culinary journey to celebrate her own food culture. Her recipes are inspired by the foods of her upbringing: the elaborate rice dishes and black limes of the Gulf, an abundance of herbs and sour flavours from Iran, liberal spice and chilli heat from India, and the vibrant foods of the Levant—to create a unique collection of traditional and re-imagined dishes from the Middle East.
Story
About this book
Lugma is a cookbook by Noor Murad, a chef raised in Bahrain and now based in London. The Arabic word lugma refers to a bite of food, and Murad has built her career around tasting and refining dishes. She previously co-authored two Ottolenghi Test Kitchen cookbooks, and this collection turns toward the cooking traditions she grew up with in the Gulf region.
The recipes draw on several overlapping food cultures. Gulf cooking contributes elaborate rice dishes and black limes, a dried ingredient that adds a sharp, earthy sourness. Iranian influences appear through herbs and sour flavors, while Indian cooking brings spice and chilli heat. Levantine traditions add another layer of fresh, bright ingredients. Murad presents both traditional preparations and her own adaptations, shaped by years of professional kitchen work in London.
Bahrain sits as a small island nation in the Persian Gulf, and its food reflects centuries of trade links with Iran, India, and the wider Arab world. The book uses that geographic position as a starting point, treating Murad's personal background as a way to organize a broad and varied set of Middle Eastern dishes rather than limiting the scope to a single national cuisine.
