Tekebash & Saba by Saba Alemayoh

 Tekebash & Saba by Saba Alemayoh


Recipes from the Horn of Africa

Tekebash & Saba by Saba Alemayoh is published on the 9th March 2023 by Murdoch Books. My thanks to the author and publisher for sending me a copy to review and to Random Book Tours for inviting me to take part on the Tour.




Synopsis

From Tigray to the world, a love story through food.

This is not your regular cookbook.

The recipes are a legacy of Tekebash Gebre, my extraordinary mother.
Tekebash was born in Tigray, under the rule of the last Ethiopian emperor.
She lived under a communist regime before fleeing to Sudan.
Since then we have been on a migration journey, from Aksum to Khartoum to Melbourne and beyond.
Our hearts, however, will forever be Tigrayan, and through Tekebash's simple, vibrant dishes we celebrate a connection that won't be broken.
It has been my privilege to translate and record what Tekebash cooked by taste, touch and memory for several years in our Melbourne restaurant.
It's our story, and it's my tribute.
But it will also resonate with anyone who knows the unceasing pull of a distant homeland and the comfort of its food.

Dilik Spices


My Review

This is one of those beautiful books which serves two purposes, in fact make that three as the cover to the book is also beautifully embossed and enhanced with Gold outlining. The first is a wonderful story about the lives of Saba and her mother in Ethiopia and their history, which is mainly linked around the food of her homeland. The second is a collection of mouthwatering, delicious recipes that give you an insight into Ethiopian food and flavours in a way that you will have never experienced before.

My husband and I had so much enjoyment researching and finding some of the ingredients in order to create the dishes for this review, and I thought we already had a well-stocked spice cupboard and larder before we started!!!! i will be honest and say that some ingredients are not incredibly easy to source in the UK and consequently we made a couple of substitutions in the recipes that we tried. Also rather than using the injera  recipe in the book I researched another recipe that was both quicker to make and didn't need the specialist, expensive flour that could only be ordered online, however, I did keep the recipe gluten free.

As you can see from the photographs and write- ups below the recipes are very varied  and I particularly like the fact that the recipes cater for coeliacs as was Saba's ethos in her Melbourne restaurant.

Dilik



Tesmi

The Dilik and Tesmi looks a lot ( we did reduce the quantities in the dilik recipe to 20% ) but both keep for a long time in the fridge and are used in many of the dishes featured in the book. Dilik is a beautiful spice blend which is the base for a beautiful aromatic pumpkin stew Duba ( In the bowl on the plate), Birsen ( In the orange bowl). These two dishes along with a Derek Kulwa a beef and capsicum stir fry ( on the plate) gave us a wonderful experience of Ethiopian food and the urge to try even more of the delicious dishes Saba and her Mother have created.


Duba, Birsen, Derek Kulwa

Surprisingly these recipes are fairly mild, with just a hint of heat and consequently they appealed to all family members without any adaptations.

Derek Kulwa


There are also some lovely cooked and refreshing salads in the book including Keysir Salata a wonderful beetroot , potato and bacon salad that I couldn't resist finishing off for breakfast the following morning with a couple of lightly fried eggs on top and a handful of spinach. Needless to say this has become one of my "go to" for any meal staples over the last couple of weeks - though I do cheat and cook the beetroot in the microwave !!!!

Keysir Salata


To summarise this is a beautiful recipe book that will always have a place on our kitchen shelf and we are already planning a lot more of these dishes to try in the very near future. For me the spices and flavours of Ethiopian food, a cuisine I did not know anything about, has opened up a whole new world of meals for our family and friends to enjoy on a regular basis.



About the Author

Born in Sudan, to Ethiopian parents, Saba arrived in Australia in 1999 with her mother when she was nine.

After finishing school, Saba joined the Australian Army and was a part of the first era of women in the Australian Army to go into combat.
After the army, Saba opened an eponymous restaurant in Melbourne's Fitzroy.
She worked front of her house while her mother, Tekebash Gebre cooked the food of her homeland by memory, taste, and instinct in the kitchen.

Tekebash was born in Tigray, under the rule of the last Ethiopian emperor, who was overthrown in 1974 by a communist military government backed by the Soviet Union.
She became a refugee in Sudan at the time of the rebellion during the transition in the 1990s from communism to a democratic government.
After the closure of the restaurant, Saba relocated to Lagos, where she works in music and arts events and curates art shows.

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