It’s a real pleasure to welcome Linda Dangoor back to CookbookCorner. Flavours of Babylon, her first book, is a fond favourite of mine, and From The Tigris to The Thames is likewise an exemplary showcase for Dangoor’s twin gifts as a quietly atmospheric storyteller and writer of inspiring but accessible recipes. It has, as the title indicates, a wider geographical footprint than her first book: it begins in her native Baghdad, and then travels, after Dangoor’s exile, to the various countries she has lived in since, taking in Beirut, London in the 60s and 70s, Ibiza and Spain, Paris, and then back to London again. It’s an autobiography told through food, a home cook’s odyssey, with recipes as wide-ranging as the life – or lives – they sustained: Amba (Pickled Green Mango Condiment); an express version of T’beet, the stuffed chicken cooked in rice, which here uses chicken pieces; Sweet and Sour Lamb and Quince Stew (Hums b’Sfargal); Chicken in a Pomegranate and Walnut Sauce (Fasenjun); herby green Falafel; a version of the onion, lentil and rice dish, Mujaddara that uses short-grain brown rice and Puy lentils; Smoky Red Pepper Salad (Ensalada de Pimientos); Authentic Aioli (containing just garlic, salt and olive oil); Celeriac Rémoulade; Aubergine and Courgette (aka eggplant and zucchini) pickle; Gluten-free Buckwheat Seed Crackers; Rice with Dates and Lentils; Poached Mackerel with Honey and Vinegar; the meltingly tender Middle Eastern shortbread biscuits, Shakar Lamab/Ghraybeh; the Balearic sweet bread, Ensaimada; Cream Cheese and Yogurt Cake; Tarte Tatin with Nectarines and Apricots; and Slightly Sweet Seed Clusters.
The recipe I’ve chosen to share with you today is from the French chapter, and is just perfect for now. It’s the Courgette (Zucchini) Gratin – or Gratin de Famille – that, Dangoor declares, emanates from kitchens up and down France “during the summer months when there is an abundance of courgettes”.
From The Tigris To The Thames: Flavours of a Journey by Linda Dangoor (Green Bean Books, 2025).
Photos by Linda Dangoor.
