Mother’s Day gifts for food lovers

Jane Jeffes

Everyone has a different idea of the perfect Mother’s Day but for many of us it involves food: preparing a special feast; gathering family in the kitchen and around the dining table, trying something new, chatting and laughing, solving the world’s problems.

Maybe it’s an occasion to eat out. For letting someone else cook. Or just for putting your feet up and finding future inspiration in a book – maybe about the joy of food!

Maybe as you read this, you’re thinking of making this Mother’s Day on Sunday May 14 special. Maybe making a weekend of it. Maybe thinking of ideas to spoil your mum, wife, daughters, sisters, in-laws, friends… gifts they might enjoy as a special thanks for all they do.

Recipe books make some of the best presents – in particular those that are part food and part people, place and history, feeding hunger for travel, knowledge and learning and informing bucket lists.

My shelves bend under the weight of books like Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s ‘Jerusalem’, Sami Tamimi and Tara Wiggles ‘Falastin’, ‘Britain the Cookbook’, ‘Rick Steins’ Seafood Odyssey’, Hetty McKinnon’s ‘Neighbourhood’ and ‘Together’, a life-affirming, forward-looking collection compiled by survivors of London’s Grenfell Tower fire who started cooking together, exchanging their histories, their culture and their food, and healing together.

‘Dishoom’ – a recent present from my daughter – has literally whet my appetite to return to India as soon as I can, or to prioritise getting a booking in one of the Dishroom restaurants in the UK next time I go back to visit family.

Describing itself as a ‘cookery book and highly subjective guide to Bombay with map’, this is a love letter to Bombay laden with beautiful location shots from Mumbai and recipes from a small UK restaurant group also called Dishoom.

The book and the restaurants are inspired by the Irani cafes popular in Bombay in the 1960s – and if your Mother’s Day gift ideas are much more extravagant than a book, you could book a trip to Bombay or make a booking at one of the six Dishroom restaurants in London or in Manchester, Edinburgh and Birmingham. Nigel Slater and Yotam Ottolenghi are fans.

Another favourite of mine which evokes a strong sense of people and place is ‘Handmade – stories of strength shared through recipes from the women of Sri Lanka’.

This book has inspired some wonderful foodie evenings with Sri Lankan friends and is the work of an Australian not-for-profit called Palmera which supports farmers and rural entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka to start and grow their own businesses.

With the dire economic situation in Sri Lanka at the moment, purchasing this book for the women in your life could also give other women a leg up too.

Then there are first-person narratives of exploration and discovery like Anthony Bourdain’s ‘A Cook’s Tour’ and Arwa Abousamra’s ‘Tea With Arwa’ which trans- port you to places you may not have been and acquaint you with people you may not otherwise encounter.

And novels such as ‘Maggie’s Kitchen’, written by Sydney-based author Caroline Beecham, which sets a fictional restaurant-based narrative in context of the historical events of WW2 London.

If you rely on the internet for food inspiration, do spend time exploring our dedicated (and award-winning) website: www.recipesforramadan.com and Instagram @recipesforramadan.

Since launching the project in April 2020 as a response to Covid, we are expecting the collection to have grown to more than 65 recipes and stories from 25 countries with more in the pipeline.

The collection aims to share recipes and stories of Australian Muslim families whose histories and culture reach back to all four corners of the world. Some of the contributors’ names you may know. Some will be new acquaintances.

And these recipes and stories are not just for Ramadan! They’re for dipping into any time, enjoying trying new foods and discovering stories that feed into the story of modern Australia. We’re hoping we can find a way to publish in hard copy in the foreseeable future too.

What’s the weekend for?

Everyone has a different idea of the perfect weekend but for many of us it involves food: preparing a special weekend feast to share with friends and family; or gathering family and friends in the kitchen to try something new, solving the world’s problems or just chatting and laughing for hours.

Or perhaps it’s time for batch cooking while we’re not on the clock in a Monday to Friday way. Or for eating out and letting someone else cook. Or for putting your feet up and reading – maybe about the joy of food? Or, this weekend, perhaps it’s time to start thinking about last minute gift ideas for Eid.

Recipe books make the best presents –in particular those that are part food and in equal parts people, place and history, feeding hunger for travel, knowledge and learning and informing bucket lists.

My shelves bend under the weight of books like ‘Britain the Cookbook’, ‘Rick Steins’ Seafood Odyssey’, Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s ‘Jerusalem’, Sami Tamimi and Tara Wiggles ‘Falastin’, Hetty McKinnon’s ‘Neighbourhood’ and ‘Together’, a life-affirming, forward-looking collection compiled by survivors of London’s Grenfell Tower fire who started cooking together, exchanging their histories, their culture and their food, and healing together.

‘Dishoom’ – a recent present – describes itself as a ‘cookery book and highly subjective guide to Bombay with map’ and is laden with beautiful location shots. It has literally whet my appetite to return to India as soon as I can.

Whilst ‘Handmade – stories of strength shared through recipes from the women of Sri Lanka’ has inspired some wonderful foodie evenings with Sri Lankan friends and is the work of an Australian not-for-profit called Palmera which supports farmers and rural entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka to start and grow their own businesses.

First-person narratives of exploration and discovery like Anthony Bourdain’s ‘A Cook’s Tour’ and Arwa Abousamra’s ‘Tea With Arwa’ also take you on a journey to places you haven’t been. And novels such as ‘Maggie’s Kitchen’ set a fictional narrative in context of historical events.

If you rely on the internet for food inspiration, do spend time exploring our dedicated (and award-winning)

Personal food journeys to inspirewebsite: www.recipesforramadan.com and Instagram

@recipesforramadan. Since launching the project in April 2020 as a response to Covid, the collection has grown to 64 recipes and stories from 22 countries with more in the pipeline.

The collection aims to share recipes and stories of Australian Muslim families whose histories and culture reach back to all four corners of the world. Some of the contributors’ names you may know. Some will be new acquaintances.

And these recipes and stories are not just for Ramadan! They’re for dipping into any time, enjoying trying new foods and discovering stories that feed into the story of modern Australia.

Keep your eyes open too for Guardian Australia tomorrow (Saturday 15 April) for the last part in their Recipes for Ramadan series this year, using recipes and stories from our collection.

Tomorrow’s recipe is for Sally Mousa’s Palestinian Qatayef which she does five ways: traditional as her husband likes them or Bounty and Snickers variations which she and her daughter dreamed up. We did the lot earlier this week – with friends to share the cooking and the eating!

If you’ve never tried them, do! And invite friends and family to get involved to batch cook ahead of Eid.