Review: The Lost Recipe for Happiness

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POMEGRANATE BAKLAVA

1 1/2 cups buckwheat honey
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 tablespoons pomegranate juice
2 tablespoon rose water
Seeds of one pomegranate, divided in half
2 teaspoons whole cloves
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup chopped pistachios
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
1 package filo dough

To make syrup, combine the honey, sugar, water, juice, and rose water in a heavy small pot. Stir constantly while bringing to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat and let cool, then add half of the pomegranate seeds.

Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Mix spices, nuts, and vanilla bean seeds into 1/2 stick of melted butter. Butter a 15 x 9 inch glass pan.

On a clean work surface, unroll the filo and generously butter one layer at a time and lay it in the pan, then repeat until you've used half the dough. Spread most of the nut mixture and most of the remaining pomegranate seeds evenly over the pastry, reserving about one fourth of the mixed nuts and seeds for the topping.

Continue buttering and layering the dough on top of the filling until all the dough has been used. Brush the top with remaining butter and sprinkle the remaining nuts and seeds over the top.

With a small sharp knife, cut the pastry layers into diamonds, then bake for 50-60 minutes until golden, watching carefully to see that it doesn't burn. Pour the syrup over the hot pastry, and serve when cool.

POSTED: 08 MARCH 2009

Barbara O'Neal, The Lost Recipe for Happiness

(HarperCollins; 421pp paperback; $32.99)

What is the difference between sensuous and sensual? I needed to know, because one of those words, I believed, would describe Barbara O'Neal's The Lost Recipe for Happiness.

So off to www.dictionary.reference.com for help:

Sensual, sensuous, voluptuous refer to experience through the senses. Sensual refers, often unfavorably, to the enjoyments derived from the senses, esp from the gratification or indulgence of physical appetites: a sensual delight in eating; sensual excesses. Sensuous refers, favorably or literally, to what is experienced through the senses: sensuous impressions; sensuous poetry. Voluptuous implies the luxurious gratification of sensuous or sensual desires: voluptuous joys; voluptuous beauty.

Ahhh... in that case O'Neal's novel is a sensuous, sensual and voluptuous feast of experiences.

Elena Alvarez is a chef with an ambition to build a world-class restaurant and be a successful executive female chef in a male dominated world. Her task is complicated by her past as well as her gender.

Elena suffers physically and emotionally from a car crash in her youth, when her sister and boyfriend were killed. The impact of the crash and her early abandonment by her mother result in an inability to trust and form lasting relationships.

Her history of failure at love makes her more lonely and less tempted to try again, but her voluptuous nature makes that an unlikely long-term scenario, especially when she meets her new 'boss' — wealthy Hollywood movie-director-come-restaurant-developer, Julian Liswood.

Those who love a tangled romantic tale with some definitely voluptuous encounters will not be disappointed.

Apart from love, the other theme of the novel is food. And it is a sensuous, poetic love affair with food.

Elena has used her passion for cooking as a way to combat her physical trauma and emotional uncertainty. She has immersed herself in her career, in the search for understanding flavors and combinations, and creating new and unique recipes that eventually translate into sensual enjoyments.

The descriptions of food preparation, tastes and sensations certainly encourage a desire to gratify and indulge a few of this reader's physical appetites — the ingredients for Pomegranate Baklava (see recipe to left) are on my shopping list for this week!

While the style of including recipes as part of a novel may be getting a bit tired, it works here because the recipes integrate and complement the plot. They add to our understanding of events and emotions.

Also, one of the most interesting facets of the novel is the insight it provides into the restaurant industry, in front of and behind the kitchen door.

While this is a first book by Barbara O'Neal, the writer has published successfully before as Barbara Samuel. There is little in her newest style to disappoint her long-time followers.

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