Food is much more than just food, it’s about culture, about being with friends, family, about learning from other cultures, about talking and sharing memories, about emotions, about special days and celebrations. It brings people together and enhances our understanding of others.
We take part in Jo Stacy’s BKD Cookbook Club and this month the focus is on Christmas recipes for us all to make and share. Our choice is a recipe for a Casserole from Together: Our Community Cookbook.
The book is written by a group of residents, gathering in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower tragedy in London to cook food for their families, friends and neighbours. They began using the kitchen at the Al-Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre and used the kitchen for two days per week, preparing food and eating together. Gradually more local women began to join in, embracing the community and supporting their neighbours. This was the beginning of the Hubb Community Kitchen (‘hubb’ meaning ‘love’ in Arabic).
In 2018 the group published Together: Our Community Cookbook with 50 simple and tasty recipes from the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and other countries.
Food that brings people together, food you prepare for your loved ones.
The book features mouthwatering recipes including Shakshouka (Algeria), Potato Fritters with Cilantro (India), Spicy Peanut Dip (Uganda), Green Rice (Iraq), Fennel and Orange Salad (Italy) and many more.
Food that helped restore hope and provided a sense of home.
Casserole
We decided to prepare Tepsi Baytinijan. To quote Intlak Alsaiegh, the author of this recipe: “Tepsi translates as ‘casserole’ and this is a traditional Persian dish of meatballs in tomato sauce with eggplant. It’s quite rich. You could make it with less oil, I suppose, but then it wouldn’t be so traditional—or taste so good.”
The dish is indeed a rich, tasty combination of small meat balls (ground beef, garlic, curry powder), fried egg plant, fried potatoes, onion, green pepper, tomatoes, tomato paste and tamarind paste, served with basmati rice or crusted bread.
The detailed recipe can be found in Together: Our Community Cookbook or on Food52.
Together: Our Community Cookbook is dear to us, because it shows us that food can unite people. Preparing food from this book will bring you closer to the hope and strength of the Grenfell community.
The book is available via the usual channels and your local bookstore. A portion of the proceeds from the sales will help the Hubb Community Kitchen to strengthen lives and communities through cooking.
We wish you Happy Holidays and a Wonderful 2025!
Mr. Cook and Mr. Drink
Cook and Drink 
That cookbook looks amazing as does the dish!
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Thanks Kirstin, it’s a very special cookbook!
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This is the very first thing I’ve read this morning and I want to thank you for inspiring me to get on with what is going to be a bit of a marathon in the kitchen for me: four days of non stop cooking for my family visiting from abroad and from Northern Italy. What you wrote is so true and a wonderful reminder if ever we needed one! We, the lucky ones, all get bombarded by news of terrible events in the world, all over the world, the unlucky ones have to actually live them, survive them. But I want to continue believing that the good in humankind will prevail – and that requires energy and people coming together as a community. The cookery book “Together” is a brilliant example. Wishing you Happy ‘Holy’-days and all the very best for the coming new Year.
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Many thanks! The cookery book is inspiring, both the recipes and the community of survivors behind it. We believe, as do you, that the good and kind will prevail, even if we see many sad examples of the opposite.
Enjoy your marathon in the kitchen and the days with your family! Happy New Year and keep cooking!
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