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Rawaan Alkhatib writes of dates with lyrical reverence in her debut cookbook, Hot Date!. These aren’t just dried morsels of sugar and nutrients; they’re a “miracle,” “a symbol of generosity and abundance,” “joy and sustenance,” cultivated from the tree of life. Across 100+ recipes, she calls on their sweetness in whole, sugared, and syrup form, to show that dates can make everything—tater tots, grilled cheese, chocolate chip cookies, life—brighter and more delicious.
There are lively photographs to accompany many dishes, but it’s the charming and informative illustrations that pulled me in. Alkhatib is an overachiever: a talented writer and poet; a student of history who situates the fruit’s historical importance in the Middle East and across cultures; and an illustrator, whose drawings include a chart of date biscuits from around the world and a timeline tracing the progression of a date from pollination to chewy and saccharine.
A single-subject cookbook runs the risk of being gimmicky, constrained in its usefulness or limited in its thrills. But Hot Date! stands out. I chose four recipes I could pull off for a same-day dinner party, bought three pounds of dates, and invited over my most date-loving friend, Bon Appétit’s very own art director, Hazel Zavala.
The first order of business was an Upside Down Date & Almond Cake. I placed dates in concentric circles, then poured over a simple vanilla cake batter fancied up with almond paste. Once baked, it easily flipped out of the pan to reveal the dark and crystalized pattern. My apartment took on the intoxicating smell of a candy shop as the cake cooled on my windowsill.
Then I moved on to the Milk-Braised Lamb Shanks With Mughal Spices. I simmered lamb, milk, and warm spices until the meat wobbled and pulled away from the bone. The dish looked all wrong—big curds of cooked milk, little pools of fat—but Alkhatib’s instructions encouraged confidence. Throw in a few dates and immersion-blend the mixture. A dash or two of rose water later, the questionable soup transformed into an ambrosial sauce that cut through lamb’s gamy fattiness and gave the meat a sexy lustre.
I served the shanks in a stately pile, alongside a tray of carrots cooked in date butter the color and richness of molasses and a shaved celery salad electrified with date chili crisp. If every great cookbook contains one life-altering condiment or dressing, this date chili crisp is the one. With “paper-thin” garlic, fine-chopped dates, and 17 more ingredients, it is a certified pain in the ass. Still, you shouldn’t skip it. Smoky, sweet, and seriously spicy, it made celery magical, and I reckon it would be just as good on eggs, pizza, or chicken nuggets.
Of course, you don’t need to cook an entirely date-centered meal to enjoy Hot Date!. Open it at random and you’ll land on Alkhatib’s hand-written ruminations on the heightened importance of dates to Muslims during Ramadan, or a painted chart that unfurls like a pin-up girl in the center of the book to illustrate the anatomy of a date palm. Dates can be so many things. And in Alkhatib’s world, boring is never one.
