Tunisia

Our little caravan hugs the beaches along Tunisia’s coastline. Though hot, the sea breezes are magnificent and the Camels seem to prefer the sand. We are in the tiny beach town of Plage de es Chaffar on the Gulf of Gabès. A town of only a fewer than 2000 people but has plan for expanding its tourism. It is known by the locals (and bargain-hunting French students) for its fine sand beaches and excellent kite-surfing.

Like every evening of our trek, Mr. Chebba has coordinated a rendezvous with the two small trucks carrying the bulk of our supplies and luggage. When we arrive in camp each evening, the workers have already erected the bedroom tents and are working on the main pavilion. They are breezy structures of creamy canvas and white linen. At the end of a long day of camelback riding a cool shower and clean dishdasha are heaven. Now it’s off to the pavilion for drinks and dinner.

Speaking of dinner… tonight is Makhouda D'aubergine, a Tunisian style frittata with eggplants, onions, and parsley from the Yellow Door garden. This is an easy recipe great for dinner or brunch. I found it at www.food.com.

Makhouda D'aubergine (Tunisian Eggplant Frittata)

Ingredients:

1 large globe eggplants

1 tblsp salt, for sprinkling

1/4 cup olive oil

1 medium onions, finely chopped

1 red bell peppers, seeded, deribbed and diced

8 large eggs

1 handful chopped fresh parsley (about 1/2 cup packed) or cilantro

4 garlic cloves, minced

6 ounce gruyere cheese, shredded

1/2 cup dried breadcrumbs

2 teaspoons harissa or hot pepper paste or ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper, to taste

1-2 teaspoons Tunisian spice blend (bharat) (or a mixture of 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon rosewater, and 1/4 teaspoon fine salt)

lemon wedges for garnish

Serves: 6

Prep Time: 45 mins

Total Time: 2 hrs

Directions:

1. Peel and cut the eggplant into 1/2-inch dice. Sprinkle generously with salt and place the cubes in a colander to drain for about 20 minutes.
2. Rinse eggplant and pat dry with paper towels.
3. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the olive oil and cook the eggplant, onion, and pepper, stirring occasionally until golden and soft, about 20-25 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400ºF
4. Transfer this mixture to a colander to drain off as much of the oil as possible.
5. In a large bowl, mix the eggs and add the herbs, garlic, cheese and bread crumbs.
6. Add the eggplant mixture.
7. Season with the bharat, salt, and a small spoonful of the optional harissa or cayenne pepper.
8. Grease a 2-quart soufflé dish.
9. Pour the egg mixture into the dish and bake in the middle of the oven until golden brown and puffed in the center, 40-45 minutes (a knife inserted into the center should come out clean).
10. Let cool for 10 minutes before unmolding onto a serving platter (you can also just leave it in the dish).
11. Cut into wedges or squares to serve.
12. Serve hot or at room temperature with lemon wedges on the side.

Algeria – Spicy, salty, and delicious!

We’re traversing the Tell Atlas Mountains in northern Algeria now. This vast range stretches from Morocco to Tunisia. Unlike the empty expanses of sand in southern Algeria, this is beautiful mountain country with a Mediterranean climate. Our camels look out of place in this almost-Alpine-like setting, but they are sure footed and reliable (but also perpetually grumpy).

We’ve been eating well of the local foods; more tagines and plenty of grilled vegetables, meats, and fish. Almost every meal is accompanied by a fiery, salty condiment called harissa. It is a mixture of fresh hot peppers, roasted red peppers, cilantro, garlic, olive oil, and spices. It’s used as an ingredient in sauces and marinades and as a relish along side meat or fish; it’s sort of North Africa’s version of pesto. Depending on how hot your peppers are a little can go a long way, but be fearless!

This harissa recipe comes form my Modern Moroccan cookbook by Hassan M’Souli. I only made about a quarter of a batch. You’ll notice in the picture of the ingredients, that my cilantro looks a little odd. ...that’s because its basil. I forgot to buy cilantro, so I used basil from my garden; it worked fine. Also, the recipe has you roast and peel your own red peppers. I used jarred roasted peppers. Lastly, I did not have a preserved lemon, so I used the juice and zest from a fresh one.

Harissa

Yields 4 cups

1 lb small hot red chili peppers, stems removed

2 large red pepper, roasted, peeled, and seeded

1 preserved lemon

3 cloves garlic

½ bunch cilantro, chopped

2 tablespoons ground cumin

1 tablespoon salt

Olive oil, to cover

Mince the chilis, roasted peppers, preserved lemon and garlic by hand or in a food processor. Mix in the cilantro, cumin, and salt. Transfer to a storage jar and let stand for one hour. Then add enough olive oil to cover the mixture. It will keep nearly indefinitely in the refrigerator.

Morocco: Chickpea Tagine with Chicken and Apricots

We landed in Tangier, Morocco, on North African coast. This is the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic. While most tourist head south to the ancient cities of Rabat, Casablanca, and Marrakesh, our destiny lies in the East, across the Mediterranean Maghreb; eating. We were met by our guide, Mr. Chebba, a Berber caravanner, who whisked us to the train station for a five hour train ride to Fnideq, a frontier town where we will meet our caravan. As the train passes the ancient coastal fortress of Ceuta we gaze north across the waves toward Spain for a glimpse the lights of Gibraltar, which we will see many months from now. We will travel by (a more or less authentic) caravan through Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya. Mr. Chebba will get us safely to the Suez in Egypt where we will begin the next leg of our journey.

The food in Fnideq, like Morocco itself, is a mix of is Berber, Arab, and Moorish styles, and heavily influenced by French and Spanish cuisines. Our one night in Fnideq we…

Ok, ok, this is a food blog! What did we eat? A tagine of course! A traditional stew of vegetables and meat, slow cooked and served over couscous. The recipe is by Mark Bittman in a recent NYTimes article. I changed it up slightly, skinning bone-in legs and thighs and using the dry spices as a rub on the meat prior to browning. Also, rather that bulgur, I added couscous to mine toward the end of cooking. As a result, I used a little less broth than Mr. Bittman suggests. The follow in my version of the recipe. The URL for his original recipe is at the bottom of the page.

Chickpea Tagine with Chicken and Apricots
Time: About 45 minutes

3 tablespoons olive oil
4 chicken thighs and 4 chicken legs, skinned
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 dried hot red chili pepper
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1 14-oz can of chopped tomato (with juice)
1 14-oz can of chickpeas, drained, with the liquid reserved
1 cup chicken stock, bean liquid or water, or more as needed
1/2 cup couscous
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley and 1/2 cup slivered almonds, for garnish.

1. Mix together coriander, cumin, cinnamon in as small bowl. Place chicken pieces in a large bowl, add about a tablespoon of olive oil over the chicken and stir to coat all pieces well. Sprinkle the spice mixture over the chicken and mix to evenly coat all the chicken pieces with spices. Let sit for one-half hour or refrigerate overnight.

2. Put remaining oil in a large, deep pot over medium-high heat. When oil is shimmering, add chicken and brown well on both sides; remove from pan and set aside. Reduce heat to medium, add onion to the pan and cook until soft, about 5 minutes; add chili pepper, garlic, ginger, dried apricots and tomatoes. Cook and stir just enough to loosen any brown bits from bottom of pan.

3. Add chickpeas and 1 cup of stock or bean liquid to the pan and turn heat back to medium-high. When mixture reaches a gentle bubble, return chicken and accumulated juices to the pan. Cover pot, turn heat to low and cook, checking occasionally to make sure the mixture is bubbling gently, for about 30-minutes stirring occasionally. Stir in couscous, adding more stock if necessary so that the mixture is barely covered with liquid. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Cover and turn off the heat and let stand for about 5-minutes or until the couscous tender. Taste, adjust the seasonings and serve in bowls garnished with parsley and slivered almonds.
Yield: 4 servings.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/dining/14minirex.html?ref=dining.

“A Summer of Mediterranean Living”

So I came up with what I think, is a wonderfully creative culinary adventure for the Yellow Door. Earlier this spring, I was transplanting some of my perennial herbs out of my raised beds and to a new bed in the yard. When I was done, I realized almost all of these herbs (rosemary, sage, tarragon, oregano, marjoram) are from the Mediterranean. The idea sparked; we’ll have “A Summer of Mediterranean Living”. An entire summer filled with lemons and oranges, capers and olives, basil, Campari, calamari, garlic/rosemary/basil/oregano, olives, sparkling wine and sunshine, lamb, lavender, beaches, family, friends, flowers, fast ferries to Ptown, sea salt, pink salt, black salt, Chardonnay-smoked salt, sweet peppers in red, orange, yellow and green, kebabs, anchovies, olive oil, tomatoes, Tunisian spices, Spanish sausage, Israeli couscous... Well you get the idea; it will be fabulous!

As a cooking challenge, I will research traditional and gastro-nouveau recipes that will take the Yellow Door on a culinary tour around the entire Mediterranean basin; starting in Morocco and caravanning east across the wild Maghreb of northern Africa, cooking all the way. In Egypt, we’ll cross the Suez into the Sinai and (ignoring politics and boarders) sweep north into Israel and eat our way though the coastal Levant region and finally into Turkey and Greece. Our feasting will continue following the coast up through the Balkan states whose beaches touch the Adriatic, finally turning south down the coast of western Italy. From here we’ll board our chartered yacht and do some island hopping; exploring the major islands of the Mediterranean in random order. Landing back in Calabria, the toe of Italy, we head north up the western coast and into the glory of southern Europe; devouring everything from Monaco and Provence to the Cote d’Azur and Costa Brava. Finally ending our summer long fling with Mediterranean in the south of Spain, Gibraltar of course!


I hope you will join Gene and me on this gastronomic adventure! I promise to post often!!!

Brunch at the Yellow Door: Caviar Eggs

The inspiration: eggs, left-over caviar, and a need for Brunch. I searched on epicurious for recipes with “egg caviar” and came up with a recipe for “Caviar Eggs” (imagine!) The gorgeous photo of the eggshell stuffed with scrambled eggs topped with vodka-spiked whipped cream and glistening caviar was very intriguing. What’s not to like? Here is the link to the original recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/photo/Caviar-Eggs-350244.

I reduced the recipe to serve four and, of course, didn’t follow it exactly. For one thing, I didn’t boil the eggshells; I simple let the soak in very hot, soapy water for about 10-minutes and then rinsed and dried them. Also I didn’t measure the whipped cream ingredients, just eyeballed the proportions.

The most challenging aspect of this recipe is getting the eggs out of the shells without destroying the shells. I luckily have an eggshell cutter. I’ve only ever used it to cut the tops off of soft-boiled eggs, but, with a little care, it worked fine for opening. The recipe has you cut the tops off with a pairing knife. I guess it can be done, but I was glad I had my cutter!

The scrambled eggs take a little “technique” too. You want them very creamy and to have a very small curd so you have to stir them constantly. I used a whisk to keep the eggs moving in the pan. Also use low or medium-low heat and pull the pan off the heat as soon as the eggs are set.

I served my eggs with some bacon I topped with black pepper and shave Parmigiano cheese.

Below is my recipe for Caviar Eggs for Four

4 large eggs

1/4 cup chilled heavy cream

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon vodka

1/8 teaspoon plus a pinch of cayenne, divided

1 tablespoons salted butter

2 tablespoons caviar

Open and sterilize eggshells:
Carefully remove top third of each eggshell using an eggshell cutter or by tapping around egg with a paring knife, then gently pry off top and discard. Pour eggs into a bowl, reserving shells.

Use a knife to tear any membrane remaining in bottom of eggshells. Soak eggs in very hot, soapy water for 10-minutes. Rinse and dry the shells, set aside in egg cups to hold them upright.

Whip cream and scramble eggs:
Beat cream with a whisk until it just holds stiff peaks, then beat in lemon juice, vodka, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon cayenne.

Thoroughly beat eggs with 1/8 teaspoon salt, and a pinch of cayenne. Melt remaining butter in nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add the egg mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until eggs are just scrambled, 3 to 5 minutes. Divide among shells and top with whipped cream and caviar. Serve!

Roly-poly Fish Heads

I’ve always enjoyed canned sardines (see my post from May 10) but I’ve never had fresh ones. As you might imagine, here in DC, fresh sardines aren’t something you can just pick up at Safeway; they take some searching for. I found mine at Blacksalt Fish Market and Restaurant in the Foxhall neighborhood (http://www.blacksaltrestaurant.com/). Blacksalt is great. They sell only sustainability managed fish and shellfish. Also I have to give them an A+ for customer service. When I was there, they didn’t have sardines in the display case. When I asked when they might have sardines, the monger confided that they did have some in the restaurant’s refrigerator and if I didn’t need too many, he’d be willing to sell me a few. Score! I only needed six.

Sardines are very affordable. My pretty, little fishies only set me back 7-bucks and some change, though I did have to cut the heads off myself (weird!). I used a very simple recipe; marinating them in a little lemon juice, parsley and olive oil then a few minutes on the grill. I served them on a bed of arugula and a cucumber/watermelon salad (made extra marinade to use as salad dressing). In the interest of full disclosure, there were lots of little fish bones to deal with. However, the sardines were really delicious.


Grilled Sardines

Serves 2
6 medium whole fresh sardines, gutted, rinsed inside and out, and patted dry
1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
•1 lemon, cut into wedges, for serving


Directions

1. In a large glass bowl, whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper. Toss the sardines in the marinade coating them well inside and out. Let sit for about 20-minutes.

2. Heat a grill to a medium-high heat (you can also use a grill pan indoors). Coat the grill with cooking spray. Grill sardines until cooked through, about 2 minutes per side. Serve with a salad and lemon wedges.

About: Cultured Butter

Cultured butter is butter made from (slightly) fermented cream. It’s sometimes called “European-style” butter. It has more flavor and character then sweet cream butter, which is the kind commonly sold here in the US.

Cultured butter is easy (and kind of fun) to make. All you need is heavy cream and plain, active-culture yogurt. .Cultured butter is not at all sour, but has a more complex buttery flavor. You want to make sure the cream and yogurt don’t contain any added stabilizers or preservatives. I like to buy organic

A nice by-product of making your own cultured butter is the milky liquid that separates out from the butter. That milky liquid is buttermilk. It is delicious! Use it to make salad dressing or pancakes or heck, I usually just drink it.

How to:

1. In a quart size jar or other nonmetallic container, whisk 1/3 cup yogurt into 1 pint of cream. Let sit at room temperature for about 8-hours or overnight. After which, if you give the container a shake, the cream should be visible thickened. Also, it will have a slightly yellow tinge to it. You now have cultures cream, which will yield about a cup (or more) of butter. To be honest, my yield has varied. The last time I made butter, I let it sit more like 18-hours. That batch made more and tastier butter.

2. Now it’s time to start churning! You have a couple options here.

• Churn Method One: If you’ve used a bowl, transfer the cream to a quart size jar with a tight-fitting lid. Close it up tight and start shaking. This is a great thing for kids to do. Even toddlers can roll the jar around on the floor for a while. Lacking children at my house, my partner and I take turns shaking the jar. Just when you start to get bored with it the cream miraculously breaks into globs of creamy butter splashing around in a tangy buttermilk. It’s a simple thing, but truly amazing. Strain off the liquid and transfer the butter to a bowl. Use a wooden spoon to gather the butter against one side of the bowl and keep pressing and patting it to squeeze out the extra buttermilk.

• Churn Method Two: Use a hand-mixer on low speed. Start mixing like you would for whipped cream. After about 10-minutes or so the cream will break and butter milk will start flying all over the place. At this point use a wooden spoon to gather the butter against one side of the bowl and keep pressing it to squeeze out the extra buttermilk.

That’s it, you’ve made butter! At this point you can opt to add salt. It’s up to you. A half teaspoon is more than enough. Being a salt fiend, I like to add a little more though.

Store it in the refrigerator and it will keep for weeks.