Wolfert

Here is a photo of my tangia pot from Marrakech. Note the small opening at the top. All the meat is cut small and dropped in along with all the other ingredients and the whole covered with paper and tied with string and set in embers to slowly cook. It's a lovely and easy dish when cooked in a claypot. Since very few people have a tangia at hand, try making it in a tall Chinese sandpot. In our Asian markets you can find one for about $12.00.

Keep in mind that the first day of Ramadan is October 4 and it runs through to November 2nd. Most Moroccans take part in the fasting and it is very hard to find a decent place to eat during the day in any Muslim area. Though you aren't expected to participate no one will be serving any great food during the day in the Djemaa el fna. And you should avoid eating in public during this period. On the other hand, don't hesitate to eat the Harira soup, dates and shebbakia (fried cakes) in the street as soon as the fast breaks each evening. Don't fret about no place to eat: The European quarter is about 5 minutes away by car and there you will find plenty of great restaurants open to the those who aren't fasting. According to friends who still live in Marrakech, the 'hot' restaurant is dar moha. I recently received the chef's cookbook and the food looks good. More later... Water:? When I lived in Morocco the water in Marrakech was suspect. This was between 1959 and 1976 .I am sure it is OK now that the city is a great tourist destination. Best to check at the concierge at your hotel.

I think the difference between the cocorico and the spanek is temperature control from within. The clay cocorico maintains a steady temperature inside the cavity while the metal spikes in the Spanick transfer high heat and could possibly overcook the white meat flesh.

Here is how I learned to use safflower stigmas or poor man's saffron aka haspir in Turkey: Make sure the threads are very dry, then press them through a fine sieve into a small pan or skillet of sizzling butter or oil and quickly pour in swirls over hot soup THe stuff gives off barely a whiff of aroma and little taste but it imparts a visual excitement to a bowl of yogurt soup. You could never use real saffron to get that effect because it would overwhelm the dish. As well as the spices mentioned above, I would add kekik or oregano, Maras pepper and sumac berries to your list. THere are many kinds of kekik so rub a little between your fingers before buying to be sure you like the aroma and flavor. It should smell and taste like the best dried oregano you've ever had. The Maras pepper is similar to Aleppo pepper but to my mind, more flavor. Here is how I learned to use sumac berries: soak in hot water for about 30 minutes, strain, and add to a stew or soup for a unique tart-fruity flavor.

Hi Woods, Steaming the duck pieces will remove all the excess fat. You can steam the duck confit for 10 minutes over boiling water (see page 197). Use a pair of scissors to cut off any visible fat clumps, then if you want a crispy skin, slowly cook the duck legs, skin side down, in a heated skillet. Pat dry and enjoy! By the way, steaming aged duck confit is very common in Gascony.

In the Quercy, a covered pie stuffed with chicken and salsify ragout is set in the copper tourtiere. After placing the pot or tourtiere in the fireplace, it is surrounded with embers, and the pie is left to bake. About ten minutes before the estimated time of doneness, the upper lid is removed, a funnel is set into the upper crust and some reserved ragout juices are poured in. The pastry continues to "bake" in the fireplace without the cover. Today, most cooks use ceramic or Pyrex and bake it in the oven with a pierced holes in the top layer of pastry. . Another tourtiere in the French Southwest is the apples wrapped in a strudel type dough confection called a croustade in Gascony, but when it is prepared in the Landais region of France, it's a tourtiere and it is baked in a ceramic round dish in the oven. Photo by Irwin Horowitz published in Cuisine Magazine, 1980. Another tourtiere in the Landes is a covered pie stuffed with wild leeks from the vineyard aka ramps and mushrooms. It, too, can be baked in ceramic. The photo is from my new book and is by Christopher Hirsheimer. Now here is a bit of shameless self promotion: all these recipes are in my French Southwest Book.

Lucy, Your tourte looks divine. When you get down to the French southwest, you will find that tourtes are double covered savory pies made with a dense and flavorful dough. This tourtiere is from the Quercy and is used for savory tourtes.

Paul Bertolli of Oliveto and David Tanis of Chez Panisse immediately come to mind.

Heidi, That is a great question, but I don't know the answer. I think you might want to check with Michael Orlando of Sunnylandmills who sells a type of durum kernel called grano. It has very little bran removed from the surface. Check here.... http://www.sunnylandmills.com/aboutgrano.html

I think whole durum wheat is double milled, golden and silky, and used alone or mixed with white flour to make certain rustic breads in the Mediterranean. Is this the same as attar flour? In the Mediterranean, I learned the difference between coarse, fine, and medium grade semolina: the coarse is used alone to make tahini-enriched cakes, steamed desserts and dense breads; it is blended with fine ground semolina to make hand-rolled couscous; the medium grade is used for pasta and stove top breads; and there is the skinned wheat berry used for dessert. ( In Puglia, they make a pasta like dish called grano with it.) About a hundred years ago, wealthy Ottoman Turks soaked durum wheat berries in order to acquire a very special wheat starch. This starch produced the most voluptuous and creamy custards. First they soaked the kernels to remove the skins, then used the berries to make a soup and finally boiled down the thick liquid until well reduced. Finally the starchy debris was laid out on large pieces of cloth, exposed to the sun until dry and finally sieved to a powdery starch.

Marilyn, Thank you for the update. I am really pleased that this time the recipe worked for you. Paula

Abra: if you're using a home vacuum packing system such as foodsaver, rather than a professional chefs' system, it's best to serve the duck within one week. (More sophisticated machines allow chefs to keep refrigerated confit in pouches in the refrigerator for many months.) If, for whatever reason, a refrigerated pouch begins to puff up, discard at once. Bagged sous-vide duck legs prepared with a home vacuum packing system can be frozen for longer storage or transferred to a pot of duck fat and simmered for about ten minutes before packing for longer storage. The latter is what I do and I get the best of both worlds. The photo below is of a moulard duck that was place skin-side up on a rack set over a baking pan, roasted until crisp and brown in a 400 F oven, about 30 minutes.

Thank you. I think I will let this recipe go without any further research. What does the word mean? ..........aside from Daniel's play on 'caboose.'

I purchased hibiscus tea from this mail order source www.nilevalleyherbs.com Also, I think you can find this brand at Whole Foods . Alain Passard published a dessert recipe combining strawberries and a hibiscus syrup on the web.

I think bitterness varies with the amount of walnuts used. I started with 15 ounces (10) green walnuts. I cracked and soaked them in 4 cups fruity red wine along with 3/4 cup sugar, a few tablespoons triple sec, and 1/4 cup brandy. I am sorry I didn't make more. I have so many recipes I need to test using it. Now, I fear I won't get much chance to drink it!

I bottled my vin de noix about 3 weeks ago in a clean wine bottle. THe filtered wine was bitter. Now, it has changed in the bottle to a quiet, balanced flavor---fruity with a hint of bitter..just as Elie mentioned above. I used a few tablespoons to soften some yellow raisins then added them to a ragout of duck legs. What a big, exciting flavor it created!!! ;

I would appreciate any memories or specifics on the dish called Khabbousse. The ingredients include Talami bread, samneh, and grape molasses. Does anyone from Lebanon know this dish? Thank you, Paula r

Ric, What size and shape crock pot did you use? Did you partially cover the top? How hot was the water you used to start off the cooking? Did you have trouble keeping the water temperature stable? I had trouble trying to maintain water temperature using my Rival 6 quart crockpot. I did, on the other hand, find that if I placed the crockpot in the oven then covered it I had better luck at maintaining a stable temperature.

Vacuum-sealing machines have been on the market for decades (see the Dazey seal-a-meal references upthread). My experiments with the Tilia FOODSAVER PRO home version have been, to say the least, gastronomically exciting. The updated home version works very well for the small family. Sure, it is a little pricey at $300.00, but not completely out of line when you think you pay almost that much for one or two meals at a restaurant using sous vide. I use it for making duck confit, certain fruit compotes and slow cooking fatty fish. After dunking the still-sealed bag in a bowl of slushy ice I slowly reheat the food, use it right away, or store it in the fridge for a day or two.

Marilyn. I just found the notebook with specifics from Chef Charlou. Your result upset me. I worried that I had made a typing error, but I didn't. In my notes, the chef specified Gas Mark 7 as the ideal temperature to bake the clafoutis. So I googled to check my work and yes, indeed, Gas Mark 7 equals 425F or 220C I hope it works next time. It did for me. ON the other hand, I also googled 'charlou' and 'clafloutis' and the recipe posted on the internet calls for a 180 C oven!

Pastrymama: I'm sorry I didn't see your post until now. The temperature is correct. You need a hot oven for the slightly fermented batter to rise properly. On the other hand, it shouldn't have curdled. Most recipes for clafoutis instruct you to make a sweet, thick batter without overbeating, pack pitted (or not) cherries into a buttered dish, gently spread the batter on top, then bake if off. The problem is that most clafoutis made this way will come out heavy, "bloody" looking (from the cherry juice) and overly sweet. As with many allegedly "simple" regional recipes, I found there is always one cook whose rendition is the best in town. The best clafoutis I ever ate was at the hotel restaurant La Cremaillere in Brive-la-Gaillarde in the Limousin. The chef, Charlou Reynal, shared some of his thoughts on making a fine clafoutis: "Be sure to blend the batter well to make it perfectly smooth, then let it sit out for a few hours to rest." Trying his method, I got excellent results. Indeed, "the rest" is the essential secret: it allows the proteins in the flour to relax and slightly ferment causing the batter to rise first to the top of the skillet, and, when it falls (and it surely will!), it ends up a lot lighter and smoother than if it hadn't been well blended and rested.

If someone does pop up from Dearborn, please tell us where to purchase Jordanian sumac. I used to buy it from Petra Imports, but they seem to have disappeared. I've never found anything as good since. Despite living 3000 miles away, I still purchase most of the Middle Eastern products from Kalustyan in New York. The spices are fresh due to rapid turnover. And Aziz always has the 'latest' imports first. He was first to have toasted green wheat, Lebanese MYMOUNI brand Mulberry syrup, and Turkish sweet red pepper paste.

If anyone is thinking of doing a story on early US experiments with sous vide, check out Suzanne Hamlin's piece in the NY Daily News on 1-5-83. Lorna Sass did a piece in the NY Post that same year as well, but I don't have the date. At that time it was called "Water Immersion Cooking" and called for heavy food storage bags made from a combination of polyester and polyethylene, and a vacuum packing machine called a Dazey seal-a-meal Sam III. It cost $40.00 at Hammacher Schlemmer and Zabar's. .

I have many old Middle Eastern cookbooks which include North African recipes. Perhaps the publishers thought it was strategic marketing to get the widest audience possible.

I use a Tilia food saver. You are right, it is not as strong as the professional one. The packet will shrink back when you ice it down.