Wolfert

Do you get graber's olives in your part of the country? They are very close to the midway olive which is neither green nor black. They have a mild flavor and meaty texture. Spanish Farga and some of the Greek brown olives can be substituted. In a pinch, I would use Manzanilla rather than Kalamatas. Kalamata might 'look' right but they are too harsh because they have been soaked in vinegar. I wouldn't use Nicoise or Sicilian.

Canneles don't have to have such a black crust. I happen to like them that way.. This photo in Antoine's bakery in Bordeaux shows the different shades of brown to black.To get the different shades, Antoine removes trays at 10 minute intervals. If he hasn't sold the caneles after 5 or 6 hours, he returns them, unmolded, to a very hot oven to crisp. Note the iron claw on the right. Antoine uses this to tap the top of each copper mold to easily release the baked canele. (I substitute a granite pestle.) Jennifer: you are so right. The canele molds are dirty. Antoine washes his once a year!

Smithy, Please take notes and let me know. I'll be very interested in the results. Also, if you have time, check out the olives photographed on page 18 in the July issue of FINE COOKING. These are Turkish pink olives but they are dead ringers for the true 'midway' olive used in traditional Moroccan emshemel and mqualli tagines.o. These salt-brined Turkish pink olives called Taris are available at ta-ze.com or 877 244 8293.

Jennifer Thank you. I was curious because the inside crumb in the photo is so much better than in most canneles I've seen where the butter is mixed with the milk. In case you are curious, my recipe calls for 4 tablespoons butter per liter milk. And, as I wrote upthread I mix the butter with the flour.

Your canneles look wonderful. How much butter do you use per liter of milk?

Smithy, Here is an idea that came to me this morning:switch to the emshmel tagine of chicken, lemon and olives on page 192, then you could make the sauce ahead and use skinned chicken breasts. I haven't tried this but it is what I would attempt for a dear friend. Use washed back, wings, legs, neck and breast bone to make the tagine through step 4. (You have to use the chicken livers to give a good heftiness to the sauce.) Cool down the sauce; remove the fat and set it aside. When the spicy flavored fat is at room temperature, coat the chicken breasts with it and refrigerate overnight. Also, refrigerate the sauce. (I would probably add another set of of chicken breasts to the recipe.) The next day, bring chicken breasts to room temperature and wipe away the seasoned fat. Over low heat, warm the sauce in the tagine with the chicken breasts. Cook the breasts until they are just cooked. Remove and let rest about 5 minutes while you cook the olives and preserved lemon quarters in the sauce. Remove from the heat. Thickly slice the chicken breasts crosswise and return to the tagine and serve at once.

The filling of a traditional cannele has the texture of a dense creme brulee ---sometimes with a small pocket of air.

THe only way I know to obtain the custard-like interior is to mix the butter with the flour before adding the sugar, the yolks, and the hot milk----and always in that order.

Zeitoun: this is an absolutely fabulous report. And the pictures are wonderful.

Smithy, Most store=bought chicken breasts do not braise well in the tagine, because they are bred for fast cooking. Next time I would suggest you tie up the whole chicken, set it on its back, cover it with the dome top, and let it steam in the the simmering sauce to tenderness. Tagine cooked chicken tastes best when served the same day.. When Moroccans say they 'braise' it is meant to describe long, slow cooking in a small amount of liquid,not quite what was discussed in the braising class. The separating and degreasing method that I posted in the braising section was intended for long cooked chunks of small meat in European recipes, especially those from France. .

Yes, you are on the right track. I use a dedicated pyrex measuring cup with a spout to pour about 1 tablespoon of hot bee's wax into the first mold and swirl the mold in order to coat the bottom and lower insides. I quickly invert the first onto the foil lined pan allowing any excess to slide down the inside. I repeat with the rest of the molds Here is a good tip: use your microwave to warm up the bee'swax butter whenever necessary.

Try putting the waxed molds,upside down, on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet and setting it a medium hot oven for a minute or two. Remove the molds to drain on paper toweling.Pour the still warm bee's wax butter into a bowl and save it to use later on. Only the thinnest veil of bee's wax-butter is needed.

It's good for poaching pears, too. In the French southwest, vin de noix is used to flavor sauces for fish, game birds, and poultry.

I sometimes use a slow cooker for duck confit and stock. Many carefully seasoned stews cooked in the crockpotr never seem to deliver the deep flavors of oven or stove top braises. It all ends up tasteless and monotonous, no matter the flavoring.

I, too, am cutting back on travel. I'm not sure whether it's really my "effervescent" personality or just being a woman that gets me in. There are a few womanly customs I observe, which I picked up in Morocco: kissing the women on each cheek and then sincerely touching my heart. This usually puts them at ease, and then I just sort of "move in." More times than you would believe: I move in and live with the family. "It doesn't hurt either to build up a basic kitchen vocabulary in their language or dialect: such words as "fry" "garlic" "bread" "salt" "stew" etc. In this regard, I try not to do the obvious thing: for example, when I visited the former Soviet Georgia I didn't bother to learn the Russian words, but instead concentrated on the Georgian. The same in Sicily where Sicilian got me a lot further than Italian, and in Catalonia where Catalan warms the hostress's heart a lot quicker than Spanish. I've found that I can learn sixty or so key kitchen words in just a few days, and then it's on to sign language and nods and smiles.... I still have wonderful memories of the Jordanian families I met in Ammam thanks to Clifford Wright aka Archestratus writing some letters of introduction.

winesonoma: I heard they were going to sell the restaurant to the work-staff. Did that fall through?

I could try. The only time I had trouble working with women was back in the 70's and 80's in the French Southwest. Some of the older, bony-faced "mothers" in their tight black hats just didn't "get " it about sharing recipes. When living in in the home of Pierre Veilletet ( a famous writer and journalist) and his family in Bordeaux, my host explained that this problem of extracting recipes was all tied up with la cuisine ombilicale (pun intended). He said that mothers in the French Southwest wanted total matriarchal over everything that enters the mouth. For every problem the mother could offer a culinary solution. Perhaps your mother just loves you a great deal. .

This is just wonderful reading.

Touragsand:The addition of preserved lemon is pure genius. I can't wait to try it.

Good brik pastry leaves are as thin as phyllo. The reason they feel thicker in the hand is due to their preparation: the leaves are half cooked...or better expressed: cooked on one side only. Very fine semolina flour and water is kneaded into a softish dough. A piece of the dough is broken off, worked until a great deal of elasticity is formed, then tapped against a hot pan. Many soft taps are made to form a large circle of pastry leaf. :

Earthenware which is not fully glazed should never be used in a microwave since, if the clay is wet, steam formed in the center of the clay can cause it to crack or even explode. This is not a concern in the oven since the heat is more gradual

I begin with a minced shallot soaked in the vinegar for 10 minutes before I mix in the other seasonings.

Now that the weather is nice, a great way to serve briks is out-of-doors on a terrace or in the garden. I set an electric frying pan on a long table for cooking and serving. Though most people associate bricks with Tunisia, where they are extremely popular and sold on the streets and at the beach, they are also prepared in Morocco, especially in the Rif Mountains. This is why I included a recipe in my Moroccan cookbook. The following formula is a popular in the city of Tunis: The recipe makes four briks. l tablespoon butter or olive oil l small onion, finely chopped 4 oz tin oil packed tuna, drained and mashed 1 to 2 tablespoons chopped parsley A few capers, drained and mashed 1-2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese 4 Chinese spring roll skins or small warka or malsouqua leaves 4 medium or small eggs l egg white, lightly beaten or flour and water paste Oil for frying Lemon wedges

Three? wow.... It's also delicious with some grated parmesan cheese in the mixture. I like it with a lemon wedge.

I suspect that Jonathan had the mashed potato and egg filling that is popular on the island of lDjerba. It is a great alternative to the delicious and classic canned tuna, caper and egg filling Eating a brik for the first time? Take the crispy triangle in either hand, and bite into the centre, at the same time try to keep the runny egg yolk from dribbling down your chin.