Experimenting with Cuisines: Moroccan Food

This week's box contained:

• Chantenay Carrots
• Sweet Corn
• Red Cabbage
• Desiree Potatoes
• Bunched Parsley Root
• Melons
• Strawberries
• Lettuce (traded for more parsley root)

Having just finished LuLu in Marrakech, I took my inspiration for the week from Morocco.  If you've never tried it, Moroccan food is exceptional.  Intensely flavorful, simple to prepare and, for the most part, really healthy.

I happen to have a tagine pot that I look after for a Moroccan friend.  I decided to put it to use for dinner tonight and made a mixed vegetable tagine, loosely based on a recipe from the BBC's Good Food site.

Making a tagine is easy and can be done on the stove top in a Dutch oven or a small stockpot. The process is as follows:

• Saute aromatics (onions, garlic, and the like) in olive oil,
• Add the spices and stir till fragrant,
• Add a can of diced tomatoes,
• Add a mixture diced vegetables and beans
• Add a cup of water, mix well, then
• Cover and simmer till the vegetables are tender

Serve over couscous.  The variations are endless.  Tagines are really a braise, so anything you'd consider cooking that way can apply here.  The Moroccan spices are heavenly and well worth a go, but the cooking technique lends itself to any flavor variation.

Seasonal Vegetable Tagine
... serves 4 generously as a main course

2 small carrots, diced
2 small turnips, diced
2 small zucchini, diced
2 medium onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 14.5 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2t  agave nectar
4t  ras el hanout
3 T harissa
olive oil
water
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Saute the onions in olive oil over medium heat till translucent; add minced garlic and stir till fragrant.  Add spices and stir till fragrant.  Toss the prepared vegetables and chickpeas together, then place in the base of a tagine. Top with tomato mixture, add water and cover.  Bake, covered, for 1 hour stirring occasionally.

Other Moroccan recipes I'd like to try include:

• Moroccan Spiced Carrots
• Spiced Tomato and Couscous Soup
• Vegetarian Harira

Kitty Morse is well known in the US for her Moroccan cookbooks. I've just ordered The Vegetarian Table: North Africa and am anxiously awaiting the book expected from Mourad Lahlou of Aziza in San Francisco.  More Moroccan food to follow!

Experimenting with Ingredients: Red Radish Canapés

This week's box contains:

• Lettuce  (traded for more shallots)
• Red Radishes
• Strawberries
• Bunched Spinach
• Bunched Green-Tailed Shallots
• Artichokes
• Fava Beans

Red radishes are not something I would normally procure ...

Members of my family actively seek them out ~ eating them out of hand topped with salt.  I don't mind them, and actively like them pickled.  However, having them in the house takes thought and effort if they are to avoid the compost pile.

There is a bunch in this week's box, so I thought I'd focus on dealing with food that doesn't have immediate appeal.  What do you do when you have something on hand that does not inspire?

I typically do one of a few things:

• Research: Cookbooks and the internet are a tremendous help.  Either leverage the index of your favorite cookbook or search the internet for the ingredient in question.  An example would be a Google search on "radish recipes".

• Integrate:  Some ingredients can be integrated into something that does inspire.  For example, if you love risotto, almost anything you can imagine can be added to a compatible recipe.  Some ingredients can be "hidden"; check out Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious for ideas.
  
  
• Trade:  In some cases, I know we will not eat the food.  Friends and family will often take the food off your hands, sometimes in exchange for something else.  This is a great option and often starts for us when we pick up the box.  Our CSA offers a "trade" box; if yours does ~ use it.
  
  
• Imagine: Sounds trite, but stay with me.  Is there a situation in which you can imagine a ingredient making an ingredient work?  We've got family in town this weekend and heavy appetizers were a part of the plan for tonight.  I narrowed my search on "radish recipes" to those that would fit the situation.  Knowing a few appetizer-like terms, such as canapé and "amuse bouche" helped.

I landed on a typical French preparation of radishes: radishes, butter, and salt.  Given the noshing planned, it wasn't a stretch to create Red Radish Canapés by adding bread to the equation.  Here's the recipe, which was a big hit.

Red Radish Canapés
Serves 4 as a first course

3 large red radishes, thinly sliced
butter, at room temperature (we used Kerrygold)
coarse salt (we used Celtic Sea Salt)
bread, thinly sliced
minced herbs of your choice

Lightly toast the bread and set aside to cool.  Spread butter on the bread and top with radish slices.  Top with minced herbs and coarse salt.  Enjoy!

We served these canapés with a Schramsberg Mirabelle Brut ~ a entirely pleasant pairing.

As for the other box contents, we ate the strawberries out of hand throughout the day and grilled the artichokes for dinner tonight.  The spinach and shallots will likely find their way into risotto while the favas wait for next weekend when we have time to deal with them.

Fermented Tofu: Day 6

Today's the big day!

The dry fermented tofu is making its way to its secondary fermentation stage in brine.  Using easily accessible ingredients, we've made the brine from 750ml Paul Masson Pale Dry Sherry, ~1 cup water (enough to get to 5 cups liquid total) and ~1 cup kosher salt.

From here, it sits for 2-6 months, at which time it should be ready to use.  We'll taste along the way and post updates here.

While it is looking like blue cheese, I must admit the tofu in brine set me Googling again, stopping here first:  Molds on Food: Are they Dangerous?

Fermented Tofu: Day 5

Progress continues.  The tofu cubes are each changing, none appear to be in sync with another.  Several different forms of mold are on the scene, such as the furry white one above.  There's also a gray furry one, something that looks like "bread mold" and the predicted orange, slimy mold; all pictured below.

My 4 year old goddaughter stays with us this weekend, so will hold off on transferring these to the brine till she gets here tomorrow.  Can't wait to hear what she thinks about this little experiment...

Fermented Tofu: Day 4

We've got mold! In this context, that's progress!

I finally found additional information about fermented tofu on what seems to be a sensible site. The recipe posted there calls for dry fermentation "until each cube is covered with a cottony-white mycelium".  See the History of Fermented Tofu for further detail.

Fermented Tofu: Day 3

Progress!

As you can see in this picture, the tofu is starting to "sweat" and there is some subtle discoloration.  It is also starting to smell a bit "sour", but nothing frightening at this point...

Fermented Tofu: Day 2

No discernible change so far...

Fermented Tofu

As of January 1, 2010, I've moved from vegetarian to vegan.  Given my deep appreciation for cheese, this was a big decision.  It's actually been extremely easy, but I do miss cheese and things made with cheese, like tartines, pizza, quesadillas ... the list goes on.

In my Meyer lemon research today, I found a recipe for a tartine including lemons and ~ you guessed it ~ cheese.  Goat cheese in particular.  Thankfully, I also found a recipe for vegan goat cheese that seems to be well received; click here.

This recipe calls for fermented tofu.  As I can't imagine making the time to track down the commercial product, I decided to take the DIY approach.  Seemed simple enough, except:

• Only one recipe found; all roads lead to Asian markets like Ranch 99. 

• The recipe I found mentions mold and strong aromas ~ neither of which leave me feeling confident this should be tried at home.

I reached out to some friends for encouragement and advice.  With that in hand, I am pressing onward.   The test batch is prepared and has started its 2-4 day dry fermentation journey.  I'll post daily updates, pictures of the progress, and results of the taste test here.