The great undiscovered culinary Shangri-La of the Mediterranean in my mind is Algeria and Tunisia. Algeria has been off limits for some 25 years because of the civil war which erupted in the early 1990s, and Tunisia was the initiator of the Arab Spring some years ago and has always been more popular with Europeans […]
Stew as the Wife of the Cordoban Farmer Would Make It
February 19, 2018 by 1 Comment
This delicious winter stew from Córdoba in Andalusia is called olla cortijera de Córdoba in Spanish and is long simmered cabbage and chickpea stew. Andalusians are quite fond of cumin as a spice. The plant was brought to Spain from North Africa and entered the cuisine. The famous Spanish Arab agronomist Ibn al-‘Awwam, who flourished […]
Andalusia’s Dried Bean Soup for A Winter Weekend
January 17, 2018 by Leave a Comment
A winter weekend soup that can more or less be an entire meal is a dried bean soup from Andalusia. Dried beans are popular everywhere in the Mediterranean. They also have a flavor a tad different than the fresh bean, which means they are ideal in earthy and deeply flavorful soups such as this one […]
Simple Appetizer, A 4-Can Antipasto
January 13, 2015 by Leave a Comment
“Fresh is best” is usually a good rule to live by. But if you know how to find quality preserved items, a few well-chosen canned foods in your pantry can save the day, especially during the busy holidays. Healthy food is food that is minimally processed. All the foods’ transformation should happen when you turn […]
Middle Eastern Meze Bring Many Cultures to the Table
November 2, 2014 by 2 Comments
In the Middle East food is shared and one place it is shared is on the meze table. Meze are small samplings of prepared dishes that make a meal. They are not appetizers, nor tapas, nor hors d’oeuvres but are actually more philosophically related to the Scandinavian smorgasbord. Food is shared in another way. The […]
Soup for Happiness and Dinner
October 20, 2013 by 2 Comments
My good friend Deborah Madison was in town to talk about her magnificent new book Vegetable Literacy and we got a chance to catch up and talk about the food state-of-affairs. For Deborah, she was sick of hearing about farm-to-table and for me I roll my eyes when I hear mass hysteria in the form […]
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