Month: March 2011

Bowled over by Bisteeya

Published by Kathy Hunt

Lunch this week at the Moroccan restaurant Cafe Mogador reminded me of just how much I love this lively North African cuisine. Heady spices merge with fluffy grains, piquant fruits, and tender pulses, poultry and fish to create some of the most distinctive, delectable foods that I’ve ever eaten. Of the wonderful Moroccan offerings, the most unique has to be bisteeya. Considered by many to be Morocco’s most complex and elegant dish, this flaky, poultry-filled pastry remains beyond compare. Bisteeya has its roots in the Middle East. As early as the 7th century, Arab invaders introduced the concept of encasing spiced meats and nuts in dough. They also encouraged the use of paper-thin leaves of pastry, which Moroccans perfected and now refer to as warka. Warka is one of several ingredients that make bisteeya so memorable. To make warka, you press a ball of well-kneaded dough onto a hot, flat pan. As soon as the edges begin to dry, peel off the leaf and place it on a clean, flat surface. Cover it with a …

Plenty

Published by Kathy Hunt

London chef and restaurateur Yotam Ottolenghi’s second cookbook Plenty (Ebury Press, 2010) was released in the U.S. last week but, thanks to a friend in Europe, I’ve had the pleasure of cooking from his colorful book since last fall. “Pleasure” remains the key word for, thus far, every recipe that I’ve tried has been a delight to make and eat. Inspired by the “New Vegetarian column” that Ottolenghi writes for London’s Guardian newspaper, Plenty focuses on vegetables and how to cook them in flavorful, creative ways. Many of the preparations are quite simple — roasting Jerusalem artichokes or poaching baby carrots doesn’t take a lot of time or effort. Yet, because of Ottolenghi’s thoughtful use of seasonings and inventive pairing of flavors, I end up with fabulous tasting vegetables. Plenty brims with close-up, full-page, color photographs of each dish. These beautiful photos not only illustrate but also inspire different takes on the proffered vegetables. One glance at the vibrant “tomato party” or “Tamara’s ratatouille” and I start thinking of additions and pairings for these recipes. …

Fast Food the French Way

Published by Kathy Hunt

I was all set to chat about the imminent arrival of spring produce but then I stepped outside, saw the ice on the sidewalk, felt the chill in the air and decided that I needed something warmer and heartier today than leeks and asparagus. Looking down at my old, red, wool scarf that I had picked up years ago at the department store la Samaritaine, I started to think about France, which immediately made me think of crepes. I fell in love with crepes on a cold, late December evening in Paris. Famished as well as jet-lagged, I roamed the 1st arrondissement in search of something warm, filling and quick to eat. On a sex shop-lined street near our rented apartment on Rue Saint Denise Impasse I spotted a stout, middle-aged man standing on a street corner, cooking paper thin pancakes on an oversized, portable hot plate. After flipping them once, he filled his crepes with fresh, sliced bananas, the chocolate-hazelnut spread Nutella, strawberry preserves or a combination of the three. He then rolled up …

Clammin’ It Up with Clams

Published by Kathy Hunt

I spent much of this week on the West Coast, soaking up the sunshine and tasting the local specialties. For shellfish fans West Coast dining can be bliss. Home to petite Olympia oysters and gargantuan geoduck clams, it’s the perfect place for these delicacies. Among the bivalves – scallops, mussels, oysters and clams – I’m partial to clams. Sentimentality influences this for they were the first bivalves that I’d ever tasted. Dipped in batter, fried until crisp and golden and paired ketchup, they were the most exotic thing that eight-year-old me had ever eaten. Only two varieties of clams exist – hard-shell and soft-shell. Possessing a grayish shell less than two inches in diameter, the East Coast littleneck is the smallest hard-shell. Registering at two and a half-inches, the cherrystone comes next followed by the quahog or chowder clam. The quahog measures between three to six inches. Hard-shells such as Pacific littlenecks, Manilas, pismos and butter all hail from the West Coast. Contrary to their name, soft-shells possess slender, brittle shells that don’t close completely. …

What’s Cooking in Cambodia?

Published by Kathy Hunt

Ask that question 30 years ago and the answer would be far different than it is today. Ravaged by the Vietnam War and the reign of the Khmer Rouge, folks there were focused on basic survival, not on crafting their country’s cuisine. Yet, in spite of years of deprivation and starvation, Cambodians have persevered to create some of the most flavorful and freshest foods around. Last Friday I learned this firsthand by spending the day with a Khmer chef from Siem Reap, Cambodia’s Tara Angkor Hotel. Since Cambodian cooking focuses on fresh, local ingredients, we took a tuk tuk to the market to pick up the provisions for our meal. Lemongrass, galangal root, kaffir lime leaves, turmeric, onions, string beans and sweet potatoes all made their way into our basket. Along with garlic the first four ingredients would appear in both the curry chicken and amok trey, or freshwater fish amok, that we’d make. Pounded together into a paste, this aromatic mixture is known as kroeung. A distinctly Cambodian or Khmer flavoring, it’s used in …

Taste of Vietnam

Published by Kathy Hunt

For me Vietnam has never meant cuisine. Born at the end of the Vietnam – or, as they call it in Vietnam, “the American” – War, I’ve long been fascinated by that war and this Indochinese country. The food? It just didn’t captivate me the same way that the history and culture did. Yet, the more time I spend here, the more I grow to appreciate the background, flavors and techniques of Vietnamese cooking. Eat in Vietnam and you eat with my nemesis, chopsticks. I have 1,000 years of Chinese occupation to thank for the popularity of these tricky utensils. Along with chopsticks the Chinese also introduced rice cultivation, stir-frying, beef and bean curd to the Vietnamese. Without their influence there would be no pho (rice noodle soup), congee (creamy rice soup), banh cuon (rice rolls) or stir fried meals of any kind. Guess I can forgive them for the chopsticks. China wasn’t the only country to have an impact on Vietnamese cooking. Nearly a century of French rule resulted in affinities for beer, baguettes, …