Cooking Every Meal at Home

While we've thus far been fortunate during this challenging pandemic and lockdown, we are very concerned about people throughout the world who are less fortunate in any number of ways. We are very grateful to all the workers who produce and package our food and work in all the essential shops.

Question: where do we get food to cook our kitchen?
Answer: We do curbside pick up at a small local market called The Produce Station. They have been great!
We also rely on friends and relatives, other curbside pickup places, and amazon.com

In my kitchen this month, we have prepared every meal, three per day. We have obtained our food without entering any market or other public space since March 13. It's now the end of April and time for a backward look at what's been going on here, to share with a group of food bloggers from many places throughout the world who document what's happening in their kitchens each month. These posts documenting the past month should be very interesting, as everyone has the same challenges in avoiding infection and dealing with erratic shortages during the pandemic.

You can find links to this collection of posts here:

http://sherryspickings.blogspot.com/

Nothing much is new in my kitchen this month -- only one water pitcher, ordered online.

Food is our focus! We've received several grocery orders by doing curbside pickup from The Produce Station. as in the photo, as well as from a bulk food store called By The Pound. Wonderful friends and relatives have bought us needed items while shopping for themselves, as they were already committed to stand in the long lines at big supermarkets. A few amazon orders have supplemented our larder contents.

During this time of isolation, I've been especially grateful to fellow bloggers who described their own challenges and documented the foods they made to cope with one or another of the inconveniences of the lockdown. As I collected images of the foods that I've made in my kitchen this month, I have tried to give a shout-out to bloggers that inspired me, entertained me, comforted me, or that featured similar recipes.

Passover: A Family Holiday without Family 

In mid-April, we managed to celebrate Passover, as I wrote a few weeks ago. Passover is a family holiday, celebrated at home with a ritual meal. For most families, it's a communal celebration, often with one's dining table extended to the max, and maybe another table in the living room. This year throughout the world, many families had to celebrate with only a few or even one person present, though there were large numbers of electronic gatherings. Here are a couple of photos of our Passover food.

Our Seder Plate for Passover.

Matzo ball soup -- extreme close up!

For the Seder plate, we had most of the symbolic items on hand: salt water, horseradish, a bone, fresh green herbs, an egg, and apples for charoset. We had no matzo, but we received one in the mail just as we were about to celebrate. Matzo balls are made from matzo meal, which we did have in the pantry. Matzo ball soup is not part of the ancient ritual (as written down around 1000 years ago), but has become an expected part of the celebration, almost as much as the ritual items.

Many bloggers described how they celebrated Easter during lockdown. Blogger Johanna in Melbourne described her Easter cake that she shared with her daughter, unable to join her extended family as usual. Jeanie from Lansing, Michigan, blogging at The Marmelade Gypsy described her imaginative Easter decorations as well as how she celebrated; see the post Easter Week.

Baking

To continue with a description of our kitchen activities this month -- Len has been baking twice a week. Originally this "In My Kitchen" blog post included photos of a number of his bakes, but the result was too long, and has now been published as a separate post. Read it here: Baking Bread in April.

Kaiser rolls, a real treat!

New Recipes for Curry

The taste of curry powder, hot pepper, cardamom, coriander, cilantro, cumin, fennel seeds, and more appeal to me enormously, and I've been trying new recipes with this array of flavors. 

Naan bread, served with the red lentils, and cucumber in yogurt.

A different red lentil curry, with eggplant and coconut milk.

Hard boiled eggs with curry sauce. Yes, I have been
experimenting with curry flavors a lot! I've also made
a couple of curried chicken dishes.

At the blog Almost Italian, blogger Francesca, who lives in Australia, has been posting about her curry recipes throughout April. In the post Muttar Paneer, My Favorite Curry, she discussed the meaning of the word curry, which she begins by defining as: "the anglicised form of the Tamil word kaṟi meaning ‘sauce’ or ‘relish for rice.'" Very interesting reading!

Chutney from By The Pound, to go with the curries.

Many More Flavors!

All through the lockdown, we have been cooking new things for fun, trying different spices and recipes, and in some ways forming new eating habits -- never going out to a restaurant, obviously! I made several of my standard Mexican-flavored dishes, which I've featured before, as well as some new ones.

Carrot soup in a tureen; apple slices for dessert.
Inspired by Shaheen at A2K blog (link).

My carrot soup contained orange juice, chicken broth, and dried tomato.
It was garnished with raw tomato and parsley. 

Soup is great for times like these, especially as our weather in April was often cold and dreary. At the blog Kahakai Kitchen, blogger Deb in Hawaii hosts a blog event called Souper Sunday. See this post on her Hungarian Mushroom Soup with links to other bloggers' soup adventures. Another blogger, Judee at Gluten Free A-Z has many interesting posts on vegetarian cooking; see her tempting recipe for Carrot Cumin Soup. Tandy Sinclair's Lavender and Lime from South Africa and Iris Flavia's oddly named blog Double-Half or One Ten without Ham from Germany are also among my go-to blogs. And each Saturday, I enjoy following a number of bloggers who link up at Weekend Cooking on the blog Beth Fish Reads.

Ready to roast: a chicken. I spatchcock the chicken and use the backbone for stock along
with celery tops, parsley stems, etc. Stock from one such chicken went into the carrot soup.

Sesame noodles with tuna and all the vegetables in the crisper drawer.
This was a makeshift lunch the day before one of our orders was ready.

Red cabbage and carrot salad: a recipe that I make often. These ingredients
keep well, so they're good for this time of limited food shopping.
I used up the red cabbage and bought a huge head of green cabbage!

Mushrooms, sautéed and seasoned with ras el hanout,
a Moroccan spice blend.

Mushroom omelet with the ras-el-hanount mushrooms.
Dessert: tangerine and avocado salad with rose water
and a touch of cinnamon.

Well, even after breaking this into two posts, I did write a lot this month, didn't I? I hope you don't mind! Next month, besides cooking, we hope to order take-out from some of the interesting restaurants in our town, which will give us some new flavors. So I'll have some new foods to write about.

Sherry's New In My Kitchen Logo.

Blog post and all photos © 2020 mae sander. 
This is published at mae food dot blog spot dot com. If you read it elsewhere it's been pirated.

Paul Hollywood's "Moroccan Pie" on the Great British Baking Show

Bastilla. B'stilla. Bisteeya. These are variations on the name of a traditional Moroccan pie, encased in very thin layers of flaky dough called warqa pastry, and filled with a mixture of chicken, cinnamon, sometimes almonds, and various other spices. It combines sweet and savory flavors in a delightful way; I've only tasted it once, and would love to have it again.

On the most recent episode of the Great British Baking Show, released on Netflix October 18, judge Paul Hollywood set the contestants a challenge of baking "A Moroccan Pie" in 2 hours. Only one of the contestants had ever even heard of the dish -- on the travel channel, he said. The GBBS didn't use the Arabic name that I mentioned above, but it still was very exotic to all of them. In fact, none seemed at all familiar with Moroccan traditional spices or pastry, which they made by trial and error. I'd say this challenge was a bit of a travesty, though a very good-natured travesty! Here are some screen shots of the episode from this very popular show.

The model pie, presumably made by Paul himself or one of his staff.

Hearing the challenge.

Making the filling.

One contestant's pie fell apart a little bit. Others "exploded."

Judging the pies: they were supposed to slice into nice pieces.
This one didn't make it.

The judges and the comic commenters examine the contestants' pies and grade them from worst to best.

We are big fans of the Great British Baking Show, though I have virtually never seen them bake anything that I would feel confident to try at home! Maybe not this one either, though I did make some soup with similar Moroccan spices. I did look for actual recipes, though: here are some links to recipes for this intriguing dish. Some of these use purchased filo dough, which would make it a lot easier than it was for the contestants!

• Paul Hollywood's own recipe from the GBBS site:
  https://thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk/recipes/all/paul-hollywoods-moroccan-style-pie/
• Recipe by Christine Benlafquih:
  https://www.thespruceeats.com/chicken-bastilla-recipe-2394641
• Recipe from Epicurious:
  https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/individual-bstillas-moroccan-chicken-and-almond-pies-12483
• Recipe from from Bon Appétit magazine:
  https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/moroccan-style-chicken-pie

This post was written by Mae Sander for maefood dot blogspot dot com. 

If you read it elsewhere, it's been pirated!

New in my Kitchen

First: this wonderful gift -- a Mona Lisa Scrubee. Plus Starry Night too.
Thanks Arny & Tracy!

My kitchen in January has seen a large number of new food items (or items we haven't had for a long time). These come from Trader Joe's, Ikea, Cost Plus World Market, and elsewhere. During our week's trip to South Carolina, we also tried some delicious new foods, but for this post I'll stick to just what's new in my Ann Arbor kitchen. And I'm sharing with the blogger event "In My Kitchen" at Sherry's blog: http://sherryspickings.blogspot.com/.

From Trader Joe's: Langostino Tails, which were delicious and tender.

From Ikea: mustard with dill.

Quadratini are good cookies! Ate them in 2 days.

Ikea Müsli with raspberries and Keffir.

A few condiments: two salsas, apricot-rose jam, Pickapeppa sauce.
We haven't had Pickapeppa for a while. It has a very good mild pepperiness.

Trader Joe's Harissa Salsa is hot. Is it
Moroccan? I don't know! But good in soup.

New for baking: two bannetons for proofing loaves:

The ridged surface of the banneton impresses a pattern on the loaves
as they rise. These are new in our kitchen for Len's bread-making.

After it rises, the loaf is turned out on a peel and slashed.
Then thrown onto a hot baking stone as quickly as possible.

The finished loaves have a ridged pattern left by the banneton. This batch was amazingly delicious.

Taste of Morocco

"Having slaughtered, plucked, drawn and washed the chicken according to the caïda, or tradition, fill its cavity with a stuffing..." I read these instruction in the recipe "Chicken stuffed with almonds, semolina, and Raisins" in Traditional Moroccan Cooking: Recipes from Fez, p. 105.

Traditional Moroccan Cooking, published 1958.
Arabesque, published 2005.

When I saw these words, I knew that this recipe wasn't quite right for my kitchen. Obviously, it's no trouble for me to buy a chicken that is already dead and clean. However, my chicken from Whole Foods was far too young and tender to be cooked as described in Madame Guisaudeau's sixty-year-old cookbook. The spices and flavors of the recipe, however were tempting, so I combined this recipe with "Roast Chicen with Couscous, Raisin, and Almond Stuffing" in Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon, by Claudia Roden, p. 92. I was very pleased with the result, and it seemed to please my dinner guests too.

One change I made: I substituted rice for the couscous or semolina in the original recipes. The seasonings were saffron, cinnamon, sugar, and orange blossom water. Blanched toasted almonds, raisins, chopped dried apricots (my own addition), and a large piece of butter added to the flavor profile. Following the instructions in the recipe in Arabesque, I steamed the rice separately from the chicken and then tossed it with the other ingredients.

The chicken was first rubbed with olive oil, lemon juice, and the Moroccan spice blend ras el hanout. After the first hour of cooking at 400º F, I brushed it with honey to create a nice brown skin. As I often do, I spatchcocked the chicken before roasting, which enables it to cook more evenly than a whole chicken.

The recipe in Traditional Moroccan Cooking suggests actually stuffing the chicken with the semolina mixture, but I think that's more appropriate for roasting the less-tender bird. Although the techniques were somewhat different, I think these are both variants of the same recipe. I've been curious to try some of the recipes in both cookbooks, and this was a very delicious start at using them.

"Gourmet Rhapsody" by Muriel Barbery

A childhood memory of a meal in Morocco:

"I will, at least, have had the opportunity to recall this: the grilled meat, the mechouia salad, the mint tea and the cornes de gazelle. I was Ali Baba. The cave of treasures: this was it, the perfect rhythm, the shimmering harmony between portions, each one exquisite unto itself, but verging on the sublime by virtue of the strict, ritual succession. The meatballs, grilled with the utmost respect for their firmness, had lost none of their succulence during their passage through fire, and filled my professionally carnivorous mouth with a thick, warm, spicy, juicy wave of masticatory pleasure. The sweet bell peppers, unctuous and fresh, softened my taste buds already subjugated by the virile rigor of the meat, and prepared them for the next powerful assault. Everything was there in abundance. ... When at last we were sated and somewhat dazed, we would shove our plates away and look in vain for a back to the bench so that we might relax; the waiter brought the tea, poured it according to the established ritual, and on the table, which had been only haphazardly wiped clean, he set down a plate of sugar-covered crescents, the cornes de gazelle. No one was the least bit hungry anymore, but that is precisely what is so good about the moment devoted to pastries: they can only be appreciated to the full extent of their subtlety when they are not eaten to assuage our hunger, when the orgy of their sugary sweetness is not destined to fill some primary need but to coat our palate with all the benevolence of the world." (Gourmet Rhapsody, Kindle Locations 160-172). 

Vivid food descriptions like the one quoted above are the center of interest in Muriel Barbery's novel Gourmet Rhapsody. These passages represent the inner thoughts of a dying man; the specific memory above concerned his childhood meals while visiting relatives in his mother's native country, Morocco, which is also the birthplace of the author.

As a radical and influential food critic, this character had spent his life expressing thoughts about what he ate. On his deathbed, thoughts of many things that he had enjoyed eating rushed through his head as he tried to imagine one special taste from his past. Each chapter of the book represents one stream of consciousness from his mind or from the mind of another character that is somehow connected to him and to his immanent death; no character is aware of the inner thoughts of any other. What a strange premise for a novel!

The dying food critic also recalls many tastes and food experiences from his life in France and his adventures as a professional eater. Another of this character's memories:

"I bit into the fruit, I bit into the tomato. In salads, baked, in ratatouille, in preserves, grilled, stuffed, cherry, candied, big and soft, green and acidic, honored with olive oil or coarse salt or wine or sugar or hot pepper, crushed, peeled, in a sauce, in a stew, in a foam, even in a sorbet: I thought I had thoroughly covered the matter and on more than one occasion I wrote pieces inspired by the greatest chefs’ menus claiming that I had penetrated its secret. ... 

"Sugar, water, fruit, pulp, liquid or solid? The raw tomato, devoured in the garden when freshly picked, is a horn of abundance of simple sensations, a radiating rush in one’s mouth that brings with it every pleasure. The resistance of the skin— slightly taut, just enough; the luscious yield of the tissues, their seed-filled liqueur oozing to the corners of one’s lips, and that one wipes away without any fear of staining one’s fingers; this plump little globe unleashing a flood of nature inside us: a tomato, an adventure." (Kindle Locations 440-452). 

Could this only be written by a French person? Impossible to say, but stereotyping of French attitudes would lead to this idea. In fact, I came across this novel when pursuing my current project of finding out what French people read and write when they read and write about food. I'm looking at it as a source of insights into a perhaps different mindset than that of Americans who write lovingly about Paris restaurants and Provencal romantic getaways.

Muriel Barbery became famous around a decade ago for her novel, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which takes place in a Paris apartment building. This apartment building on rue de Grenelle in Paris is also the site of Gourmet Rhapsody.  As I've been reading this earlier novel I've enjoyed Barbery's perspective on many things and her skillful and terse way of portraying characters from their inner thoughts. She's an interesting author, whose work obviously appeals to readers in many countries.

Dreaming of warm places with spicy food

Spices in the Machane Yehuda Market, Jerusalem, 2006.

Cold, cold winter here: frequent snow storms, grey skies with rare glimpses of blue. Thursday's temperatures exceptionally went into the fifties, but Friday will be back well below freezing with a low of 9º F.

I'm dreaming of warmer places and of the spices from exotic cuisines in faraway places. At right is a random selection of images of spicy food that I've enjoyed on past journeys.

And here are my dreams of places I've been and new ones where I want to go:

Herbs in the Machane Yehuda Market

I dream of the lands surrounding the Mediterranean.  Friday in Rabat, Morocco, it's forecast to be 64º -- I dream of eating a special Moroccan tagine with the hot red sauce called harissa. I've never been there, but I can dream!

In Jerusalem, Friday's temperature is 60º and if I were there, I could eat falafel with the Yemenite sauce called zhoug made from cilantro, parsley, cumin, coriander, hot hot pepper, and olive oil. I love to think of Israeli markets full of amazing spices and herbs as well as many exotic foods all ready to eat.

Provence: spices in the market at Arles, 2016.

In Nice, France, it is forecast to be 60º. I dream of fish stew with the sauce called rouille made of olive oil with breadcrumbs, garlic, saffron and cayenne pepper. I remember Provencal open-air markets full aromatic spices.

Closer to home, I dream of New Orleans where it's 70º. Imagine a plate of newly-opened oysters with lemon juice, horseradish, and a handy bottle of Tabasco sauce  -- on Avery Island near NOLA, the McIlhenny family has made Tabasco Sauce since 1868.

I dream of San Diego where high temperatures this week will be 68º and I could go to a nice taco stand and enjoy a burrito with some hot salsa in sight of the beautiful Pacific Ocean.

San Diego, California: Roberto's Burritos in 2009.

Near LA (Friday expected high 71º) they make sriracha which started as an ethnic Asian condiment and is now everywhere. And I could also enjoy the beach.

The vast Pacific offers many exotic islands to dream about. I'd love to travel to Fiji, Easter Island, New Zealand, New Guinea and more. I also love Hawaii where temperatures are in the seventies, as they are almost all winter. I dream of several favorite restaurants in and near Kona like Island Lava Java where I often have ordered fish tacos or Salade Niçoise -- Hawaii is home to Pacific Rim cuisine which includes almost every warm-weather cuisine in the world!

Saint Lucia in the Caribbean: a spicy lunch some years ago.

The Caribbean includes Cuba where the temperature is in the eighties and though I've never been there, I'd like to try the famous spicy black beans and more, as well as see the fascinating island with its famous old cars.

On a trip to Saint Lucia we tried the local curry chicken roti, a dish influenced by East Indian people who came to various British colonies in the Caribbean. At the resort where we stayed, we also enjoyed lots of interesting fish dishes. It's 83º there and that would feel good. So would snorkeling!

Florida Keys: The Fish House, 2017. Their "Matacumbe" preparation
with tomatoes and onions is very delicious!

In Key Largo, Florida it's 81º and I dream of the spicy fish at the Fish House there: not to mention key lime pie! Also driving the beautiful long road across many causeways, eventually arriving in Key West.

I dream of many other exotic locations, where the food is spicy and the weather is pleasantly hot. It's 103º in Buenos Aires and 90º in Rio -- maybe too hot, though I'd love to see them! It's only 81º in San Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, where I'd love to taste the foods made famous in the books of Jorge Amado -- especially the spicy dish called Feijoada. Enough dreaming!

Finally: this is loco moco, a Hawaiian special plate lunch including hamburger, rice, gravy, and a fried egg.
It's total fusion food including flavors from several of the immigrant groups that make up the Hawaiian melting pot.

Harissa, Chicken, and the Season's First Corn

A new brand of Harissa, the Moroccan pepper sauce, which I bought at
Whole Foods yesterday. It was hot and tasty as a condiment with dinner.

The first sweet corn of 2017. It grew quite a lot further south than here in
Michigan, where the corn is just getting started. It's almost summer!

Chicken roasted with Moroccan spices and olives: I used Ras al Hanout (a Moroccan spice blend), cumin, coriander,
fresh garlic and ginger root, and olive oil. This is becoming one of my favorite ways to make a roast chicken.
Originally we planned to cook it outdoors -- but rain and thunderstorm warnings deterred us.

More about the season -- our garden is looking very beautiful this week, especially the rhododendron.

At the Nichols Arboretum Peony Garden, the tree peonies have mostly finished blooming, while the garden-variety
peonies are just beginning. It's a stunning and exceptional collection of many types of peonies founded over 90 years ago.
We had a very nice visit yesterday just before the thunderstorms rumbled into town.