Park This

Testing Tagine Recipes for Publication

A few weeks ago I was interviewed by Marian Scott of The Gazette (Montreal) for an article about Algerian cuisine. I volunteered to test recipes for her, two of them looked fine as is, but the tagine recipes needed more details about cooking techniques and some of the quantities didn't look right.

Montreal has a sizeable Algerian community, "In Montreal, 30.8 per cent of residents were born outside of Canada, by far the biggest proportion of any Quebec city. Across the province, only 11. 5 of residents are foreign-born. Montreal's biggest sources of immigrants: China, Algeria and France. Before 1996, Italy, Haiti and France were tops."

Marian and I agreed that Algerian cuisine is delicious and accessible, not as "exotic" as Moroccan or incendiary as Tunisian. Overall, Algerian cooking is more varied and subtle than its North African neighbors. I've often described it as a "Mediterranean Mix" kissed with spices.

I took these photos midway through cooking, the cooking liquid will reduce and the finished dishes will have thicker sauces.

 

Tajine aux Poulet, Olives et Citron Confit cooked in a tagine purchased at Sur La Table

A Little Plug For a Friend

Simon Mujumdar, book publisher turned food writer, traveling the world, eating everything. He and Sybil, his girlfriend, came over to my place for dinner a couple of months ago. I made them an Algerian chicken and preserved lemon tagine. They are delightful people, really grounded and easy to spend time talking and laughing with.

He's ready to launch his U.S. book tour soon, check out his websites for details.

Barnes and Noble (Simon talks about his journey to becoming a food writer and traveling the world eating everything)

Sky Light Books in Los Feliz, May 30, 2009 at 5:00 PM

Dos Hermanos food blog with his brother Robin

Eat My Globe (last post in June, 2008 when he finished his travels for his first book)

 

Korean Food in Los Angeles

A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed for an article in the New York Times about Korean food in Los Angeles. I'm not quoted or mentioned in it at all. Although there is information in the article that the writer culled from our conversation, my sound bites must have been left on the cutting room floor.

Actually, I mostly provided back story and context for the evolution of Korean food and immigrants in Los Angeles. And why Korean food and ingredients are becoming trendy now.

Overall, a well researched and written article. The writer, Jennifer Steinhauer, is also the Los Angeles bureau chief for the New York Times.

"Korean food has blipped on the radar of culinary trend watchers before, but it never seems to gain momentum. In part, Mr. Benson said: “It is because there is a misconception about Korean food. Japanese food is high protein, low in fat and is this very clean cuisine, where Korean food has a reputation as being not healthy."

I have no idea where Benson came up with this. I've been Korean my entire life and I talk, write and teach about food professionally to diverse audiences. I've never heard of Korean food being considered not healthy, quite the contrary. Koreans and Korean-Americans have extremely low rates of obesity.

What Happened to Slow Food Pan-Arab? Part l

Nothing. And I don't know.

I was one of five original board members, the only non-native to represent a country from North Africa and the Middle East. Initially, there was a list of PR driven activities, media contacts, and a few initiatives on the table.

For a brief moment it all seemed very exciting, at least the possibility of working with culinary "elites" from this part of the world; scholars, academics, food writers, producers and chefs. But I already knew people like this and didn't need to serve a big, bloated organization to participate in the culinary glamour that Carlo Petrini is so adept at marketing.

Seed Bank Art Project: Stages of Butterfly Development

I'm teaching two after-school art classes for my Seed Bank Project.

Art and Nature Studio l and ll
This program combines fine art, craftwork and applied art with environmental studies Projects are inspired by materials, shapes and palettes found in nature. Children learn artistic skills in a fun, cooperative atmosphere that helps build confidence in individual creativity. Each child will build an art portfolio and the class will culminate with a group project.

The photo is of an origami mobile representing the four stages of a butterfly's development; eggs (attached to leaves), larva, pupa and butterfly. Origami paper can seem a bit pricey ($6.99-$9.99), but they come in packs of 200. I used a dowel covered with green tissue paper to hold the pieces. You also can use disposable chopsticks to lower supply costs.

Duck Confit (Confit de Canard) and Duck Rillettes (Rillettes de Canard)

A few months ago I made twenty pounds of duck confit using a basic salt cure (recette de confit de canard). Dinner yesterday evening was confit de canard aux pommes de terre, prepared by sautéing thinly sliced potatoes in duck fat and gently heating whole duck legs until the skins were crisp.

I wanted a medium to heavy bodied wine with enough acidity to match the weight of dark meat and cut through the fat so I chose a Côtes du Rhône. If you're inclined to eschew terroir based pairings, a barolo or pinot noir are also fine matches. For those insistent on serving a white wine, a riesling is suitable.

It's chic in some foodie circles to wax poetic about crispy duck skin, almost to the point that the raison d’être of duck confit becomes the crackling. In soundbite driven foodie discourses there's a tendency to treat cooking and eating as competitive sports. The point then becomes playing games of one-upmanship with the requisite preening, strutting and stroking.

One rendering of this foodie "logic" I had was a kind of duck chicharones. The chef shallow fried a duck leg confit, skin side down,  in about an inch of oil and finished the whole thing under a salamander or broiler.

If you're imagining a luscious piece of meat with a perfectly crisp and puffy cap of duck fat, that's what the menu and waiter encourage you to do. The reality, however,  is that duck legs aren't entirely sheathed in a protective layer of fat, exposed portions of flesh turn leathery and tough with aggressive high heat cooking.

All this is to say, that I often stick to tried and true cooking techniques rather than experimenting for the sake of novelty. I don't have to try everything to know that some things just won't work or taste good.

 

After dinner I had three pieces of confit left for making duck rillettes (potted meat). My standard preparation calls for green peppercorns packed in water and fresh thyme (rillettes de canard au poivre vert et thyme frais). Last night's version, made at 11:30 after two glasses of Côtes du Rhône with dinner, begged for using ingredients at hand; a mix of dried white, pink, green and black peppercorns.

North African Spice Blends

 
I spent the better part of today creating North African spice blends for a new line of seasonings. The first store to carry the brand will probably be The Beverly Hills Cheese Store. But don't call the store, yet.

Writing and PR Projects I'm currently working on

I'm still working on my big fat Algerian cookbook. If you're wondering about that multi-book deal, well, it just won't happen without a cooking show. Endeavor and Scott Sternberg Productions are still in the picture. And I'm talking with a friend about angles for shooting a general reel.

In the meantime I'm writing three entries for Greenwood Food Cultures around the World- Korea, Algeria and Berbers/Tuaregs.

This year I was hoping to finally attend the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. But I'm uncertain about how much time I can devote to writing a draft before the March deadline. My schedule is very tight for the next several weeks and travel in September is usually difficult to schedule. Next year's symposium dates are in July, much more doable for a mom of two young children.

PROJECT GREEN ALGERIA is very much a long term project. Things of this scope just don't happen overnight. However, The Seed Bank component of PROJECT GREEN ALGERIA, at least on the U.S. end, is progressing nicely. I should be able wrap up the first round of template activities and PR work by the end of spring.

The global financial crisis has delayed all the big projects I've been working on, national development is tough these days, glamorous cooking shows seem a bit vulgar, funding for even established non-profits is increasingly scarce, and newspapers and magazines are downsizing or shutting down.

Needless to say all of this has snowballed to effect even my bread and butter jobs. After considering my options I've decided to go back into the commercial aspects of the food business. As luck would have it a friend of mine is in charge of a brand new, $3,000,000 commercial kitchen in Pasadena...

Chocolate Ganache Truffles for Valentine's Day

A few days ago I was interviewed for a Valentine's Day article for The New York Times. It's one of those articles that uses a series of quotes or vignettes from a reader friendly demographic pool of "everyday folks". At most I expected my name in the story, maybe a small quote or a little blurb about what I'm doing for Valentine's Day.

Friday morning I wake up to find a couple of messages on my phone from a photo editor at the paper, then an hour later there's a Facebook PM from the writer to email the story editor or call the photo desk. They want to send a photographer over immediately to take photos of me making truffles.

Seed Bank Project Activities

 
 

This is a child friendly version of a Korean ink wash painting. It was done at a Korean-English dual language immersion school. I also worked with children at a French-English bilingual school on the same art project.

Drops of calligraphy ink were placed at the bottom of a sheet of paper and dispersed upward and outward by blowing through a straw (traditionally reeds or bamboo straws were used) to create cherry blossom branches. The blossoms were made with tissue paper. The ink drops represent seeds. How a child blows through the straw (degree of force, direction, etc.) is thought to be a reflection of inner zen*. And how the cherry branches manifest themselves symbolize patterns of plant growth found in nature. Some children create branches that are very clean and elegant, others complex webs.