Moroccan Cuisine Flavor And Fire

 Morocco is a fascinating country, best known from the classic movie "Casablanca." Yet it's so much more than that. It has tagines, and spices along with flavorful desserts and drinks.

Morocco is a mix of different cultures and people, The same can be said for it's cuisine.There is influence from m the southernmost Spanish province along with Berber, the indgenous culture of North africa. Arab and Mediterrenean influences are also there.It has the most in common with Middle Eastern cuisine than any other North African country. It's history is ancient , with dishes first coming about doring the Seventh Century CE. The Moroccans usually cook with beef, mutton goat and  and lamb along with chicken and seafood. Dishes are usually served with rice or flabread to scoop up meats and gravies. lemon picled or preserved lemons along with fermented butter or smen flavor foods. Of course there are the rich and fragrant spices.Dishes  are rich with cinnamon, nutmeg, turmeric, ginger and paprika to name a few. There is also  saffron, mace , fenugreek,cayenne, black pepper, anise and fenel. Sesame seeds also figure into recipes too. The Moroccans also love using mint,verbena, sage, bay laurel, parsley and peppermint.

Any home chef can easily replicate Moroccan cooking. Tagine, is cooking in a special clay pot which you can get on Amazon for $29.95 . etsy, williams and Soniomoa along with Milk Street also sell them at higher prices ranging from $35 on etsy to $71.25 on Milk Street. Tagine is a sweet and savory blend of spices that can also be cooked in an open skillet. Apopular one is made with chicken , honey, olives,lemon zest and fresh lemon juice. Chopped onions and minced garlic are also added along with a mix of spices, namely, paprika, cumon, coriander, and ginger. This can be served with couscous or even a flat bread like pita to sop up the sauce. The breakfast dish  of the moment shakshuka is also big in such cities as Fez and Rabat. This is a breakfast dish tat can easily be cooked for any brunch. It's poached eggs cooked in a tomato sauce with peppers, garlic  onions and spices such as paparika, coriander, cumin and cayenne. A sweet and savory pastry called briouat is also popular. They can be filled with lamb beef or chicken for a quick snack or sweet filled with almond paste and cinnamon and coated in warm honey and orange flower water.

Try  Moroccan cuisinetoday. Enjoy the fragrant blend of spices as they grace both sweet and savory recipes. The recipes are a wonderful escape to the exotic.

 You can contact the International Red Cross  if you want to donate or help those affected by the Moroccan earthquake.

Caribbean Veggies Your Way

 After a summer of tomatoes and squash it's time to think outside the back yard. There are a wealth of Caribbean veggies  that can be made into interesting and comofrting recipes. It's time to expand your culinary horizons.

One of th e most popular and ubiquitous in all grocery stores nowadays is the cassava. It's a tuber that can stand in for a potato.It has the same starchiness but the flavor is sweeter and nuttier than a spud.It does have t be peeled and boiled because raw it contains lethal high levels of cyanide. You could also soak them for several hours in cold water to also dissipate the poison. After boiling or soaking and peeling try  roasting them. They're cut and tossed in a blend of olive oil, cumin, garlic, coriander  and onion powder. Cassava or yuca can also be made into tasty fries. Use an air fryer to cook them for  fiften minutes at four hundred degrees Farenheit.Unlike potaotes, though, cassava can also be turned into cakes too. It's called pone and is highly popular in Guyana.There a mix of spices like black pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg mixed with shredded boiled cassava and coconut along with butter and evaporated milk. Brown sugar gives the cake its' earthy mellow sweetness. You may be tired of zucchini right now so it's time to try chayote squas. It tastes somewhat like the squash. It can be roasted or sauteed. Use a mix of butter and olive oil to saute it and spic it up with shallots and garlic.

Everyone thinks New Orleans and Southern cooking when they hear okra but the veggie is also big in Caribbean cooking.It's usually paired with that other Caribbean staple the fiery scotch bonnet pepper. If you;re cooking with th e last , remember this is the hottest capiscum on earth. Use it sparingly. Try both in a stew also zinged up with ginger and garlic. Add some temperate yellow onions and tomatoes to balance it out. It would be good over a bed of rice. Saltfish or baccala  - dried and salted cod can be added to this to make it more substantial.Caribbean, and especially Cuban and Puerto Rican cuisine would be nothing without plantanos or plantains. It is a cousin of a banana and technically a fruit but you can fry it up like a veggie. Peel them, and thn slice them any way you want , whether in coins or lengthwise , spray with oil and tthen air fry for eight minutes at four hundred degrees Farenheit. Flip them after four minutes. Serve with jerk chicken for a tasty supper. Another great side is pigeon peas, a Trinidadian staple. serve them in a stew or over rice. They cna be spiced up with scotch bonnet , all spice and ginger.

Add some Caibbean flavor to your cooking.Use veggies that the islanders use for a different spin on dinner. It's a fun way to celebrate the bold flavors of the tropics.

The New Face of College Eating.

 It used to be that colleges had a one meal plan fit all ideology. Yet there are more and more students who don;t fit this. They could have nut allergies, be vegan or have religious restrictions. The meal plan has to change to fit the student body's needs.

Regular contributor and chef Priya Krishna wrote about this in yesterday's New York Times  Food section. Years ago many a handful of students were allergic to peanuts or couldn;t eat various baked goods. Now one in six students have dietary demands as opposed to the one in eight just a few years ago. Now students can have customized plans, thanks to campus dietticians creating different dishes and opening up allergen free cafes. The students should come first. Most meal plans cost  around $5,023 according to a 2022 report from the Department of ducation.  some schools such as Vanderbilt University has a cafe that bars te F.D.A;'s top nine allergens. another dinign hall is free of peanuts, tree nuts and gluten along with an app that lets students with allergies customize their meals.Other schools have made similar moves but there are some colleges that simply list their ingredients and offers bins of alternative choices like gluten free bread and dairy free yogurt.

There is always a debate about how far college dinign halls  shou;d go with accomodating their students. robert Nelsom, the chief executive of the National association for College and Universuty Food  Services said that some dining hall managers argue that it's better for affected students to learn to navigate a convential bufffet. After all they'll have to do it once they graduate and enter the workforce. This may make sense to some students who find their school's dining ha;; choices adqequate however there are many who do have serious problems. Yale senior Maria Bambrick  Santayo, a celiac disease sufferer only had six symptom free days where she didn't feel sick from eating. Students would mix up spoons whioch lead to cross contamination. A busy kitchen can't guarantee that bits of flour will also fall in gluten free dishes University of Virgnia graduate Erica Kem had all sorts of allergies , including beef, sesame  mustard and tomatoes. The school didnt address these unusual allergies. her parents had to make her meals. Luckily there is a board created by two Northwestern students. Kethan Bajaj and Julia Auerbach. Their  College advocates  For Food Allergy Awareness and Education. 

College dining halls are not what they  once were with simple meal plans. They are changing to fit students' needs and wants.  Doing this will make student life easier.

The Personal Lives Of Personal Chefs

 Everyone thinks that personal chefs have great glamorous lives. They cater literally to celebrities and can create fantastic dishes with any ingredient they desire. Yet there's also a down side - one that affects their personal lives.

Regular contributor to The New York Times, Amelia Nierenberg wrote this fascinating article in today's New York Times Wednesday Food section. Many think that a personal chef is a great job. It does have its' perkes, Hanging out with stars and athletes. Cooking with the best ingredients possible. Phenomenal pay. Personal chef,Tashea Chanelle Younge can make  up to $12,800  a month. she has traeled on planes and yachts, creating delicious meals. Yet she is nothing more than the help.She knows her boundaries . It can be taxing however because she really can;t interact with her employers or their guests. The same is true for rob Li who is no stranger to cooking for others. While his parents had a resraurant in upstate New York, he is apersonal chef to a middle aged millionaire in the Hamptons. It is a glamorous  holiday setting for sure but there are drawbacks. Chef Li FaceTimes with his friends in New York City as he misses the excitement and night life . He and his emplyer do get along . They're more like room mates yet the age gap makes it impossible to connect. He's lonely most of the time , filling in the hours with editing footage for his videos on TIktok and Instagram.

Yet more and more young chefs are picking up jobs. The need for personal chefs grew during Covid. Many wealthy family didn't not want to order out and wanted fresh cooked meals prepared for them. For cooks this was perfect.It was either this  working in a restaurant's kitchen which can be poorly ventilated or  collecting unemployment benefits . There are several agencies that do help chefs find employers. Sami Udell founded Whole Sam during th e pandemic. At first restaurant chefs sneered at the idea of being apersonal cook and Ms.Udell had to go on Craig's List looking for them. Now she receives ten messages a week from young chefs lookinf or job advice. Private Chef Match is another agency that matches cooks with employers .It has a seventy-five percent jump in applications from candidates "who wish to leave or never enter at all the restaurant world." Another agency Food Fire and Knives has also seen an uptick.  These chefs are meeting a steep demand that began in the early days of the pandemic.It wasn't for making sourdough loaves but for high quality food. It can be a dream job because of the freedom and trying out new dishes. Many chefs put their work on different platforms to atrract more employers and interest.

There are many plusses to being a  personal chef. Yet there is also a downside to this glam job. Like any career it has its' ups and downs.

Piedmontese Onions Done Right

 sometimes a recipe allows you a do over. That's what happened when the Piedmontese onion recpe turned out a disaster.Luckily it was amended and to delicious results.

I started out with a vegan version of my Nonna's and Mom's stuffing recipe.

I used a combo of Beyond Meat , breadcrumbs, some of the onions chopped  Vitalife mozzarella, cheese and Melt Butter.

This is BeyondMeat I used about half about ten ounces

A quarter cup of bread crumbs were added to this

Chopped onion and two tables spoons fo microwaved Melt were added to this to moisten it. I didn't have any Just Egg for binding but the Melt seemed to do the trick.

 The onions were were unstuffed and re cut to fit the stuffing Tge vegan mozzarella was also added to.

You can see it's bigger ,and more cone like to fit the stuffing.

They were then stuffed and microwaved for about six to seven minutes in the microwave

The end resukt was a much tastier version of what I had first made. I realzized II took the easy way out.

The filling was a mix of crunchy and tender while the onion was exquisitely tender.

Some recipes you can do over. This is the case with Piednmontese onions. They were perfect thanks to a more tradditional and classic recipe.

Remember Those WHo Labor

 Even though it's Labor Day in the Us, remember laborers around th eworld today They're the ones that help put food on our tables. A lot of American produce come fromt farms around the world. It's also good to remember those locally too.

This is the day to thank everyone involved in the food trade. Be sure to tip the waitstaff generously at any restaurant or cafe. They too aren't immune to the high cost of living. Also thank those local farmers and who provide us with seasonal fresh produce. Say a prayer for countries Mexican farmers who provide us with seventy-seven per cent of fruits and veggies. while their Canadian counterparts who give us eleven per cent, namely wheat from  the Midwest  Provinces Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta. Also be civil to grocery store workers as well. They 're the ones that provide you with delcious baked good and peprare cold cuts for you as well as whole meals.

Enjoy the day before heading of to work or starting a brand new school year. Be kind and generous to all those responsible for putting food on your table.

LIttle Chefs Big Help

 The school year has or is just about t o start. While it's great to teach kids the language arts and STEM it is also good to teach them about humility and sharing.It makes for a better , more empathetic student.

What can kids do? Visit nursing homes and take part in food pantries. Some secular and religious schools do this, Kids can hang out and bring snacks like apple slices and carrot sticks to share with their elders.A fun idea is having students, whether, they're in kindergarten or high school also visit veteran homes.. Here they can listen to stories while sharing afternoon snacks. Inviting an elderly neighbor or veteran over to your house can also expand a child's experience.Ask your guest what they would like for dinner and dessert. Have your kids help in making both. Another idea is the kids helping yo create a meal or sweet for a shut in neightbor and go with you when you deliever the food. if you have older children then enlist them to go shopping for elderly neighbors and family memebers. It's a  great way of having them bond and learning about altruism.Older teens like sixteen and seventeen year olds can drive them to the sotres or even out to a restuarant for a saturdya or Sunday lunch.

Of course bake sales have always been a school staple. Kids should get involved in them as well. This is perfect for little bakers who love to create sweet treats.  Talk to their teachers to see if the class can "adopt" a charity in which they can fund raise. It could be an animal charity or for a family who is struggling. They can expand their repetoire by offering some savory treats as well. Think cheese or sausage breads or little pizzas that can be warmed in portable ovens. They could evne try their hands at such complicated recipes like croissant and brioche. The enire school can have a charity dinner or buffet with the proceeds go to a charity as well.  Middle school kids can help in cutting up veggies and measuring ingredients. The smaller ones can help in organizing the utensils, plates and napkins. Again kids of all ages can help in baking desserts like chocolate chip cookies and brownies.A great act f charity is also working at a food bank. Kids cna help in putting together packages for those in need. it teaches them not only about helping others but putting together nutritious ingredients for home cooked delicious meals.

Kids need to learn about empathy and kindness as much as they need to learn about the arts and sciences. emphasize the importance of giving to others by way of food.It'll make them more aware of the world aroudn them.