In beautifully written prose that is sometimes lyrical, sometimes factual and always respectful, Fiona Dunlop takes us to the area of North Africa known as the Maghreb. "At the heart of all Maghrebin cooking lies a deeply rooted sense of hospitality. Bountiful family meals scooped out of a central platter can always accommodate an unexpected guest....this unhurried food is made with love and a deep sense of place. Women rule the kitchen; men do cook, but in the more public realm of restaurants and as banquet organizers, and readily admit that their wives and mothers are behind the most tenderly concocted dishes." With this principle guiding her, Dunlop takes the reader through Morocco, Tunisia and Libya, visiting and recording the recipes and stories of eight cooks in the cities of Marrakech and Fez in Morocco, Tunis, Carthage and La Goulette in Tunisia, and Tripoli in Libya.
Dunlop first introduces the variations that exist across this geographical stretch of land, exploring the native ingredients and the "culinary crosscurrents" of centuries of trade, exploration and foreign influences that stretch from ancient times to the 1960's invasion of western artists, writers and rock 'n rollers.
This is home cooking, simple in execution, with a basic list of ingredients that includes the aromatic spices and seasonings used in the Maghreb. Familiar ingredients, such as lamb, appear in their many uses - as soups, stews, tagines. Couscous is richly represented in recipes such as Seven-vegetable Couscous, Lamb Couscous, Pigeons stuffed with Couscous, Raisins and Almonds. The famous tagines of the region (with surprising variety as borders are crossed) are also well-represented in Baked Spinach Tagine, Baked Chicken and Pastry Tagine, Lamb Tagine with Tomato and Almond Balls. Fish from the coastal area appears in recipes such as Fiery Fish, Fish Balls, Fish Soup or Saffron fish Tagine with Shallots and Raisins. To satisfy the sweet tooth there are recipes such as Rice Pudding with Raisins, Semolina and Honey Cake, Almond and Sesame Pastries and Cream Pastilla with Rang-Blossom Water.
This book is about people who cook as well as a collection of recipes. The stories are written with charm and with great admiration for the women Dunlop has met. Among others, there is Aicha Ait Ouad, living in Marrakech, who once worked as a weaver, but found her most creative bent as a cook, and now works in the home of a diet-conscious fashion designer. Further on the shores of the Maghreb, in Carthage, a suburb of Tunis, there is Mina Ben-Miled who juggles work as an interior designer while maintaining intellectual interests, and giving dinner parties that are legendary. At her side is Sabiha, a young Tunisian who work in the kitchen with Mina. In Tripoli, there is Fozia Shwek who traveled together with her husband whose job was as a radio officer on cargo and passenger ship and who now is co-managing a restaurant. Despite the dominance of women cooks, men are not forgotten, and Dunlop includes Jacob Lellouche whose family runs a table d'hôte specializing in maintaining Tunisian-Jewish home cooking.
Dunlop includes a section about North African basics, as well as a list of recommended restaurants in each city . The recipes are easy to follow, and the photographs evoke not just the dishes of the region, but the region itself, while the stories show the great heart of this area of the world.
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