SpiceLines

A weekend well-spent with Mourad Lahlou's New Moroccan cookbook: from the left, dark red charmoula, preserved lemons, Aziza Curry Blend and the chef's own Ras El Hanout, a blend of 23 spices, including rosebuds and hard to find long pepper.

I’m in a Moroccan mood lately.

So Sunday, while the Giants were pounding the Patriots, I was in the kitchen with—well, not actually with Mourad Lahlou, the handsomely tattooed chef and owner of Aziza restaurant in San Francisco, and contestant in Eater’s 4th Annual Hottest Chef competition—but with his beguiling New Moroccan cookbook.

Not only did I finally tackle the 30-Day Preserved Lemons, but I also made two wildly fragrant spice blends—Ras El Hanout and Aziza Curry—and a batch of dark Red Charmoula, which was so good that I stood there in the kitchen eating it right out of the bowl, leaving precious little for the chicken I intended to roast.

It’s safe to say that for the last two weeks, I haven’t been able to take my hands off this cookbook. When I’m not toasting and grinding spices and stirring them into Carrot Soup with Aziza Curry and Citrus Salad, I’m tucked under my shimmering Berber wedding blanket, dreaming of making couscous from scratch.

The book’s conversational tone is so relaxed and encouraging that it makes me feel as if the chef is standing beside me in the kitchen....

Continue reading "My Moroccan Weekend with Mourad, and a Recipe for Sweet Potatoes with Aziza Curry and Thyme" »

A handira, or traditional Moroccan wedding blanket, spangled with hundreds of silver sequins, is said to protect the wearer from the evil eye. Don't we all need a little good luck?

Happy Friday!

All this week I’ve been packing and shipping books for the lucky winners of the SpiceLines’ Cookbook Giveaway. I’ve commandeered more boxes, mangled more brown wrapping paper, and stuck my fingers with more mailing tape than you can imagine.

I just hope I’ve sent the right books to the right addresses. (Down with the flu, you see.)

Then yesterday, a big box arrived—for me! I knew what was inside, but still I opened it with trepidation.

I can’t tell you how my heart leapt when a magnificent Moroccan wedding blanket, festooned with fluffy fringe and sparkly silver sequins, emerged from layers of brown tissue paper.

Continue reading "Happy Friday: A Moroccan Wedding Blanket Arrives; Sparkly Sequins, Protection Against the Evil Eye" »

“Cinnamon might have reminded you of your grandmother’s apron," says the narrator of Perfect Sense, a new movie about the end of the world. "Without smell an ocean of images disappears.” From a review by Richard Corliss.

In “Till the Last Doughnut and Drumstick” (The New York Times, February 1, 2012, pp. D1 and D3), Pete Wells reveals the secret of Federal Donuts’ fabulous flavors: Spice blends by Lior Lev Sercarz of La Boite a Epice. Hot fried doughnuts “are sprinkled with sugar and a little sea salt mixed with one of Mr. Lev Sercarz’s blends, like lavender with powdered vanilla or cocoa with orange blossoms.” All the doughnuts are made from batter seasoned with another mixture that tastes like “a Turkish pumpkin pie spice,” says chef Michael Solomonov.

The only other item on the Philadelphia restaurant's menu is fried chicken. This too gets the Lev Sercarz treatment with a whisper of dry harissa, a spicy North African blend, or za’atar, a mix of a thyme-like herb, sumac and sesame seeds.

You can read more about the unique blends from La Boite a Epice in an interview with Lior Lev Sercarz right here on SpiceLines.

What would happen if everyone suddenly lost their sense of smell?

A roundup of new "food-happy" movies from Tasting Table includes Perfect Sense, the apocalyptic tale of a chef (Ewan McGregor) and a scientist (Eva Green) who fall in love as a pandemic sweeps the world, robbing victims of their ability to smell and then all the other senses. Smell is, of course, the key to taste. Without taste, there is no flavor, no memory, ultimately no life--which may be why some afflicted characters in the movie resort to eating lipstick and flowers.

Though Perfect Sense might sound like another mass market disaster epic, Time Magazine reviewer Richard Corliss praises the “intense intimacy” of this “art house” film which “takes its cue from Albert Camus’ The Plague, concentrating on the victims, their panic or resilience, stabs of violence or passive acceptance.” Winner of the Edinburgh Film Festival’s prize for Best New British Feature.

Well! The 2012 Cookbook Giveaway is without question the most exciting yet. My inbox is overflowing with your requests—and I am thrilled! Thanks to all of you who wrote in asking for one of these great books.

Cheryl Tan’s A Tiger in the Kitchen was the book most of you wanted—no surprise since this often hilarious Singapore/New York memoir is a great read and she included the tasty recipes her extended family taught her to make. (Personally I can't wait for Tan's next culinary endeavor.) Sonya was the lucky winner.

But the runner-up was a surprise, at least to me: Sandeep Chatterjee’s The Spice Trail: One Hundred Hot Dishes from India to Indonesia, proof, it seems, of our boundless appetite for spicy food. Mireille, a personal chef, was first to claim this curry compendium. She also has a lively blog currently featuring paneer recipes.

There are only two books left:

Fashion designer Rebecca Moses' A Life of Style is charming and fun—I hope one of you decides to take the plunge. The illustrations are divine and it is just the sort of book that will brighten a dreary winter day. Curl up under a blanket on your most comfy sofa with a cup of violet-scented tea and dive in!

Danyelle Freeman’s Try This: Traveling the Globe Without Leaving the Table is a good way to pass the time whilst incarcerated on a plane, especially if you’re stuck on the runway. I picked it up in an airport and spent a few hours discovering all sorts of things I didn’t know, such as why biscotti are long and thin, or exactly how late you should arrive for a meal in Mexico.

Send an email to spicelinesatgmaildotcom if you’d like either of these two books. Be sure to include your mailing address. I’ll keep the giveaway open until the end of this week.

A baker's dozen: The 13 delectable books in SpiceLines annual giveaway span the globe, from Paris to India, Morocco to New Mexico. And for the first time, there are Moleskines and notebooks for recipe storage.

At last!

This is my favorite day of the entire year: SpiceLines annual book giveaway. For 2012 there are some particularly tasty offerings. Most but not all are cookbooks. There’s also a stellar foodie biography, a Paris guide, and a charmingly illustrated style book by a well-known fashion designer.

Not to mention a couple of Moleskines, which, most grievously, are too organized for me to use. But they might be exactly what you’ve been longing for.

My gift? Shelf space for all those cookbooks I got for Christmas, and the chance to hear from you.

Here’s how it works: Send your first and second choices, along with your mailing address, to spicelinesatgmaildotcom. If you’re first to request a particular book, I’ll let you know by return email and send it to you by media mail. Practically effortless. But don’t delay: Most books are snapped up right away.

I’m unplugging for a week, so you won’t hear from me till next weekend. In the meantime, enjoy!

Continue reading "SpiceLines 4th Annual Cookbook Giveaway: Julia Child, Julie Sahni and A Tiger in the Kitchen; Moleskine Journals" »

Another way to make the most of winter: Taking a pause with a cup of violet tea, a few raspberries and a good book. The Annual Cookbook Giveaway is just around the corner.

It’s the golden hour.

Four o’clock and the afternoon winter sun streams through the library windows. As its pale light glances off the walls, it turns warm and luminous, gilding the room with a dazzling hue.

It’s time for la pause. Time to curl up on the sofa with a good book and, today, a cup of violet-scented tea. Its old-fashioned perfume evokes the memory of a palace hotel in Lisbon, where the scent of the flower hung faintly in air, as if a marquesa had just turned the corner, trailing violets in her wake.

This is the kind of sensory escape I adore when taking a break from all things digital, including, I must confess, a foray into the odiously addictive Twitter.

And since this is la pause gourmande, there are raspberries to eat. Why? A ripe raspberry tastes, quite simply, of the flower. This “violet-like note,” says Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking, comes “from caretenoid fragments called ionones.” More than you want to know, I imagine. The flavor echoes are heavenly, though.

If the raspberries aren’t sweet enough, a sprinkle of powdered sugar will balance the acidity.

In a few days, SpiceLines will launch the 4th Annual Cookbook Giveaway. (Here's a look at last year's contest.) There are some delicious books coming your way. Another treat for making the most of winter.

Keep watching. It’s coming soon!

Winter pleasures: A crackling fire, a green and white azalea, and daydreams of nothing much at all. When you're hungry, there's a savory vegetable tagine simmering in the kitchen.

How do you make the most of winter?

Oh, I know: It’s tempting to defy it. To head south where turquoise water laps white sand beaches. To fill grey rooms with pots of riotous tulips and hyacinths. To wear bright colors as a talisman against the darkness.

But, we could make the most of winter.

This is the season for stillness. For silence after the delirious cacophony of the holidays. For stepping deliberately off the merry go round. For slowing down so we can see more clearly. For unplugging so we can dream our own dreams. No chattering, no glowing screens, no distractions.

Philippe Starck, the prolific cutting edge designer, told Pico Iyer how he stays ahead of the curve. “’I never read any magazines or watch TV,’ he said....‘Nor do I go to cocktail parties, dinners or anything like that.’ He lived outside conventional ideas," Iyer wrote, "because ‘I live alone mostly, in the middle of nowhere.’” (See “The Joy of Quiet,” The New York Tiimes, January 1, 2012)

So let’s take a moment to embrace the stillness of this cold, goose-pimpled season. Right now I'm nestling…

Continue reading "Making the Most of Winter: Fireside Dreams, and a Squash Tagine with Fire-Roasted Peppers and Black Olives" »