Rainy days..

Seasonal produce, warming soup and travel thoughts.

The rain goes on, such a blessing after years of drought! The plains in the cork forest are flooded, and there are white lilies popping up everywhere. A beautiful sight. I am sure all this water will bring a whopping allergy season come March and April when all the grasses and wild flowers start blooming. A future problem. Not the image I am sure most people have of Morocco, with romanticised ideas of deserts, the frantic souks of Marrakech and barren landscapes.

We are already past mid-January and it feels like the year is well on its way. We made a lightning trip to Budapest and despite the below zero temperatures, worth it to see this beautiful city covered in snow! Lucky for me this included a fortuitous 24 hour stopover in Paris on the way home. Just enough time to do a couple of things. A museum, an excellent meal in a cosy bistro and I ticked off some items on the shopping list from La Grande Epicerie and a couple of other places - ok, mostly salted butter and mustards!

Time in Paris, without having to sightsee, is an absolute luxury, even if it’s just one day. Walking the streets, admiring the beautiful architecture, visiting the lesser known areas and enjoying the atmosphere of streets bustling with people is just an absolute treat. The more time I manage to squeeze in there, I realise how easy it is to fall in love with this city. A story for another day.

In Season

Winter is time for citrus in Morocco. Lately there seems to be an abundance of varieties available in the shops and local markets. There are easy peel tangerines, mandarins, grapefruit, oranges, finger limes (they smell, and taste, like mosquito repellant.. could just be me though!), beautiful pink variegated lemons and I know soon the blood oranges will make an appearance. A great time for making marmalade and preserved lemons which can be used throughout the year in a variety of dishes.

One of my favourite uses of oranges must be a simple Moroccan dessert of sliced oranges and cinnamon. Perfect to end a meal. Or a simple flourless orange and almond cake.

On the menu this week

Whenever I am in a new country or passing through an airport, I love picking up food magazines, mostly for the photography as inspiration and in the case of France to help along my shameful French language skills. These are heavily focused on seasonal and local products, beautiful dishes, both traditional and those with a more modern twist. I found some great ideas for light, tasty meals, including this tasty dish that I improvised slightly with some basil pesto I had frozen last summer.

Leek tart with Feta and Pesto - delicious and perfect with a simple salad of greens from my rather swampy garden.

Jerusalem Artichoke and Cauliflower Soup with savoury granola

I also picked up some Jerusalem artichokes at the shops this weekend. Known here in Morocco as topinambur. I have actively avoided buying these for the last 18 years we have lived here. Not something I had cooked with before or knew in South Africa and they seem very hard to clean, a little intimidating for some bizarre reason! But here we are, so a little topinambur and cauliflower soup to warm us up in the chilly weather. I loosely based my recipe on this one, but skipped out on the potatoes. Turns out they are not that hard to clean and quite tasty, with a bit of earthiness. Perfect for a soup.

Savoury granola is also not something I have tried before, but it sounded really interesting and seems to be trendy at the moment. Here is a version from the same magazine and an English version of a similar recipe. I made mine with some garam masala and added some nutritional yeast. Turned out a bit like a seed cracker, but delicious and it added a nice crunchy element to the soup.

Another dish I have brewing in the kitchen is a Polish soup that I tasted last year and loved. Żurek - it is made with a fermented rye flour starter. Rich in natural probiotics and great for gut health.

The starter will ferment for 5 days and we will take it from there. Considering the sad state of my sourdough starter, I am not full of confidence on this one.

Books

I am currently reading Julia Childs memoir, My life in France. I love the simplicity of the writing, the interesting stories and challenges she faced in a foreign country and how she adapted. And of course her willingness and openness to learning so much about the details of French cooking.

Acutely aware that I am late to the party on this, but it popped into my feed somehow the other day and I went down a bit of a rabbit hole. You can rent her immaculately kept holiday home in Provence (La Pitchoune), also on Airbnb, for a small sum of roughly $2,500 per night during peak season, a minimum of 5 nights… or take a self guided tour of all her old haunts in Paris as a more affordable option should you find yourself in Paris with time to spare. I would personally recommend a visit to E. Dehillerin (founded in 1820) for anyone fascinated by an old fashioned kitchen store with the biggest copper pots you have ever seen!

An enjoyable read so far.

Until next time,

Wendy