22 Comments
May 1, 2023Liked by Gavin Mounsey

I can't wait to try your Harissa. In the last year I 'discovered' Harissa and immediately became addicted to it. I use it in virtually every main veg course I make every day. I am positive your blend will be even better than the store bought version that I currently use. Once again, appreciate all your information..BTW am also excitedly waiting for Ethiopian information too. My son in law is from Addis and what I have sampled from his kitchen is quite wonderful. Thank you Gavin!

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I love Harissa too! I especially love making fusion type dishes with it like Harissa infused quesadillas, harissa infused chickpea and sweet potato bbq-ed burger patties or Harissa infused Pakora batter for battering veggies and making Dosa flat bread.

I look forward to hearing what you think of my dry mix and I also look forward to hearing what you think of my take on Ethiopian cuisine (when I find time to share some recipes on here).

I also hope to have all these recipes printed in physical form in my book soon.

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May 11, 2023Liked by Gavin Mounsey

Thanks, sounds so good, and I am looking forward to seeing the book too...

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I just got my final sample of the book from the printing company and I am about to arrange for the first bulk printing run and shipment of my book, so it wont be long now! :) https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/recipes4reciprocity/recipes-for-reciprocity-a-regenerative-recipe-book/posts/3806312

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I love Moroccan food and have a couple of cookbooks on it. I once stayed in a castle in Southern Spain (high on the drama scale, low on comfort ;-) with a Moroccan chef. Best food I had in Spain!

I'm going to make this tomorrow with cauliflower and some other tweaks. Yum!

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Apr 24, 2023·edited Apr 24, 2023Author

Sounds like you are the perfect person to tell me whether or not my take on Tajine (and my dry spice version of Harissa) offer authentic flavors :)

haha I love your description of the castle in Spain, but wow that much have been a treat (for the food at least).

Please let me know how it goes as I would value your honest feedback. I personally enjoy these recipes I put together immensely but there is often room for improvement (especially when it comes to making a dish more authentic and I have never been to the place where the cuisine originates) and I also just enjoy making different versions of my recipes to experience the poetry of the senses that others have put together as well (as a way to see glimpses of the beauty in this world through other people's unique kaleidoscopes of creativity, preferences and perspectives).

Would preserved lemons traditionally be added to a dish like this (either in the dish or as a garnish kinda deal)? I ask because I am about to ferment some turmeric and ginger rhizome and I sometimes ferment slices of lemon in there too.

Now I am off to plant some trees and help people get their gardens set up. Thanks for swinging by and commenting my friend. I hope you have a high on the comfort scale and low on the drama day ;)

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Authenticity is over-rated, imo. I see cooking, religion and politics as living and expanding bodies of creativity and innovation where someone who lived 3000 yrs ago has no more authority than you. That said, EVERYTHING is better with preserved lemons and with turmeric and ginger, wow!

During that visit to Spain I was pregnant with my firstborn so a little more comfort-driven than usual. There were honestly so many castles that we got into a 'let's get the postcard and say we saw it' mode. And we found the Spanish food dismal, salads with a glop of mayo as the primary veg.

Just prior to the scamdemic, as Corbett calls it, I spent three weeks at an AirBnB in Valencia, where I have friends. Before I checked in, we ate at their favorite Italian restaurant then tried to find my apt. After going around the block we ended up right back where it overlooked the restaurant! That ended up being my regular spot with some of the best food I've had. And a great mercado around the corner. And I did finally find excellent Spanish food at some tapas bars. I'm eager to go back.

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Apr 25, 2023·edited Apr 27, 2023Author

I respect and see the life affirming (creativity nurturing) potential in your perspective on "authenticity". Thanks for sharing that :)

I suppose for me, when I try to make recipes as close to "authentic" as possible (making statements like "this offers a passport for your senses to visit the rich cultures of North Africa" or something like that) I try to use the spices/ingredients in a way that gives one a way to connect with people's from distant times and places by enjoying the same styles of flavors they would have and/or are enjoying. However, I admire seeing culinary expressions rooted in specific geographic regions / cultures as living breathing movements of creative expression capable of expanding their horizons through each individual's contributions.

I think I shall try the preserved (fermented) lemons with my next batch, I also like your cauliflower idea ;)

I have not really explored Spanish food that much aside from Gazpacho and Orzo Paella. What other types of Spanish dishes would you suggest to someone looking to expand their culinary horizons?

I hope you have a lovely week ahead filled with spring blossoms, enjoyable meals with loved ones and inspiration in your other creative endeavors.

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I definitely share the 'passport' idea. I learned how to cook by going through cookbooks beginning to end and being religious about following the recipes. The Silver Palate was the first I did, and a couple of Julia Child's, and many others. I never taste before it's finished (which I know is ridiculous) because I wanted to surprise myself, especially with things I would never have tried together. I'd hold seven-course dinner parties using recipes I'd never done before. There were some disasters but mostly people got fed. If I'd ever written a cookbook it would have been 'The Intrepid Chef'.

I'm not going to confess all the shortcuts and subs I did with your recipe but I will say it was insanely good. I'm sure it would have been even better with your harissa but I had some from my favorite Oaktown Spice Shop. But I did add more coriander and sumac--I love that you use sumac! Is that Moroccan? I'm always looking for more ways to use sumac. And I had a jar of eggplant-tomato relish to use up and some lemon pickle. Yum!

I don't really have any Spanish cookbooks. I love the tapas concept and wanted to open a tapas bar decades before it became trendy. This did give me a reason to crack open my Paula Wolfert Tangiers recipes and I'm going to make Eggplant Zaalouk tomorrow--like Baba Ganoush, it says but with tomatoes instead of tahini.

And I do get enjoyable meals with loved ones this week! I'm meeting up with my daughters for my 66th birthday this weekend. So I'll take your good wishes with me.

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Your dinner parties sound delightful and I admire your leap of faith (no tasting until the recipe is done) style. I have actually done that a fair bit when I am just inventing something from scratch from the garden and I do find the mystery and pleasant surprise of tasting after hours of creating to be very enjoyable :)

I dig your name for your cookbook, if you ever write it sign me up for a copy!

Oh dear! Not "shortcuts and subs"! That is cookbook blasphemy! You must confess to all your culinary sins if you ever want to enter into the orthodox church of perpetually stagnating recipes! :) In all seriousness though, I would be curious to hear what went into your version some time if you remember. I would say that 1 out of 3 times (at least) I end up doing shortcuts and subs with my own recipes, and some of those end up becoming instances of serendipitous deliciousness where I discover an even better way to make a given recipe (according to my taste buds that is) ;)

I have never seen Harissa in the stores here so I had to invent my own version, but I do wish they had some pre-made here for when I am running low.

Ahh the Sumac, so glad you asked. Well, from what I have read dried Sumac berries are more used in traditional Middle Eastern Dishes (Israeli, Lebanese and Turkish etc) but I have seen it called for in some Mediterranean and Moroccan dishes as well (such as ras el hanout). The species of sumac berries that would typically be used in a culinary sense in the middle east and Mediterranean (Rhus coriaria) is slightly different than the Staghorn (Rhus typhina) and Smooth (Rhus glabra) Sumacs that often grow here in what is now called North America but the dried berries offer similar flavor and nutrition profiles and so they can be used in similar ways to flavor food. The indigenous peoples of Turtle Island (aka "North America") used the native sumac berries for a number of culinary and medicinal applications and modern people where I live often see staghorn sumac as an annoying 'weed' so I thought my inclusion of dried sumac berries in the recipe above would be a fun way to give a nod to the wisdom of the Indigenous peoples of where I live, while illuminating the nutritional and creative potential of part of a plant that most people here often ignore or fight with, while simultaneously offering a flavor profile that is indeed part of the traditional Moroccan spectrum of flavors.

I am gonna have to look up that Eggplant Zaalouk (it sounds lovely!).

Thanks for the thoughtful comment, I am so glad to hear you will be able to celebrate with your family. Hope you have a wonderful time.

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Oh and Ras al Hanout, another favorite along with Berbere, which I just ran out of but might be my all-time favorite spice.

Well, one substitution that you might like is that I didn't have dried figs so I used prunes with the apricots. Prunes are very underrated, imo, but it might make the passport need a layover in the south of France.

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Gavin, are these photos also your product? They are FABULOUS, Dahling. Seriously! As beautiful as I imagine the taste of the wonderful-looking foods you prepare...

Love it, love it, love it!

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ps - I managed to dig up a rushed photo of one of my own plates of our Moroccan Vegetable Tajine and added that to the article as well

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Apr 23, 2023·edited Apr 23, 2023Author

I have never been to Morocco so the photos of the food forest and spice market are (saldy) not mine but all of the photos of the Harissa Spice Medley preparation and end product are mine and all of the photos of the tajine preparation are mine. However, there are a couple pics of a finished vegetable tajine with couscous etc were pics I scooped from the internet.

The problem I have with loving food so much while also trying to write a recipe book (and take the pics required to present the recipe well visually) is that by the time I have finished making the recipe I am usually too busy enjoying eating the food to take glamor shots of a finished plate haha. Sometimes I end up eating all of a recipe and then going "oh dam! I should have taken pics of that plate, I guess i`ll have to make it from scratch again" :)

I am tight on time right now but I edited the captions under the pics in the article that are not mine to state that and I will try and hunt the source(s) down to give proper attribution to the photographers if I can after work.

Thanks for reading and I am glad you enjoy the recipes and info I am sharing on here.

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I can't blame you for eating that beautiful and doubtless wonderful food! NO apologies ever necessary for that, m'dear! ^_^

And I vote for: Get the book out and worry about those photographers later, because they will get their due! (Thanks camera peeps!) xo

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The book is done and has been submitted to the printing company in it's final printable format so now I am just waiting on them sending me a sample copy so I can approve the final format before doing the bulk printing run. Just a waiting game now.

Thank you for the kind comment.

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Good luck!!

It is my fond desire to have one of those wonderful thangs when they're printed!

^_^

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Gavin... Just to let you know... While reading this post my mouth was watering such that I had to swallow several times... fact! LOL!

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Me too! I think it is time to do a Moroccan feast, it has been a while since I made this one :)

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Me, too!!

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