NARGISSE BENKABBOU, MITCHELL BEAZLEY, H/B, $39.99
I think I may be Moroccan at heart. When I’m searching for ideas my thoughts first turn to lemons, mint, aubergines, cumin, chickpeas and lamb – fresh, gutsy flavours that need only simple treatment to satisfy. In Nargisse Benkabbou’s debut cook book, she shows that Moroccan cooking can be alluring, yet easy to achieve. Born in Belgium to Moroccan parents, she grew up well-versed in traditional Moroccan cooking and brings her own favourites plus her take on Western dishes with an exotic twist. So we get authentic tagines such as chicken, preserved lemon and olive, or butternut, aubergine and red onion, and there’s chicken bastila, and seven-vegetable couscous. But then why not use tagine as a filling for little pasties; toss a teaspoon of ras el hanout into carrot cake; add a dash of orange blossom water in a beet and goat’s cheese galette; brew up some Moroccan mint tea to infuse chocolate mousse. Whether or not you agree with Nargisse’s belief that fusion food is an inevitable reflection of the way we live, I for one am happy with a collection of recipes that she promises will “make my taste buds tingle and my stomach joyful.”
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