African, continued from Page 12 Truly tagine
The tagine is a traditional Moroccan dish, named after the fluted clay pot it is cooked in. The pot braises the diverse contents of the dish and locks in the robust flavors from each sizzling spice. “The great thing about the tagine is that you can
make it vegetarian with eggplant or make it with chicken thighs, or lamb,” explains Chef Guillas. “For Easter I do a rose cardamom spice blend that we rub on the leg of lamb and cook slowly in the tagine. It’s really all about the spices.” “There are so many tagine dishes, all year round,” Chef Batson agrees. “You can do something with dried fruit, quince, lamb, anything really. There are so many twists and turns with ingredients and spices that it’s never ending.”
At Gitane, Chef Batson includes a tagine with
spiced chicken breast, saffron tomato broth, green olives, cauliflower, almonds and couscous. Chef Thomsen first played with a tagine while working under Michael Mina at Seablue in Las Vegas. He explains the beautiful tagine process as, “taking a less tender cut of meat and braising it for a long period of time to get this phenomenal product that tastes just
as great as the filet cut of meat.” Aside from creating such a flavorful, tender product, tagine dishes are also relatively healthy, because they essentially steam the food.
Bye-bye, butter
“African food is health conscience without being health conscience,” says Chef Mihal. “They eat the four food groups and they don’t cook with cream and butter. You’re tasting whatever is naturally there.” Chef Batson, who began cooking African food at
home because she loved eating it so much adds, “I re- ally enjoy eating a balanced diet, and African is great because it’s a lot of couscous and full of flavor without all of that extra added fat. It’s pretty awesome to get that flavor from only spices and ingredients.” Whether or not it’ll be the new health or diet craze,
African food is hearty, savory, and certainly an emerging trend. And it all goes back to the spices. As Chef Guillas put it, “Spice is life. Spice is love.
Savour the African journey.”
15
Culinary Trends | Mid Winter 2011
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