1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (174 page)

To make it, the dried red blossoms (also enjoyed preserved in jams and chutneys) are covered with boiling water and steeped with sugar and sometimes a little ginger, until the liquid becomes syrupy. Served ice cold, the sorrel mixture is combined with dark rum and diluted with water for a drink that is fragrant, quenching, and intoxicating—a punch that looks like liquid rubies, garnished with vivid, cranberry-red sorrel buds.

Where:
In Kingston, Jamaica
, Jamaica Inn, tel 876-974-2514,
jamaicainn.com
; Miss T’s Kitchen, tel 876-795-0099,
misstskitchen.com
;
in New York
, Miss Lily’s, at two locations,
misslilys.com
.
Mail order:
For dried sorrel, West Indian Shop, tel 877-323-5582,
westindianshop.com
; amazon.com (search dried sorrel).
Further information and recipes:
Visions of Sugarplums
by Mimi Sheraton (1981);
epicurious.com
(search jamaican sorrel rum punch, then click All Recipes).
Tip:
For a livelier if less authentic refresher, substitute sparkling water for still water.

A dash of cardamom makes for a tasty cup of joe.

With its mildly mentholated, sweetly warm overtones, cardamom is the seasoning of choice for coffee throughout North Africa and parts of the Middle East. Simmered along with sugar and finely ground dark-roasted beans, the crushed gray-white cardamom seeds lend an aromatic essence that makes for a bracing hot beverage. Served in tiny, espresso-style cups, the grounds-in coffee is taken pure and black by true aficionados, and with milk by the more timid. Although it would probably shock traditionalists, cardamom coffee is also delicious iced or made into a pleasantly perfumed cappuccino, and strained it can be used as the base for a refreshing sorbet or Italian-style granita.

Makes about 1 cup (see
Note
)

1 tablespoon espresso-style ground coffee, preferably dark-roasted Yemen mocha

Seeds of 1 cardamom pod, crushed, or ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom

½ to 1½ teaspoons sugar

1.
Combine the coffee, cardamom, and ½ teaspoon sugar in a small saucepan (if you like it sweeter you can add more later). Add 1 cup of water and slowly heat over medium flame so that the coffee simmers for about 8 minutes.

2.
Stir the coffee gently until it comes to a boil. Immediately remove the coffee from the heat and spoon the froth that has developed into a cup or cups, then add the coffee, including the grounds. Serve immediately, warning guests to allow the grounds to settle and then not to stir the coffee.

Note:
If you are serving the coffee in traditional espresso-size cups, this amount will serve 3 or 4. In that case, divide the froth among the cups before pouring in the brewed coffee. This will work only if all guests have the same preference.

Where:
In Cairo
, El-Fishawi Café, tel 20/2-2590-6755;
in Montclair, NJ
, Mesob, tel 973-655-9000,
mesobrestaurant.com
.
Mail order:
For coffee, McNulty’s Tea & Coffee Co., Inc., tel 212-242-5351,
mcnultys.com
; for cardamom, Penzeys Spices, tel 800-741-7787,
penzeys.com
.
Further information:
astray.com
(search arabic coffee).
Tip:
Cardamom can be purchased already powdered, but retains a fresher flavor in its pods, which are easily broken open so the inner seeds can be crushed.
See also:
Turkish Coffee
;
Coffee in Vienna
.

This colorful scramble is the perfect light lunch.

One of the world’s most colorful scrambles,
chakchouka
is a red (tomatoes), green (peppers), and yellow (eggs) favorite across North Africa and also in Israel, having arrived there with Jewish émigrés. Arabs taking this recipe across the Mediterranean might have inspired the similar French and Spanish dish
piperade
, which was in turn transformed in the U.S. into that diner standard, the so-called Spanish omelet. On its home turf, chakchouka’s essential combination of eggs and vegetables appears in several delectable versions, although it’s hard to beat the simplicity and savoriness of the original.

Chakchouka (also known as
shakshouka
and
tchoutchouka
) begins with sweet green peppers and onions gently sautéed to softness in olive oil, sometimes with a dash of stinging-hot
harissa
chile paste, and then simmered with tomatoes until fairly thick. Cooled slightly, the sauce is stirred into beaten eggs and the mixture is either scrambled in a skillet or double boiler, or oven-baked in a deep dish. Alternatively, the cooked vegetable sauce might be poured into a baking pan and the eggs cracked into small hollows pressed into it, to bake until the whites are set but the yolks remain runny. Either way, the result is a succulent ooze of creamy eggs spiked with the tangy vegetables, sweet onions, and whispers of fresh herbs. In Alexandria, Egypt, they might add dill, while garlic appeals to chakchouka fans in Israel and Tunisia.

The Israeli headquarters for theatrically presented chakchouka is the restaurant Dr. Shakshuka, in Old Jaffa, outside of Tel Aviv. There, the garrulous owner, Bino Gabso, a native of Tripoli, specializes in a piquant, warming, baked version of this eponymous dish, along with shawarma, couscous, and more startling delicacies like stewed calf’s intestines. As the restaurant’s name suggests, spellings of this ubiquitous Mediterranean egg dish vary, with chakchouka being a Berber word for ragout.

Whether spelled with a C or an S or a T, baked or scrambled, this classic dish is well worth mastering at home.

Where:
In Tel Aviv-Jafo, Israel
, Dr. Shakshuka, tel 972/3-682-2842,
shakshuka.rest.co.il
;
in New York
, Mémé, tel 646-692-8450,
memeonhudson.com
; The Hummus Place at multiple locations,
hummusplace.com
;
in San Francisco
, Café Zitouna, tel 415-673-2622,
sfcafezitouna.com
.
Further information and recipes:
The Book of Jewish Food
by Claudia Roden (1996);
Jerusalem
by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi (2012);
epicurious.com
(search chakchouka);
foodandwine.com
(search tomato stew with poached eggs).

North African spice blend.

Lushly green with a tangy bite, the sauce known as
chermoula
is used throughout North Africa as a seasoning, marinade, and garnish, akin to the Argentine
chimichurri
(see
listing
) and the Italian
salsa verde.
The base is aromatic cilantro leaves, crushed in a mortar along with parsley, garlic, cumin, sweet paprika or dried chiles or the fiery Moroccan chile paste
harissa
, salt, black pepper, and vinegar or lemon juice. Depending upon the food it will be enhancing, the cook might also stir in olive oil, minced onion, cinnamon, saffron, or even honey and raisins.

Traditionally favored as an accompaniment to grilled fish, chermoula makes a delicious marinade and topping for all manner of barbecued meats, most especially lamb and chicken. A truly all-purpose condiment, it would also make a statement as a zesty topping for American barbecue standbys like hot dogs, steaks, and hamburgers, and impart a spicy Mediterranean accent to sides like grilled corn on the cob and potato salad.

Where:
In New York
, Mémé, tel 646-692-8450,
memeonhudson.com
;
in Chicago
, Shokran, tel 773-427-9130,
shokranchicago.com
;
in San Francisco
, Café Zitouna, tel 415-673-2622,
sfcafezitouna.com
.
Mail order:
For prepared chermoula spice mix, amazon.com (search zamouri chermoula; henry langdon chermoula); for individual spices, Penzeys Spices, tel 800-741-7787,
penzeys.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Arabesque
by Claudia Roden (2006);
The Food of Morocco
by Paula Wolfert (2011);
herbivoracious.com
(search chermoula);
splendidtable.org
(search chermoula);
foodnetwork.com
(search chermoula).