Behind closed doors, North African home cooks are taking the region's
food to new heights. Traditional dishes such as tagines, stews, soups,
and salads are being adapted and refined, and new dishes are being
created using classic ingredients such as fiery spices, jewel-like dried
fruits, lemons, and armfuls of fresh herbs. The North African Kitchen is
the result of Fiona Dunlop's long fascination with the region. She
visits eight of the best home cooks in Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya,
shopping and cooking with them, and learning their favorite recipes and
cooking tricks. Simplicity is at the heart of the private medina
kitchen. The exotic fuses with the domestic to produce dishes that are
highly flavored yet quick and easy to prepare. Tunisian cuisine is
perhaps the hottest of the region-due in large part to the popularity of
the fiery chili paste harissa. As well as a strong French influence,
pasta is a passion in Tunisia. Morocco's great forte is its tagines and
sauces-with meat and fish being cooked in one of four popular sauces.
And Libya, although less gastronomically subtle than Tunisia and
Morocco, excels in soups and patisserie. This culinary journey creates a
vivid and sensual picture of how food is really shopped for and cooked
in the private kitchens of some of the world's most extraordinary
gastronomic cultures.
