By Alan Gore
Last month’s Gourmet featured the food of "Casablanca" – the film, and the region. Several countries come together in North Africa, and few of us know the cuisine of any of them. Many of us have heard of couscous (no, dammit, it’s not a tropical bird!), and that’s about it. So we sat down at our Internet screens and learned from the masters.
So – inhaling deeply – herewith, our menu for that exotic March evening: Host Bob Hull led off with hummus and pita wedges, and Ursula Gore with a feta cheese platter. Then it was back to you, Bob, with a cold cucumber with yogurt soup. Then, on to salad with Pat Hull’s tabouli and Ursula’s carrot salad houria. Marilyn McDonald and Jim Morgan rolled out the first entrée: chicken with prunes taguine, with fu fu. Ursula responded with lamb and vegetable couscous, followed by Jane Khatiblou with kamounia (beef and chickpea) stew. Marilyn and Jim passed around the "mystery meat" for us all to identify as…drum roll, please…ostrich! Pat next served futari, or squash with coconut milk. By then we were fortunately not quite too full for dessert, for which we had stuffed dates from Ursula and baked sweet plantains from Jacqui. We finished up with Pat’s mint iced tea and Bob’s decaf cinnamon coffee.
Our theme for April will be that versatile Spanish dish, paella, with its large range of meats, fish or fowl served over saffron rice. This time we will all bring ingredients for one big dish, coordinating items to go into a community paella. Okay: some tapas to start out with, if you like, but keep that paella in mind as the main course. For this month, Marge & Chris Davies and their new daughter Elizabeth will welcome us to their grand Scottsdale home. We meet on Saturday, April 12, at 6 p.m. For location and to coordinate food, please call Ursula Gore at 863-9648 before Thursday, April 10.