A problem indeed. Who knew that I could enjoy vegan food this much? This particular Sunday had plenty of work I had to do, but it was nicely sprinkled with preparing this meal and indulging in understanding the history of fashion, possibly sparking a whole new wardrobe make-over. Because, well, why not. One would think I don't have time to deal with this, and I don't. That is the beauty of taking the time to do it. More on wardrobe and fashion later, specifically when I'm in New York City next month :)
Next week is a work travel week, and while I know there will be plenty of enjoyable food that I'm looking forward to, my cooking days are over until at least a week from today; so I wanted to spend some time again with it today.
First off, the drinks in Bryan Terry's book Afro-Vegan are simply insane. They are so delicious. Two posts ago you can read about the Gunpowder Lemonade, which I made again this morning for extra wonderful drinking options. Tonight's drink is the Roselle Rooibus, which is essentially rooibus with a crap tonne of dried hibiscus flowers and pineapple. Smooth with the joy of complexity without sweetness, it's easy to accidentally chug way too much.
The salad, well, a tad bit disappointing. It was delicious, but not something I'll likely repeat. Not a citrus salad freak anyway, the sugared pecans (that I made) just sent it right over the edge on sweetness. The salad dressing (also homemade) was delicious with cilantro, orange juice, pecans, and spices, but combining the citrus and sweetness simply didn't match my palate.
This certainly did hit my palate in a very positive way though! Tagines are a North African dish well known for it's earthenware pots for stews, so I'm not sure you could technically call it a tagine since my was made in a copper pot. All the same, it was delicious with saffron, ginger, cinnamon, and cilantro being the front running spices with these slow cooked sweet potatoes. The shortbread was really driven by cornmeal, pecans, sesame seeds, coriander, and cumin, which all of of those spices were toasted and made into a "Dukkah" combination for future use as well. Homemade creamed cashews and my own almond milk certainly made this particular recipe more complex, but quite delicious and extremely unique.
The only real hit to the pocketbook when cooking African food is their obsession for saffron; otherwise, shockingly reasonable. The only real difference is that you're simply shopping for slightly different things than what I perceive an American purchasing. For example, dairy is fast disappearing in the house, being replaced with the variety of milks and teas with a complete absence of butter. Coconut oil is used as commonly as olive oil, and my spices have nearly doubled (space expansion underway).
Don't worry, this won't turn into a food blog. Just a "what am I getting distracted with now" blog ... as usual :)
