A TAGINE OF DATES AND NUTS

This is pure-inspired by the ingredients I have and not because I wanted to make a tagine (a thick stew sauce of fruits, herbs and earthy spices perfect over scented rice with origin in N. Africa) - but there is a complementary surrender to the which comes first enigma, notwithstanding, and did just that. Just imagine the thick sauce:gravy this ensemble will produce in the braising that visually melts for each other a ragu of dates fruits and tomatoes flavored with hazelnuts, and thickened further by a day-old sunflower:caraway seeds German flat bread making a pudding in the process, but auspicious creaming is what we want to achieve here with hours of reduction in the cast iron pan using macadamia, oat, and coconut milks garni(ed) with fresh-cut oregano, dill, parsley, basil and lavender herbs from the garden - and the resulting tagine is divine (see photo below). The plate is a culmination of my Easter lunch of French buttered beans and dates and nuts tagine over a bed of power spinach greens spiked with sherry wine and exquisite olive oil in a quick blanch-fry (a vegetables replacement in absence of basmati, which would've been perfect over). But I can't complain. If you look closely you might wonder what that green "egg" at the center of the plate is, well, it's Easter after all I turned this dish vegan with guava (and purposely the guava actually mellowed the sweetness of the dates to a degree of complexity, a familiar sweetness turning nuanced). Let me list the ingredients for you, and I hope you will make this spring almost summer home food with delight.

       For the tagine:

         * pitted dates

         * nuts (hazel, almonds, cashews)

         * cherry tomatoes

         * leftover bread, preferably euro flat bread seeded

         * alternative milk/cream (oats, coconut, macadamia)

         * bouquet garni

         * guava (optiona)

         * sherry wine, olive oil, salt, pepper and chili flakes

      How to:

          Think of a crock potting technique by combining all these mentioned ingredients, but the better tradition is to cook this by hand and not by machine, so I encourage you to be devoted and use a masher to macerate everything when everything is tender and bursting soft but chunky, adding the herbs after, and letting everything reduce to half of its volume adjusting for taste with salt, pepper, chili flakes. Always keep an eye on the "gravy-thick stew-sauce" texture you want as end product by juggling out your ingredients to make that happen (don't forget there is bread on the list and this should do the trick as your alternative roux, and if you press the nuts hard enough they would break apart and release oil emulsions further). I have to qualify what "love" means in accomplishing great cooking. It's skill, technique and knack to symphonize food because of passion:knowledge in the home kitchen. Culinary love is gastronomic science. It is material and molecular. Brewing, fermenting, preserving, pickling, aging wine, etc. takes time, years even in enduring to feed you. Just like love. Happy Easter, everybody!