Potato

You have to love garlic to appreciate this most ancient of sauces.

This Tunisian specialty is easy to make and quite delicious.

This is a very famous and very tasty Lebanese soup made with large brown lentils.

For this North African salad, use a firm white fish such as cod, haddock, or monkfish.

For this Tunisian salad, use old carrots and mealy potatoes.

Use mealy potatoes for this Tunisian salad, which is served as an appetizer and also as an accompaniment to grilled fish.

In this Moroccan salad, the curious mix of sweet and spicy is quite delicious. It is nice as it is but you may add, if you like, a handful of black olives, the chopped peel of a preserved lemon (see page 459), and a tablespoon of capers.

These potatoes are normally deep-fried or sautéed in olive oil but they are equally good roasted. They are served cold, although I admit I like them hot, too.

This is as good hot as it is cold and can be served as part of a meze or as a side dish.

The best lamb to use for this tagine is either boned shoulder or neck fillet. Trim away some of the excess fat before cooking. Some supermarkets sell fresh shelled peas, which are young and sweet, but frozen petits pois will also do very well. If the olives are very salty, soak them in water for up to an hour.

The marinade and sauce called chermoula that gives the distinctive flavor to this dish is used in most Moroccan fish dishes, whether fried, steamed, or cooked in a tagine. Every town, every family, has its own special combination of ingredients. Bream, haddock, and turbot can also be used.

This thick omelette can be made in advance. Served hot or cold, and cut into big or small wedges, it makes a substantial first course or vegetarian main dish.

This herby vegetable dish is as good hot as it is cold. The potatoes can be peeled or not, as you wish.

Sweet potatoes are very popular in Morocco. In this recipe, their sweet, delicate flavor marries well with the mixture of aromatics.

Moroccan olives are among the best in the Mediterranean and find their way into many salads. Look for good ones for this salad, which is best made in advance so that the dressing and flavors are absorbed. The potatoes will attract the dressing and flavors better if they are peeled.

I’d like to champion these underused (and often maligned) vegetables by urging you to try them roasted. Roots are naturally sweet and become even more so during the roasting process.

Serve this with the menu on page 194 or with Fruited Bulgur Salad (page 48) and some sliced bell peppers.

This is a variation on the classic recipe more often referred to as “candied yams.” Did you know that calling sweet potatoes “yams” is actually a misnomer? Yams are rarely sold in this country, so quite often, what you see sold as yams are actually sweet potatoes. I make this dish for nearly every Thanksgiving dinner.

I just love sweet potatoes spiced with curry—what a superb fusion of flavors! This and the following recipe will help prove my point.

A traditional side dish is made even better with the addition of sweet potato. The flavors and colors are heightened, and the nutritional quality is enhanced.