Lord Bottletop's Fez

I had a 20-year career in telecommunications engineering in my thirties and forties, at times working alongside an Italian-American guy from New York. Bob had deeply set eyes and a hangdog look, at odds with his pleasant manner. On Fridays, he'd show up at the office with a homemade pizza that he called his "garbage pie”—baked dough, sauce, cheese, and whatever leftovers were in his fridge. Pizza is a dish of humble origins, so when it became known that Margherita of Savoy, the first queen of unified Italy, loved pizza and often asked her kitchen staff to prepare it, the dish was elevated to an honored position, and the Pizza Margherita, in the colors of the Italian flag, was named for her. On a personal level, some things   about this dish are inviolable.   I’ll never let barbecued chicken or sliced pineapple  near it. Or broccolli or cannned tuna. That being said, it’s probably the most bastardized, personalized dish in the world, but I keep it simple.  I once...

Nabila’s Moroccan Kitchen . Monday, December 15th, 2014 Moroccan Beef and Kanaria I asked Nabila how people used those giant celery-like bunches of Cardoon, which Moroccans call either Kanaria or Kherchouf (gesundheit), and she told me to get some beef (I used beef shoulder), then simply cooked everything under pressure, creating a quick and delicious stew. Our new pressure cooker: 1999 dh (~ 200 Euros) from Carrefour, but it's a 10-liter Cadillac Ingredients: 1 kg. beef (shoulder or some other good stew cut) 1 kg. Kanaria, stripped, cut, and bagged In a bowl, add the following:: 1.5 to 2 onions, sliced sliced potatoes (optional--although a Moroccan would be mortified by such an addition) 6 cloves garlic 1 tea glass of olive oil Place the beef and the sliced vegetables in a pressure cooker, and add t he following spices: 1 tsp turmeric 1 tsp ginger 1 tsp black pepper salt to taste Add about 1 teaglass (sm) of olive...