Every year we pick a new cuisine for TY Day, and this year it's Moroccan/North African. Since I don't have lots of experience with Moroccan food, that means time to hit the cookbooks! I used two I owned already and two I borrowed from the SFPL.

Moroccan by Ghillie Basan: this is a general Moroccan cookbook, with a general assortment of recipes from the standards of Moroccan food, so a few appetizers, a couple of kind of couscous, and a half-dozen tagine. The recipes are well-written and easy to follow, though, and the couple of things I've prepared from here have been good. For TY Day, I made the "carrot salad with feta" out of here, which is really more of a roasted carrot hummus. Recommended for anyone who is looking for a slim general Moroccan cookbook.

Morocco by Jeff Koehler: a much more substantial general Moroccan cookbook, with a good representation of all kinds of foods, especially tagine and side dishes. Has a moderate number of seafood dishes as well, something Ghillie Basan lacks. Spectacular photography by the author, including photos of most of the dishes, which are really helpful if you've never made them before. In comparison to Wolfert, though, Koehler's instuctions can be somewhat vague ("coin-sized pieces"). Recommended as an all-around Moroccan cookbook.

The Vegetarian Table: North Africa by Kitty Morse: despite her name, Ms. Morse is a serious North African cook, having lived in Morocco for several years. This slim cookbook gives vegetarian dishes and remakes of dishes from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. If you're a vegetarian, this is the Moroccan cookbook for you; otherwise, you might choose one of the others. Since Morse seems to be very fond of pastries, I'm making the Fatima's Fingers from her cookbook.

The Food of Morocco by Paula Wolfert: her first cookbook was Moroccan food, and Wolfert finally returns there with this omnibus. If you want one massive cookbook which covers almost all of Moroccan food for you — including very detailed instructions for tagine and couscous — and don't care how much bookshelf space it takes, this is it. Also has extensive chapters on breads and seafood, something most Moroccan cookbooks lack. I'm making "tagine bread" and "fish tagine with creamy onion charmoula" from this cookbook.

So, four cookbooks, all recommended depending on what you're looking for.

updated December 2023

As a non-meat-eater, I'm not partial to "fake meat" as a rule. If I wanted to eat meat, I'd eat meat; I don't need a wheat gluten simulation of duck to make me happy. The exception is veggie breakfast sausages (or as we call them, "snausages") for which I have a weakness, mostly because sausage isn't about the meat, it's about the spices. Anyway, I've pretty much had all the brands, so some ratings. Note that I haven't eaten actual pork sausage since 1985, so don't expect any comparisons to real meat.

MorningStar Farms Original or Hot Patties: the ubiquitous supermarket brand, vegetarian but not vegan. The "hot" ones are pleasantly spicy, but either variety could stand to have more interesting spicing. Texture is clearly TVP-based. The best thing about these is the name; as my sweetie points out, they must be made with "Seitan" (English major humor). Not vegan. B

MorningStar Farms Links: The same as the patties, only in link shape. The only decent link-shaped snausages left. They're better if you overcook them a bit; a little char adds needed flavor. Not vegan. B

Moringstar Farms Vegan Patties: Morningstar introduced a vegan variant, and not in a good way. These patties have a mushy texture and leave fibrous reside on the tongue. It's like they took their vegetarian patties and just left the eggs and wheat gluten out, without replacing them. D

Boca: (unobtainium) in my opinion the best of the veggie sausage lot. Links only, and only one type, but that one type is heavily seasoned with a variety of spices (including garlic, sage and oregano), and reasonably good however you cook them. Which is why, of course, they are no longer made. A

Gimme Lean: a play on "Jimmie Dean" these veggie sausages come in "chubs" which you need to slice into patties yourself, like "real" pork sausage. They've been "seasoned" with nitrates to give them that "real pork smell", which does make them taste "authentically" like bargain-basement cheap pork sausage of dubious ingredients and safety. D-

Trader Joe's Patties: these used to be pretty good, slightly better than MorningStar patties, but then TJ's switched suppliers to one who doesn't believe in seasoning their TVP and wheat gluten except with salt, and I'm pretty convinced uses cardboard as a filler. These taste like suffering. F

Quorn: Unlike all of the others, Quorn (a European brand) is not made from TVP and gluten: it's made from some kind of ground-up fungus. This gives it a nice mushroomy flavor, not particulary like meat but pleasant on its own. The links have a much better texture than the patties, which are a bit dry. B

Field Roast Apple Maple Breakfast Sausage: these are small and chubby like Vienna sausages. Good texture, but they taste more like sweet potato casserole than sausage, and they come covered in sticky goo. D

Amy's: you'd think the Queen Bee of vegetarian foods would do a better job on veggie sausages, but you'd be wrong. These are basically just Amy's Veggie Burgers, extruded into sausage shape. D-

Sol Cuisine: if I'd noticed that these were "wheat and gluten free" I wouldn't have bought them. The lack of gluten makes for a mushy texture, and they don't have enough spices. Otherwise not bad. C-

LightLife Sausage Links: it's lovely to find a vegan sausage maker who believes in using real spices. Too bad they're not any good at it. The links taste overwhelmingly of sage; their larger sausages beat you over the head with fennel. C-

Gardein Breakfast Sausage Patties: not bad, a lot like the original Morningstar Farms patties, only with a bit of herbs and better texture. Probably the best general supermarket brand. B

Home made snausages: given the ridiculous price of veggie sausage — somehow TVP is cheap filler in a real burger, but becomes expensive when in a box by itself — a number of times I've made my own from mushrooms, onions, wheat gluten powder, TVP, whole garlic and lots of spices. Pretty good, but high-effort and I've never quite gotten the texture right. Also, I can only do patties this way, not links. B+

Hilary's Spicy Veggie Sausage: vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, corn-free, everything-free, these taste about how you'd expect: like cardboard fiber fill with a hint of Tabasco. D-

Beyond Breakfast Sausage, Spicy: like other Beyond Meat products, these have a better texture than most of their competitors, and even give off a convincing amount of rendered fat when fried. But the "spicy" is just hot without any particular pepper flavor; I'd have liked more seasonings to go with the capsaicin. C

Impossible Breakfast Patties: Very meaty, solid patties that don't have the vegetable fat of their Beyond competitors. These have more "heft" than most of the snausages on this list, and are probably meant for biscuit sandwiches. Their main flaw is that they taste overwhelmingly of fennel; if they could fix the spicing, they would move into first place. C+

Meatless Farm Veggie Sausage Links/Patties: snausages always have to balance between taste and texture, because you really can't have both. MF picks a middle-of-the-road route; they're not as "realistic" textured as Beyond, but they have a better overall flavor. Note that the patties are intended to go on sausage biscuits, and as such are a bit large for serving alongside eggs. C+.

Jack & Annie's Savory Breakfast Sausage: You know that eventually someone needed to try making snausages with jackfruit, and this is that brand. These are mainly meant for sausage sandwiches, so they're wide and thin. They're also dense and chewy, in a "meaty" way, but very bland. C-

Nature's Fynd Breakfast Patties: the brand advertises how it is a fungal protein instead of legume-based, and that's completely believeable, because these patties taste like mushroom croquettes. What they don't taste like is sausage. It would have helped if they'd added any spices of any kind, but apparently that would interfere with the "natural fermentation". Suggest using these as filling for mushroom pirogi instead. D

Boxty on the griddle,
Boxty in the pan.
If you can't make boxty
You'll never get a registered domestic partner.

If you're American, The Great Food Holiday is coming up next week and you may soon have a more mashed potatoes than you can eat. I know the idea of leftover mashed potatoes sounds like heresy, but it can happen, and it's worth skipping thirds because you can make tasty things with them, like boxty.

This recipe comes for the Bette's Diner Pancake Handbook 1st edition. Sadly, the recipe was cut from the 2nd edition, so I don't mind printing it here. Of course, I've made some minor changes, as I usually do. Do pick up a copy of the Pancake Handbook if you get a chance, though.

Boxty can be pancake-like, biscuit-like, or bread-like. This is a pancake-like recipe, and would be excellent with fried or poached eggs.

• 2 Tbs butter
• 1 cup cold leftover mashed potatoes
• 1 large peeled russet potato, about 1/2 pound
• 1/2 medium yellow onion (optional)
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp caraway seeds
• salt and pepper
• 2 tsp baking powder
• butter or oil for frying

Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Melt the 2 Tbs butter. Add the mashed potatoes, milk, melted butter, flour, and caraway seeds to the bowl. Grate the potato and the 1/2 onion, and add those to the bowl. Season with salt and pepper as you please. Stir together until well mixed but don't overmix. Stir in the baking powder.

The batter should have the texture of lumpy pancake batter, or oatmeal:

Heat up a large pan or better a large griddle. Grease it with oil and/or butter. Fry the boxty over medium heat (325 on an electric griddle). Flip when the cakes are mostly set and starting to brown on the bottom, 5-7 minutes. They will be delicate and hard to flip, so use a wide spatula and flip carefully. Cook until browned on the other side, another 3-6 minutes.

Serves 2-4 depending on what else you're having.

Notes and Variations:

• If you don't have leftover mashed potatoes for this, you can often buy prepared mashed potatoes at deli counters. I don't know if instant would work; if you try it, leave a note in the comments.
• Cheesy Boxty: add 1/2 cup grated Irish cheddar to the batter
• Garlic Boxty: add 2-4 cloves roasted or poached garlic, mashed, to the batter. Omit the onion.
• Sweet Potatoes: it should be possible to substitute grated sweet potato for the grated potato. I have not tested this.
• Gluten-Free: this could probably be made gluten-free by using rice flour or corn flour. In that case, you'd probably want the cheese as extra binder.

When I was learning to throw, how I was taught to attach handles and other pieces of clay to each other was:

1. score heavily with a fork (both pieces)
2. add thick slip to both pieces
3. score the slip
4. push them together until slip squished out
5. clean off the excess
6. add a thin coil into the crack
7. blend together

I did the above for 20 years and more pieces than I want to count. Many — probably most — students are still taught this method. And it's completely wrong.

Students should be taught the modern way to stick clay together. Not only is it easier, it's more effective and it looks better:

1. Dip a toothbrush in Magic Water.
2. Rough up both sides with the toothbrush, dipping it again as necessary so that both sides are wet and rough. Ideally, the brush strokes should go in the same direction for both pieces.
3. Gently press the two sides together, wiggling them until they "stick".
4. Smooth out the joint.

"But what's Magic Water?" you ask. "And won't the handles pop off? And what's the green stuff in the picture? And what am I supposed to do with this fork now?"

Magic Water is both a deflocculant (a substance which changes the binding properties of clay) and a flux (one which makes clay melt). As a result, it allows to pieces of clay to bind together better when wet, and it helps them stay together when fired. Here's a recipe, originally developed by Lana Wilson. It's easy and cheap to make if you have access to a ceramics supply house:

• 1 gallon purified water
• 3 Tbs liquid Sodium Silicate
• 3 grams Soda Ash

When I switched from slip to Magic Water, I decided to do an experiment. I made 18 mugs, half using slip-and-score, half with Magic Water. Two of the slip-and-score mugs had handle separation issues (one broke off entirely). None of the Magic Water mugs had problems.

Now, if you're using magic water and your handles are popping off anyway, you're probably not controlling drying properly. Sometimes handles pop off because they weren't stuck on well, but most of the time they come off (or break in half) because they were allowed to dry at a different rate from the cup. Just avoid these three pitfalls:

• sticking a wet handle on a dry mug body
• letting the mug dry too fast
• letting the handle dry faster than the mug

For the first, you'll lower your loss rate tremendously by attaching the handle before the cup is leather-hard. This does make it difficult to trim the mug, which is why most of my handled mugs have flat instead of footed bottoms. But the closer you can get the handle and the mug to the same level of wetness when combined, the fewer problems you'll have. The second problem can be avoided with a wetbox or some dry-cleaner plastic.

For the third problem, well, that's where the green stuff comes in. Handles tend to dry faster than mug bodies because they are thin and get air from all sides. If they are allowed to dry as fast as they want, then they will crack or pop off because the handle will become shorter than the clay it's attached to. That green stuff is AFTOSA wax, a thick formadehyde-soluable wax which will stick even to leather-hard clay. By painting the thin edges of the handle, you slow down the handle's drying rate to match that of the mug. I've also found that waxing the joints makes cracking at the joints less likely, although I'm not completely sure why.

So, there you go: a newer, better-looking, easier, and more effective way to attach your handles to mugs. Now go and make some mugs!

As for the fork, well, maybe a salad?

My sweetie tells me that if I ever publish a cookbook it'll be titled "Makes About A Quart" because everthing I make seems to make between a quart and a half-gallon. This hummus is no exception; there in the handmade bowl (with cone 9 bronze glaze) is around a quart of my hummus. However, since you can make a quart of hummus for the cost of buying a half-pint of it at the store, and it'll be tastier to boot, why not go for it?

This is a non-traditional hummus, but very tasty and popular. I created the recipe by improving one I got out of The 30-Minute Vegetarian Gourmet in 1991, and have refined it over the 80 or so times I've made it over the last 17 years.

This hummus keeps in the fridge for 7-12 days and freezes reasonably well, though, so there's no reason not to make a bunch and save some for later.

• 1 large (or two medium) onion, sliced, about 1½ cups.
• 6-10 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped into large pieces
• 2 tbs olive oil, pref. Kalamata
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp Aleppo pepper, paprika, or smoked paprika
• ½ to 1 cup chopped parsley
• 3 14-oz cans chickpeas (or fava beans), drained
• ¾ cup tahini (raw sesame paste) (see note)
• ¼ cup lemon juice (plus more to taste)
• 3 tsp salt
• Up to ½ cup Kalamata olive oil
• Up to 1 cup warm salted water, bean cooking water, or stock
• Equipment: frying pan, food processor

Heat 2 tbs Kalamata olive oil in the frying pan. Saute the onions and garlic until limp. Add the cumin and pepper or paprika, stir for 30 seconds, then take off heat. Stir in the parsley until it wilts, then let cool.

Process the fried onion mixture and most of the other ingredients in 2 or 3 batches in a food processor.

Make sure to have some of all ingredients in each batch, in this order bottom-to-top: onions & garlic, chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, salt, ½ of the olive oil. Process until smooth, adding a little olive oil and a little warm salted water as needed to get a smooth creamy consistency. Olive oil makes it richer, water makes it lighter.

Serve immediately with toasted pita, or keep in the fridge for up to 8 days, or in the freezer for several weeks. Smooth the surface and cover with a layer of olive oil for better keeping.

* Note on Chickpeas: instead of cans, you can cook the chickpeas or fava beans (or a mix) yourself. You want about 5 cups of beans, which means starting with 1¾ cups of dried chickpeas. If you cook them with 1 tsp baking soda in the water, they will be softer and make a creamier, smoother hummus.

* Note on Tahini: if tahini is very expensive in your area, or hard to find, but you can get raw sesame seeds (say, from a Mexican market), you can substitute 1 cup of sesame seeds plus 2 tbs sesame oil for the tahini in the recipe above. Make sure to put them on the bottom so they grind well.

And no, I didn't go to UC Santa Cruz. Although I'm happy to make stuff for alumni.

If you used to follow my food blog, you'll notice that it hasn't updated in a while. This is because it was based on Serendipity, which was a great blogging platform once-upon-a-time, but is now showing its age and is no longer working properly on my Linode virtual server. So I've finally started a new blog using an open source blogging platform called Ghost, which I'm liking a lot. The current theme is by Marcos Navarro.

With this change in platform will come a change in content as well: this blog is going to focus a lot more on my pottery and ceramics work and business, and only partly on food and cooking. I will be gradually porting posts from my old blog though.

Obviously this blog will need a bit of work on presentation and style too. More to come!