On the tablecloth, the cutlery can be counted on one hand. On the kitchen side, it is a wide variety of instruments that is used to work on food. Discover their origins, sometimes forgotten, and the best way to use them.
by Léo Bourdin
It is sometimes in simple and rustic objects that the best recipes simmer. Typical of Berber cuisine, the gargoulette is a terracotta or sandstone utensil which seems to have reached us, unchanged, from the bottom of the centuries. Originally, this porous jar with the appearance of amphora was used to keep the water cool under the hot temperatures of the Maghreb. But the nomadic peoples of the Sahara, thousands of years ago, were the first to use it to cook the muffled meat at length – of the lamb, mainly; camelon, more rarely.
“La Gargoulette is a niche utensil, which is still used in a folklorical way in certain cities in southern Tunisia, especially around the banks of Lac Chott El-Jérid, explains Youssef Gastli, a Tunisian chief installed in France for fifteen years. It is traditionally for single use: a potter the model the same day and it completes to solidify at the same time as foods cook inside. The clay is a porous material, Vivante, who breathes cooking: it plays on the texture and the taste of food. At the exit of the oven, the final gesture – a sign of sharing and conviviality – consists in breaking the gargoulette directly on the table. “
its use
We find Youssef Gastli in the kitchens of Dune, his restaurant on rue des Jeûneurs, in 2 e district of Paris, thought like a Mediterranean canteen. On the menu, alongside the numerous kemias to share (Lablebi, shrimp in brick leaves and Batata Harra), the chef offers his famous Gargoulette cooked lamb. “In Tunisian Arabic, we call this dish Allouch Fél Kolla. Allouch, it’s lamb, Kolla, it’s jar,” he says. It is a very primary recipe, in the sense that the We simply use the ingredients that we find at hand, around you. “
In the Tunisian desert, lamb meat, renowned for its tenderness, accommodates tomatoes, peppers, garlic and onions, which are mixed with the Harissa and the olive oil. The whole thing is incorporated into the gargoulette and put to simmer – an unchanged recipe for centuries … “At Dune, continues Youssef Gastli, we remain faithful to the recipe, but the base evolves with the seasons. Right now, we add vegetables Roots like celery or parsley roots; also incorporates chickpeas, carrots, what we have on hand, in reality. “
The meat (lamb shoulder) is then baked for four to five hours, at 150 ° C. Just before the service, the gargoulette is open (and no longer broken). We pour there meat juice, to bring a beautiful bond and we add some fresh herbs mixed with pickles of carrots and onions. The terracotta gargoulettes in which we eat at Dune were made to measure by Lamine pottery, in Nabeul, in Cape Bon.