Instructions
In my first week at Rockpool some ten years ago I was told that the premier dessert we served was a date tart. Now, while I would always give the benefit of the doubt to a chef as accomplished as Neil, I had my reservations. Until that moment my experience of dates was confined to No-Name packets of dark brown bullets: rock hard and flavourless. What could dates offer fine dining?
Lorraine (the pastry chef) emerged from the coolroom carrying an exotic-looking box. It was filled with a type of date I had never seen before: these were Medjools. Once grown only as the personal crop of the Cheriff of Morocco, the Medjool is soft and elegantly sweet, with a flavour of toffee and tea. It is nature’s own confectionery.
This revelation was to change my life.
Today we import Medjool dates from the USA. The Cheriff sent some trees there in 1922 when his crop was beset with a fungal disease that killed nearly every date palm. The Medjool is only one of hundreds of date varieties, but it is amongst the most highly regarded.
Dates appear in North African and Middle Eastern cookery in a variety of forms. Whole dates sweeten a tagine, date puree is layered between pastry to make elegant desserts, and halved dates are stuffed with a variety of sweet and savoury mixtures to serve as snacks.
While the North American date crop is harvested towards the end of the year, dates keep very well due to their high sugar content and natural anti-oxidants. This means Medjool dates can be enjoyed at any time of the year. Either use them in place of other dried fruits in your cooking, or simply enjoy them as the delicious natural confectionery that they are.
To prepare Medjools ready for use, simply use a small knife to make an incision down one side, then pry the stone out.
Medjool date and ricotta tart