Couscous Fridays
For lunch every Friday in the majority of homes in Morocco, the Moroccan national dish is served: couscous. As Sunday is for Christians and Saturday is for Jews, Friday is the holy day for Muslims, and on Fridays the men of the home go off to attend service at the mosque and are treated to one of the more time consuming recipes of Morocco when they return home. We're not really sure where the tradition started - just that it is, and we certainly had no problem eating yummy couscous once a week. This recipe is the chicken and seven vegetables couscous that we had at our house, but our students told us about lots of other kinds of couscous!
Ingredients:
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Vegetable Prep:
- Peel and slice all the vegetables in large pieces.
- Place the chicken, oil, turmeric, ginger powder, salt, pepper, saffron, tomato and onions in a pot.
- Cover the pot and cook on Medium Heat for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes have elapsed add the following vegetables: cilantro, parsley, potatoes, carrots, and turnips.
- Add 2 cups of Water; continue to cook on Medium Heat for 40 minutes.
- Once the 40 minutes have elapsed remove the chicken.
- Taste the sauce and adjust spices.
- Add the zucchini and butternut squash.
- Once all vegetables are in the 'chicken' pot, bring 3 cups of water to boil in a new 'couscous' pot.
- After the water has boiled, add the 3 cups of couscous to the water, stir the pot, cover, and let cook for 10 minutes.
- Remove the couscous and place in a large bowl.
- Add salt to taste and work the tbs of butter through the cooked couscous.
- Serve the couscous by setting the couscous grains on the bottom of the serving plate in a dome, adding some sauce to the couscous, then adding the vegetables on the top of the ‘dome’ and around.
Vegetable Tagine
With every meat dish served, there is always a smaller vegetarian dish sitting amongst the rest of the dishes. Sometimes this is a smaller vegetable tagine, filled with potatoes, peas, squash, zucchini and other vegetables.
Ingredients:
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Vegetable Prep:
- Peel and slice all the vegetables (potatoes, tomato, onion and any additional).
- On medium heat, add the olive oil and put the onions in the cooking pan and add the garlic, paprika and ginger.
- Stir the onions for a couple of minutes.
- Add the tomato to the onions and keep stirring.
- After 3-4 minutes add the potatoes to the cooking pan and continue stirring until the potatoes are covered with the spices.
- Add the parsley, salt, pepper, saffron, bay leaves and lemon. Keep mixing all the ingredients in the cooking pan.
- Add the water, stir well and clover the pan.
- Let the Tagine cook for 15-20 minutes. During this time, stir from time to time.
- You might need to add another cup of water if the sauce dries up and the potatoes are not cooked yet. The Tagine is cooked when you can easily slice a piece of potato with a fork.
- Turn off the heat, and let the Tagine sit for 15 minutes before serving.
Bastilla
Taylor's absolute favorite meal is the traditional bastilla (meat pie), untraditionally made with chicken (rather than pigeon). This is by far the most involved recipe of what we've learned, and the outcome is stunning. Bastilla is a filling of chicken, almonds, and the combination of spices we've come to adore; all surrounded by a wrapping of phyllo that forms a pie shaped pastry. The special (yummy) pie is served frequently at the beginning of special meals and the combination of sweet and salty flavors with the flaky phyllo is always appreciated.
Ingredients:
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Cook the Chicken:
- Mix the chicken with onion, spices, butter and oil (from Column 1) in a heavy-bottomed stock pot or Dutch oven. Cover, and cook over medium to medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, for about an hour, or until the chicken is very tender and falls off the bone. Do not add water, and be careful not to burn the chicken or the sauce as this will ruin the dish.
- Transfer the cooked chicken to a plate, and reduce the sauce in the pot until most of the liquids have evaporated and the onions form a mass in the oil. Stir occasionally, and adjust the heat as necessary to prevent burning.
- While the sauce is reducing and the chicken is still warm, pick the meat off the bones, breaking it into small 2" pieces. Stir in several spoonfuls of the onion mixture, cover the meat, and set aside.
Boil, Peel, & Deep-fry the Almonds:
- Bring a pot of water to a boil with the almonds already in the pot, once at a boil, remove pot from heat, strain the water from the almonds, slide the skins off of the almonds, and rinse the newly peeled almonds.
- Heat 1/2" of vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat for about five minutes, or until the oil is hot. Test the oil by dropping in an almond. If tiny bubbles rapidly rise around the almond within a few seconds, the oil is ready. If the oil boils and splatters immediately, it's too hot.
- Deep fry the almonds, stirring constantly, until golden brown. As soon as the almonds are richly colored, transfer them to a tray lined with paper towels to drain and cool. Fried almonds will continue to darken a bit after frying, so be careful not to burn them while they're in the oil.
- When the almonds have cooled completely, pulse them in a food processor until finely ground. Put them in a mixing bowl, and with your hands work in the tablespoon of butter. Set aside.
Combine the Stuffing Mixture:
- Combine the chicken meat and onion mixture with 3/4 of the ground almonds, 1.5 tablespoons powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons of honey, 1 tablespoon of cinnamon, and 1 beaten egg in a bowl. Set aside.
Assemble the Bastilla:
- Generously oil a 14" or larger round pan.
- Brush melted butter on each sheet of warqa or phyllo dough as you work. If using phyllo, take care to keep it covered with plastic as you work since it dries out very quickly.
- Using your pan as a guide, overlap three or four single layers of warqa (shiny side down) – or double layers of phyllo dough – in a circular fashion, so that the inner halves of the pastry dough overlap in the center, and the excess dough drapes over the edges of the pan. (Remember to butter each layer of dough.)
- Place one buttered 12" circle of warqa, or two 12" buttered circles of phyllo, in the center of the pan. This forms the bottom of the pie.
- Cover the 12" circle with the stuffing.
- Top the stuffing with another buttered 12" circle of warqa (shiny side up), or two 12" buttered circles of phyllo. Spread the remaining almond topping over this layer of dough.
- Fold the excess dough up and over the almonds to enclose the pie. Flatten and smooth any bulky areas.
- Brush butter on the folded edges of dough, and top with three more overlapping layers of warqa (shiny side up) or phyllo, brushing butter on each layer. Fold down the edges of dough and carefully tuck them underneath the pie, molding and shaping the bastilla as you go.
- Use your hands to spread the beaten egg over the top and sides of the pie.
Baking the Bastilla:
- Preheat an oven to 350° F. Place the bastilla on an oiled flat baking sheet in the middle of the oven, and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until deep golden brown. Note that a bastilla placed into the oven directly from the freezer will take up to an hour to bake.
Garnishing the Bastilla:
- Generously coat the bastilla with sifted powdered sugar. Sift the cinnamon on top of the sugar, or use the cinnamon to decorate the top of the pie. Serve immediately.
Moroccan Salad
A salad of some kind is usually served, but one that is more traditionally Moroccan than the rest is... Moroccan Salad! This simple salad is just diced up vegetables that we typically have at home, and it's innate freshness makes it a favorite of many.
Recipe:
- Place all the diced vegetables in a mixing bowl.
- Mix in all the remaining ingredients together, season well with the salt and pepper.
Green Beans & Carrots
Even the simplest vegetables smothered in spices are delicious. One in particular is the green beans. Forget every icky boiled green bean you've ever had: these are crunchy and flavorful. Another sweeter vegetable side dish we've had are the carrots. Neither of us are big fans of the carrot. But here, covered in cinnamon, we've acquired a newfound liking for them. Each of these recipes is left vague, adapt as necessary!
Green Beans
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