Winter Warming Loop the loop aka Soup

We have been enjoying the early signs of spring all week and it looks like it’s coming to a crashing end with rain predicted for every day this week so I thought this recipe would warm you up. In Morocco Harira is mainly eaten during Ramadan (which we are in at the moment) this soup is eaten at any time of the year including Summer, for me though it makes a great lunch or dinner and I think during winter there is nothing nicer than having some yummy soup simmering on the stove. It takes no time to prepare but about an hour or so to cook.

Harira

You will need:

½ Bunch flat leaf Parsley, chopped

1 bunch coriander, chopped

1 large brown onion diced

4 tsp Ground cumin

2 tsp Paprika

2 cinnamon quills

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 400g tin of lentils

1 400g tin of chickpeas

2 x 400g tins crushed tomatoes or 1 700ml bottle tomato passata

6 cups of water

100g cooked rice or spaghetti broken into small pieces

Ensure you rinse the coriander prior to chopping it up in a sink filled with water as for some reason there is always lots of sand or grit in the bunch.

In a large saucepan or cast iron pot heat the olive oil, onion, spices and herbs. Cook gently for about 5 mins. Puree tinned tomatoes with flour in a blender and add to the pan, if you are using Tomato Passata then just add that to the soup and mix the flour with some water until you have a runny paste, add this to the soup and stir well. Add water and season with Salt & Pepper, simmer for ½ an hour and season again to taste. Add rinsed lentils & chickpeas & continue to simmer gently for another hour, add the rice or pasta & return to a gentle simmer. You want the soup to have a hearty flavor but not be too thick. This will make more than enough for a couple of meals & as it reheats it will become thicker as the pasta etc will absorb some of the liquid.

Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice and freshly chopped parsley. During Ramadan we will serve Harira with fresh dates.

I think this is my favourite Moroccan meal!

While I was living in Marrakech Hafid arranged a Lamb Tangia for my birthday, I had never had this dish before and it was served accompanied by lots of small plates of salads & bread to mop up the juices. What I didn’t know at the time was that you can’t take your time eating a Tangia when you’re sharing a meal with Moroccans, particularly the male variety! There was I enjoying every bite and attempting to take my time, no doubt you’ve heard the phrase you snooze, you loose.. Well the plate was cleaned within 10 mins flat!

I hope it’s as successful when you make it, without question its the ultimate chuck in one pot, stick it in the oven and almost forget about it for 5 hours or so.

Lamb Tangia

6 Lamb Shanks cut in ½

1 & ½  Preserved Lemons – pips removed, flesh intact

8 medium to large cloves of garlic, skin removed

2 Tbsp Ground Cumin

¼ cup Olive Oil

1 cup water

Pinch of Saffron

Pre heat your oven to 160 degrees celsius.

Put the shanks into a large casserole dish and sprinkle the cumin over the meat, add the garlic & olive oil and mix around. Tuck the wedges of preserved lemon in & around the meat, pour in water & saffron.

Put the lid on and place in the oven to cook at 160 degrees celsius for at least 5 hours, shake it every hour or so and turn the meat once or twice. It’s ready when the meat is falling off the bone.

Traditionally this is served with crusty bread to mop up all the juices. You could also serve it with a garden salad or greens. I am allowing at least 1 to 1 & ½ shanks per person. So this recipe would serve 4 adults.

Moroccan Desserts

Apart from lots of little biscuits & cakes there aren’t really loads of obviously Moroccan desserts. There’s sliced oranges sprinkled with cinnamon, usually after each meal (lunch time is the main meal) fresh fruit is offered and then about 6pm or so it’s afternoon tea time where everyone sits down & has a coffee, pastry, croissant or something similar.

Given the french spent so much time in Morocco there are a number of french pastries that you can get in Morocco from Baguettes to Croissants the choices are unlimited, but you would be forgiven for thinking you’ve stumbled into a Patisserie, not necessarily a bad thing.

So inspiration for something Moroccan will come from using some of the spices used most commonly in cooking, there is always the Snakey Cakey as Jamie Oliver refers to it, but that requires a long kitchen bench, both children in childcare or asleep & I promised my dear friend Banana that we’d make it together so I will save it for another day.

Let’s start with something simple or in theory simple.. in practice it can be a bit tricky, but unless you’re cooking for a Moroccan (like I am) your family & or guest won’t know the difference.

1000 Hole Pancakes

Serves 2 adults & 2 small children for breakfast & makes approx 10 medium size pancakes.

You will need:

1 Cup of Self Raising Flour

1Tbsp Caster Sugar

1 Egg

a pinch of salt

1 – 1 & 1/2 cups

of milk

125 g butter, plus extra for frying

1/2 cup of honey

Olive oil for frying

In a large mixing bowl sift the flour, sugar & salt, add the egg and begin to whisk, slowly incorporating the milk until you have quite a runny batter. Leave it to rest for about 10 mins.

Melt a little butter with olive oil in a non stick frying pan, you just need enough to aid in the non sticking part. Heat your pan until the butter sizzles, but ensure to turn it down to about 1/2 the heat, pour a large spoonful of the batter onto the pan and either shake the pan to spread the batter or lift the pan and swirl it around, you want the pancakes to be even in thickness but only about 5mm thick.

Allow the pancake to cook until you have all the little holes appearing and it’s almost set all over. Then flip the pancake for just a moment and remove and place on a serving dish. Continue this process until you’ve used all the batter.

Meanwhile in a small saucepan melt the butter with the honey stirring until combined. Once all the pancakes are made, pour this mixture over the pancakes and serve.

Berber Pizza

So day 1 of Ramadan went very well and everything was ready in time to break fast at precisely 5.38pm. Tonight as it’s a kinder day we’re having a Berber Pizza which has to be one of the easiest Moroccan meals to cook, great for breakfast as well and for those nights where you really are not at all interested in what cooking has to offer or you don’t want to have to think about what to cook.

This is another one to get the kids involved in too as they can help with the squishing of the mince meat, making the meat balls and putting them into the tajine. Served with crusty bread and a salad if you like this will feed a family of 4 being 2 adults & 2 kids.

You will need:

500g of mince meat – Lamb or beef

1 onion diced

2 cloves of garlic crushed

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp paprika

handful of chopped parsley & coriander

1 400g tin of crushed tomatoes

4 eggs

Salt & Pepper to taste

Extra Virgin Olive oil.

In a mixing bowl add the meat, 1/2 garlic & 1/2 the herbs and 1 tsp of cumin & 1 tsp of paprika & salt & pepper to taste, mix well & set aside to allow the flavours to develop. In your Tajine or frying pan fry the onions, garlic & remaining spices in olive oil. Add the tomatoes & 1/4 cup of water stir to combine and allow to simmer for 5 – 10 mins until the sauce begins to thicken. Meanwhile shape the meat mixture in to balls and drop into the tomato sauce so they’re evenly spaced around the dish, cover and simmer for about 15 mins. Turn the meat balls once or shake the pan to move them around a bit. Once the liquid has reduced crack the eggs into the pan and cover until they’re set.

Season to taste with salt, pepper, cumin & paprika, garnish with chopped parsley & serve with crusty bread. Best eaten communally with your hands!

Lamb & Cauliflower Tajine

1 Brown Onion Diced

4 Carrots, peeled, cut in half length wise and then in half width wise

handful of chopped Italian Parsley

6 Lamb Loin or forequarter chops

1/4-1/2 a Cauliflower head

1 Tomato halved

2tsp Ground cumin

2 tsp Paprika

Salt & Pepper to taste

1/3 cup water

Place the onions & spices in the base of your tajine or a cast iron pan. Add the chops and allow to brown slightly. Remove chops and place the sliced carrots on top of the onions, then layer the chops on top.

Cut the cauliflower into small flowerets and lay over the top of the chops, place the tomato on top, pour in the water and sprinkle a little extra, salt, cumin & paprika over the cauliflower. Cover and bring to a gentle simmer. Leave to cook slower for at least 2 hours or until almost all the water has evaporated. If you’re using a cast iron pan then you may need to add a little extra water and keep an eye on it as it seems to get hotter & hold the heat for longer than a tajine.

Serve with crusty bread & a garden salad or greens.

P.S. I was NEVER a fan of cauliflower but this has completely changed my mind, I even ate it by it’s self… no white sauce in sight!

A week until Ramadan

Which means this time next week my DH will be fasting from Sunrise to Sunset in accordance with his Muslim beliefs. It also means I will be mainly cooking Moroccan food of all kinds, each Break Fast is a bit like christmas lunch on a daily basis for a month.

Everything from Harira to Tangia, Tajines, Stews, Desserts etc. Dates feature heavily as do more traditional meals like Bessara a dried broad bean soup. I will aim to include recipes of everything I cook over the month. It’s very labour intensive, everything has to be ready dead on time and as you can imagine a starving husband who’s been at work all day isn’t always a happy husband.

Thankfully Sophia is 1 now and I am hoping things will run more smoothly than they did last year when I was feeding a newborn baby & trying to cook up a feast every day for a month.. No mean feat I have to tell you, so while I am not necessarily looking forward to the next month I am looking forward to mastering some of the more challenging recipes that come from a Moroccan kitchen, try as I might I have yet to be able to make 1000 hole pancakes as they do in Marrakech.

My Tangia however is something out of this world. By the end of the month we (Zachie & I – Hafid will be in heaven as he’d much prefer I dish up the food he’s eaten all his life instead of continuously trying to get him to taste new things) will be so over Moroccan food it won’t be funny, but by then I think I say that’s it – we’re having Italian, French or Aussie month!

To get the ball rolling yesterday I preserved Lemons & was most amused to see in ‘The Sunday Life’ a recipe for doing the same, however traditionally we use salt, water & lemons & don’t remove the flesh when using them in dishes.

You will need: Clean glass jars with tight-fitting lids, Lemons, Salt & Water

You simply cut the lemons into quarters without cutting all the way through the lemon, pack them into the jars and add about a cup of salt to a litre size jar and fill with water. I used smaller jars and added 3 heaped tablespoons of salt to each one.

Ensure the lemons are tightly packed and covered with water, put in a dark cupboard for at least a month before you use them. If you have a lemon tree then we need to become friends as we use preserved lemons at least 2 or 3 times a week.