Recettes Morocco

Moroccan Chicken Rfissa

Rfissa is chicken and lentils stewed with onions in a broth heavy with fenugreek, ras el hanout and saffron, poured over a bed of shredded msemen or trid pastry. The pastry takes up the broth and becomes the base of the dish rather than an accompaniment to it, which is what distinguishes rfissa from a tagine served with bread. It is a family dish above all else. Rfissa is what appears at reunions and at religious occasions, at what Moroccans call a zarda, and it is not a restaurant dish. Its most specific role is at childbirth: it is served to women who have recently given birth, traditionally on the third day, because fenugreek, lentils and the spice blend are held to support recovery and milk production. A dish with a fixed place in a family's most significant week carries a weight that a good stew does not. The bed underneath it has its own vocabulary. Served over crumbled harcha it becomes rfissa medhoussa; over cubed bread it is treda. Moroccan households commonly buy the trid or msemen from a souk or a local bakery rather than making it, because the pastry is the slow part and the stew is not.

★★★★★Les mieux notées

3 hrHardMorocco · Moroccan

Recette de Blessing · Africook

Shlada (Moroccan Tomato Salad)

Shlada is the Moroccan tomato and cucumber salad, dressed with lemon and olive oil and seasoned with cumin. It goes by shlada 'arobiya, meaning country salad, and shlada Nationale, the national salad, which tells you how ordinary and how ubiquitous it is. Everything depends on the knife work. The tomatoes, cucumber and onion are chopped very small, so that a single spoonful carries all three rather than one at a time. The contributor is emphatic that this is the secret of the salad, and it is a fair claim: the same ingredients in rough chunks make a quite different and much less interesting dish. It also needs to sit. Ten minutes before serving lets the flavours combine, and up to an hour improves it further, which is unusual for a salad. Preserved lemon peel is the optional addition that makes it unmistakably Moroccan, and only the peel is used, never the pulp. It is eaten as a side, as a light lunch, and as a dip scooped up with khobz, the Moroccan bread. Parsley substitutes for mint, vinegar for lemon juice, and vegetable oil for olive oil, all of which are made.

15 minEasyMorocco

Recette de Blessing · Africook

Moroccan Zaalouk (Cooked Eggplant and Tomato Salad)

Zaalouk is a classic Moroccan cooked salad of eggplant (aubergine) and tomatoes, gently seasoned with cumin, paprika, garlic, fresh coriander, and a touch of preserved lemon, then cooked down to a soft, almost spreadable consistency. It is served at room temperature as part of the Moroccan mezze spread that precedes most main meals. Despite being called a salad, Zaalouk is fully cooked. The eggplant is first roasted or grilled to develop smokiness, then combined with tomatoes and spices and cooked together until completely collapsed into a silky, intensely flavoured paste. It is served generously with warm bread for scooping and represents the sophisticated simplicity that defines Moroccan cooking at its best.

EasyMorocco

Recette de Blessing · Africook