Moroccan Lentils

Moroccan food is one of my favorites. The dishes are fresh and festive. But what I like most are the simple dishes, those with just a few ingredients showcasing a vegetable or bean. The following recipe is a simple lentil dish that is full of warm spices. It is a common village meal, and is best eaten with bread.

The spice blend used here is ras el hanout. If you can't find this in your grocery, you can make it yourself. I tell you how in this article.

The directions below make use of a pressure cooker. If you don't have one, you can make this in a regular pot; just double the cooking time to about 30 minutes.

Berber Lentils

Ingredients

2 T olive oil + 1 T butter
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 t ras el hanout
1 t sugar
1¼ c green or brown lentils, sorted and rinsed
2 c water (2½ c if not using a pressure cooker)
handful of cilantro or parsley

Steps

1. Heat the oil and butter in the pressure cooker or saucepan. Stir in the onion and garlic and cook 2-3 minutes, until they begin to color. Stir in the ras el hanout and sugar.

2. Add the lentils and stir well to coat. Add the water. If using a pressure cooker, bring to high pressure and maintain for 15 minutes. If using a regular pot, bring to a boil, then gently simmer for about 35 minutes.

3. Season to taste with salt and pepper and sprinkle cilantro or parsley over them.

Moroccan Shish Kabob

We will finish up our foray into Moroccan cuisine with a vegetarian shish kabob. Almost everyone has heard of shish kabobs. This is a common street food in Morocco, and I bet the aroma of the grilled meat and spices wafting about the streets is wonderful. But I wanted to try a vegetarian version, and I think I'm pretty close.

This recipe makes use of those lovely soya wadi chunks which I introduced in this article. Because the wadi is a bit small, I thought it would be futile to thread them on skewers, so I fried them in a skillet. The result was pretty darn good. I served these over rice, but they can also be tucked into a pita, or you can stick toothpicks in them and treat them like an appetizer.

Wadi Shish Kabobs

Ingredients

1 small onion, grated

½ t salt

1 c soya wadi

1 c beef broth

juice of 1 lemon

2 t ground cumin

2 t paprika

2 T dried parsley

black pepper

2 T olive oil

Steps

1. Place all the ingredients except olive oil into a pressure cooker, lock the lid in place, and bring to high pressure. Maintain high pressure for 10 minutes. Release pressure naturally.

2. Heat the olive oil in a skillet. When hot, transfer the contents of the pressure cooker and cook until the wadi starts to brown. Serve over rice or on flatbreads.

Moroccan Spinach

I continue the Moroccan theme here with an unusual but delicious spinach dish. It's called saute d' epinards and is a blend of nuts, spinach, and citrus. I like how Moroccan cuisine works lemon and oranges into their cooking. Westerners tend to just eat their citrus as is and don't cook with them much. But when they are introduced into cooking, they offer a different twist that is pleasant and refreshing.

Sauteed Spinach with Orange and Almonds

Ingredients

1 lb. fresh spinach, rinsed and drained

2 T olive oil

½ onion, choped

2 garlic cloves, minced

juice from one orange

zest from one orange

2 T slivered almonds, toasted

salt and pepper

Steps

1. In a dutch oven, place about 1 inch of water in and bring to boil. Place the spinach in the pot, cover, and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the spinach is soft. Remove spinach to a cutting board and chop finely.

2. Dump the cooking liquid from the pot and heat the oil over medium high heat. Stir in the onion and garlic and cook until they begin to color. Return the spinach back to the pot and mix. Add the orange juice and zest and season with salt and pepper. Cook only a minute to heat the spinach through.

3. Place in a serving dish and top with the slivered almonds.

Moroccan Feast

(Image swiped from http://salobrena.wordpress.com/2007/10/16/the-market-in-tanger/)

This past week I focused on Moroccan food. The cuisine from Morocco and North Africa is one of my favorites because the flavors and ingredients are fresh and lively and colorful. And it's no wonder, since Morocco is a blend of various cultures, each offering their own style and ingredients. The indigenous Berbers have their tangines and couscous; the nomadic Bedouins brought in dates, milk, and grains; the Moors from Spain brought olives, paprika, and herbs. Add some French influence to tidy it all up and you have a grand landscape of flavors that is not heavy on meat but showcases vegetables and fruits.

For my first recipe, I present a simple dip similar to hummus, but instead of chickpeas it uses fava beans. It is called bissara.

Garlic Fava Bean Dip

Ingredients

12 oz dried fava beans, soaked in water overnight

4 garlic cloves

2 t cumin seeds

4 T olive oil

salt

pinch of paprika and thyme

Steps

1. Drain the beans, remove the outer brown skins, and drop them into a pressure cooker or pot. Add the garlic and the cumin seeds. Add enough water to cover. If using a pressure cooker, cook on high pressure for about 15 minutes. If using a pot, bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour.

2. Drain the beans and place in a food processor. Puree the beans and drizzle in the olive oil. Season to taste with salt, then sprinkle with paprika and thyme. Serve warm or at room temperature with bread.