So I cooked from the Moroccan Bible, which was less of a bible and more of a half decent cookbook. It’s not a bad cookbook, it’s just not good either. Some of the instructions are vague, “bring to the boil and then cook for X minutes” – does cooking involve a rolling boil, or is it fine to leave it at a high simmer? Vague cookbook can be vague. The recipes were tasty, but lacking something. Overall I wasn’t very satisfied. I have much better Moroccan cookbooks than this one. But now the recipes.
Cumin-spiced Chickpeas
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups dried chickpeas
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh coriander
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method:
- Soak the chickpeas in cold water overnight
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas, and place in a medium sized saucepan. Cover with cold water and bring to the boil over a high heat. Cook for 1 hour or until tender. Drain and set aside.
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan over low heat. Add the chickpeas, coriander and cumin and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Drain on paper towel.
Notes on this recipe:
- I’m really not sure what the “cook for 1 hour” actually means in relation to temperature.
- This is a bit plain on it’s own, but when served with all the other dishes it’s really tasty.
Spicy Pumpkin & Lentil Tagine
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup dried green lentils
- 1 litre water or vegetable stock
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 large brown onion, sliced
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and coarsely chopped
- 3 teaspoons tomato paste
- 700g pumpkin, cut into 4cm cubes
- 1/4 cup raisins
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
Method:
- Place the lentils and water or stock in a medium-sized saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to the boil. Decrease the heat to low, cover and cook for 15 – 20 minutes, until the lentils are just tender.
- Heat the oil in a medium-large tagine or heavy-based saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, spices, and salt, and saute until softened and fragrant. Add the tomato and tomato paste, and stir to combine. Add the pumpkin, lentils and cooking liquid. Scatter with raisins and bring to the boil. Decrease the heat to low, cover and cook for 20 – 30 minutes, until the pumpkin is tender. Sprinkle with parsley and coriander.
Notes on this recipe:
- It was tasty, it made a lot of food (serves 4 – 6 and we had many left overs with 4 people)
- Apart from the waiting with all the boiling of things to have them cooked, this recipe was quite simple and just required checking that you had all the ingredients (I didn’t – I ended up substituting sultanas for raisins and pasatta for tomato paste).
- It really helps if there are instructions for peeling tomatoes (which are completely missing in this recipe). I have written instructions previously here (see Warm Eggplant Salad).
Chicken Stuffed with Vermicelli
Ingredients:
- 1.5kg chicken
- 1 large red onion, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- pinch of saffron threads
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup water
Vermicelli Stuffing
- 200g vermicelli rice noodles
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh coriander
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 200C
- To make the vermicelli stuffing, soak the noodles in boiling water for 5 minutes, until softened. Drain and cut into 5cm lengths. Combine the noodles, oil, garlic and spices in a medium-sized bowl. Add the parsley and coriander, mix and season with salt and pepper.
- Wash the chicken and the cavity thoroughly with cold running water and pat dry with paper towel. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with the prepared noodles. To prevent the stuffing from falling out, fold over the two flaps of skin and secure together using toothpicks. Truss the legs together using kitchen string.
- Place the onion in the base of a large baking dish and the chicken on top. Combine the oil, garlic, ginger and saffron in a small bowl. Pour over the chicken and rub to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Pour the water into the baking dish. Cover with aluminium foil and cook in the oven for 45 minutes. Uncover the chicken and return to the over to cook, basting occasionally, for a further 45 minutes, until the juices run clear from the thickest part of the thigh when tested.
Notes on this recipe:
- There was so much stuffing, if you are feeding a decent number, get a larger chicken and you’ll probably fit in all the stuffing. We threw out our excess.
- We used wheat vermicelli as it was what we could find, this did not impact on the quality of the noms.
Moroccan Rice Pudding
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cups of short-grain rice
- 2 1/2 cups water
- 1/2 cup sugar, plus extra to serve (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1.25 litres milk
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons orange-blossom water
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Method:
- Place the rice, water, sugar and salt in a medium-sized saucepan and bring to the boil. Decrease the heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, until the water has been absorbed.
- Add half of the milk, the cinnamon stick and half of the butter. Continue cooking on low, stirring occasionally to prevent the rice from sticking, until all the liquid has been absorbed. Gradually add the remaining milk, stirring until the rice is cooked and swollen and creamy in texture. Then add the orange-blossom water.
- Spoon the rice onto a serving plate to form a dome shape. Decorate with lines of ground cinnamon, coming down from the centre and dot with the remaining butter.
- Serve with chilled milk, for drinking, and additional sugar (if desired).
Notes on this recipe:
- Whoever wrote this recipe out certainly didn’t test it. If I had used all 1.25 litres of milk (which is an incredible amount of milk for 1 1/3 cups of rice) then the rice would have turned into glug – which is not what I believe the recipe was aiming at. I think I used about 700 mL of milk – be really careful when cooking this that you use an appropriate amount of liquids.
- I think it would have been better with rose water, which I prefer over orange-blossom water
- Oh, and piling this up to form a dome shape? Not so easy. With the amount of milk I used in this recipe, I was having trouble getting it to absorb all the liquid, that’s why it’s in a bowl in the picture.
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