Soppa med bondbönor och smen

Chefchaouen and Casablanca: imperial-city depth from Tangier

Tafraoute and Casablanca: imperial-city depth from Tangier

Tangier, Ouarzazate and Casablanca: market towns and local tables across 18 days

Moroccan Seafood and Broccoli Salad

modified version of a jane brody recipe. you can substitute sliced surimi sticks for the shrimp or scallops but, if you do so, do not add until salad has been dressed and tossed or the surimi will shred. cooking (passive) time also includes chilling time.

Seafood Bastilla with Shrimp, Calamari and Fish

Swordfish, shrimp, and calamari are mixed with Chinese vermicelli, black mushrooms, and a spicy tomato sauce. The filling is enclosed in paper-thin warqa or phyllo dough and then baked.The measures below are for raw seafood prior to cleaning. Prep time does not include shelling or deveining shrimp or cleaning calamari. Save time by having your fishmonger do some of this for you.Seafood Bastilla can be assembled and frozen until baking time. Shape the bastilla into a single large pie as shown here or make small, individual-sized pies for easier serving.

Smen

moroccan preserved butter. smen (semneh, beurre ranci) is a moroccan preserved butter, often made from sheep and goat milk. it has a deep, pungent aroma and distinctive flavor that enhances many of morocco's savory dishes, especially couscous. it is similar to asian ghee, and is a flavorful ingredient in moroccan dishes. cooking time does not include 1-2 week aging time.

Hajar S Own Harira the National Soup of Morocco

there are as many recipes for harira as there are people who eat it though there are essentials. the beans and lentils, cilantro (fresh leaf), tomato and pasta of some sort. this is my own recipe based on ingredients and flavors which i enjoyed from other hariras. harira is eaten all year, not only at ramadan though it would not be ramadan without it! this soup along with others is used traditionally for breakfast at sunset. this would be a first course served with accompaniments and bread before moving on to heavier foods. many break fast with milk and dates; a very old tradition and i doubt that they knew way back when that the combination of natural sugar and the milk protein were a near perfect combination. some find this a bit too rough for the first thing in the stomach. while harira is the national soup of morocco, history tells that this is not a moroccan invention but an invention of the maghreb of which morocco is a part. this recipe may look truly daunting though it really isn't. in our house the first course on the table is always either harira, chorba, or one of my stews; usually chicken, dates, pistachios and fruit. then after that settles we move on to a normal main course without the use of garlic as it is forbidden during ramadan. before bed we will usually have a pot of tea and a rice pudding, dessert couscous or just the tea. shebakia, the very honey sweet special ramadan sesame cookies are always here though we prefer to have them with coffee and not necessarily daily.