Many of us have some idea of the cuisine of Spain. The state of Morocco, located in Africa, is separated from this European country by just a few kilometers, but the contrast between their cuisines is truly enormous. Moroccan cuisine is a balance of simplicity and decadence, which directly depends on the season. The meat of camel, lamb, chicken and beef is popular here. Rice, beans, bread and couscous are the main sources of carbohydrates. Moroccans also regularly eat root vegetables, vegetables, herbs and fruits.
Moroccan Cuisine Overview
The basic rule of most national dishes for this state is their neat and slow cooking with the addition of fresh herbs and various spices. As far as the country is full of different contrasts, Moroccan cuisine itself is so unusual. Here it is quite possible in one dish to find a mixture of spicy, salty and sweet. For example, fresh fruits or dried fruits are often added to meat dishes.
A national food can serve as a model, when quince and beef, dates and lamb can be part of it. The traditional table in this African country should always be abundant, and among guests it is customary to express the pleasure of the food served. You ask, what instruments do Moroccans use during lunch? Only with your own hands, or rather with the index, thumb and middle finger. Often at the beginning of the meal, a large bowl of hot water is served on the table. It is intended for washing hands in it during the meal.
What Moroccan cuisine consists of for lunch
Now we’ll figure out what they’re treating at the Moroccans. Lunch often begins with the first course - soup, which is always very thick and hearty. After the end of Ramadan, the first one is served "Harira" soup of lamb with coriander and beans or Chorba chicken broth, in which spices are added in a small amount. After a delicious soup, the hosts often treat them to baked meat, most often lamb. To meet an important guest or a wedding, they can prepare a traditional Pastilla dish. This is a very complex structure, consisting of boiled eggs, pigeon meat and almonds. In addition, all this filling is placed between the layers of the rolled dough very thinly. And the more layers, the higher the owners of the house appreciate the guest.
Sometimes at the very beginning of dinner you can be treated with seasonal tagine made from beef, raisins and pine nuts. When dinner is nearing its end, couscous is usually served, but when the atmosphere is informal, it is used as a side dish for Tajin. By the way, semolina grains, which we call couscous, are very important, one of the main components included in Moroccan cuisine. Homemade bread ksra is passed from hand to hand throughout the lunch. And with it, and small vases with caraway seeds and salt. Finally, seasonal fruits and sweet cakes with a wide variety of fillings are served. Very sweet mint tea is perfectly combined with them.
Salad "Shergi"
So, we continue to get acquainted with dishes that include Moroccan cuisine. The recipes of the dishes are diverse, so we will consider only a few options for food. Let's start with the Shergi salad. To prepare it, we need: a bunch - green onions, parsley, radishes; salad - two heads of cabbage, green olives - 10 pieces, sweet pepper - two green pods and two red pods, a pair of cucumbers and oranges, three lemons, vegetable oil - two spoons, ground cinnamon - a pinch, as well as salt and black pepper. We proceed to cooking. Put the rice in a large dish, and the rice is already mixed with slices of peeled lemon.
Add a mixture of finely chopped lemon, onion and parsley, large slices of unpeeled oranges and sprinkle with ground cinnamon. Next we put lightly salted chopped head lettuce, pepper it very much and sprinkle with vegetable oil, as well as black and green olives. Add sliced red and green capsicum, cucumbers. Pepper To the finished salad we serve vegetable oil, black pepper and salt.
Boiled eggplant salad
If you visit any restaurant of Moroccan cuisine, be sure to order such a salad. We are sure that you will really like this unusual dish . To prepare it, you need the following ingredients: eggplant - three to four pieces, vegetable oil - one spoon, sweet ground red pepper - one teaspoon, garlic - one clove, ground caraway seeds - one teaspoon, vinegar - two tablespoons, optionally one lemon.
Finely chopped washed eggplant. Pour them with salt water, vegetable oil, add crushed garlic and red pepper. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until all the water has evaporated. The resulting mixture is flavored with lemon juice and caraway seeds, and then served. You can eat salad both chilled and warm or hot.
Meat brie
When choosing Moroccan cuisine, we recommend ordering meat briouats. You can try to cook them yourself. To do this, we will need products such as wark - 16 sheets, minced meat - 0.5 kg, cilantro and parsley - in a bunch, one onion, one coffee spoon of ground coriander seeds and ground red sweet pepper, a pinch of hot ground red pepper, butter - 100 grams, cinnamon - two coffee spoons, caraway seeds, salt and vegetable oil for deep fat. If you like Moroccan cuisine, then you will definitely be “crazy” about the dishes made according to the following recipe.
Stir the meat with pre-chopped herbs, finely chopped onions and peppers, caraway seeds and salt. Leave for 60 minutes. Then fry the mixture, stirring until the meat juice evaporates. Add beaten eggs, sprinkle with cinnamon, continue to mix. After two minutes, remove from heat. We put two coffee spoons of the meat mixture on the leaves of the whark and put them in rectangles. Fry our briouats until browned in a pan with vegetable oil. Then we spread them and let the oil drain a little. After that, the briouats can be served on the table.
Morocco cuisine in Moscow
“Marocana” is a restaurant of Moroccan cuisine in Moscow. This is the only place in the capital of Russia where, according to its owners, you can try real food from this African country. It is located at: Kotelnicheskaya Naberezhnaya, house No. 1/15, Building B, not far from the Taganskaya metro station. This restaurant serves many of the dishes that Moroccan cuisine is famous for.
Recipes for their preparation are sustained in national traditions. In addition to the above-mentioned goodies, here you can taste mashi, chicken bstella, seafood in Sharmulla sauce, sweets of our own production - homemade Habibi chocolate candies, macaroons, sofuf, gazelle horns and much more. In addition to great taste, African dishes are also good for health, because they are made from products of only natural origin.
Moroccan fish soup
Moroccan cuisine in Moscow is represented by many different soups. We present the recipe for one of them for your consideration.
In order to pamper ourselves and our households, we need the following products: fish - 400 grams, one onion, olive oil - four tablespoons, flour - one spoon, one lemon, greens - to choose from, one leaf of laurel, garlic - one clove, cloves - four buds, hot pepper - two small pods, ground allspice - two pinches, a little ginger and salt.
Cooking fish soup
We stick a clove in the onion. We boil one and a half liters of water, add salt to it, put onion, herbs, chilli pepper, spices, pour in olive oil. Cook for 20 minutes over low heat. After which we put the fish into the pan, cut into pieces, and cook for another 15 minutes. We get a bunch of greens, onions and fish. Separate the flesh of the fish from the bones and send it back to the broth, but do not turn off the fire. In a bowl, dilute the flour with water and pour into a pan.
Now we pass everything through the mixer, add, add the garlic, previously passed through the garlic press. You can also rub them with crackers served with soup. Before putting plates with a dish on the table, it is recommended to pour the soup with lemon juice.
Now you are a little familiar with Moroccan-style cuisine , and you, having come to the appropriate institution, are not at a loss when choosing the national dishes of this country.