1910′s Morocco: The Protectorate

Posted by marocmama on Mar 30, 2012 in A Century of Moroccan Eating | 2 comments

 
If there is one European power who has made an indelible mark on Morocco it is France.  Beginning in the 15th century the Portuguese invaded and controlled the Atlantic coast but made no inroads to the country. As early as the 1830′s France expressed and began exercising interests in Morocco.  Throughout the 19th century European powers such as Germany, Spain and Portugal all expressed some degree of power in the nation however it was France who ultimately gained a “sphere of influence” that was recognized.  By 1906 special policing of the nation was entrusted to France and Spain. There was increasing tension between the European powers throughout the early 20th century culminating in the signing of the Treaty of Fez in 1912 making Morocco a protectorate of France. Morocco was never fully a colony of France as was neighboring Algeria or Tunisia. It was still a sovereign state, the sultan reigned but he had little to do with the ruling of the country.  Through this same treaty Spain assumed the role of protecting power over the northern and southern zones of the country. Spain was given control of pieces of Morocco in the far north as Tetouan and South to Cape Juby. Tangier received special international status.
 

 
Once the protectorate was in place French settlers began to establish themselves in line with the French rulers to create a strong French alliance in the country.  While the French pacified native Moroccans they promoted things such as economic development, urban planning and the building of roads and the infamous French boulevards, creation of a railway system and a modern agriculture sector geared to the French market. Thousands of French emigres entered Morocco and bought up agricultural lands pushing out native Moroccans.
 
The legal, governmental and education systems began transitioning to use of the French language.  This in turn disenfranchised the majority of Moroccans who were not of the elite class. Many facets of life would soon “French-ified”, including food.
 
Walk around any city in Morocco and stop in a cafe serving food and you will most like see “le petit déjeuner” or breakfast on the menu. This is a quick meal usually consisting of some type of bread, croissant or pain au chocolate. This breakfast is often eaten in Moroccan homes as well.  Second only to round loaves of khobz bread is the baguette a staple Moroccan starch.
 
Lunch in France is an affair, traditionally the larger meal of the day lasting between 1 and 2 hours.  This is not only a French phenomenon but the countries that were once under French control still maintain this tradition today.
 
Dinners do look a bit different though in both French and Moroccan homes a salad or two will be served with a main course. Bread is also a staple for the meal. Dessert in both instances will most likely be fresh fruit. Meals in both countries tend to be much later in the evening than in the US.
 
Cooking techniques
 
I really don’t have a way to verify that any of these are directly related to French influence I only found them to be very similar in nature.  This could be just tradition or they could play off of each other. I think that each cooking tradition is bound in the tradition of hearty peasant food.

• In both countries there is attention paid to knife skills.  A Moroccan cook pays attention to the size of her dice for salads, making sure that everything is uniform. The same can be said for France.

• Vegetables are the star not meats unless it is a special dish.

• Herbs and spices are mixed to enhance the flavor of food.

• One pot dishes reign supreme in homes.  For the French the cassoulet and in Morocco the tajine are the method of choice for many home cooks.

• Pastries. French pastries are beautiful and traditionally made in small sizes.  In Morocco this attention to detail and focus on creating bite-size sweets exists however the ingredients used are more reminiscent of Arabic cuisine.

 
Some of my favorite French/Moroccan recipes include;
 
Tartine with Honey Creme, Goat Cheese and Za’atar
 
Semolina Honey Cake (the semolina and honey reminder me of Morocco)
 
Traditional Moroccan Bread
 

Now it’s your turn! What are some of your favorite Moroccan recipes with a French connection? Or, a favorite historical bit about Morocco from 1900-1919? Leave a comment below!

Beggar’s Linguine and an OXO {Giveaway}

Posted by marocmama on Mar 29, 2012 in International Food | 19 comments

 
For a long time I’ve been battling recipes that have weight measurements instead of volume measurements. I just couldn’t get myself to buy a kitchen scale but as we’ve moved to a largely gluten-free home it’s become a necessity. So many gluten-free baking recipes call for a weight measurement and while I can estimate what the conversion is in volume somehow it just doesn’t turn out right. Recently OXO put up their kitchen scale to bloggers interested in trying it out. I knew that it was my perfect opportunity! But as fate would have it when I went to make a photograph a gluten-free bread recipe using the scale I realized I was out of several of the flours I needed. Isn’t that life? Instead I went with a different recipe that has intrigued me for months.
 
One of my favorite cookbooks from last year was Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours
It’s a heavy book, beautifully photographed and full of delicious recipes. There is one recipe for Beggar’s Linguine that has piqued my interest but I always brushed aside because I just knew MarocBaba wouldn’t like it, let alone like it.
 
I was wrong.
 
I changed some of the ingredients and swapped out regular linguine for gluten-free rice noodles but it was still very good.
 

 
The base of the recipe is a mixture of nuts and dried fruits. I didn’t follow the recipe exactly so this is my version of it. For the nuts I added pistachios and almonds chopped coarsely – about 1.5-2 oz of each.
 

 
I then used 4oz of noodles (this was for 2 people). I also added in a handful of pitted dates chopped roughly.
In a large skillet I melted 3 tbsp of good quality butter on medium heat. The rice noodles don’t actually boil but soak in very hot water for a few minutes. Once they are ready, drain the water and add to the melted butter. Toss in the nuts and fruit mix-ins and season with salt and pepper. You could also add garlic, chopped onions or other seasonings.
 

 
It is done when everything is mixed together well and heats up – about 5 minutes total. Serve on plates with a generous dusting of parmesan or another salty cheese. Make sure to serve hot!
 
I really love my new OXO scale and I think you would like one too – so I’ve got one to give away!!! Follow the directions in the Rafflecopter widget to be eligible to win. Contest ends 04/05/12. Giveaway is open to US residents only.
 

Tartine with Honey Creme, Chevre and Za’atar

Posted by marocmama on Nov 8, 2011 in Reviews | 1 comment

 
See that? It’s probably one of the most recognizable symbols around the world. I’ve always dreamed of the day I made it to France to see L’tour Eiffel up close and personal. On our way to Morocco we had a 13 hour layover in Paris and there was no chance we were spending it in the airport. (I’m going to do another post at some point talking about long layovers and how to spend them out of the airport.)  There were three things that I needed to do in Paris.
 
1. Eat a great lunch
 
2. See Notre Dame
 
3. Take a boat ride on the Seine.
 
 Check, Check AND Check.
 
The hardest part of my plan was finding the right place to have lunch because it had to be perfect. How many times does one get to have lunch in Paris? We walked A LOT and I couldn’t decide where to stop. Maybe it was because we were so hungry or maybe it was just indecision. Finally when I couldn’t stand walking anymore we just sat down at a small bistro a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower.
 
It was there I ordered one of the best things I’ve ever had. MarocBaba ordered a dish with organic chicken that was juicy and full of flavor. I ordered a salad with microgreens and goat cheese tartine. A tartine is a French open-faced sandwich that is generally a step up from the American idea of a sandwich. This one was on a thick slab of brioche bread with goat cheese melted on top. Drizzled over the cheese was honey and hidden underneath thyme. I’ve been dreaming of this meal for weeks now! But, it’s hard to find the same great honey that exists in France. American honey is thinner and sometimes has a sugary after taste. But I’ve found a great honey here in the US.
 
At Eat, Write, Retreat last spring I received Honey Ridge Farms Lemon Creme honey. Love in a glass jar. Now I’ve got all of the flavors to test out and play with. When the box came MarocBaba immediately seized the jar of Honey Creme Clover and swears it’s the best honey he’s had in the US. This coming from a Moroccan whose grown up eating honey just about every day of his life really tells me what a great product this is. There are 7 flavors of honey creme but for this recipe I stuck with the clover honey. (I’m going to introduce you to all of the flavors in a future post). Here’s my version of my Parisian dream lunch.
 

 
The salad component can be whatever you like best.  But, for the tartine here’s what you will need.

• Good bread a brioche or french baguette will work well
• Chevre (goat) cheese
• Honey Ridge Farms Clover Honey Creme
• Za’atar mix (you can get that here, but essentially a mix of thyme, sesame seeds and salt)

 
To assemble, spread slices of bread with the honey creme and sprinkle za’atar on top.  Next add a layer of goat cheese.  Place them under a broiler in your oven or toaster oven until the cheese starts to melt slightly and the bread starts to toast on the edges.  In another small bowl melt a few teaspoons of honey creme.  Place the bread around the salad and drizzle with the melted honey before serving.

Disclaimer: This post is part of Honey Ridge Farms “Spread the Love” campaign. I was not compensated for writing this post however did receive complimentary products. All opinions are my own.

Dorie’s Brioche

Posted by marocmama on May 6, 2011 in International Food | 2 comments

This is not healthy, this is not low fat.  This IS delicious.  Yeast breads and me haven’t really found our balance yet.  Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I fail when it comes to making this kind of bread.  I have been craving brioche in the worst way lately and it’s impossible to find where I live.  That left one option – make it myself.  So let me preface this by saying I felt like I was doomed to fail from the beginning because it was not warm in our house. Pretty tough to get dough to rise when the temperature is about 62F.  I made some bubble top brioche and I made one loaf.  The bubble-tops were a success the loaf was too dense.

I have this recipe in Dorie’s Around my French Table but luckily it’s also on Bon Appetit’s website.  (From bonappetit.com – recipe from Dorie Greenspan) Here’s how it went down.

My Bubble-Top Brioche - no picture of the flat loaf!

Ingredients

Preparation

French Fridays with Dorie: Semolina Caramel Cake

Posted by marocmama on Nov 26, 2010 in All other posts | 5 comments

The original recipe from Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours calls for Cream of Wheat but all I had was fine grain semolina. In hindsight I should have added a little bit less semolina or more milk because it sucked the milk right up.
 

Creamy with the vanilla getting swirled in..

 
I also should have made sure to whisk it more then I did because I ended up with a few clumps.  I enjoyed that part but I don’t think that everyone would.  The final tribulation I had was in making the caramel.  I should have added a little more sugar.  The recipe says to wait until the sugar/water mix turns amber.  I waited almost 10 minutes and it never got amber, only a slight brown tint.  I gave up at that point and poured it into the baking dish.
 

Ooops …not enough stirring
 
Overall I was happy with how it turned out.  It was tasty and an interesting different dessert.  It’s also pretty impressive and doesn’t require a whole lot of work.  Raisins are not my favorite fruit but I’m imagining this cake with chopped up dates and maybe even some chopped almonds mixed in with it.
 

                                           This is just begging to be eaten
 

 
It took me a little while to figure out a strategy for cooking and posting a new recipe from this cookbook once a week, but now I really look forward to it.  I’m very excited to see what the new recipes are for next month.  Part of participating in this cooking club is that none of the complete recipes are posted, but if you would like them, a great cookbook to pick up is this one!  Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours from Dorie Greenspan.  I know Border’s had a great coupon this weekend and you can pick it up for $25.64 at Amazon (just follow the link!).  That’s a fantastic price and well worth it for this hefty cookbook full of great French recipes.  Check out some of the other great food bloggers who are participating here

French Fridays with Dorie: Roast Chicken for Les Paresseux

Posted by marocmama on Nov 19, 2010 in All other posts | 5 comments

Roast chicken’s and I have a mixed relationship.  I  like them but I don’t like dealing with them.  I will never forget my first experience with a whole chicken.  It also began my entry into the world of exploring where my food actually came from.  Before I went to Morocco I had never touched raw meat.  Ok maybe I did one or two times, but I am more than certain I had never cleaned or touched a whole raw chicken.  One day my husband decided we should have a few of his friends over for dinner and could I cook?

Not wanting to appear completely incompetent domestically I agreed.  We went shopping in the afternoon to the market stalls, not the grocery store.  This should have been one of my first clues that things were going to go downhill.  When we got to the chicken man, he proudly held up two chickens for me to pick from.  I am pretty sure that my jaw dropped to my feet.  I closed my eyes and pointed at one.  In a few seconds I heard a THUD and then a lot of scratching and kicking.  I had to walk away before I threw up.  This was followed by “do you want that cleaned?” Uhh yes.  In about 10 minutes I was handed a warm chicken in a plastic bag.  Taaa daaa!  We walked home and I went in the kitchen to look at the chicken.  It was still warm.  I now was facing down a dead, warm, raw chicken.  I couldn’t even call my mom to figure out what to do next.  My husband was baffled as I tried to explain just how different this experience was from what I was used to.

Somehow I managed to season and cook the thing.  I know that I had to walk away a few times because just the thought of touching that thing gave me the creeps.  It must have been somewhat decent because the three guys that were eating finished it off in about 8 minutes.  I am very proud to say raw meat no longer scares me.  In fact I prefer to see the animal alive beforehand.  It assures me that the animal is healthy and the meat is fresh.  I’ve also realized if we can’t handle knowing where our food comes from then we probably shouldn’t be eating it.

Back to the reason for this post!  It’s Friday and that means time to use Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours!  I made this recipe last week with the Potato Gratin.  It was a good duo although a little rich.  This chicken is fantastic however.  Even my 3 year old, whose favorite meal is a ketchup sandwich (no really he loves ketchup sandwiches) ate his portion!

This is another very easy recipe.  Everything basically is tossed into one pot.  I used shallots instead of onions and my chicken was in pieces instead of a whole chicken.  I don’t think it made that big of a difference but it worked a little better with my family.  The chicken is resting on pieces of French bread.  This is a great recipe if you have bread that is too hard to eat and you don’t want to waste it.

This is about 1/2 way through roasting.  The hardest part of this recipe was controlling the amount of liquid.  Too much and the bread would be soaked and would be a soggy mess.  Not enough and it would burn up.  In the end I used too much and ended up with slightly soggy bread.  I tried to salvage it by putting it on a cookie sheet at the end and broiling it to try and crisp it up.  Didn’t really work.  Even though it was still a little wet I ate it, and I liked it.

Mmmmm the finished product.  I reduced the liquid that was left and poured it on top.  It was good.  Very moist, and tons of flavor.  I will be making this again really soon!

Do you want to join in on French Fridays with Dorie?  You should!  Pick up the book and sign up to join in!  Let me know if you do so I can follow you!

French Fridays with Dorie: Marie Helene’s Apple Cake

Posted by marocmama on Oct 29, 2010 in All other posts | 2 comments

I’ve always wanted a really good cookbook with easy French recipes.  I’ve tried a few recipes here and there, but most of them were time consuming and honestly a little intimidating.  I stumbled across this cooking club and thought well that looks like something I could do.  I am so glad that I did.  Honestly this cookbook is fantastic.  It has beautiful pictures and a really wide range of recipes that are easy.  I’ve got mine bookmarked to the hilt!  The recipe for this week was Marie Helene’s Apple Cake.  When I first looked through the cookbook this recipe immediately caught my eye, and it was a great recipe to start with.  I won’t be sharing the whole recipe here, but giving some highlights.  I highly recommend getting the book;  Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours.  





It’s the tail-end of the apple season here in the Midwest but that means I scored some great deals on apples.  The recipe cites a mixture of apples as being the best and so that’s what I did.  


All it takes are a few simple ingredients, eggs, butter, sugar, and the like.  The original recipe also called for rum, but as we are halal household I omitted it and increased the amount of vanilla.  I finally had a good reason to use the Mexican pure vanilla extract my mom bestowed on me!  





Everything gets mixed up and placed into a spring form pan.  I topped mine with crushed almond powder. 
Bake for about an hour and….





Ta daaa! Mine is a little more brown because of the almonds but the flavor it gave was really a warm, toasty, nutty flavor.  



I whipped this up last night and couldn’t wait to dig in but…I got sick.  This morning I knew I couldn’t post my pictures and story without tasting it so guess what I had for breakfast….apple cake!  I warmed it up a little bit and mixed some Greek yogurt with powdered sugar on the side.  It was fantastic.  I don’t even like apple pie but this was out of this world, and the yogurt made me feel like it wasn’t so bad to have it for breakfast.  


I can’t wait for next week!  If you want to find more pictures of this week’s recipe or to join in on the fun come visit!

Navarin Printainier

Posted by marocmama on Jan 6, 2010 in All other posts | 2 comments

(Lamb Stew with Spring Vegetables)


One of the best gifts I got this Christmas was Julia Child’s “The Art of French Cooking”.  I’ve loved pouring through all of the recipes here.  For some reason I had always had this idea that French cooking was too *nose in the air* for me to even take on.  I came across this recipe and thought it would be a good introduction into French cooking for my family, because it seemed like a close cousin to our typically Moroccan fare. 


You can check out the full length recipe version in Julia’s book on page 345, but I’ll give the abbreviated version here.

The original recipe calls for 3lb or lamb but that was too much for us, and I cut that amount down to about 1lb of lamb leg cut into 1-2″ pieces. I used boneless meat.  Begin by browning the meat in oil and transfer to a casserole once brown.  

Once all is browned and in a casserole, add 1/2 tsp sugar and cook on medium high for 3-4 minutes until the sugar is carmelized.  Add 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper and 1 tbsp of flour and coat well.   Put casserole into a 350 degree preheated oven for 5 minutes.  Toss the meat and return to oven for 5 more minutes.  This will create a crust on the meat.  Remove from oven and place back on stove top.  


In the pan used to brown the meat, pour out the oil and add 11/2  cup of beef stock (I used vegetable stock because it’s what I had!)  Bring to a boil and scrape up the pieces stuck on the bottom of the pan.  

Pour the liquid into the casserole and bring to a simmer.  Add 1/4 cup of tomato pulp or 1 tbsp tomato paste to the casserole.  Also add 1 clove of mashed garlic, 1/4 tsp thyme or rosemary and 1 bay leaf.  You may need to add more stock, it should be almost covering the meat.  


Put the cover on the casserole and place on the lower rack of the preheated oven.  Allow to simmer for 1 hour in the oven.  If you use meat with bones, strain the contents to remove any loose bones or fat and then pour back in over the meat.  At this time the spices can be adjusted.  Next add the vegetables.  


The vegetables might include 2 boiling potatoes, 2 carrots, 2 turnips, 6 white onions , 1 cup of shelled peas, 1/2 c green beans.  I did not have all these on hand and used only the potatoes, carrots, peas and beans.  Peel any vegetables that have skins and cut into quarters and into 1 1/2″ lengths.  Press carrots, turnips, potatoes and onions into the casserole around and between the meat and baste with the sauce.  Bring to a simmer on the stove and then cover and return to oven.  This should cook for at least another hour until vegetables and meat are tender when pierced with a fork.  The peas and beans should be prepared just before finishing by cooking first in boiling water until tender then placed on top of the other ingredients and basted with the sauce.  Cover and allow to simmer about 5 minutes.  

The final product looked like this.  I think I added too much tomato but it was good.  Everyone liked it.  My overall review was that it was a glorified tajine.  It had some different tastes but not much and I hate to say it but I could have tossed all that in my pressure cooker and had the same results in 1/4 of the time.  


I’m not giving up on Julia, maybe I just didn’t hit the jackpot this time.  I’m going to try a fish recipe tonight and hopefully the results will be better!