Moroccan cuisine, just like all its culture, is a melting ot of different traditions : first of all Arabic and Berber. Then you can find strong Mediterranean influences -for example the large usage of olive oil. Of course Andalusian and French cultures brought their traditional elements too. The result is an explosion of flavours that, although it cannot count on a large variety in terms of raw materials, well represents moroccan culture.
We would like to show our experiences about local cuisine and also some tips to realize the most typical dishes, « cooking » through each and every meal in everyday life here in Morocco.
Starting from breakfast, Maghreb (litterally, in arabic « western, sunset ») offers you a high quantity of energy through bread (in Darija, the local Arabic dialect, « khrubs ») mixed with different ingredients such as olive oil, different kinds of spiced olives, honey, butter and, of course, Moroccan mint tea. The tea is prepared in traditional boilers and its preparation is strictly engraved in the culture of every Moroccan: you have to boil the water and once you lower the heat you can add tea and mint. Let it rest for some minutes. Once you are finished you add sugar and you pour the tea in a glass and then back into the teapot until all components are well mixed. By doing so you are also boiling off the tea as you mix it.
Last tip is about the right manner to pour the tea : you have to raise and lower the teapot rythmically to let only the liquid part into your glass. Slowly! Safi! (That’s all!)
At lunch you can taste the famous Cous Cous (pronounced by Moroccans «ks ks»).
It is the traditional Friday dish, and such as many others, it is a collective meal, designed to be shared.
Everyone at the table has a little bowl and all guests eat from the same plate. Cous Cous is made of little grains of wheat, spiced up with a seasoning of chilly pepper, ginger, rice semola, cumin, garlic, caraway, black pepper, coriander, cinnamon, salt, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom.
It is garnished with a topping of vegetables such as courgettes, pumpkins, onions, sweet potatoes, carrots and other seasonal products. There can be meat too, traditionally beaf.
When the sun sets it is dinner time and you will probably have the opportunity to taste tagine. It is a stew of beaf, goat, or fish meat cooked in a special pot made of terracotta that you can find almost in every Moroccan house. Meat base is of course garnished with the same mix of vegetables mentioned before and it is flavoured with spices. Moroccan way to eat tagine is using bread to take food directly from the common pot.
Another important part of cuisine culture of this nation is patisserie that are quite spreaded inside Morroccan cities. They offer, after all classical pastries such as croissants and biscuits, some other traditional products. Moroccan pastries are usually not too heavy and made with nuts, often almonds, so there is sure to be a fairly healthy choice.
We personally had a workshop about Moroccan apricot and coconut Gâteaux and we will share its recipee:
The ingredients are:
150 grams (5.3 oz.) of dried unsweetened coconut, finely shredded
50 grams (1/3 cup) of semolina (you can replace with almond meal for a gluten-free version)
50 grams (1/2 cup) of powdered sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1 tablespoon of orange blossom water
2 tablespoons of apricot jam
1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar or vanilla extract
A pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of baking powder
For shaping the Ghriba:
Orange blossom water
Powdered sugar
DIRECTIONS
1- In a large bowl, combine the eggs, the vegetable oil, the apricot jam, the orange blossom water, the vanilla extract (or vanilla sugar), and mix the ingredients together.
2- Add the dry ingredients: the dried coconut, the semolina, the powdered sugar the baking powder and the salt. Mix until all the ingredients are well incorporated into a smooth moist dough.
3- Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
4- Preheat your oven to 180 C / 350 F.
5- To shape the cookies: wet your hands with a little bit of orange blossom water (or just water), take some of the coconut dough, and make balls the size of a walnut. Flatten each ball slightly, dip one side to the powdered sugar, then place on a baking pan covered with parchment paper. Make sure to leave space between the cookies as they expand when baking.
6- Bake the cookies for 15 minutes.
7- Once the cookies are done, remove from the oven, and let cool completely before storing.
You cannot write about Morocan cuisine without mentioning the wide-spreaded streetfood culture.
Walking by the cities you will meet lots of sellers, ready to give you something to eat in maximum 3 minutes.
First of all, Morroccan streets offer you dats, peanuts and almonds as little snacks. More over, you can buy sandwich with fried fish or grilled marguez ( a red, spicy mutton- or beef-based fresh sausage). It's very common also to grill mais.
If you want to drink something fresh, there is a typical mix called panache made with season fruits. Then you can taste a large variety of juices of orange or avocado mixed with almonds and coconut.
In the end, as all arabic countries, the cuisine is characterized by an important use of spices. Most common are : pepper, cumin, tumeric, ginger, paprika, chili pepper and cinnamon.
Coming to Morocco will make you discover the wonders of all the infinite flavours of Maghreb.
Bsa7kom ! (Health to you all!)
Tommaso e Luca - Morocco