In the Kitchen
With a bit more spare time than in the States, Justin and I tried to experiment in the kitchen with new and old favorites. It was quite a challenge learning to cook in a new place, with new styles of preparation, new appliances/utensils, and ingredients different from what I'm used to (you can read more about this in guest blog post that I wrote on my friend Nishta's food blog, Blue Jean Gourmet).
Some of my most favorite dishes from my time spent in Morocco are highlighted below. To download a full cookbook from my culinary adventures, click here.
Enjoy the recipes, and please email me with questions or suggestions!
Click to view each category, then click on each dish name to open a PDF of the recipe.
Some of my most favorite dishes from my time spent in Morocco are highlighted below. To download a full cookbook from my culinary adventures, click here.
Enjoy the recipes, and please email me with questions or suggestions!
Click to view each category, then click on each dish name to open a PDF of the recipe.
- Challah: This links to a guest post by a good friend on another friend's wonderful cooking blog. I made the challah as loaves and also as rolls and both were really good!
- Cornbread: Made it to go with the lentil and beef chili (below). I had to use semolina flour instead of cornmeal but I ended up loving the taste! Wonderful right out of the oven.
- Pancakes: Why oh why waste your time on box mixes. Super simple and so good!
- Tortillas: Can't find them here, so I made them - and after this I may never buy packaged tortillas again! These things aren't too tough and there is just a remarkably different taste when it's fresh. Just sayin. (Update: I tried making chips from these tortillas and they were SO good! Recipe coming soon!)
- Wheat Bread: This is a Moroccan-style bread, used to mop up the wonderful tagine sauces - and very healthy!
- Lasagna Bolognese: This recipe made me happy that I live in a world that has lasagna, meat, and bechamel sauce. I could not stop eating it. Really really rich but so good!
- Lentil and Beef Chili: I never ate lentils before coming to Morocco and feel like I've opened up to a whole new world! Really easy, really cheap, and a different taste from the standard bean chili.
- Mustard Chicken: A very good result of finding Dijon mustard locally!
- Sloppy Joes: Incredibly easy and VERY good.
- Stuffed Peppers: Saw some nice looking peppers in our market one day, so I decided to try a dish with them as the star - so so good!
- Berber Pizza: Morocco's version of the calzone, an amazingly tasty stuffed bread, usually made with meat, but I made a vegetarian version that was so good!
- Chunky Veggie Chili: This thing is FULL of veggies and has a wonderful flavor! I made it along with cornbread (see bread, above) and I didn't miss the meat at all.
- Corn and Potato Chowder: It's not the healthiest soup on the planet but it makes up for that in taste!
- Falafels: Take #1 was a flop and Justin and I ate falafel mush sandwiches for a few days... but I tried a new recipe which uses baking powder and a bit more flour, and also requires you to refrigerate the chickpea mixture before frying. My apartment smelled like falafel for days but totally worth it!
- Gnocchi: After making homemade pasta (see the lasagna recipe above) I thought I would try out my hand at gnocchi. Not the easiest recipe ever but even on my first try it turned out really well. I made it with a tomato cream sauce but the possibilities are endless!
- Moroccan Chickpea and Potato Soup: Just made this one and it has a wonderful flavor!
- Moroccan White Beans:This recipe uses a pressure cooker, a totally new appliance for me but used in almost every Moroccan household. After putting the top on wrong and burning the beans, I sorely learned how to use it correctly and since then this recipe has been wonderful!
- Peanut Butter: I have to list this under main dishes or my husband (who grew up eating peanut butter in almost every meal) might be upset with me. Can't find it in our site so we resorted to making it.
- Pizza: Finally perfected the crust after a few tries. Hard to find good cheese here but worth the effort!
- Saffron Rice with Raisins and Almonds: I tried this as a main dish and it probably should be more of a side dish, but if you add in some extra veggies or some form of meat it would probably be very filling! But it really had wonderful flavor and looked pretty too.
- Stuffed Tomatoes:
The tomatoes could have used a liiiittle more flavor, but overall, a good vegetarian dish that's a bit different.
- Tortilla Soup: I was looking for interesting ways to use the tortillas that I made (see recipe above) and developed this recipe, which is really easy and different!
- Vegetarian Enchiladas: Like the tortilla soup, I was looking for interesting ways to use tortillas. This was a bit labor-intensive, particularly with also making tortillas from scratch, but really really good!
Desserts
- Apple Pie: Our Moroccan host family LOVED when Justin and I made this for them - It was my first time to make everything fully from scratch but it turned out really well!
- Chocolate Chip Cookies: Ohhhh holy chocolate. These are amazing. It took a lot of willpower to give them to my host family, the intended recipient.