Moroccan Ingredients

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Moroccan ingredients

Please find below a list of the main ingredient in Moroccan cooking with a little about their uses and origins.

Preserved Lemons
Saffron
Ras el Hanout
Mint Tea
Orange-Blossom Water and Rose Water
Couscous

Preserved Lemons

These are widely used in Moroccan cooking, and essential if your dishes are to taste authentic, but cannot unfortunately be replaced with ordinary lemons or limes.

Moroccan preserved lemons are pickled in brine and have a salty silky taste and texture which is difficult to describe. The peel loses its bitterness and adds a very distinctive flavour to a wide variety of dishes: in many dishes the skin only is used.

Preserved lemons are strangely addictive; stopping using them is more difficult than you think, once you have tried them in a variety of dishes.

In Morocco the thin skinned (doqq) lemon is widely used, along with the tart bergamot (boussera), but any lemon will be fine. Preserving your own lemons is not difficult, but it is time consuming. The recipe below comes from Robert Carrier's A Taste Of Morocco, unfortunately now out of print.

16 small ripe lemons, thin skinned if possible
Coarse salt
Lemon juice

1. Scrub lemons with a stiff brush, then place in a large glass container. Cover with cold water and allow the lemons to soak for 3-5 days, changing the water daily.

2. Drain lemons. Then using the point of a sharp knife, insert knife 6mm/ 1/4 inch from the bud end of each lemon and make four incisions lengthways to within 6mm/ 1/4 inch of the other end. Then cut through incisions in each lemon so that the lemons are cut completely through both sides, but still held together at both ends.

3. Insert 1/4 tsp coarse salt into centre of each lemon, squeezing them open, then arrange lemons in sterilized kilner jars. Sprinkle lemons in each jar with 1tbsp of coarse salt. Add strained juice of 1 lemon to each jar and enough boiling water to cover the lemons.

4. Leave lemons to steep in this mixture for at least 3 weeks before using them. You'll find the salty, oily picking juice is honey thick and highly flavoured this can be used in salad dressings and added to tagines. The lemons will keep in this mixture for up to a year.

5. To use the preserved lemons, remove lemon from jar, and rinse well under cold running water. Cut away pulp from each quarter and discard. Use skin are required in recipe. Never touch preserved lemons in the jar with an oily or greasy spoon, as the fat will spoil the pickling mixture. Don't worry if a white film forms on the preserved lemons in the jar; just rinse off before using.

If you are like me, the above sounds far too much like hard work. We do sell the thin skinned lemons already done in a jar, and if you want to look like you make them yourself, we also have preserved lemons in a kilner jar.

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Saffron

Saffron is an integral part of Moroccan cooking and crops up in half the tagine recipes you look at, it imparts such a unique quality to any dish, and it also happens to be one of my favourite spices.

It is described as the most precious and expensive spice in the world. Saffron threads are the dried stigmas of the saffron flower, Crocus Sativus Linneaus. Each flower contains only 3 stigmas. These threads must be picked from each flower by hand and approximately 170,000 of these flowers are needed to produce 1kg of saffron filaments, taking around 370 to 470 hours (60-odd days) to produce.

Iran is the world's largest supplier of saffron, producing over 80% of the world supply, most of this is exported to Spain, where it is rebranded and sold on!

The harvest period is traditionally from late September to late December. Drying is the most important part of saffron production as this activates the processes which release aroma, colour and flavour.

The spice is graded according to the proportion of red stigmas compared to the yellow or white parts of the flower known as the style. The colour and flavour is in the stigmas, more yellow and white parts result in a lower grade saffron. The highest grade saffron contains only the pure red stigmas, these are cut and separated from the style prior to the drying process, and this enables it to retain its pure red colour and highest flavour.

This type of saffron is called sargol in Iran, the equivalent Spanish name is coupe (meaning cut). Pushal (or La Mancha) saffron is not cut like sargol and therefore contains more yellow parts from the style.

Having tried the various grades of saffron, the sargol is far superior and when you look at the various saffrons around you notice the yellow and white parts in them. We have decided to supply the highest grade sargol saffron as our own Maroque saffron.

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Ras el Hanout

Ras el Hanout literally translates as 'head' or 'top' of the shop. It fascinates everyone: foreigners and Moroccans alike. It is a very old mixture of many spices, sometimes ten, sometimes nineteen, often over thirty.

The intoxicating aroma is said to have been originally assembled by a nomadic warrior combining all the scents of the countries he had passed through.

In Morocco the mixture is likely to contain reputed aphrodisiacs, which may add to its local appeal. Each spice vendor will have his own secret blend varying in price according to the rarity of the ingredients.

Ras el Honout has traditionally been used in game dishes; at Eid el Kebir (Festival of the goat) when mrouzia - a sweet lamb dish containing raisins, almonds and large quantities of honey, is made; and of course in majoun, the infamous hashish balls.

Nowadays it is used in a variety of dishes, marinades and rubs and it goes extremely well with lamb. We have several recipes in our food section.

Should you fancy making your own, this recipe from Paula Wolfert (Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco) is a good mixture.

4 whole nutmegs, 10 rosebuds, 12 cinnamon sticks, 12 blades of mace, 1 tsp aniseed, 8 pieces turmeric, 2 small pieces of orrisroot, 2 dried cayenne peppers, ½ tsp lavender, 1tbs white peppercorns, 2 pieces galingale, 2 tbs whole gingerroot, 6 cloves, 24 allspice berries, 20 green cardamom pods, 4 black cardamoms.

Grind all the above ingredients together until you obtain a fine mix.

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The Art of Mint Tea

Mint tea, known as atay bi nahna, is the national drink of Morocco, and is an integral part of Moroccan hospitality.

A steaming glass of the fragrant, sweet, light tea is offered as a sign of welcome. It is drunk in the morning, offered throughout the day while bargaining, conducting business, or wandering about, and served at the end of the meal to aid digestion.

A blend of Chinese gunpowder green tea and fresh mint, traditionally sweetened with at least four sugar lumps per glass, it is incredibly refreshing on a hot day.

Tea only arrived in Morocco in 1854 when, during the Crimean War, the blockade of the Baltic sea drove British merchants to seek new markets for their goods and they disposed of stocks of tea in Tangier and Mogador.

At feasts and on special occasions, mint tea making can be an elaborate ceremony: the best green tea is chosen and only fresh spearmint (mentha spicata) is used. A fine silver plated, bulbous-shaped teapot is selected for brewing and the heavily sweetened tea is poured rhythmically into fine glasses. For additional ceremony, a fresh, fragrant orange blossom or jasmine flower may be floated in each glass.

Mint Tea

Ingredients
Serves 2

300ml (1/2 pint) water
5 tsp sugar
1 tsp green tea
bunch of fresh mint leaves

300ml (1/2 pint) water
5 tsp sugar
1 tsp Maroque mint tea blend

1. Bring the water to the boil. Put the sugar and the green tea with fresh mint leaves (or the mint tea) in a small traditional Moroccan teapot, and add the boiling water.

2. Leave to steep for 5 minutes, serve hot.

Saffron Tea

A variation on mint tea is saffron tea, less widely drunk but a very pleasant alternative. This tea is a speciality of the southern Moroccan town of Taliouine, the saffron capital of Morocco.

Ingredients
Serves 5

2 tsp of Chinese green tea
1 tsp of saffron threads
900ml (1 1/2 pints) water
Sugar to taste

1. Rinse the teapot with boiling water. Add the tea and saffron to the emptied pot.

2. Bring the water to the boil and immediately pour into the teapot. Leave to stand for 5 minutes.

3. Pour the tea through a strainer into warm glasses. Add sugar to taste and decorate each glass with a lemon slice if liked and a mint sprig.

For a fascinating insight into the art of mint tea making I recommend reading Traditional Moroccan Cooking, Recipes from Fez by Madame Guinaudeau. This book, first published in 1958, is by all accounts the first on Moroccan cooking since the 12th century. A very interesting read full of amazing details, it may be less useful as a cookbook unless you are cooking for 10 to 20 people (using a whole goat).

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Orange-Blossom Water and Rose Water

As early as the third century essences were made from rose petals using fairly crude methods. It wasn't until the 10th century that Avicenna, an Arab physician of discovered how to extract the essential oil from the flowers, and invented rosewater proper.

Its popularity with food quickly spread throughout Europe and made its way into sweet and savoury dishes, many of which are still popular today.

Orange-blossom water is distilled from the fragrant blossoms of Seville oranges.

Two species of orange – sweet and bitter – are native to China. The bitter orange was introduced to Spain by the Moors in the eighth century and planted in the beautiful courtyards of the Alhambra in Granada, and throughout the south of Spain. It became known as the Seville orange.

The orange is favoured for its fresh citrus scent more than its bitter fruit and its floral water is a popular flavouring in Moroccan, Persian and Arabic cooking.

Uses

The trick with both orange blossom and rose essences is to use very little, to give the merest hint of fragrance.

The result is an intriguing flavour. However, too much and it smells like a garden and is too overtly floral to enjoy with food.

Both essences are interchangeable. Just remember that the orange-blossom water is the stronger of the two. One of the easiest ways to use them is to make a sugar syrup – as light or as sweet as you prefer – and to flavour it with orange-blossom water or rosewater. The syrup can be drizzled over fruit and pastries, or added to drinks.

Orange-Blossom Water

This enhances fruit, particularly apricots, figs, strawberries, rhubarb, pears, dates and bananas. Add a few drops to fruit salads, summer pudding, fruit pastries, stewed or poached fruit, fruit creams and fruit crêpes.

A few drops added to savoury dishes such as lamb with apricots and almonds, chicken with white wine and grapes, duck with cherries, and Persian or Arabic rice dishes, adds an irresistibly exotic touch.

Try adding half a teaspoon of orange- blossom water to salad dressings. This is intriguing with carrot salad, avocado and smoked fish and stir-fried peppers with ginger and chilli.

Rose Water

A few drops streaked through cream, crème fraîche, custards, creamed rice puddings, baked semolina sweetmeats, fruit fools, sugar syrups and fruit salads, add an element of surprise.

It's divine incorporated into sweet Middle Eastern pastries, and a little swirled through Khoshaf, a salad of dried fruit, pistachio nuts and almonds, is heavenly.

It is much appreciated in halva (sweetmeat), Turkish delight, lassi (yoghurt drink) and baklava (layered pastry and nut).

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Couscous

The most famous part of North African cuisine, used as the main ingredient in many dishes in much the same way rice.

Couscous is often referred to as Moroccan, but it is equally used in Algeria, Tunisia and Libya.

The term comes from Berber languages, where it is called seksou. It consists of small grains, the main ingredient of which is semolina.

Couscous is made in the homes, often with many women gathered together, producing large stocks of couscous.

It is made from 2 parts of semolina, 1 part of flour, salt and water. Some handfuls of semolina are put on a plate or on the ground, after which it is moistened with saltwater. What results is molded in the hand, as flour is added. Gradually small "grains" of couscous are separated.

After performing this process until the right size of the "grains" is achieved, a bit of oil is added. Then the couscous is ready to be used in dishes.

Couscous should be steamed two to three times. When properly cooked the texture is light and fluffy.

The couscous available to buy in the UK has been pre-steamed and dried, and only needs a little boiling water or stock to it to make it ready to eat.

The traditional North African method is to use a steamer called couscoussière. The base is a tall metal pot shaped rather like an oil jar in which the meat and vegetables are cooked in a stew. On top of the base a steamer sits where the couscous is cooked, absorbing the flavours from the stew.

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