Filed under: Maroccan Meal
Every Moroccan family had to have a lamb slaughtered in celebration of Eid el Kebir, which coincided with New Year’s in 2007. The sheep were transported by any means possible; it was quite a sight to see – countless sheep were balanced by skilled drivers on scooters making their way through the buzzing streets of Marrakech. We celebrated New Year in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco that year. Now, a year later, I tried the tagine (a dish cooked in an earthenware pot with a conical lid), in memory of the one of the best New Years I have ever had. It is not difficult at all, it just needs time to cook softly so that it falls of the bone. I have always wanted to write a recipe of a dish that your can put in the oven in the oven before you go to work, and then take it out when you arrive at home. Why not make up an occasion to celebrate and have some friends/family over for a quick dinner after work? To Aid and New Year!
For 4-10 people, depending on your choice of cut
2 garlic cloves
3 onions
½ t ground cumin
½ t ground coriander
½ t ground tumeric
1 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground ginger
1 t ground black pepper or freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves
2 cardamom pods
A pinch saffron (enough just to pick up between your two fingers)
1 shoulder of lamb (enough for 5) or one leg (enough for 10)
1 cup olive oil
2 cups water
1 cup big juicy raisins
4 T honey
½ cup toasted flaked almonds, to serve
Chunky bread, such as ciabatta of baguettes (French loaves), to serve
Take out a casserole/potjie/ovenproof dish with a lid and preheat the oven to 100 degrees Celsuis. Mix up all the spices and the garlic in a portal and mestle or alternatively crush the garlic by chopping it finely and then adding a little salt and with one side of your knife, working it into a paste. Add two tablespoons of water and work everything into a paste. Set it aside and chop your onions roughly into squares. Rub the paste all over the lamb. Place the onions, then the lamb in the dish and add the oil and water, stir a bit, cover and place in the oven. Forget about it until you arrive home and you can smell it. This is slow food, and I recommend you let the ingredients become friends for a good 7-9 hours. When you are 10 minutes away from serving, mix in the honey and raisins and let it rest in the oven, turned off, while you make a salad (try the Moroccan Salad), lay the table, and pour yourself a glass of wine. Serve with rustic bread to mop up the juices. And eat with your hands.
*If you want to have the real deal – try making it on an open fire, just let it cook slowly for the day on glowing coals. I tried it with the dish once. It is beautiful. Of all the dishes I have experimented with, my family dubbed it as one of the most delicious by far. And it made me realize – food is not difficult! The secret is – it just takes time.
Caroline solely ran a guesthouse for an Englishman for 4 years. She even entertained guests and cooked for them, while having to run the budget as well. This is her totally original recipe, with which had guests from all over the world coming back for more.
Her secret ingredients for 12 big muffins
2 cups orange juice
3 ½ cups Cake flour
1 T Baking powder
1 cup sugar
2 Eggs
½ cup fruit cake mix
All you need to do is:
First turn on the oven at 180 degrees Celsius. Take out a muffin pan and grease it well with butter inside, or spray with baking spray. Whisk the orange juice, eggs and sugar together in a medium bowl. Next sift the baking powder and flour into another smaller bowl. Using a metal spoon, fold in the dry ingredients you have sifted into the liquid mixture. Check so that everything is mixed evenly, and then fold in the fruit cake mix. Spoon the mixture so that it fills about ¾ of each hole in the pan. Pop it in the oven, start checking at 25 minutes, if the point of the knife comes out wet when you insert it in the middle of one muffin, let it go for another 5 minutes. That’s it! Have it just like that, or with some honey and butter, jam and cheese…
500g icing sugar
1 tin (385g) condensed milk
390g desiccated coconut
5ml peppermint essence and 3 drops green food colouring
or
5ml vanilla essence and 3 drops pink food colouring
Place the icing sugar, the condensed milk (taste it first, just for the fun of it!) and coconut in a bowl and mix well. At first it may seem a bit dry, but work those arms and mix and mix so that when you take a bit of the mixture between your fingers and squeeze it, it holds. Divide the mixture and place one half into a tin of about grease paper-lined 20×20x5cm and press it down evenly in a layer of white. Mix the chosen essence and food colouring with the remaining ingredients, I out in some medical gloves (whack, I know, but I felt I’ll leave the green/pink stained hands for another operation, because food colouring is quite hard to wash of) and used my hands, working it through with my fingers. Press the coloured mixture onto the white layer, place it in the fridge for 1 hour until it is firm. Now turn it out of the tin (the grease paper makes this loads easier) and cut it in squares, I got about 25 out of this batch, but it really depends on how big you want to go. It would make even the sweetest tooth go on a sugar high after just one square.
