A Gourmet Moroccan Feast
By Bill Maddex
A Northern winter can be a really dreary time to be a vegetarian. Really, really dreary. More than once I've looked over the produce in the suburban groceries where I lived and given in to the temptations of transcontinental or transoceanic treats. It's nearly always been a mistake. Pineapples and citrus are one thing, 2,000-mile tomatoes and long distance eggplants are another. Some foods just shouldn't make the trip. I thought I'd solved this for good last spring when we bought a year round share in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm, one with a large, gorgeous greenhouse. Come November I got a nasty surprise: save for a few winter herbs and occasional indoor lettuces, we'd be eating root vegetables by the ton. At first I resolved to be stoic about the whole thing, and roasted the little devils in all sorts of assortments. That got old in a hurry. Next came soup. This too admitted of only so much variation, and I thought of a frosty answer to the stories of guerilla zucchini disposal. What with half our food budget tied up in underground growth, I had to try.
I thought of spices. For at least a couple of millenia, spices have been a first line of defense against gustatory gloom. I tried and tried again, and I remembered much and learned a little more. So now you know, more or less, how I got from gray days in Jersey to an imagined feast in Fez. Moroccan food makes good use of root vegetables. While the seasons don't vary as much close to the equator as they do in my neck of the woods, I didn't feel badly about cheating a little by adding a few canned tomatoes and olives, a couple of greenhouse-grown peppers, and even some trucked-in oranges and pineapples to what proved to be a pretty lavish menu, complete with a bunch of salads, if not the seven traditionally served at a Moroccan feast. (Seven is considered lucky and also shows up in festive couscous dishes with seven vegetables; however, seven salads is more than winter provender allows.) Fresh bread and a simple dessert fill out the feast.
Spicy Beet Salad
(Serves 4-6)
When I first read Paula Wolfert's magisterial Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco, I was shocked to see beet salads. I don't know about you, but when I think of Paul Bowles, William S. Burroughs, and Brion Gysn sitting out in cafés being weird, I do not think of beets. On further research, I learned that beets have a distinguished history in North Africa and the Mediterranean in general. After all, what's more authentic than Swiss Chard? It's really beet greens, you know.
1 pound beets, trimmed to about one inch from the bulb on each end
2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 Tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
Pinch of cumin seed
Pinch of powdered ginger
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place beets in a non-reactive baking dish. Pour in 1/2-inch water. Cover pan with foil and place in oven. Cook until a knife stuck into a beet meets no resistance (50 minutes to 1 1/2 hours depending on size of beets). Remove beets from oven and let cool to room temperature. Peel beets and cut into 1/4-inch dice. Toss with remaining ingredients and let stand at least an hour before serving.
| Total calories per serving: 80 | Fat: 4 grams |
| Carbohydrates: 12 grams | Protein: 2 grams |
| Sodium: 88 milligrams | Fiber: <1 gram |
Marinated Green Olives
(Makes about 2 cups)
These go great with flatbreads and drinks, or just about anything else.
2 Tablespoons cumin seed
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 cloves garlic
1 Tablespoon hot paprika
2 cups cracked green olives, drained (see note below)
Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add cumin and toast, shaking occasionally, until fragrant. Crush seeds in a mortar or with the flat of a knife and add to oil. Crush garlic in the same manner and add to oil. Stir paprika into oil. Add olives to oil, cover, and place in a refrigerator for at least 24 hours. These will keep for several weeks in the fridge, and you can reuse the oil, but only if you keep it cold. Once oil gets over 50 degrees, use it quickly, put it back in the refrigerator even faster, or dispose of it.
Note: Cracked olives are brine-packed green olives that have been lightly pressed so the flesh is split but not fully pitted. If you can't find them get brine-packed green olives and flatten them slightly with a rolling pin.
| Total calories per serving: 111 | Fat: 12 grams |
| Carbohydrates: 2 grams | Protein: 1 gram |
| Sodium: 883 milligrams | Fiber: 2 grams |
Orange and Onion Salad
(Serves 4-6)
You can serve this pretty much anywhere in this menu, depending on your mood.
1 large red onion, peeled and sliced into thin rings
3-4 navel oranges
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 head romaine or red leaf lettuce, washed well and torn into bite-sized pieces
Salt, pepper, cayenne, and freshly squeezed lemon juice to taste; combined to make a dressing
Put onion in a bowl of cold water and let stand 30 minutes. Drain completely.
Cut a slice off each end of each orange, thick enough to get through all the peel and rind. Working over a bowl, cut the peel and rind off each orange. Pull out the rind in the center. Cut into thin radial slices, removing any seeds, and toss with onion. Strain any juice from bowl, then mix with oil and season to taste. Toss onions and oranges with lettuce, then toss with dressing.
| Total calories per serving: 134 | Fat: 7 grams |
| Carbohydrates: 17 grams | Protein: 3 grams |
| Sodium: 11 milligrams | Fiber: 4 grams |
Winter Vegetable Couscous
(Serves 6-8)
Couscous has special associations for me: my last night in Israel, my first date with my future wife, my wedding dinner. It's also great with root veggies, though I needed to be reminded of this. It can warm you up on a cold nasty evening like nobody's business. It can be a bit of a hassle to get slow-cooking couscous — if you live far enough from a North African neighborhood you might even have to mail order it. Still, once you've tried it you'll understand. Not only is it better, both in texture and in taste, there's something really wonderful about the tactile quality of running it through your fingers.
1 cup dried chickpeas
3 cups water
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
3 Tablespoons olive oil
8 medium sized yellow onions, peeled, 4 coarsely diced, the rest cut into 1/2-inch crescents
3 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced (this being winter, the tomatoes are canned)
1 small green chile (I use jalapeños) stemmed, seeded, and minced
1 large pinch of saffron
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 medium sized turnip, peeled twice (that's right—it gets rid of that tough inner membrane) and cut into 1/2-inch crescents
5 medium carrots, peeled, trimmed, halved lengthwise, and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 small fennel bulb, stalks cut off, cored and cut into 2" x 1/2" strips
1-inch piece of cinnamon stick
4 sprigs each, cilantro and Italian parsley, tied into a bundle
2 cups slow-cooking couscous
1 Tablespoon black pepper, plus more to taste
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 pound chunk of a winter squash (I use butternut) peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
3/4 cup black raisins
Salt to taste
Hot sauce to taste
Pick over chickpeas for rocks and bad beans, then rinse several times in cold water. Put into a saucepan or pressure cooker. Add 3 cups water and 1-1/2 teaspoons salt. Bring to a boil or full pressure, reduce heat, and cook until tender (as a matter of convenience I always use a pressure cooker for chickpeas). Set beans and their cooking liquid aside.
In a couscousiere (betcha don't have one of those), a large saucepan with a steamer insert or a large saucepan in which you can not too precariously suspend a steamer, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat and add the diced onion. Sauté until translucent, about 2 minutes. Then add the chile, tomatoes, saffron, and turmeric. Cook until fragrant; then add remaining onions, turnips, carrots, fennel, and the chickpea cooking liquid. Liquid should be about an inch above the veggies. If it isn't, add more water. Add cinnamon, parsley, and cilantro, bring to a simmer, and cook 20 minutes.
While vegetables are cooking, prepare the couscous: pour it into a bowl and cover with cold water. Stir a few times to mix evenly, then let stand 5 minutes. Drain couscous and spread it out on a large jelly roll pan. Drizzle with remaining olive oil, working it through with your fingers to coat the grain thoroughly. Let stand 10-20 minutes. Transfer couscous to a steamer or colander (if the holes are too big you can line it with cheesecloth). Check liquid on veggies and add enough water to keep vegetables covered but not swimming. Add pepper and ginger and set the steamer over the pan. Cook 15 minutes.
While couscous is steaming, cook the squash in lightly salted water until tender, about 15 minutes. Spread couscous out again, adding a little more oil if needed. When ready to serve, add squash, raisins, and chickpeas to stew and return to burner over medium heat. Put couscous back into steamer, place over pan, and cook 15 minutes. Remove couscous, fluff with a fork, and transfer to a large serving platter. Finally, make a well in the middle.
Check stew for seasoning, remove herbs and cinnamon stick, then ladle veggies into the well. Drizzle the veggies with enough broth to moisten. Mix 1 cup of remaining broth with hot sauce to taste and put into a serving bowl.
| Total calories per serving: 552 | Fat: 10 grams |
| Carbohydrates: 105 grams | Protein: 16 gram |
| Sodium: 125 milligrams | Fiber: 20 grams |
High in Iron
More or Less Moroccan Flatbread
(Makes 4 flatbreads, enough to serve 6-8 as part of a meal)
Many years ago, back before I got (in the Gestalt sense) into bread baking, I made a lot of messes — worse, a lot of inedible messes — trying to make pita. In the end, after many failures and many recipes, I learned about two things: the miracle of the food processor and the courage of the cookie sheet. I haven't ruined bread dough since. These bake quickly and taste great, so they make for a perfect hot appetizer while you're putting out salads.
2-1/2 cups hand warm (90-95° F) water
1 Tablespoon active dry yeast
6-1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
1 Tablespoon fennel seed
3 Tablespoons sesame seeds
Dissolve yeast in water. Combine flour, salt, and fennel in the bowl of a large (11+ cup capacity) food processor and mix for 15 seconds. Add yeast mixture all at once, with motor running. Mix 40 seconds and feel dough. It should be quite warm to the touch. If not, mix another 10-15 seconds. Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl, form into a ball, and roll to coat lightly with oil. Cover with a clean towel and let rise until doubled in volume, about 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Punch down dough, let rest 10 minutes, then punch down again and divide into 4 equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball, then flatten into a round. Brush rounds with water and let rise for half an hour.
While dough is rising, put oven racks at lowest levels and preheat oven to 500 degrees. Place two heavy cookie sheets into the oven to heat up for ten minutes after the oven has heated. Press down the middle of each round of dough with the palm of your hand. Brush dough again with water and sprinkle on sesame seeds. Remove cookie sheets from oven and spray oven with water. Put dough onto cookie sheets and place in oven. Spray oven floor again with water. Bake bread until golden brown and baked all the way through, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool at least ten minutes before serving.
| Total calories per serving: 525 | Fat: 4 grams |
| Carbohydrates: 105 grams | Protein: 16 grams |
| Sodium: 1149 milligrams | Fiber: 5 grams |
High in Iron
Green Pepper Salad
(Serves 4-6)
Green pepper and tomato salads are a mainstay of North African food, but there's no such thing as a salad tomato in winter. You can often get good greenhouse peppers, and with a little ingenuity...
8 green bell peppers
4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
Pinch of ground cumin
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 Tablespoon salt-packed capers, rinsed and chopped
1 cup Italian parsley, washed well and coarsely chopped
1 small preserved lemon (see note below)
Preheat oven to broil. Toss peppers with half the oil. Place under broiler and cook, turning occasionally, until black and blistered all over. Remove from broiler and put into a paper bag. Close bag and let peppers steam 10 minutes.
While peppers are steaming, heat remaining oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and spices and sauté until fragrant. Remove from heat and add onion. Remove peppers from bag. Remove stems and seeds, then peel and coarsely chop peppers.
Combine with remaining ingredients and let stand at least 15 minutes to allow flavors to blend.
Note: You can buy preserved lemons at many North African and specialty groceries or make your own: wash 4 large lemons with soap and water. Rinse several times. Cut through the yellow skin but not the pith with a very sharp knife or razor blade. Place in a saucepan with 1/2 cup salt and water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook until very soft. Let cool. Pour into a clean mason jar, cover, and let sit at room temperature for a week. After pickling, lemons will keep for up to two months in the fridge.
| Total calories per serving: 102 | Fat: 5 grams |
| Carbohydrates: 16 grams | Protein: 2 grams |
| Sodium: 101 milligrams | Fiber: 3 grams |
Enhanced Pineapple
(Serves 4-8)
For dessert, I like to serve a pineapple with some toasted pistachios or coconut and maybe a little fresh caramel. And I don't actually geek out and sprinkle Sucanat® over the pineapples and blow-torch them. I don't know who started that rumor. The truth goes like this:
Take one or two large ripe pineapples, cut off the stem(s) and base(s), then cut away the skin with a sharp knife in a manner analogous to the one you used for the Orange and Onion Salad. Cut out the core with a long, thin knife (really a boning knife, but I know how sensitive my fellow herbivores can be about these matters). Slice into rounds. Arrange the rounds on a serving plate or platter and add pistachios or coconut if desired.
In a small heavy-bottomed saucepan combine 1 1/2 cups turbinado sugar and 1/4 cup water. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring often, until uniformly brown and caramelized. The caramel should be smooth and thick — if it starts to burn, remove from heat and stir in a little more warm water. If the caramel clumps or seizes, add a little warm water, raise heat slightly, and stir vigorously until caramel is smooth. The whole process should take about five minutes. If you want minutes. If you want to get really fancy, you can stir a little dark rum or soymilk into the caramel and cook until fully incorporated. If you do that, be sure to tilt the pan away from yourself when adding the stuff — molten caramel spatters, and it burns painfully.
| Total calories per serving: 368 | Fat: <1 gram |
| Carbohydrates: 95 grams | Protein: <1 gram |
| Sodium: 33 milligrams | Fiber: 1 gram |
Bill Maddex is a writer/caterer living in Chicago, IL.
