Good Friends Good Food has made a thematic swing to selecting a country once a month and cooking whatever you wish from that country’s cuisine. The first country chosen was Morocco. I always enjoy doing a search of the cuisine of a particular country to discover what they specialize in making for their families. I chose four recipes to make this month for our Moroccan meal: a main course, a side dish, a bread, and a dessert.
The Main Course: Moroccan Chicken Tagine and the recipe can be found here. The ingredients: paprika, cumin, cayenne pepper, ground ginger, coriander, cinnamon, lemon, garlic, chicken thighs, salt, pepper, olive oil, onion, flour, chicken broth, honey, carrots, green olives, and cilantro leaves (I used parsley because I am one of those people who think cilantro tastes like soap). These were so delicious, very tender and flavorful, all the spices are a delight.
The Side Dish: Moroccan Couscous with Roasted Vegetables, Chickpeas, and Almonds and the recipe can be found here. The ingredients: red bell pepper, carrots, red onion, zucchini, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, salt, couscous, chicken broth, turmeric, raisins, chickpeas, almonds, cilantro, and mint. (Mark does not eat chickpeas so I omitted those and parsley was substituted for cilantro.) This went nicely with the chicken and I can tell you that this side dish was delicious and beautiful and I can see myself making it again just for those reasons alone. Nothing is complicated, the steps all add up to a perfect union.
The Bread: Moroccan Khobz (Basic Moroccan Bread) and the recipe can be found here. The ingredients: bread flour, salt, sugar, yeast, oil, water, and cornmeal. I’m not sure I did this recipe justice. I think that I need to have a go at it again to try to figure out the flour content a bit better as it seemed heavy and dense to me, so while it had a nice flavor, I think I need to work on the texture aspect.
The Dessert: Moroccan Spiced Oranges and the recipe can be found here. The ingredients: sesame seeds, oranges, and ground cinnamon. These were so good, so light and refreshing after a rather large meal of the other components. I would make these again anytime just to eat, they were delicious and a perfect end to our meal.
It was all a lot of fun and I’m not sure what country we are doing in March, but I’m excited to see what they chose. You are welcome to come along, blogging is not required if you would just like to cook along with us. I think Margaret is the only one who blogged about it this time. Her post is here.