12 replies to this topic

[seabream]

It's about time we have a topic for this book on eGullet. Anyone else cooking with it?
Here's what I've made from it so far:

Marrakech tagine bread, page 101
It tasted good, but it puffed up more than it should have, in the oven. We loved the semolina taste, and will be trying this one again.

Grilled red pepper salad, page 89
This dish is fantastic. We ate it with the tagine bread, and we thought it pairs really nicely with bread. A winner.

Although... the amount of salt is way off (2 tsp). I wonder if the mistake is in the amount of salt in the ingredient list, or if she forgot to say to rinse the roasted peppers after being salted, but either way this would have been way too much salt. We reduced on the salt, and still thought it was a bit on the salty side.

Fish tagine with tomatoes, olives, and preserved lemons, page 246
I had high expectations for this dish, but wasn't that impressed. The charmoula does indeed have a wonderful flavor, but we thought it overwhelmed the fish. We love fish and prefer dishes where its subtle flavor comes through.

Today I'm planning to make:
Eggplant zaalouk, page 93
Tomatoes, preserved lemons, and sweet red peppers, page 86
Briwats with goat cheese and honey filling, page 147

Has anyone made any of the dishes I'll be making today? Any advice is welcome. Either way, I'll report back on those three dishes.

[seabream]

OK, here are my impressions on the three new dishes I cooked today:

Eggplant zaalouk, page 93
Our favorite of the three dishes. So good. The only thing I would recommend is to really season to taste (similar to cooking Thai) to balance the flavors. The amounts of seasonings we added ended up very different from the original recipe (tomatoes are out of season and not very sweet right now).

Tomatoes, preserved lemons, and sweet red peppers, page 86
Also good (although not quite as good as the eggplant). The preserved lemons add a nice touch.

Briwats with goat cheese and honey filling, page 147
We made our own warqa from scratch for these, and ended up making them cigar shape like in the photo in the book. Warqa is so time consuming, much more time consuming than I expected! It's also easier to get right than I expected - I thought I would have to throw away the first few sheets until I got the hang of it, but they all came out nice. The goat cheese and honey filling is decadent!
Will we make these again? Not sure we would spend so much time to make them from scratch again, maybe for a special occasion. But the same filling would be wonderful on purchased filo dough.

[patrickamory]

I've made the glazed chicken with apricots and the byssara (creamy fava bean soup).

Also made chicken tagine with preserved lemons and olives, but did not follow her recipe precisely (my chicken unfortunately did not come with a liver to thicken the sauce).

All delicious...

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I'm repeating myself from another thread, but lamb tagine with dates, chicken with apricots and pine nuts (which I had again tonight), pil-pil, chicken mechoui. My chicken with preserved lemons and olives was fairly close to her recipe. (I would not have used a liver if I'd had it!)

[Smithy]

You might reconsider the liver bit. I was surprised to find that it thickened the sauce and improved the texture without shifting the flavor noticeably. When I say "surprised", I mean pleasantly so.

[seabream]

And today I made what is my favorite dish from the book so far:

Butternut squash and tomato soup, page 189
Just awesome! I made no changes to the recipe.

I'm looking forward to making some of the dishes mentioned in this thread, so thank you everyone for your comments.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Tonight was chicken mechoui, spit roasted.  Chicken mechoui is such a wonderful dish but for me spit roasting anything is a pain so I don't do it very often.  The results are worth it though.  I served it with round bread and red olives.

[seabream]

I am planning to make the "Kefta tagine with tomatoes and eggs" (page 402) tomorrow. I am wondering what to serve as a side. Bread? It seems like the dish may have quite a bit of sauce...

Do Moroccans ever eat rice?

[patrickamory]

What about using coucous?

[Nicolai]

I am planning to make the "Kefta tagine with tomatoes and eggs" (page 402) tomorrow. I am wondering what to serve as a side. Bread? It seems like the dish may have quite a bit of sauce...

Do Moroccans ever eat rice?

 

Potatoes.

 

Oven roasted potatoes with garlic - spices and herbs....

[seabream]

I ended up making couscous with the kefta. I don't know how authentic/traditional it is, but it tasted fantastic together.

 

I also bought some Moroccan khlii and made the stew with lentils, butternut squash and khlii. It was excellent. Khlii is not cheap though...

[slkinsey]

As chance would have it, there is an extensive thread on Moroccan tagine cooking in which Paula herself has been a frequent contributor.  One of the issues with her groundbreaking book, Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco, is that the recipes are adaptations for the kinds of cookware an American home cook might be able to get in 1973.  This, needless to say, did not include real tagines.  Now that we can get real cooking tagines, I hope that that The Food of Morocco includes plenty of recipes that are written to be cooked in a tagine.  If so, I am buying it asap!

[patrickamory]

slkinsey - it certainly does!