Morocco

[Sackville]

Can you describe some of the dishes for us?

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It's all very traditional Moroccan food -- tagines, couscous and so on but extremely well done, with massive servings, excellent service and the most beautiful atmosphere. Dar Mimoun used to be the place of a high-ranking government official, so it is ornately decorated and the tables are set amidst a garden. They do an excellent Bastilla/Pastilla (Pigeon baked in a light pastry, with cinnamon and powdered sugar). By the time you get to desert you hardly have room but I always make room for very fresh oranges, scattered with cinnamon, and of course the mint tea and rich cookies that go with the tea.

[Wolfert]

Thank you, Sackville.

You can't do better than traditional Moroccan food done perfectly in a beautiful setting .

[rancho_gordo]

I asked on this thread but got no response (it's in Genral Cooking) so maybe I'll ask here.

My two tagines are just about cured according to Wolferts instructions. My only comments would be to forget the gloves when applying the woodash and oil. Nothing has felt better on my hands than rubbing these down with the gritty dirt and oil. A big mess, yet, but whatta gas!

Anyway, I am a novice and I wonder what might be a good first meal to make. I have my lemons preserving but I have three weeks to go. Is there a good dish that might be simple enough and using everyday domestic ingrtedients to encourage me to carry on? I will get more exotic as time allows but I'd love to just jump in.

I have Paula's Cousous book, the Roden book and a cook book from the old Omar Khayam in San Francisco but I am lazy and hpe one of you will be take pity on me.

[Wolfert]

http://www.paulawolfert.com/recipes/mor_tagine.html

There is a lamb tagine with picholine olives and lemon juice posted on my site.

Green picholines are the olives of choice in Morocco for tagines with lemon.

When I wrote my book (1973), all I could find to act as stand-ins were Greek Naplion or Grabers. Both are good olives but never made the dish sing.

I suggest you go for the high note.

Edited March 9, 2005 by Wolfert (log)

[rancho_gordo]

Thanks! I'll report back. I'm assuming I can pretty much sub the word tagine for casserole when I read these instructions.

I'm looking at my beautifully cured tagine and laughing! It's a happy laugh. Looks beautiful. But now the cleanup......

Edited March 9, 2005 by rancho_gordo (log)

[Wolfert]

Sorry about that..The recipe is from another era when tagines were not easily available in the states. I had to adjust to suit the reader at that time.

Here are two changes:

You should use a Riffian tagine and reduce the liquid to 2 cups.

Don't put a cold tagine into a hot oven to crisp the meat

In step 3.... Put the tagine in a cold oven and bring the heat up to 450 to crisp the meat.