MEAT, POULTRY AND FISH
Do you know rfissa? Rfissa is a kind if chicken tagine served with thin stripes of pan fried bread similar to msemen – called trid – and then topped with lentils. Because making trid is relatively time consuming, when we make rifssa at home in Morocco, we usually buy the trid from the souk or a local bakery.
I am off to Beirut on Saturday evening and I have already started planning my Sunday morning breakfast. What should I start with? A chocolate and halawa pancake or my favourite kishk and cheese mankouche? This is so exciting, my stomach and I cannot wait!
I told you, pumpkin was bound to happen on the blog at some point this autumn. Nobody is complaining about that, right? It’s the season after all and yes, like all my other blogger friends I will make sure to post a new pumpkin recipe every year.
Never start a new TV show before going to bed, it’s the worst! When the show is good, you can’t help but press play for the next episode and the next thing you know, it’s 3 am and your brain is navigating somewhere between auto-pilot sleepiness and excitement for “who is the murderer?”
So I am back in London and after two weeks of sun, fun and comfort food, it’s hard to go back to reality. But the good news is, summer is not over and seafood salad bowls are naturally on the menu!
But first, how have you been?
Oh la la, I don’t even know where to start! This pizza is so many things I love in one slice. Ever since I decided that it was fine to eat my merguez without the casing, I haven’t stopped experimenting it with pretty much everything. One of my favourite experiments is this pizza. It’s lightly scented, beautifully spicy, fresh and creamy, I mean, it really tastes heavenly. So please swipe down and do yourself a favour, make this pizza for #pizzafriday, any day or even everyday! As you can see, I used a ready made pizza dough because I ran out of time while I was about to shoot this recipe but feel free to make your own pizza dough if you feel like it.
Friends! It’s been a while since my last post and I am totally aware of that. I would say I am 30% responsible of my recent lack of blog posts. The remaining 70% is due to
1. A very bad cold that keeps going away and reappearing (SO annoying). Tips welcomed!
2. A sprained joint in my spine that basically kept me from moving around properly for a full week (SERIOUSLY annoying).
Hello from sunny Rabat dear friends! How have you been? I’ve just had the best couple of weeks. It started in Rabat, then I went to Casablanca for work and finally Mexico via London just for fun AND food. As you can guess, I am now back in Rabat for a quick stop to see the family again, eat more food and do some prop shopping at el oulja.
Is it a lazy day? Yes, it’s traybake kinda day! I have a confession, I love shortcuts, I love saving time when I can, I love finding tricks that make me feel cleverly lazy. Is that possible, does it make sense? Anyway, I am sure you understand me. Traybakes are great because they make me feel particularly cleverly lazy. Mix everything in one bowl/one pan, hop in the oven, sit back, relax, and finally enjoy.
Spring is here, yay! It makes me unreasonably happy. I am so grateful for spring this year because last year, I didn’t really get to make the best out of the “spring” weather and food. This time last year, I was almost 9 months pregnant and pretty much stuck in bed. Then, our w o n d e r f u l Laelia arrived but you know what followed: sleepless nights and no time to cook or shower. Our situation is very different this year and I’ve got so many exciting food related plans for spring. My belly cannot wait.
Last week, temperatures went seriously down in London and the only way we could fight the cold and warm ourselves up was with a wholesome bowl of chorba.
January is almost over! Can you believe this? And how are you feeling about the beginning of the year? I am feeling good but I can’t believe we’re almost done with January. Where did all this time go? Where was I?
Can you believe I spent the first 20 years of my life in Brussels, Belgium and never stepped a foot in Bruges, Belgium? I know, shocking! To remedy this upsetting situation Zayd and I spent a few days in Bruges last week and oh my God, we loved it! The heart of the city is entwined with small and super romantic canals and bridges. The whole town has a kind of medieval architectural look that makes you feel like you’re taking a walk in the past, alongside Robin Hood and his friends, the Merry Men. Of course, we loaded up our bellies with chocolate from BbyB aka my new favourite Belgian chocolate, speculoos and moules + frites. I also had the pleasure to reunite with my favourite childhood pastry: carré à la crème. It’s a perfectly laminated square shaped puff pastry filled with crème patissière. A beautiful morning always meant a carré à la crème for breakfast. So yes, it was a great trip.
Happy new year!!
How have you all been doing!? In London we are currently going through our third lockdown (or maybe it's the second, officially, I am a bit lost to be honest...) and interestingly this time I decided to stick to a slightly "cleaner" diet! Actually, It's probably the classic 'January feeling'' and the post-holiday celebrations/indulgence rather than the actuel lockdown.
This year, I really don’t feel like roasting my turkey. Do you?
I am not saying that because my secret mission is to “tagine” everything, I am saying that because sometimes it’s nice to do things differently and also because surprising your guests with unexpected meals always makes you feel *cool*.
Merguez is a kind of spicy North African sausage.
When I moved out of my parents place, one of the things I had to accept was the sad fact that merguez won’t be part of my life anymore. I have to say that I was also sad about other things like daily cooked meals and clean laundry, but merguez was a bigger deal because a good merguez is a serious thing. It’s not just cased minced meat mixed with North African spices. It’s a real treat. Merguez is so good, you can basically enjoy it with nothing else but good bread and be the happiest person on earth.
We all have a go-to weeknight recipe, rather it’s something simple such as pasta or a quick stir fry, we always go back to it because it’s easy and satisfying. My typical go-to midweek meal is this quick fish tagine served with vegetables and couscous.
A traditional Moroccan fish tagine is usually prepared with a large whole fish - a sea bream - cooked under sliced potatoes and vegetables. This means that the cooking time is quite long which makes this traditional dish pretty challenging to cook on a weekday after work and between FaceTime sessions and laundry chores.
As a child I used to hate quince, my parents loved it and every time of the year quince would make its appearance, it would magically end up in my mom’s tagine. As a result I never showed any interest in quince and made sure I stayed away from them. Urgh.
Happy first day of fall my friends! Or is it the last day of summer? Anyway, it’s a happy day because fall is happening whether we like or not!
Hello from Rabat! I would love to say sunny Rabat, but the weather has been so inconsistent these pas days, I don’t think it would be fair to make such a statement. That said, it’s been sunny and breezy today so hopefully the heavy, sticky, sand stormy and cloudy days are behind us. Fingers crossed!
Summer is almost over! Well, depends if you consider September is an acceptable extension of summer. And this really depends on where you live. I like to think that September is not summer. September still means for me: “holidays are over and we’re going back to school (or reality!)”.
Let’s have a batbout party!! Batbout is a type of flatbread Moroccans fill with pretty much everything yummy! Batbout is like an improved version of the pitta bread; it’s fluffier and richer but it is also very airy and tasty!
Batbouts comes in different sizes, but the most common ones are the small ones (aka my favourite ones). Moroccans usually fill batbout with anything savoury or sweet and serve them as a snack or an appetizer. That said keep in mind that batbout is like any type of bread: you can enjoy it anytime; breakfast, lunch or dinner. Also, batbout is very easy to prepare and a lot of fun to bake! It cooks and puffs in seconds in a simple pan.
The streets of London are starting to look all pretty and cute again! As spring approaches, beautiful flowers are blossoming on the trees.
I don’t know about you, but this weather puts me in such a good mood! And in my book, good mood always calls for good food! So let’s all have a ras el hanout pulled beef sandwich to celebrate!
Last weekend was great, the sun was out all over London and the weather was slightly crisp. I love these February days in London when I still have to wear layers of clothes but somehow I can’t leave the house without my sunglasses. This put me in such a good mood that I decided to cook something summery and by that I mean, light and colourful!
Yay! The legendary Moroccan meat tagine with caramelised prunes is finally on the blog. What took me so long!?
Winter has finally arrived in London! Not that I am ecstatic about it but somehow it feels right to finally dig my winter coat, gloves and ear muffles out of my wardrobe. I had missed them, had you not?
The weather forecasts are predicting very cold and rainy days ahead of us. Weeelllll, more precisely they are predicting a storm, the Jonas storm. You know the one that hit NYC a few days ago. But unlike our dear Big Apple we won’t get any snow, just rain. So it will be a Jonas storm, the British way, or at least for London.
Berkoukech is a simple and earthy soup, it's full of flavours and perfect for the current chilly winter evenings.
This soup is a traditional North African berber dish. It is commonly prepared with giant couscous grains similar to pearl pasta, it also contains vegetables, pulses and meat. Berkoukech refers to the name of the giant couscous grains used in the soup in the berber language.
Do you remember when I made bastila? It was about 9 months ago AND it was my first post, can you believe this?! 2015 is practically over.
I chose to launch my blog with bastila because; first, of all the Moroccan dishes, it is one of my favourite and I think generally speaking literally everyone LOVES bastila. Second, because bastila usually requires a fairly long preparation time and doing it for the blog felt like a big deal back then. So I chose it mainly to challenge myself.
Bastila is the most famous Moroccan dish and it has been adapted by many chefs internationally; chefs very often choose to substitute chicken with duck and also add their own magical twist to this Moroccan classic.
What could possibly taste better than mac and cheese?
Like pretty much everyone I loooove mac and cheese and almost every time I make some I try to spice up my classic recipe by adding vegetables, proteins and/or spices.
My love affair with mac and cheese started a few years ago in Camden town. Camden town is a very cool place in London with lots of food stalls, vintage treasures and many unique other things.
The coming weeks call for celebrations and this dish is kind of the Moroccan emblem for festivities! So because of that, you have to make it very soon, whether you use chicken or turkey, it doesn’t really matter.
I barely had squid this summer, maybe once or twice. So I felt like making something fancy with it but also:
• easy
• tasty
• and healthy *
If you like squid and are interested in all the above this recipe is definitely for you!
Today I am sharing my favourite combination of Moroccan grilled foods: beef kebab and grilled tomato and green pepper salad, also known in Morocco as chlada mechouia. And if you don’t have a barbecue, it doesn’t mean you can’t have grilled food. You can just do like me and use a chargrilled pan, because we love grilled foods.
These beef kebab recipe is very simple and easy to prepare, the longer you will let the meat marinate, the softer and tastier the meat will get. The onions are mainly present in this recipe so the meat can absorb their taste. It’s one of those recipes that requires just a few ingredients but still comes out packed with flavour.
Spring rolls because I had to expand my summer food edition, although there is no more sun in London, well it’s there but it’s kind of playing hide and seek… I am sure you see what I mean. It will come back… Hopefully.
I love spring rolls, I usually prefer the fresh ones (wrapped in moistened rice paper) as opposed to the cooked/fried for several reasons.
Msemen, also known as rghaeif is a squared flatbread usually eaten in Morocco for breakfast and teatime. You can have them plain or stuffed, sweet or savoury, their texture is very soft and very different to the Middle Eastern flat bread. It’s richer, but also fluffier and super comforting.
Harira is a velvety and chunky Moroccan soup made usually with tomatoes, herbs, pulses and meat, but like all the classics of Moroccan cuisine, every region and every family have their own version of harira. Some regions add fish or vermicelli while others add carrots and rice.
Finally a fish recipe on the blog and what a tasty one!
I love this tagine, it’s so fragrant, lemony, vibrant, healthy and super easy to prepare. Get your veggies and your fish, take 3 minutes to make chermoula and let it do the job for you.
Really, chermoula works like a flavour bomb! It is a type of paste or marinade that is very common in North Africa and goes very well with fish, meat, poultry and vegetables. Pretty much with everything savoury.
Today I am sharing a slightly ‘jazzed up’ version of the classic Moroccan fish tagine.
Have you ever tried a tagine that was fragrant, spicy, smoky and fruity at the same time? Well, if you haven't, take a look at this recipe because this tagine will seriously tingle your senses!
Couscous is originally a Berber dish and for this reason couscous is served nowadays in all North African countries. In Morocco, we have different types and versions of couscous but if you mention “couscous” in Morocco, people will usually assume that you are referring to the most basic version of the famous dish: the 7 vegetables couscous.
It’s simply one of my favourite. Really and not just because I am posting it today.
A while ago, when I was still a student, every time I would go back home to visit my parents my mum would welcome me with this tagine. I couldn’t possibly leave my home country without having had had this tagine at least once.
Shakshuka is a very common dish in North Africa and Middle East and is originally from a country that has had a persistent passion for eggs and tomatoes. Tunisia.
The Moroccan version of the shakshuka includes kefta meatballs and in Morocco we don’t call it shakshuka but simply "kefta and eggs tagine", but isn’t shakshuka just too cute?
I am pretty sure you all know about the Middle Eastern kefta or kofta and you probably love it. Well, at least I do. But you have to try the Moroccan version, because yes, they taste different.
In Morocco, kefta is like an institution, every single family knows where to buy and eat the best kefta and whole families usually go over and over to the same spot to find it.
It’s back to school season and I couldn’t be happier about it! To celebrate, we’re making a traditional and comforting meal: “tagine dial kefta bil matecha” and we’re going to give it a little 2021 update with some more ingredients such as pickled onions and a jalapeño yoghurt sauce. These extra ingredients/toppings mean a little bit more work, but they also make the tagine even more irresistible!