I wish I could say, ‘Enjoy spring, it’s here!’ Unfortunately, I must tell you, ‘Get ready, my friends, winter is still here!’ Why this drama, you may ask? This morning, my app shows 8 degrees, but it feels like 4. I can hardly believe my eyes as I look out the window: the trees have indeed bloomed; they are no longer ‘naked,’ as we like to say in England. Yet I see people wearing wool hats and gloves, and I can’t help but think this can’t be possible! Just last week, I was in Dubai, where it was 36 degrees.…
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Continue readingChicken tagine Mchermel, or simply chicken tagine with chermoula, is a classic Moroccan dish that I especially love. It’s a comfort food dish, like all Moroccan tagines and stews. It’s so delicious and doesn’t require much effort, but you’ll need some patience. As I always say, a good tagine needs time to cook. This Chicken tagine Mchermel is very flavorful and doesn’t take long to prepare. The longest part is letting the chicken marinate. Ideally, let it marinate for two hours, or even overnight, so the chicken can soak up all the great flavors from the marinade. The marinade is…
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Continue readingSellou, Sfouf, or as we call it at home, Slilou, is a sweet Moroccan specialty that announces the arrival of the holy month of Ramadan. Some people call it “Zemita,” but that is quite different. Today, I’m sharing my mother’s recipe, which is the best one I’ve ever tasted. Sellou is very popular during Ramadan and is known for helping people regain strength after a long day of fasting. Its ingredients vary from family to another, but it generally has the same base. It includes ground fried almonds, ground toasted sesame seeds, and toasted flour. It’s also flavored with cinnamon,…
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Continue readingWhat is chermoula? How do you prepare it? How do you store it? And most importantly, what can you do with it? I’ve been wanting to write an article about this Moroccan marinade made from fresh herbs, spices, and a lot of olive oil for a while now. Chermoula is widely used in Moroccan cuisine and is essential for many fish dishes, such as “sardine and smoked eggplant balls,” “quinoa and shrimp stuffed calamari,” “traditional rice calamari,” and “baked fish.” It’s also the base for the famous “djaj mchermel” tagine, which simply means chicken with chermoula. Today, I’m sharing five…
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Continue readingAubergine or eggplant caviars are very popular in the Middle East, North Africa and some European countries. Among the most popular Baba Ghanoush and moutabel from the Levant, Greece and Cyprus “melitzanosalata”, “ajvar” from the Balkans and “zaalouk” the Moroccan version prepared with aubergine / eggplant, tomatoes and Chermoula spices: garlic, cumin, paprika, parsley, coriander and lots of olive oil. Cooked salads are an integral part of Moroccan cuisine, you will rarely see a main dish served on its own. Aubergine / eggplant zaalouk is the most popular (at least for me) to accompany certain dishes such as grilled meats…
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Continue readingThis savoury – sweet chicken tagine with onions and raisins is a classic of Moroccan cuisine. It’s really delicious, easy to make and doesn’t require a lot of ingredients. The tagine is a staple of Moroccan cuisine. Its name actually designates both the cooked dish and the earthenware pot in which the food is cooked. The secret to get a delicious tagine it’s not only the choice of the ingredients but above all it’s the cooking time. So please forget all recipes that offer quick and express tagines. This kind of dishes should be cooked for a long time and…
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Continue readingToday I share with you a dish that I particularly love, “Moroccan Stuffed squids with rice” with its spicy tomato sauce. A recipe full of Moroccan flavours. I had already shared a “stuffed squids with quinoa and shrimp”. But today is the one that mom made for us, it’s really delicious. The squid is tender, the stuffing is just sublime and perfectly flavoured with the Chermoula, I’m not even talking about the spicy tomato sauce. You can use the tomato sauce to cook prawns with chermoula (at home we call it pil pil, nothing to do with the “Prawns Spanish…