Moroccan inspiration

Although the blogging event created by Bellini Valli of More Than Burnt Toast and Ivy of Kopiaste asked us to prepare a dish which represents your country (see the event's rules here), I happened to cook Maroccan twice last week and I enjoyed it so much that I do want to post the recipes as well. I'll let them decide whether they want to add it to their list or not.

Beeftajine with apples and raisins

• 1kg beef (for a slow simmering casserole)


• 2 spoons olive oil


• 20g butter


• 1 onion in rings


• 1/4 ts saffran


• 1/2 ts gingerpowder


• 1 ts cinnamon


• 4 branches of fresh koriander


• 125g raisins


• 3 spoons of honey


• 3 sour apples eg Granny Smith


• 1/2 ts extra cinnamon


• 1 spoon roasted sesameseeds

Cut the meat in cubes of a square inch. Heat the tajine on a high fire (or a pan with a thick bottom), add half of the oil and butter and bake the meat brown on all sides. Put the meat aside in a scale.

Turn the fire down. Add some oil if needed and bakd the onions for 5 minutes. During the last minute you can add the herbs: saffran, ginger and cinnamon. Then add the 375 ml water, salt and pepper. Add the meat again and the coriander and let it simmer for 90 minutes. Add raisins and honey and simmer for another 15-30 minutes (meat has to be tender).

In the mean time you can chut the apple in pieces and bake them for about 10 minutes until they are soft. Add the remaining cinnamon. When the tajine is ready you can add the apple and the sesameseeds to the main dish.

Serve with couscous (that can be cooked in some of the broth form the tajine that you've taken away a bit during the cooking).

(our leftovers....we were too eager to start and forgot to take a picture before)

Warm eggplant salad

This dish is my Moroccan alternative to a ratatouille de Provence as it fits so well with any grilled or roasted meat and I've prepared it in the past as a sidedish on barbecues.

Ingredients:

• 900 gr eggplant (aubergine)


• 3 tomatoes (can be canned peeled tomatoes too)


• olive oil


• 2 bulbs of garlic


• 1/2 ts cumin


• 1/4 ts cayenne pepper (or more if you wish)


• 1 ts pepper powder


• 2 spoons finely chopped coriander


• 3 spoons lemon juice
  

Peel the eggplants and slice them. Pour salt on top of them and let them rest for a while after which you must rinse carefully.

Heat the oil in a big pan and bake the slices of eggplant until they become soft and look a bit glazy and brown on both sides. They suck up oil like a spunge so it's a balancing exercises not to let them get too oily (and hence the entire dish), yet make them soft enough. They need to be done, yet not too mushy. When finished take them out of the pan (or do them in shifts).

Peel the tomatoes and cut the meat into pieces (without the seeds).

Bake the garlic in the pan on a low fire. Add tomatoes and the herbs and afterwards the eggplants. Let it all simmer. According to your preferences for texture, you can mash up the chuncks a bit smaller with a fork.

Finish the dish by pouring carefully excess oil away, add the coriander and the lemon juice, salt and pepper.