Today I’m taking you to a special place where family and friends gather around the dinner table with happy hearts. Silverware is optional, but bread is not. Settle into this sacred space, where tagine of lamb meets chestnuts, figs, cinnamon, honey, and orange blossom water. Pause for a moment to celebrate this crazy wonderful combination, to feel the hot air blow through your hair, then dig in and scoop up the glory with a handful of bread. When you’re done, cozy up to an evening of conversation so good you wish you could bottle it.

Tagines are Moroccan party food – each nibble is filled with glorious, cheerful flavor; a festive bite of beauty; a deep, dark bowl of goodness, glimmering like the Moroccan night sky.

To be honest, there was a time when the word “tagine” sent shivers down my spine. The very word sounded terribly exotic which, in my mind, translated to “extraordinarily difficult to make.”

If I only knew how wrong I was.

Bouregreg Valley, Morocco. Photo by Nomadz.

I’ve since learned that many Moroccan tagines, such as this lamb tagine, are simply braised meats slow cooked with a bouquet of spices, topped with sweet, dried fruit. While there are more complicated versions (and even ones with preserved lemons and olives, instead of the sweet note I’ve chosen to take on), the most common recipes don’t even call for browning the meat.

Talk about doable.

I mean, really. If there’s one thing I can do, it’s cook meat low and slow. And, if there’s one thing Mr Picky loves, it’s slow cooked meat.

It’s like this meal was written in the stars.

My recipe is a combination of several recipes.  To start with, I browsed Paula Wolfert‘s recipe books. This woman is a powerhouse of all things Mediterranean and is aptly described by Maroc Mama as the Julia Child of Moroccan cooking. I also looked through Claudia Roden’s Arabesque. With the help of these ladies, as well as tidbits from half a dozen other cookbooks, I culled together the best of the best, of the best.

The result?

A tender tagine good enough for Sunday dinner, but easy enough for every day.

The highly fragrant lamb, dried figs and sweet chestnuts makes for pure love when combined with the honey and cinnamon. Amazingly, this tagine still tastes majorly savory, thanks to the saffron, ginger, and garlic.

It’s all kinds of good.

NOTES: While a ceramic tagine is ideal for slow, moist cooking, you can also make a great tagine in a heavy bottomed French oven. If you use a ceramic tagine, be sure to soak it overnight in water to keep it from cracking. Also, never heat it over medium heat. You can eat tagine with a fork, if you’d like, or you can scoop it up the traditional way – with flatbread or even French bread. Orange blossom water is available at Middle Eastern markets.

Ingredients:

For the meat tagine:

1 large red onion, sliced in half moons
2 Tbsp vegetable oil

4 lb lamb, cut in large chunks (I used a boneless leg of lamb)

2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp saffron threads
salt, to taste
1 1/2 tsp pepper

water, as needed

For the fig and chestnut garnish:

7 ounces of dried figs
1 cup of jarred, roasted chestnuts

2 Tbsp Butter
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup water
1 tsp orange blossom water, optional

parsley, for garnish

Method:

First, put on a little Moroccan music. Then, layer the bottom of a tagine with sliced onion and vegetable oil. Gently heat over medium and cook to soften the onions.

Meanwhile, gather your spices. Saffron lends the most haunting flavor to the tagine, while ginger and garlic give it kick. And cinnamon makes everything better.

Cut the lamb in large chunks and toss with spice mixture.

Add to tagine and cook until tender (I cooked mine at a gentle simmer from 1:00pm-5pm and it was outrageously good. You can cook yours for just 2 hours and still have good results).

Meanwhile, take a little stroll. On a camel, if you’d like.

Sahara in Morocco. Photo by Bachmont.

A note on water:

I found that I didn’t need to add any water to my tagine, as the meat and the onion released quite a bit of juices and the tagine could barely hold them all. That being said, most recipes recommend adding 1/2 cup of water. If yours seems dry, just drizzle a bit of water down through the hole in the top of the tagine. This way the cold water will cause the steam to condense and drip back down over the meat.

While the meat is cooking, filling your home with the scent of “good,” get to work on the special honey fig and chestnut garnish.

In a small pot, toss the figs with butter, cinnamon, honey, and orange blossom water. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, until caramelized. Remove from heat and stir in the chestnuts.

They become ooey, gooey and absolutely irresistible. In fact, I recommend making some extra so you can sneak a few, guilt-free. That’s what I did!

Set the rest aside and add to the tagine in the last five minutes of cooking.

Some people like to roll the figs in sesame seeds, but I couldn’t wait to eat!

Garnish with torn parsley for a little blast of color.

Step back a moment and enjoy that beauty… wow.

It’s just like a sparkling Moroccan night, but in your very own kitchen.

Jemaa el-Fnaa at night. Photo by Procsilas

We ate outside while listening to the chirping birds. I’ve never had such tender meat; there was no need for knives. 

There’s something about eating tagine outside with friends that makes me feel like I’m on vacation.

Like anything is possible.

I wish the same for you.

Wishing you all the beauty of a easy, breezy day.

Happy stove top travels!

Thank you for following our Adventure, where I cook a meal from every country in the world, A-Z! Many smiles to you and your family. Love, Sasha

This week we’re trying three completely different recipes which all use one magical Moroccan ingredient: orange blossom water. Have you ever used it? The perfume-like water lends a dreamy flavor to ordinary ingredients. While almost impossible to describe, I’d say that each splash of orange blossom water makes the food taste “prettier” which, of course, inspired me to splash a little behind my ears.

Whether or not this is normal, I was happy as  can be, walking around, smelling like Morocco.

What sounds good to you?*

Lamb Tagine with Sweet Honey Figs
Tender pieces of lamb slow-cooked in saffron, cinnamon and ginger, then topped with figs and chestnuts which have simmered in a honey and orange blossom water sauce.

Carrot & Juicy Orange Salad
Mountains of carrots grated and mixed with the juice of fresh squeezed oranges, cinnamon, sugar, and fragrant orange blossom water.

Semolina “Crater” Pancakes (Behgrir)
This lovely yeast-risen batter is cooked on one side only, creating thousands of tiny craters – perfect for filling with a yummy blend of honey, butter, and – yes – beautiful orange blossom water.

*All recipes and the meal review will be posted throughout the week

Thank you for following our Adventure, where I cook a meal from every country in the world, A-Z! Many smiles to you and your family. Love, Sasha

Ziz River, Morocco. Photo by Jerzy Strzelecki.

Ohh, ok. Here we are. This is Morocco week at the Global Table (and the crowd goes wild!). To be honest I was pretty nervous about this week. As far as I’m concerned, Morocco is a culinary giant. This comes from growing up in France, where delectable Moroccan dishes make regular appearances on Parisian menus. As I got to reading, however, I quickly realized that the food – although filled with intensely fragrant, glorious spices like cinnamon, cumin, saffron, and ginger – can be wonderfully straightforward in preparation.

Three cheers for that!

Maps and flag courtesy of CIA World Factbook. Photos: the Mausoleum of Mohammed V in Rabat and Legzira beach (by Ifni95)

Perhaps this has to do with living in a hot, mountainous country – energy is better preserved than squandered, even in the kitchen. Case in point: the other day I watched Anthony Bourdain enjoy a whole roasted lamb in the desert during one of his early shows. This epic feast amounted to no more than a hot fire, a good piece of meat, and time enough to cook it. Sometimes that’s all we need.

Simple, simple, simple.

And then there’s the national dish – couscous. Couscous can be made as complicated or as simple as you’d like (as in, add-hot-water-and-eat-simple). Not to say that anyone in Morocco would ever just add hot water to couscous. Nope. Making couscous is an art – a Moroccan cook’s rite of passage. I tried my hand at it a few weeks ago when we made a steamed couscous for Mauritania. I called it “Rainy Day Couscous” and it’s a great beginner’s lesson for steaming couscous. The recipe would fit in just fine on the Moroccan table, as the method is identical. Even though steaming it sounds complicated, making couscous is really no different than steaming broccoli. The only difference is that you just steam the couscous 2-3 times instead of just once.

Then there’s the tagines. These are the conical, clay cooking vessels which are used to slow cook meats, fish and even vegetables, creating dishes predictably called tagine. In this classic dish, the food braises in its own juices, concentrating the spices. Meat, such as lamb, is typically served with a smattering of dried fruit (like figs, apricots, or dates), while chicken is generally paired with preserved lemons and olives. There’s nothing simpler than tossing meats with spices and letting it slow cook (most tagines don’t even call for browning the meat). Tagine is served with rustic country bread or baguette and usually scooped up with the right hand in a piece of bread.

From what I can tell, Moroccans have quite the sweet tooth. Honey and sugar make their way into tagines, carrot salads, semolina pancakes, and – of course- the famous, outrageously sweet Moroccan mint tea. We also made this recently and loved it. When I was in Tunisia I was told that north Africans enjoy hot tea in hot weather because of – get this – the cooling effect it has. The hot tea causes tiny droplets of sweat to form on your forehead, which – in turn – catches the slightest breeze and cools you down.

It’s rather brilliant.

Oh, how I’d love a cup of this right now…

And, of course, there is so, so much more to Moroccan food than what I wrote here.

What are some of your favorite foods from Morocco?

Thank you for following our Adventure, where I cook a meal from every country in the world, A-Z! Many smiles to you and your family. Love, Sasha

I’m at the grocery store, eyeing shelf upon shelf of neatly stacked packages of noodles. There are about 25 brands – each boasting some variation of regular, whole wheat, gluten-free, or loaded-with-spinach pasta. Three feet over there’s another 5 brands sitting pretty in the chiller. These are the fresh pastas. The ones that taste like you made them yourself. The ones that cost $10 for two servings.

Hello.

I feel my anxiety mounting. Deep breath. It’s just pasta. It’s just pasta.

How difficult can it be?

But it is difficult. So. many. choices.

And yet, between these 30 brands of pasta, I cannot find anything labeled buckwheat – the noodles I need for my Montenegrin Global Table.

I inquire and a kind grocery clerk leads me over to the international aisle, where I find another 15 brands of pasta. Rice noodles and squiggly ramen fill most of the shelves. The clerk gestures on the bottom row, just by my ankle. There it is – three brands of buckwheat noodles.

The clerk casually adds that there is buckwheat flour as well, if I’d like to try my hand at making the noodles from scratch.

This store is swimming with pasta.

Has the number of choices in the supermarket ever stressed you out? What about in other areas of your life? Has picking out the perfect agenda given you chest pains? Does finding the right couch send you into a cold sweat? We have so many choices at our disposal in American culture. While this certainly is part of the fun when it comes to cooking the world, it’s often downright disconcerting.

Lately, I’ve been yearning for the simple life. To walk into the store and see just one of something, so I don’t have to go through the agonizing selection process.

Oh, how refreshing that would be, even just once in a while.

Can you imagine?

“Need a pen? Here ya go! It’s blue. Enjoy!”

What a dream that would be. With just one choice, I could move on and begin actually writing - creating – with that pen, instead of just standing in a store agonizing over what color and style I wanted.

In Montenegro (and all over the Balkans), there is a musical instrument called the gusle. It has just one string. There’s no choice but to strum that one string if you want to make music on the gusle. Now, perhaps such an instrument doesn’t sound very interesting, but the folk songs created with the gusle are fascinating.

Even with just one string, the music is full of power. Variation. Intensity.

At the end of the day, I buy the soba noodles and the buckwheat flour. I eat the pre-packaged stuff and I make it from scratch. I simply can’t choose.

I give up.

But while I cook, I listen to the gusle. The music makes me happy.

In that moment, the joy bubbles up from within. I have no choice but to smile.

What a grand thing, sometimes, to have no choice.

THE FOOD

Ajvar, Roasted Pepper Spread [Recipe]

What I love most about this dish:

The flavors of ajvar are stunning. The background note of eggplant is subtle, adding a complexity you couldn’t obtain with just regular peppers. I love that there are just a few ingredients, yet roasting them on the grill makes the recipe seems so, so much more complex. Ava had a little doubt regarding this dip, but it seemed to help when I told her it was like tomato sauce made from peppers. Mr Picky  really enjoyed it and slathered it all over his burger, as I hoped he would. Who needs ketchup when there’s ajvar?!

What I love least about this dish:

I was a little nervous that the sauce would ooze out of my food processor, but it wasn’t quite wet enough (thankfully). Just be sure to drain off all the liquid from the roasted peppers so it isn’t too soupy. Otherwise you might be better off using a blender. If you can, make this with fresh paprika peppers – I sure wish I had access to them in Tulsa.

Balkan Burger [Recipe]

What I love most about this dish:

This is a homey, richly flavored burger patty. The three meats combine to make something which seems straight off the rugged mountainside. Mr Picky and Ava ate away happily and Ava, suprisingly, gobbled down some raw white onion for the first time. It just goes to show that if you keep putting the food on the kid’s plate, they’ll eventually try it.

What I love least about this dish:

Be sure you don’t overcook the burgers. The first batch we made were pretty dry since we forgot about them on the grill.

Chilled Buckwheat Noodle Salad with Feta & Cracked Black Pepper [Recipe]

What I love most about this dish:

This is a fantastic chilled pasta salad. I almost can’t believe how much I love this. The buckwheat pasta goes perfect with the salty cheese, the cracked pepper and the hit of olive oil. I was even more surprised that Ava and Mr Picky gobbled it up. I thought for sure I’d be on my own with this dish. What can I say… Ava loves pasta and Keith loves cheese (and black pepper). We’ve already made this twice (the second time I added baby arugula, just for fun and it was major yum), and it’ll definitely be on the menu all summer long.

What I love least about this dish:

I think I’ll buy soba so I can make this more often, just for fun Also, with no prompting, Ava called this pasta “worm pasta,” not that that stopped her from eating it.

Ava’s Corner:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf_388e8vG0

Thank you for following our Adventure, where I cook a meal from every country in the world, A-Z! Many smiles to you and your family. Love, Sasha

It only seems natural that we eat something black during our week at the Black Mountain (a.k.a Montenegro).  But here’s the thing – nothing in life is black and white. There are all sorts of shades of gray (that’s where the beauty is – somewhere in the muddled middle).

So, in the spirit of variety, we’re adding a few shades of gray to our pasta. We’ve got black pepper, white feta, and charcoal grey buckwheat noodles with a bit of sparkle from pools of golden olive oil.

This is simple as can be and a fantastic chilled pasta salad for a hot summer’s day. And did I mention? It’s also gluten-free.

You can buy buckwheat noodles (a.k.a. soba noodles) or make them yourself for a fun afternoon project. I tried this both ways and, while I loved the satisfaction of making the noodles myself, I also loved the easy, breezy simplicity of popping open a package of pre-made buckwheat noodles and having dinner on the table less than ten minutes later.

NOTE: You can find buckwheat/soba noodles in the Asian section of the grocery store.  Otherwise, you may substitute whole wheat pasta, but the flavor won’t be as wonderful.

Serves 2-4

Ingredients:

For homemade pasta:

2 cups buckwheat flour
1/2 cup warm water

Serve with:

cubes of feta (1 package is more than enough for 4 people)
good quality olive oil
cracked black pepper

Method:

To make the pasta:

Mix buckwheat and water together, starting with a fork, then moving to mix with your hands. The dough should be soft but not overly sticky. It will have a somewhat crumbly consistency.

Shape into a ball, cover and let rest for 15-30 minutes. This gives time for the water to distribute evenly and also makes it less fragile.

Next, roll out the dough. Dust your board and rolling pin with more buckwheat flour, as needed. 

Use a pasta cutter to cut out strips of noodles (some people actually fold the dough in half and then use a knife to cut strips, but buckwheat tends to be crumbly, so this method didn’t work for me).

Ahh, now that’s beauty.

Cook in salted, boiling water for just a minute or so (they cook super fast, depending how thick you made them). Rinse the cooked noodles under cold water to wash away the excess starch, as well as to chill the noodles. Finally, toss with cubed feta, olive oil, salt and pepper. The best you have!

Enjoy in a sunny spot with a smile.  And, while you’re there, don’t forget to hug the sky.

Have  a glorious evening, my friends!

Thank you for following our Adventure, where I cook a meal from every country in the world, A-Z! Many smiles to you and your family. Love, Sasha