Specimen Recipes from North Africa
In order not only to convey a more exact idea than would be possible by mere description of the food of the Moors, but also to enable English housekeepers to…
From: 1906 C.E. To: 1906 C.E.
Location: Morocco
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From The Moors: A Comprehensive Description by Budgett Meakin, 1906.
Specimen Recipes
In order not only to convey a more exact idea than would be possible by mere description of the food of the Moors, but also to enable English housekeepers to gather what they will from them, I append a few recipes which I have tried myself, and found good.
I must, however, quote the remark attributed to a lady, who, on furnishing the recipe for Banbury cakes which made her table famous, added, "This will produce excellent Banbury cakes if your cook knows how to make them." So let not those who flatter me by trying these dishes be too hasty to condemn the Moors or myself if unsuccessful.
Kesk’soo or Siskoo (In Spanish, couscousou)
On shaking up semolina in a tray, the coarse grains (fakhar) are taken off as they rise, a double handful being thrown into a broad shallow earthenware pan (gessa') and a tablespoonful of water sprinkled over it. Then a handful of finer semolinaj is thrown on, then a little more water as before, and more fine flour, the manipulator all the time rolling it over the bottom of the pan with the palms of the hands, so that each original grain grows into a minute ball the size of No. 4 shot. The whole is then sifted in a coarse sieve to remove the larger particles, which are rubbed in the hands to break them up, and put back in the pan to be worked by the hands as before, while fine flour is sifted on. When ready, the grains are placed in a steamer over water, and steamed till all are separate, which can be ascertained by inspection. If the kesk'soo is to be kept in house, it must now be spread on a sheet in the sun to dry, and occasionally worked with the hand to separate any granules which may have stuck together.
Final Cooking
Before cooking old kesk'soo, wash it in water and steep it in fresh cold water till soft, say half an hour. Then cook as if just made. Place it in a steamer (keskas) over a stew, described separately. See that all the steam passes through the grains by securing the joint with dough or a cloth. Steam until quite soft, and when ready to serve, heap up in dish (makhfiyah), working in sufficient butter, fresh or preserved, or both, to cover each grain, without causing them to stick together, or leaving melted butter in the bottom of the dish.
The making of a good dish of kesk'soo is a dash of good old smeen, which may be prepared at home by keeping unsalted butter till it becomes rancid, and then boiling it down. When the heap is ready, place the meat from the stew in a depression in the centre, and pile the big vegetables first, with the onions, raisins, etc., on top. It may then be sprinkled with cinnamon, if fancied. Another way to serve kesk'soo is to work it up with fresh butter only, and cover the heap with a thick layer of powdered sugar, cinnamon being plentifully sprinkled over all.
Stew for Kesk’soo (Kûdrah)
Put salt into the bottom half of the steamer, with in ounce or two of butter; add sliced onions and pepper, ginger, nutmeg, coriander, allspice, turmeric, and saffron if desired. Pound or grind the spices together. Chopped parsley, marjoram, and green coriander may be added if in season. Now put in the meat. Leave it to simmer, and then add enough water to submerge the onions, etc. Cover close, and put on slow fire, after stirring well. When the water boils away add more, hot or cold. When the meat is tender and the stew boils, place the top half of the steamer on with the kesk'soo in it.
Slice some more onions, and simmer in gravy from the stew with a little butter or smeen, and spices—perhaps a little saffron. These are put on top of stew when served on kesk'soo. Raisins may be added, or quinces may be boiled separately and served on top. Broad beans, when fresh, may be added to the stew, or any vegetable but potato, though not in large quantities.
“Roast” Fowl
Boil 1 lb. oil in a stew-pan till it smokes, then add 1/2 lb. butter, and put a fowl in, ready trussed and stuffed, with a little salt rubbed into it. Turn it occasionally, over a moderate fire, till it is brown and tender. The latter point can be ascertained by touching with the finger, but beware of a scald! An excellent stuffing is made with chopped almonds, raisins, bread-crumbs, eggs and spices.
Joint of Mutton or Beef
Beef or mutton may be cooked like the fowl, with spices to taste added to the gravy When the meat has absorbed most of the oil, add water, hot or cold, to make the required quantity of gravy.
Keep close covered, and turn, taking care that the fire is not fierce enough to burn it. If onions or other vegetables are fancied with the meat, some of the gravy is poured into a separate vessel to stew them and they are served round the joint in the same dish. Chopped carrots, etc., may be poured out over it, stewed in this way.
This is often accompanied by salad on a separate plate, and with mutton—of which the breast and shoulder are the favourite portions,—a plate of pounded cummin and salt mixed forms a most agreeable relish into which to dip the meat as it is plucked from the joint. Olives are often added to the gravy, or apples, and are delicious thus.
Stew (Tájin)
For a stew boil oil till it smokes, and add two tablespoonfuls of pounded capsicum. When boiling add half pint of water. When cold pour off the clear oil from the top into a stew-pan. Add two
or three heads of garlic, and when boiling put in the meat, cut up. Stew till tender.
When nearly ready add the vegetables, leaving them long enough to cook, according to what they ar any sort being suitable, but potatoes least of all so.
Fowl and Olives (very good)
Stew a fowl (cut up) in butter and oil, with pepper, salt and allspice (all in powder), the butter to be put in first, and the oil poured on when melted. The meat should be first rubbed with salt, and left, so ten minutes, after which the salt is washed off, just before putting it into the pot. Cook a quarter of an hour. Then replace the lid for ten minutes, after which put in the onions, cut up, and pour on a pint of water: boil till nearly all this has evaporated. Stew till no moisture comes out when a fork is stuck into the meat. Now add the raisins, and in five minutes add the olives and grated nutmeg, as much as a pea of the latter. Leave it near the fire for a quarter of an hour.
Serve with plain boiled rice, like a curry. It should take altogether an hour and a half to cook.
Egg and Coriander Soup (Harîrah, hasûwah, or f’toor)
The following recipe will make good soup for four persons. Chop up the onions very fine, with pepper, salt, and green coriander. Put into a pan with 1 oz. smeen, and add ½ lb. meat, cut into dice. Leave all to simmer about half an hour, watching that does not burn. Then fill up with a pint water. Leave it to stew slowly till the meat is tender. Then add 2 oz. vermicelli. Mix 2 oz. flour and leaven or lemon into a smooth thin paste with water, and pour it in. Boil a quarter of an hour longer, and remove from the fire; at that moment pour in two eggs well beaten up, and serve. Parsley may be substituted for coriander if the latter is unobtainable, but it is not so good.
Fish in Garlic
Half a dozen mackerel or large herrings, or an equal quantity of any fish, prepared in the following style, form a favourite dish, especially among the Jews.
Boil 4 oz. oil in a frying-pan over a slow fire. When bubbling, add 1 oz. sweet red pepper powder and a little water. The fish being prepared on the bottom of a stew-pan, cover them with chopped green coriander, three heads of garlic, bread-crumbs and, salt; pour half a pint of water on the oil, and let it boil ten minutes. Cool and pour into a stew-pan, careful not to wash off the bread-crumbs, etc. Do not pour out the red pepper sediment; throw it away. The dish will be ready in twenty minutes to half an hour, if kept covered up. See that it doesn't burn. A slow fire is preferable.
Meat on Skewers (Kodbán)
Cut I lb. lean meat across the fibres into pieces the size of a shilling, a quarter of an inch thick, and 1/4 lb. fat into pieces half that size. Roll all in spices and coriander, and thread alternately on skewers. Broil over a slow clear fire, preferably of charcoal, beware of smoke or flame. Revolve occasionally to ensure equality in cooking. Serve on the skewers, very hot, and eat with new bread.
Mincemeat (Kiftah)
Mince raw meat, and 6 oz. fat, mixing in well and equally a small onion, pepper, salt, bread-crumbs, with cummin, parsley, marjoram, green coriander, and mint, chopped fine. Press a handful round each skewer, and broil as above.
Another excellent way is to roll it into balls, and stew very gently for two hours in plenty of butter, over a slight fire. When nearly ready to serve, fill up with ready boiled peas. In default of peas, hard-boiled eggs may be added at an earlier stage of the cooking.
Bean Porridge (Baïsar)
The next recipe is a great dish of the hillsmen, who put cabbage into it and eat it with bread.
Bring a quart of water to near boiling-point, and add a pint of split broad beans, leaving them to boil for half an hour, removing the scum as it rises. If they are then tender, take them off the fire, which should not be too fierce, but if still hard keep them boiling till done. Then stir well with a wire whisk till the whole is reduced to a paste. Now add a pod of red pepper, (or if pounded 1/2 oz. or less,) a head of garlic, salt, and pounded cummin. Oil or butter may be added if fancied. If salt is put in the water first the beans will not become tender.
Frumenty (Herrbel)
The standard New Year dish of the mountaineers, practically our frumenty ("frumity"), is thus prepared. Put a pint of new wheat in hot water in the afternoon, and on the morning of the next day but one, pound it in a wooden mortar sufficiently to remove the husk, which should be cleared away. Put it into a quart or more of boiling water, and boil for three or four hours, till quite soft. Then add a little salt and half a pint of milk, boiling a quarter of an hour longer, after which put in six ounces of fresh butter, and stir well.
Sponge Fritters (Sfinjes)
Knead 1 lb. flour into a stiff dough for half an hour, with warm water and 1 oz. leaven, keeping on till it bubbles; then commence to thin down by adding warm water in small quantities, and kneading well till it is reduced to a thick paste, sufficiently stiff to remain in a long thread from the finger to the trough when a piece is pulled up with the hand. Leave it to ferment for a quarter of an hour, or more if necessary, till bubbles rise freely. It is then ready to fry.
Take hold of a piece in the hand, and break off a ball the size of a hen's egg. Pierce this with the fore fingers and thumbs of each hand, and drawing it out into a ring, drop it into boiling oil, turning it over when one side is browned. These are deliciously light and appetizing, and may be eaten either alone or with salt, sugar, honey, etc.
Pikelets (Hartaïtahs)
Prepare dough as for sfinjes. Clean an earthen pan by well rubbing with soft soap and drying. Place it on a slow fire till very hot. Then drop in a spoonful of the thin dough. When the face is set, turn the pikelet thus formed, being careful that the fire is not fierce enough to burn it to the bottom. In case it does, scrape the pan well, butter and soap as before.
Serve very hot, and eat with butter, or butter before serving. More or less salt should be added to the dough, according as they are intended to be eaten with fresh butter or sugar or honey.
Meakin, Budgett. The Moors: A Comprehensive Description. Swan Sonnenschein & Co, 1906.
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