"Makrout" Moroccan date cookie

Eid Moubarak to all the Muslims around the world with all best best wishes



These are my Makrouts for The day of Eid fitr


A delicious moroccan pastry made by semolina and date

Ingredients:

for the dough:

2 cups of semolina
1/3 cup of blossom water
1 stick of butter (8 tablespoon)
1 tablespoon of sugar
A pinch of salt

Ingredients for the filling:

2 cups of pitted dates
1 tablespoon of blossom water
1 tablespoon of butter
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg

Honey
Blossom water

Steps:

Steps to make the dough:
- Melt the butter.
- Mix the semolina, sugar and salt.
- Slowly add the melted butter to the cornmeal while mixing thoroughly.
- Transfer the cornmeal mixture in a flat surface. Work the dough while adding the blossom water until you get a very smooth texture.
Note: You might need to slightly increase/reduce the amount of butter and blossom water depending on the quality of your semolina.

Steps to make the filling:
- Steam the dates for 20 minutes until they soften.
- In a food processor, mix the dates, the butter, the cinnamon and the ground nutmeg until you get a smooth date paste.

Steps to roll the Makrout:
- Make a roll with the dough.
- Make long rolls with the date paste.3- Make an incision in the middle of the dough and widen by sculting the middle of the roll.
- Place the date roll inside dough 'tunnel'.
- Close the dough roll by reshaping it by hand.
- Cut the dough roll into diagonal pieces.



I used a small mould to decorate the makrouts. I din't fry them in oil, but simply bake them in the oven.

Dip them in the flavored honey. The honey should be warm and flavored with blossom water following your taste.



Good tasting

This is a set of my pastries for Eid fitr

Yogurt with apricot jam

I like to make my own yogurt at home, It 's very easy and gives me control over what ingredients I like to do or do not.

Yogurt with apricot jam



My yogurt is made by an electric yogurt maker, but you can also make it without using the machine if not having it.

Basic yogurt recipe:

5 cups of whole milk
1 cup of yogurt
4 tblspoons of milk powder

What I add:
4 tblspoons of sugar
vanilla flavor
apricot jam

Add yogurt to milk and mix it with milk powder, vanilla flavor and sugar.
Put one tblspoon of apricot jam into each yogurt container and add the mixture milk-yogurt.
Place the covered containers into the heating base. Cover the yogurt maker and process for 10 hours.
After processing, place the containers in the refrigirator 4 hours to thicken. Keep yogurt refrigerated until use.

Good tasting

Lemon curd pudding by Jamie Oliver

This is a lovely lemon curd pud, very easy to make



Ingredients:

• 55g butter
• 115g sugar (vanilla sugar is nice)
• grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
• 2 large eggs, separated
• 55g self-raising flour
• 285ml milk



Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6. Cream the butter, sugar and lemon rind in a mixing bowl. Add the egg yolks and flour and beat in, then add the milk and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice and mix well.

Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff, then add the rest of the mixture. Mix it all well but don't over-mix it; you don't want the air to come out of the egg whites. Pour into a buttered ovenproof dish, stand the dish in a roasting tin about a third full of water



then bake in your preheated oven for about 45 minutes until the top is set and spongy and it's a nice golden colour.










Very delicious

Ramadan Mubarak

I wish you a happy and blessed Ramadan

friday Couscous

Couscous is a famous moroccan dish especially for friday which is a sacred day for moslems.

there are many methods for preparing couscous, we eat it either sweeten or salted.
Today I'm going to share with you my recipe of







To prepare semolina
4 cups couscous semolina
1/2 cup oil
1 tblspoon salt
2 tblspoon butter or (rancid butter)

1 kg meat (beef or lamb)
1/2 cup chickpeas soaked overnight
1 tspoon salt
1 tspoon pepper
1 tspoon ginger powder
1 cinamon steak
saffron pistils
1/2 cup oil

2 tomatoes grated
1 onion
4 carottes peeled and cut in half
4 turnips peeled and cut in half
2 zucchinis cut in half
1 cabbage cut in half
2 potatos peeled an cut in half
1 strong pepper
1 little red pumpkin cut into pieces
bouquet of coriandre
Necessary water for cooking




Wash and drain rapidly the couscous grain, spread it out on a large dish by hand, to separate each grain . Add oil and salt to couscous grain and spread it again by hand.
reserve it.
In a couscous sauce pan, make return meat in oil with chopped onion. Fry gently and add spices, grated tomatoes, chickpeans and coriandre. add Water to cover all the ingredients.Cook over medium heat.

Put the couscous semolina which you have alredy worked betwwen hands and reserved into the couscous steamer. Put the latter over the couscous pan. When steamer rises over semolina leave it 15mn and remove the steamer. Put the vegetables cook into the couscous sauce pan(add water if necessary).
Put the couscous which you just remove in a large container(kasaa), add one cup of water and try to seperate the grains with fingers, Let it rest 15mn, and put it again into the steamer. the couscous should be cooked 3 times.
At the end, put it in a large container, add rancid butter and to mix it gentely into couscous.
In a large dish, arrange your couscous in the traditional manner as in the picture above. serve it hot.

Enjoy

Yogurt cake

this is a frensh cake very simple to do.
All what you need is to keep the container so as to weihg all the ingredients.
This cake is usually baked in a regular pan and you can add any flavor you want.

Ingredients:

1 cup of yogurt
1cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
3 cup flour
3 eggs
2 tblspoons baking powder
1 dash salt
1 tblspoon vanilla sugar

Method

Preheat over 300°F
Mix yogurt, sugar, vanilla sugar. add the eggs and the flour with baking powder. Finish by adding the melted butter.
Pour into a cake pan and bake for 50 mn

you can also add cofee flavor or orange blossom water.

Enjoy
Touria

seffa Medfouna Recipe or Vermecelli with beef

Seffa Medfouna is a famous moroccan dish. I like it either with chicken or beef.

Ingrédients for 6 persons:

for preparing Seffa:
1 kg dry broken vermicelli
3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 teaspoons salt

For cooking the saffron chicken or meat:
A whole chicken cut to pieces or 1 kg cubed beef meat
2 large sweet onions chopped medium
1 teaspoon white pepper + 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 sticks of cinnamon
1/3 teaspoon of saffron
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup oil

For decorating the seffa:
dry dates and fruits with the choice

Method:

fill the base of a couscoussier with salted water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Add oil to dry vermecelli and salt and lightly oil the interior of the steamer. Put the broken vermecelii into the steamer and place it on the top of the base of the couscousier.
Once you see steam rise from the vermecelli, allow the vermecelli to steam for 10 mn
Put then the vermecelli in a large bowl. Add 2 cups of water and rub it between your palms to break any balls.
Put the vermecelli back into the steamer and repeat the same thing.
You should steam the vermecelli 4 to 5 times.

Mix the chicken or beef cubed meet with onions, spices, butter and oil in a pot. Gently brown the meat over medium heat about 10 mn.
If you are preparing chicken don't add water, the chicken will braise in it's own juce. But if you are preparing meat then add enough water to just cover the meat.

Cook over a medium heat until the meat is tender.
Reduce the liquid to form a thick sauce.

Place 1/2 of steamed vermecelli into a large serving dish, arrange the chicken or meat in the center and cover with the sauce. Add the rest of the vermecelli and put the rest of the meat on the top.

Decorate with dry dates and fruits.

Enjoy

Touria

The First Challenge of Walima Club

The May 2009, Challenge is brought to us by Khadidja Zehani from www.dessert-world.blogspot.com. Khadidja worked on two recipes to give us two choices; one for a wonderful savoury dish and one for outstanding dessert

Algeria was selected to be the first country in our challenge. I chose the savoury dish: chicken tagine with olives. It's a bit different from our moroccan tagine that I'm used to, but it's so delicious and all my family liked it. The next time I think I'm going to do it with meat balls.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken cut into pieces
2 lbs of lamb
1 large onion
1 Tbsp butter or oil
2 cups pitted green olives
2 medium carrots, cut into circles
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 chicken cube
water
parsley

Meat balls (optional)

1/2 lb ground beef
1 small onion
1 small egg
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Flour to dredge the meat balls

To thicken the sauce:
1 Tbsp soft butter
2 tbsp flour

Preparation:

1- In a pot / pressure cooker put the butter /oil, chicken pieces, lamb pieces (if using), the onion, salt, pepper cinnamon. Cook over medium heat until the onions
are translucent. Add the chicken cube and enough water to cover the meat. Bring the mixture to a boil then cover and cook until the meat is tender. If using both meats, half way through cooking, remove the chicken pieces and continue to cook until the lamb is tender.

2 - In a sauce pan, put the olives and cover with water. Bring to a boil and let the olives boil for 3 to 5 mn. Drain and repeat the same process 2 to 3 times until the olives are no longer bitter.They should not be too salty neither. Set the olives aside.

3- Prepare the meat balls: mix all the ingredients and make balls. Put about 1/2 in of oil in a frying pan and heat over medium heat. Dredge each meat ball in flour and fry until golden brown. Drain on a paper towel and set aside.

4- Once the meat pieces are cooked, add the olives, the sliced carrots and the meat balls. Bring the sauce to a boil, cover the pot and cook until the carrots and the olives are tender, and the meat balls are cooked through.

5-To finish the dish, mix the butter and flour to form a smooth paste. Bring the sauce to a boil and gradually add the butter/ flour mixture, stirring continuously. Let the sauce boil for 3 to 5 minutes. The sauce should be slightly thick. Add 2 tbsp chopped parsley. Serve the dish accompanied with lemon wedges.

The recipe of Almond Surprise is in the following link:
http://www.dessert-world.blogspot.com/2009/01/almonds-in-surprise.html

If you wont to know more about Walima Club please see

Http://Walimaarabia.blogspot.com