Page 319 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Morocco

WHERE T O EA T AND DRINK  317

peaches, figs, melons,
bananas, plums, pomegranates
and all types of citrus fruits.
Lemons, preserved in brine,
add piquancy to many dishes.

Spices & Flavourings
Key Moroccan spices
include aniseed, black
pepper, cayenne, cardamom,
cinnamon, coriander, cumin,
ginger, paprika, parsley, saffron
and turmeric. Three spice blends
are important: chermoula, for
Food stall at dusk in the Place Jemaa el-Fna in Marrakech marinades; harissa, a hot red
pepper condiment; and ras el
Fruit
spicy tomato sauce. Prawns, hanout (“top of the shop”),
squid, oysters and mussels are Most Moroccan meals end with a blend of over 20 spices,
also available and good quality. a dish of fruit, often a simple used in tagines.
sliced-orange salad, sprinkled
with cinnamon and orange- MOROCCAN PASTRIES
Vegetables
flower water, and sometimes
Morocco has many inventive chopped dates and almonds. Briouats Triangular warkha
and refreshing salad dishes. Other common fruits include pastries filled with almond and
Often served as a starter, cinnamon paste.
they include mezgaldi, which Ghoriba Macaroons made
combines onions with saffron, with sugar, almonds, lemon
ginger, cinnamon, sugar and zest, vanilla and cinnamon.
celery. Aubergines (eggplants) Kaab el ghzal Pastry crescents
are ubiquitous, served as a salad, filled with sweet almond paste,
fried or stuffed. Combinations dipped in orange-flower water
of tomatoes, green peppers, hot and icing sugar.
red or sweet red peppers and M’hanncha “Coiled serpent”
red onions, all add colour and cake of pastry stuffed with
flavour to the table. Olives almonds and decorated with
and their oil are abundant, and icing sugar and cinnamon.
nutty argan oil is widely used. Sfenj Deep-fried doughnuts.
(Goats adore the outer pulp Shebbakia Deep-fried pastry
of the nut, and can be seen ribbons, dipped in hot honey
“grazing” in the branches Array of cakes and pastries in a and coated in sesame seeds.
of argan trees.) patisserie in Fès

B’stilla is a rich pie of pigeon, Tagine, a slow-cooked stew, Couscous is the Moroccan
eggs, almonds and raisins, is named for the earthenware national dish – a semolina-
flavoured with lemon, sugar, dish with a conical lid in which based grain served with an
saffron and cinnamon. it is cooked. accompanying stew.

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