October 07, 2007

Moroccan cuisine

I currently have a big Moroccan tajine on loan from a friend who's off to Uganda for a few months to see gorilla's and more.

It's been sitting in my house for months though, without having anything to do. Saturday, though, was spent shopping for ingredients for the following dish. It turned out quite well luckily!

Now.... off to Morocco to buy one for myself?

Moroccan fish tagine with coriander couscous

Ingredients
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tbsp ground nut oil
1 tsp whole cumin seeds
1 tsp ginger
1 cinnamon stick
1 preserved lemon or normal lemon, chopped
12 green olives, stoned and roughly chopped
1 tbsp home-made harrissa (see below)
125ml/4fl oz white wine
200ml/7fl oz fish stock
1 pinch of saffron
500g/1lb 2oz mixed firm fish, such as monkfish, gurnard, mackerel
200g/7oz mussels
100g/3½oz cherry tomatoes
couscous and coriander to serve
For the home-made harrissa
3 fresh red chillies, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1-2 lemons, juice only
4 tbsp olive oil
salt
freshly ground black pepper


Method
1. Heat the ground nut oil in a tagine and gently cook the onion and garlic until soft.
2. Add the cumin, ginger, cinnamon stick, preserved lemon and green olives and cook for two minutes.
3. To make the harrissa put the chillies, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil into a food processor and blend into a rough paste.
4. Stir in the harrissa and cook for one minute.
5. Add the wine and fish stock and the saffron and bring to a gentle simmer.
6. Add the fish and cook for a couple of minutes, then add the mussels and cherry tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and cover. Cook gently for 6-7 minutes.
7. Serve on a bed of steamed couscous and sprinkle with freshly chopped coriander.


(from here)

3 comments:

Cooks said...

mmmmm, sounds very jummy! Can I be your guineau pig next time?!

Julia said...

Tajine is the best! I can't wait to go to Morocco, I know all I'll do is eat, eat, eat, shop, and eat.

machiruda said...

cookie - but of course! :-D

julia - yup, that's what I'm afraid of as well... Might be going soon-ish so should be fun, even if I end up only eating and shopping etc.