Cooking Moroccan: The essentials

Cooking Moroccan: The essentials

How to start cooking Moroccan dishes and what you need to have in your kitchen to work with

 

 Moroccan food is a food just like, yet unlike any other

First of all, the main mission of this article is not to dazzle you all and make you anxious about starting to cook Moroccan food. I am no cooking expert and I am definitely not a cook. I only greatly enjoy cooking for the heck of it. I’ve watched how food is done in Morocco and I’ve read lots of additional information and descriptions alongside recipes in order to be able to be more descriptive in this piece, however some of these have enlisted about a MILLION of things one needs to start with Moroccan cooking.  This is not true. All that stuff would not even fit in a regular size Moroccan kitchen, and certainly not in my kitchen. All in all, this piece serves to encourage you to just start with something new and Moroccan cuisine is just perfect for that. Cooking Moroccan is definitely no magic. And if millions of women can do it, so can you! 

So, I’d like to start with the basics enlisting what you really need on the first place to start up with cooking Moroccan food. I will include some links to my previous posts and other links with whole recipes too, in order to help you with your progress. Furthermore, as this post is primarily not for those already residing in Morocco ( though that would definitely make it easier) I will try my very best to showcase the items which I think can be bought in Europe or in the US in Middle Eastern or standard supermarkets.

Olives and preserved lemons are key ingredients to Moroccan Cuisine

Key Ingredients to start cooking Moroccan food

Let me start first with the non-perishable or durable ingredients, which are mostly the spices. Click here and here to learn even more on these spices and their beneficial effects. Luckily most of them can be bought in Europe and in the US too. As for the mix called Ras el Hanout– click on it to learn how to do it yourself!

Moroccan households have a great deal of non-perishable cooking ingredients, because a guest can pop in anytime and the housewives must be ready to quickly make something tasty and easy for them to eat.

Non- perishable Ingredients:

1. Herbs and spices:  Morocco is the land of spices, some of which are really frequently used while others are more used for specific dishes. Let me enlist those which are used the most often this time.

-          Cumin

-          Curcuma ( Turmeric)

-          Black pepper

-          White pepper

-          Ginger

-          Paprika powder – sweet and hot

-          Cayenne pepper – whole and ground

-          Cinnamon

-          Bay leaves

2. Oils:

Argan, vegetable and Olive oils are all frequently used in Moroccan cooking with Olive oil being the most frequently used one.

3. A WHOLE lot of chickpeas, lentils , dried beans!

There is no Arabic or Moroccan household which wouldn’t have a great load of chickpeas or other smaller beans. There are tons of Moroccan dishes that work with beans and chickpeas (not to mention the ever –classic hummus) and if you buy them canned or safely closed down ( or fresh by any chance, you can store them for a long time.

Cooking Moroccan: the key ingredients can be
clearly seen on this pic

4. Seeds, Dried fruits and pickles

The following seeds, pickles and dried fruits are considered as essentials for Moroccan dishes

• Almond – click here to learn how to blanche them as you will eventually need to
• Sesame seeds  - you need to roast them until they get gold in color
• Olive seeds : in Morocco they usually work with the black olives
• Preserved Lemons: you can buy these canned or measured out in Middle Eastern stores
• Buy a dried fruit mix which you can preserve for a longer time. Moroccans like to use dried date, fig, prune, and apricots among others.

5. Wheat and grains: thanks to the extreme variety of breads in Moroccan cuisine, all households have these grains, to be able to make food out of something quickly if someone pops in unexpectedly- which happens in Morocco on a daily basis. These breads are also the BEST way to start making friends with Moroccan cuisine – as an extra they are tasty, copious and easy to do. Let me link my earlier post with tons of links to all the different Moroccan breads like Khobbs, Msemen, Meloui and more- they are quick and easy to prepare- the best start for cooking Moroccan. Further on in my next posts I will do a step by step on some of these too.

• Standard white flour
• Barley
• Semolina
• Couscous

Moroccan bread is a great way to start Cooking Moroccan

Vegetables/herbs: 

These are the herbs/vegetables you buy fresh on the day of cooking:

• Parsley
• Cilantro
• Fresh mint – generally for tea

I will steer clear from mentioning ingredients like onion or garlic or sugar, salt and honey which most households have. Luckily most of these upper mentioned ingredients can be bought outside of Morocco and Middle East and I think as a starter you won’t need more to start with your cooking experimenting.

In my next post I will present you with the cooking tools you need for cooking Moroccan dishes and will also go into specifics about some ingredients and cooking tools you likely only find in Morocco. 

For a very extensive information on Moroccan Cooking I strongly encourage you to visit the blog of Christine BenLafquih. Special shokran for her great blogs that serve me with lots of inspiration. 

Please ask, ask, comment and suggest me what you would like to read about and also please share your story. I'd like to hear how you started cooking Moroccan dishes.