Cocina Del Mundo Herbs & Spices

Opening your eyes to the world's kitchen!

The secret to this spice combination is plenty of sesame and cumin.  This is somewhat mild with a flavor all its own.  Add to meat, chicken, lamb, or fish.  All Moroccan spices are great with couscous.

Moroccan Orange

Moroccan Spice Blend

Morocco signifies the exotic, the unusual, and the most amazing flavors.  Most people have no idea what to expect when I talk about Moroccan food.  Meals are served communally, all the guest help themselves from one pot.  Tagine (tagines) of spiced rubbed roast lamb, chicken, or game birds, are accompanied with vegetables and fruit.  Americans would compare the tagine to a casserole, except casseroles are bland in comparison.  Classic tagines include harissa/ras el hanout (red chili and spice mixtures), lemon, fruit, olive oil, the meat, and carrots.  These ingredients are combined in an earthenware bowl and slow cooked until the meat falls off the bone.  Many other ingredients can be added.

Vegetables are always served as side dishes; raw, baked or marinated. 

In Morocco meals are a grand experience with grilled meats, exotic spices, combinations of Persian delicacies, and very sweet confections. 

My favorite way to use the Moroccan spice blend is to make couscous or add to tomato sauce with lemon wedges and raisins.   Add Moroccan spice blend  to sour cream and serve as a dip with steak.   Add the blend to olive oil and serve with fresh baked breads.

Foods to eat with Moroccan Spice Blend

Apples, avocado, beans, beef, breads, carrots, cheeses, chicken, cucumbers, eggplant, eggs (or quiche), fruit, lamb, onions, pasta, peas, pork, potatoes, rice, seafood, soups or stews, tomatoes, and vegetables of all sorts.

 

Quick marinade

1 cup olive oil, 2 T. Moroccan Spice Blend, 1/8 cup raisin vinegar, 1/4 cup dry red wine, one lemon cut in slices and 1 tsp. salt.  Marinate over night with vegetables or meat of your choice before grilling or baking.

 

Moroccan Spice Recipes

Couscous

Buy box of couscous and follow directions except add 1/3 sachet of Moroccan spice blend.  After pasta is prepared let cool, while you cut up remaining vegetables to add.

½ seedless cucumber, cubed

½ red onion, chopped

½ red bell pepper, chopped

1 T. minced garlic

1 Roma tomato, diced

1 Serrano pepper, minced

(Add hot pepper to taste)

-This is an excellent cold or hot dish.  Cooked meat can be added, chicken or lamb.

Garnish with fresh chopped cilantro.

Lamb Tagine

4 lb. lamb shoulder, cut in chunks

1 cup Olive oil

2 T. garlic

1 lemon, quartered

1 onion, minced

1 package frozen peas

1 pinch saffron

½ sachet of Moroccan spice

1 bay leaf

2 T salt

1 T green peppercorns, ground

Optional- kalamata olives

-Stir together all ingredients with 1 cup water.  Put into a large casserole dish (or Tagine); simmer in 300 degree oven for 1 hour.  Take out and turn meat, stirring the vegetables, and then cover.  Cook casserole 30-40 minutes.  Check tenderness of lamb, may require more cooking time.  Garnish with fresh cilantro or lemon wedges.

Moroccan tomato sauce

4 chopped tomatoes (or equivalent for canned tomato)

1 T. Moroccan Spice

-Allow spice to sit in tomato for 20 minutes.

Tomato sauce can be substituted.

Excellent with fish, lamb, or chicken.

Price: $3.50/1.5 oz. cellophane packet

Moroccan Orange

Moroccan cuisine has become a specialty of mine and has become very popular with people who are looking for extraordinary. 

Most Moroccan dishes slip in something with a fruity taste, whether it might be lemon, raisin, orange, dates, figs, or even sweet peppers.  Not all the blends have a spicy flavor, even thought red chili might be in the recipe.  Remember all spices can be made sweet with the addition of honey, sugar, or preserves. 

My favorite way to use all the Moroccan blends is to mix them with jam and to use them as glazes.  In the past I have used many jams including; apricot, apple butter, peach, pear, pomegranate, orange marmalade, currant, cranberry, ground cherry, tomato preserves, and fig.

Foods to eat with Moroccan Orange Blend: Apples, beans of all sorts, beef, breads of all sorts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cheese, chicken or foul, chili, duck, eggplant, eggs, fish, fruit, goose, greens, lamb, meatloaf, mushrooms, onions, parsnips, pasta, peas, pork, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, rice, salad, salmon, soups or stews, spinach, squash, tomatoes, and vegetables.

Dressing

1 cup water

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tsp. Moroccan Orange Spice

2 T. raisin vinegar

1 small pureed tomato

1/8 cup minced scallion

-soak raisins in water for 2 hours, add remaining ingredients and puree (in blender or food processor)

Moroccan Orange Bread Pudding

Any bread pudding is simple, cube your bread and set it in a bowl with the whipped eggs and milk to soak then bake.

½ loaf of heavy textured bread, not soft

5 eggs whipped with ½ cup skim milk

1 T. spice

1/2 fruit

Cut up bread into cubes and put in large bowl.  Whip eggs and milk, and then stir into bread until thoroughly coated.  Add spice, the fruit of your choice, and stir.  Pour into greased baking pan and spread out.  Pour sauce on top of this, the sauce should compliment the fruit you use.  I use caramel and mix it with a jam.  Bake in 300 degree oven for 35-45 minutes.  Serve warm.

Roast Sesame Lamb

4 lb shoulder of lamb

1 lb potatoes cubed

1 onion chopped

2 cups carrots chopped

1/8 cup orange juice (or orange blossom water, if you have it!)

1 cup olive oil

1 cup dry red wine

2-3 T. Moroccan Orange Blend

Completely coat lamb in olive oil, place in large baking dish, and rub on the spices.  Cook in 300 degree oven for 1 hour.  Turn the lamb, add the red wine, and then surround the lamb with the vegetables.  Bake for 1 hour. Pour the orange juice on the lamb, cover the dish, and then bake an additional hour.  Take out lamb and check to see if it is done to your taste.

 

When serving the lamb garnish with sesame seeds, serve with a tossed (organic-bacteria free) spinach salad.

Moroccan Orange

319-541-9566 cell

Home e-mail: kristinabeckons@aol.com

185 Hwy 965 NE Suite 3

North Liberty, Iowa 52317

Between Curves and Sheer Encounters in Liberty Plaza

 

Moroccan

Moroccan Spice Blend

Fresh hand ground spices blended from my own recipe.  This blend is ideally used to spice up stews, roasts, and casseroles.  In Morocco baking is done in a Tagine with all the ingredients thrown together.  My favorite spice!!!