Have you ever come up with a dish that is so tasty you think you invented it yourself, only to find out later that it’s actually one of the great national dishes of not one but many different nations?
Well, that happened to me when I thought I was a culinary genius for coming up with the most delicious breakfast egg dish I’d ever eaten. I was simply using leftover ingredients that I had on hand from my mostly Italian/Sicilian/Mediterranean cooking. Well, little did I realize that everywhere from Palestine to Turkey to Lebanon and Algeria, everyone has been making this dish, or something very similar to it: Shakhshouka (also spelled Shakshuka).
In Turkey, the same ingredients (onion, peppers, tomato sauce) are used but the eggs are scrambled and the dish is called Menemen. An Italian version might use leftover tomato sauce, and in Algeria or Morocco they spell it Chakchouka. In some Middle Eastern recipes they add nutmeg; I do not ever put nutmeg in mine.
I recently worked on a video project for American Muslims for Palestine called Turning Tables, so watch out for that to be published in the near future. I was asked to make a Palestinian recipe or one that was inspired by Palestinian cuisine, so I decided to make my version of Shakhshouka, inspired by the cookbook, The Gaza Kitchen by Laila Al-Haddad, which now has a new and updated version.
Gently warm the olive oil in a large saute pan. Add the onion, green and red peppers and jalapeno. Cook until the peppers have softened. Add the sea salt and ground pepper as they cook.
Add the tomato paste and swirl around the pan to dissolve it as much as possible. Add 1-2 teaspoons of water to thin it out. Add the paprika. Cook until the water has mostly evaporated.
With a wooden spoon, carve out 4 round spots in the pan and crack one egg into each spot. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let cook until the white membrane of the eggs have cooked and whitened.
Remove from heat and drizzle the dish with olive oil, the crumbled feta and chopped parsley. Serve family style on a hot plate on the table, with fresh and warm pita bread.
Bismillah and Sahtein!
You can see a slightly different, faster version that I made for breakfast recently and posted on my Instagram page:
When I went to Sicily in 1993, it was the first time I really ever experienced fruit as the main ingredient- and sometimes the only ingredient- in a dessert. At first I was waiting around for the real dessert to please show up and perhaps this was just one of many courses at the end of the main lunch time meal? Alas, except for the occasional all-natural gelato that was acquired during a passiagata in the main square, no deep-dark chocolate cake or cheesecake or pound cake or ice cream cake of any sort was going to show up.
That changed the way I ate forever. It also began to change the way I thought about the notion of artificial sweetness, processed foods and how not to hide from real food.
That said, all these years later I’ve come to love to have fresh berries and stone fruits combined with all-natural honey and nuts as part of a more luxurious dessert.
Recently I was watching a travel show where the host visited North Africa – Morocco and Tunisia, in particular. I was so focused on the food that I honestly can’t remember now which host or name of the show it was, but I’ll try to look that up some time because it was a good one.
Anyway, in the show they featured a little humble restaurant that served what looked like the most amazing and beautiful and fresh seafood I’ve seen since I’ve been to Sicily. After the meal, they served this dish of pine nuts, honey and strawberries as a dessert.
It reminded me so much of the food in Sicily and the way I learned to enjoy dessert in a healthier, all-natural way when I was there that I immediately decided to try this combo myself. You don’t really need much of a ‘recipe’ other than having the best quality ingredients and putting them together, to taste. If you like it sweeter, add more honey; if not, add less.
I love this for suhoor, for iftar and/or for dessert any day of the year. If you prepare it and let it stand for about an hour at room temperature or a little longer in the refrigerator, you’ll notice the water come out of the strawberries and make the dish a little less thick, but it’s still quite enjoyable.
Alternate: you can make another version with almonds or walnut:
Any type of Moroccan tagine is something I’ll try and usually love, really any Moroccan dish at all, especially ones that you don’t even actually have to cook in a ‘tagine’ pot, per se. In this recipe I used Saffron Road’s Moroccan Tagine Simmer Sauce to make something I’d always wanted to try- a tagine with beef kofta (meatballs) and eggs. Doesn’t sound like something you hear about everyday, but since I love meatballs and eggs are a staple at both breakfast and dinner in my house, I couldn’t wit to finally give it a try. Here goes…and this is what you need:
Ground beef, bread crumbps, parsley, salt, pepper, eggs, sliced green peppers, minced garlic, onion and tomatoes, tomato paste and the all-natural, non-GMO Moroccan Tagine Simmer Sauce by Saffron Road.
To make the meatballs, mix the ground beef with an egg, parsley, salt, and bread crumbs.
Form it into one big ball, then break into smaller round balls- or you could shape them more oblong; that’s up to you.
I like them this way.
Continue to do this until you have used up all the ground beef. 1/2 pound of ground beef makes about 10 small meatballs.
You’ll start out by first sautéeing the green pepper, tomato, onion and garlic in a pan first. Then you’ll add the meatballs.
Cook the mixture until the meatballs are mostly brown, turning only when they’re ready (they’re easy to move around without sticking). Add the tomato sauce now, too, with a little water.
Add six eggs. I just crack them right into the pan. Let them cook for just a few minutes, long enough for them to ‘set’ or gel to the pan.
Now add the Moroccan Tagine Simmer Sauce.
Cover and cook until the eggs and meatballs are fully cooked, about 20 minutes.
Add parsley on top for garnish just before serving.
Use a spatula to lift out separate pieces to plate, otherwise, enjoy communally straight from the pan as it looks so much less messy than pulling out individual portions.
The meatballs are so nice and soft like this and the simmer sauce adds that wonderful smokey flavor you can only get with good, smoked spices and other ingredients that speak to its authenticity. It’s such a great recipe to make, especially now that it can be made a little more conveniently with the Saffron Road products like it.
What other ways would you enjoy the Moroccan Tagine Simmer Sauce by Saffron Road?
There are so many delicious recipes coming out of the North African country of Morocco and when I was there in the mid 90’s, I wasn’t able to try it because I was there for only a few short days during Ramadan and honestly don’t have any memorable food experiences while there. It wasn’t until I returned to the US that I started experimenting with Moroccan ingredients, asking more questions about the cuisine and started to experience it with Moroccan friends and at Moroccan restaurants in places like Washington, D.C., Cleveland, San Francisco and Chicago. Did I ever have Harira in those restaurants? No. This was hardly ever on the menus that I can remember, which is why I’ve only ever tried it from home cooks, and everyone seems to have their own take on it, so I created my own, too.
Maybe I enjoy the cuisine so much because it not only combines what I really love the most- that mixture of Mediterranean with Middle Eastern flavors- but also because the country itself was the very first place I ever heard the call to prayer, or the adhan. I visited Tangiers during a short trip while on holiday during a study abroad in Spain and it changed my life forever. I arrived frightened and scared at all of the tall tales I was told about visiting such a ‘mysterious’ place, but left with my heart open to an entirely new, peaceful and serene way of living.
And, as I just said, it was Ramadan.
While in Morocco as a student on holiday we did have a wonderful tour guide who took us to a restaurant that would serve us a lovely meal. I just remember feeling a little sad that it wasn’t more bustling with people at the time. Now I understand why.
Upon return to the States, I read everything I could about Moroccan cuisine and fell even more in love with the spice trail, the sweet and savory combinations and the love of local foods and beautiful agricultural lands that surround eclectic food-loving cities like Marrakesh, a place that is still on my travel destination wish list.
With this year’s Ramadan being in the summer, I wanted to find a light and healthy soup and was reminded by all the cookbooks I have about Moroccan cooking, that harira is the soup to make in this holy month where we’re fasting from before dawn to sunset time. The only problem is, there are countless varieties of harira recipes. Different regions make it different ways and even families make it differently, tweaking it according to their own preferences and perhaps local food availability. This could be frustrating for someone just wanting a traditional recipe, but I actually found it quite freeing- I, too, would make my own according to what I had on hand, what was preferable in our home, but sticking as close to the traditional taste and cooking method as possible. At the end, what was important to me was that I tasted Morocco in the dish and that it was nourishing after a long day of fasting. I don’t use meat or meat bones in this recipe, but you could; instead I use lamb broth which can be swapped out for vegetable broth and therefore made completely vegetarian.
That said, if this recipe isn’t how you’re used to having harira, I’d love to hear what different things you do in the comments below.
Here are the ingredients I used- and I’m well aware that I’m missing carrots, but I didn’t have them on hand and it came out wonderful just the same:
Tomatoes, chickpeas (cooked), onions, lentils (cooked), celery, olive oil, tomato paste, garlic, cumin, coriander, turmeric, smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, cinnamon, black pepper, sea salt, leafy greens mix (Swiss chard and some kale), fresh herbs (mint, parsley, cilantro) and orzo (I was out of vermicelli).
I did not put an egg in at the end of the cooking process, but you could definitely do that; it’s really very good that way, too.
Use a large pot or Dutch oven to make the soup, which serves 6-8 depending on soup bowl sizes.
Once it’s gently heated, add the onions.
And the chopped celery stalks, diced small.
Next, add the tomatoes.
Give it a stir and a chance to heat up and cook down a minute or two.
Now add the tomato paste.
and minced garlic.
salt and pepper and all the rest of the spices can go in now, in no particular order.
Just watch that turmeric- it stains! And somehow I always end up wearing white on the days I’m cooking with it, go figure.
Now the lentils- mine are extra cooked here, which is fine because I wanted them to be really soft (i.e. I let them cook a little too long on the stove- probably because I was back here blogging about something else).
Anyway, you can cook your own or just get the canned ones. Just don’t do what I did- they’re still completely edible but just not as pretty as if you cook them just right.
Then blend them right into the mixture of all the other stuff you put in the pot. It all starts to look and smell amazing at this point. I like to give credit to the tomatoes sand tomato paste, but that’s just my food favoritism coming through…
Now add the cooked chickpeas. These were canned, but you can (and should) cook your own, in my opinion.
Now add the herbs. These were fresh from my garden. I love saying that…
Mix it all up and that greenery makes it look lovely once again, and the aroma is captivating- it will make you feel like you’re traveling half way around the world right from your kitchen.
Now the really important stuff. Why? Because, broth is not easy to make nor is it easy to get. Granted, it’s not hard to make. But it’s time-consuming and requires quite a bit of babying the broth over the stove to skim off all the impurities and keep a watchful eye on it every so often so that it comes out just right. Believe me, I know. I have made my own- chicken, vegetable, duck, lamb, beef and seafood. Mostly I made them because they make your meals so rich and delicious and also because many commercial brands have gelatin (obviously from the gelatin created by animal bones), they are mostly not halal. Saffron Road has several halal varieties and I’m incredibly grateful for the lamb broth because it’s rich enough that it darkens up many of my dishes with that added layer of flavor that simply makes your food taste like it came from a fancy restaurant. Really.
I use one whole box for this recipe.
Let it all come to a boil, then reduce the heat to a medium flame and cook for 20 minutes.
The soup is almost done. You can skp the greens, if you don’t have them or don’t want them. I have so many on hand right now, alhamdullilah, that it was just necessary to add and a very delicious addition at that.
Stir it all in.
Now for the orzo. I love orzo and always have it in my pantry because it’s great for so many soup additions. I rarely buy vermicelli, which is the more ‘traditional’ noodle to put in harira. I say use what you’ve got and make it your own. Some recipes call for adding flour to the soup, but I find that the orzo, with all its starch, will thicken up the soup a bit at first and much more later if you let it sit, especially overnight. Let the orzo (or any noodle) cook according to its own package instructions. In this case, it was about 7-10 minutes.
I took the harira off the flame before it got too thick (that’s what it will do overnight unless you add more broth) because I wanted to eat it as a soup for Iftar.
It was so very delicious and so very special. Even though I’m not Moroccan, it felt like I was experiencing a true Ramadan dish, if not for my own family tradition, then for one that a whole country loves to have on their Iftar tables. That was special enough for me to consider making it.
Does your family or someone you know make harira? How is it different or the same as this one?
We’re in the thick of winter. It’s cold, icy, slushy, and the snow is absolutely beautiful from indoors, as long as you don’t have to drive in any of it.
It’s the time of year when you realize that on any given day, the snow storms could blow in and it’ll be a great opportunity to cook up some favorite comfort foods, bake a few new things or even try recipes that make you think of warmer, sunnier climates.
Funny enough, though, I still find that a walk outdoors gives inspiration for some recipes to cook. Those little berries on branches actually make me think of things like persimmons and tomatoes….
So, I get to thinking about warmer climates and dishes being made around the globe- here’s what I’ve come up with for a healthy dinner or even lunch (these make great leftovers). You just need chicken, olives, tomatoes, onions, potato, fresh mint, garlic, grated carrots, dried parsley, salt and pepper. The garlic, too. The key ingredient is the Saffron Road Harissa Simmer Sauce- yes, you can make your own but this is unique and so simple to use so I say, why not?
The fresh mint is kind of optional, but honestly I wouldn’t pass it up. It does make a difference.
Pick up your favorite brand of couscous to have on the side, although if you prefer rice or bread, that’s fine, too.
Basically, it starts off like many dishes with the all-important olive oil and the addition of the first ingredient. I also add a little bit of coarse salt to the pan so that it prevents the potatoes from sticking, which happens a lot.
In this case, however, I have finely chopped the potatoes so they finish cooking in time with the others. Next, I add the salt, chicken and shredded carrots then the onion. I used red onion but you can use yellow or white, as long as they’re diced.
I also add the diced parsley and white pepper at the same time, but somewhere around this time in the cooking process is fine.
Next I add 1/4 cup of water or chicken broth, which is much better.
It’s going to fill out the pan quite a bit. Now turn the heat to simmer and cover.
You’ll want to start the couscous in a few minutes- the quick cooking kind cooks really fast, but if you keep it covered once it’s done, it should stay nice and warm.
Cook for about 20-30 minutes, or until the potatoes are completely tender.
Et voila!
I like to serve it on large long plates with the couscous off to the side, although I’ve seen it served on top, too. However you and your guests prefer. The only thing that matters is that it tastes great.
Garnish with fresh mint for color and decor.
Any fresh mint left over? Make Moroccan Mint Tea, of course!
