Fun x Food x Friends - May 21st 2011
Friends on the day:
Jan, Jon, Lesley, Brian, Chris and Pete.
Food from Morocco
Jan and John, the seasoned travellers, had been to Morocco so we learned of their experiences.
Lesley and Brian provided starters which also stayed to become side dishes to Pete's veggie couscous with harrissa and a chicken kebab.
Jan "polished us off" with a medley of Moroccan Rice Pudding, Cinnamon dusted orange rings, and pomegranate seeds.
All washed down in the end with mint tea.
So to begin:
The aubergine and tomato salad was very moist without being runny, and not as tangy as the roasted tomatoes, which had a deliciously concentrated tomato flavour.
The sweet potato salad and the carrot salad had texture complementary to the aubergines and tomatoes and carried the herbs nicely with the slightly sweet taste of the veggies.
The fish cakes were quite striking (and popular) as a fish flavour amongst the preceding herbs and vegetables.
Hungry people needed the extra food from the bread, the Khoubz being soft and good for mopping up juices,
whilst the Kesra had lots of spice flavour from the fennel and caraway (substituted for anise).
Lesley gets the ***star*** prize for typing out the recipes and publishing them in booklet form.
And then we turned to:
Cooking: The Fairtrade Palestinian couscous was moistened with hot water and then steamed above the veggies together with some extra dobs of butter.
The veggie stew included chick peas (cooked on the day after an overnight soak), chunky carrots and turnips, sweet juicy shallots, and celery;
the hard veg being “sweated” in olive oil with rosemary before stewing.
The vegetable stock was a cheat – it was made using Kallo organic veggie stock cubes.
Chicken chunks were marinated overnight in a herby oily juice and skewered before being cooked in the oven. The 'erbs were purple sage, parsley, lemon balm, bronze fennel and oregano.
N.B. 50 gm dry weight couscous per person plus an allowance for moreishness is fine for a meal with several courses.
Eating: The big grains of Fairtrade Palestinian couscous, had a great flavour and were additionally nice because of the butter giving a hint of salt.
The veggie stew had lots of aroma from the oil and herbs and mixed textures (shallots were really soft and sweet).
The Chicken kebabs looked strange as they were coated with bits of oily herb, but they had cooked to be nicely succulent.
The harrissa had a good condiment flavour and was not too (spicy) hot, which is not always the case.
So feeling that only small space had been reserved for pudding:
We all agreed that rice pudding was a great idea taking us back to school days. But tonight we had grated nutmeg as well!
The sweetness of the rice pud was well tempered by the sharpness of the pomegranate seeds in their juice,
and the pairing was further enhanced by the cinnamon flavoured, juicy slices of orange.
During and after we had:
- Mob of Emus (Red)
- A nice rosé
- A white wine
- Mint tea
- Limoncello
With thanks to Lesley for providing a proper teapot, we tried Jan's Moroccan mint tea which was made with green tea and a strong minty infusion.
It was liked by some, disliked by others, possibly over-sweet, but overall very interesting.
On the other drinks, Mob of Emus is lovely smooth medium sweet red, (Peter didn't try the rosé), and the white was mundane.
Limoncello (Italian!) was enjoyed by those who tried it, it being 28% alcohol with an intense lemony flavour.
So feeling replete or even podged: SMILES ALL ROUND:
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