Moroccan Feast

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Moroccan Feast

May 10th 2011 11:19

It was Moroccan Feast time in our round the world food travels last Saturday night, our first for 2011. For my part, I was in charge of bringing along a vegetable side, and from the very outset I knew exactly what I was going to make.

Going back a few months now, when we first started talking about a Moroccan dinner, I found this recipe at a local homewares store, sitting proudly alongside their tagines for sale, and I knew it was what I wanted to make. I picked one up and diligently took it home, giving the little card pride of place on the fridge door. Weeks and months went by, and soon there were other recipes, some torn out of magazines, others printed from blogs, which were also vying for attention on the fridge door. In a fit of cleanliness one weekend, I pulled everything off the fridge and put all the recipes neatly in the corner with the recipe books. Of course, I lost the recipe when I came to find it a few weeks later, but after thoroughly going through the pile, I did come up with it again.

But, before I go into the recipe, I am sure you all want to know about the other delicious dishes that were involved in the Moroccan Feast. For entrée we had some Moroccan ‘spring rolls’ with lamb mince, onion and Moroccan spices. To go with the vegetable pie for main, we had a chicken tagine, with a wonderfully ‘chutney-fied’ sauce and some grilled Moroccan flavoured lamb chops – also delicious (and cooked beautifully, despite the willowing smoke coming from the kitchen!) For desert we had two different varieties of gazelle horns – one with hard, crescent shaped pastry and an almond meal filling, and the other, made from puff pastry with a ricotta, apricot and pistachio filling. These were served with some thinly sliced fruit salad, finished with a good number of pomegranate seeds and a Moroccan ‘sauce’ which featured flavours of cinnamon and orange blossom. To accompany the meal we were served some Moroccan mint tea, a wonderfully refreshing drink which is sweet and satisfying. The whole thing was declared a success, and we whiled away the hours chatting and thinking about our next stop on the food safari map. The boys were suggesting Argentinia (can you sense the primal instinct for meat?!) while the girls were suggesting Japan. What do you guys think – any suggestions from the blogosphere?

Moroccan Pie - serves 10 (adapted from the Wheel&Barrow recipe card)

250g mograbieh (large pearl couscous)
1 butternut pumpkin, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes
olive oil
seasoning
5 cardamon pods, crushed
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
2 cinnamon sticks
1 leek, finely sliced
200g red onion, chopped
3 medium eggplant, peeled and chopped
2 red capsicums, cut into chunks
1 green capsicum, cut into chunks
1 preserved lemon, pulp discarded and finely sliced
handful fresh chopped parsley
handful fresh chopped mint
1 packet filo pastry, defrosted
175g butter, melted

Method

Cook the mograbieh in boiling salted water for 10 minutes. Drain and set aside. Preheat oven to 175 degree C.
Roll the pumpkin in the oil, season and place in the oven for 30 minutes until softened and golden.
In a pan, heat some oil and cook spiced until fragrant. Add the leek and onion. Once they begin to colour, add a litte more oil and stir in eggplant. Cook for a few minutes, then add capsicum. Cook for a minute more then add herbs and lemon. Stir everything through and remove from the heat.
When the pumpkin is ready, add half of it to the pan, and with a potatoe masher, mash the other half. Add mashed pumpkin to the rest of the ingredients, along with prepared mograbieh. Allow to cool.
Butter the tagine, and the inside of the lid. Buttering a sheet at a time, line the tagine with about 2/3rds of the filo pastry, draping about 1/2 of each sheet over the sides.

Put the filling into the prepared filo pastry and fold it back over the filling and brush with butter. Buttering each sheet, cover with the remaining filo, making sure to tuck it in neatly.
Refridgerate without covering until you are ready to cook the pie. Pre heat oven to 175 degreeC. Bring the pie from the fridge two hours before you want to eat it.
Cover the tagine with the lid and cook in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove lid and cook the tagine for a further 20 minutes.