Hajars Wicked Sauce Tomatish Food

HAJAR'S ZWINA BEEF KEFTA

Steps:

• Mix all ingredients together in suitably sized bowl.
• Form the meat into small patties; about as big round as your thumb and forefinger when you form a circle from tip to tip.
• Pan fry, grill, broil, or BBQ until fully cooked. Press a bit flat before cooking as you want to avoid much browning.
• I most often use the young beef for this and it is always served at home or eaten out with; sauce tomatish, salad, potatoes frites, bread (for dipping into the sauce and scooping up a piece or breaking a piece in half as it is always in a communal bowl/platter), a dish of marinated olives and a pot of mint tea along with your cold beverage. Serves 4.
• You can freeze this cooked or prepared to cook. Freeze it as you would any hamburger patty or meatball. Freeze in a container or seperated with wax paper wrapped in cling film, foil, or a ziplok type bag. This is a freindly freezer!

HAJAR'S HARCHA

Steps:

• Place the semolinas, salt, and sugar in a mixing bowl. Use your fingertips and work in the softened butter. Gradually add approximately 1/4 cup water to make a firm dough. Knead it just until it comes together into a dough.
• NB: You can use cornmeal for this should you not be able to find the proper semolinas with okay results. You may need to add a bit of liquid though.
• Roll out the dough to about 1/2-inch thickness. Cut into rounds. I make mine failry large though they can be made any size from two inches round upwards. Mine are probably three to three and a half inches around. Roll the trimmings again and continue to cut until all of the dough has been used.
• Brush a large (non-stick) skillet with softened butter and put onto medium heat. When the pan is hot, add as many rounds as wilt fit with a bit of space between them. Cook for 1 to 3 minutes on each side. You don't want them to color much, just to become firm and very lightly browned. You can serve these hot, warm or room temperature though are always best eaten the day of making. Serve with butter and your choice of honey, sugar, powdered sugar, cinnamon but always serve with butter. Cooking time listed is to cook the entire batch if small ones are made.
• See the African Forum for my column on breads and my regular columns; Hajar's Morocco for Foodies.

MOHAMED'S MEAN LAMB CUTLETS

Steps:

• Brown the seasoned chops in 1 tablespoons of the oil in a skillet. Set aside.
• Sauté onions, garlic, in a stewing or large pot in the other 1 tablespoons of oil until onions are translucent.
• Add the cooking salt, pepper, ginger and paprika. Sauté with the onions and garlic for 1 minute.
• Add the chops to the pot along with the water and drop in the parsley and coriander parcels. Add tomato (grated as we do here or chopped) and stir being careful not to dislodge the herb packets.
• Bring to the boil. Cover and simmer on low heat 30 minutes. Uncover and simmer on medium low heat another 15 minutes.
• Place the chops onto a platter and cover with the brothy sauce. Serve with bread, salad and a cold drink. Follow with a pot of mint tea. P.S. Yes, Mohamed and I serve sauce tomatish with this too! We love the stuff, what can I say?!

MOROCCAN GRILLED PEPPER AND TOMATO SALAD (CHAKCHUKA)

Steps:

• Using the oven, grill the uncut peppers on full for 10-15 minutes until the skin starts to blister and turn charcoal black. Let cool and peel off the softened flesh, cut and dice into small squares about 2cm in size. Throw the core of the pepper and seeds away.
• Slice the preserved lemon into thin strips lengthways.
• Drain and chop the tomatoes into bite sized pieces and in a large frying pan combine with all the olive oil.
• Add the garlic with the paprika and salt to the fry pan and cook over a medium heat for 15 or 20 minutes until the ingredients become dry and solid. Stir the mixture, taking care it does not burn.
• Now, add the peppers, the preserved lemon, and the parsley.
• Cook for a further 5-10 minutes to really thicken the sauce. Serve hot and enjoy!

HAJAR'S WICKED SAUCE TOMATISH!

Steps:

• In a skillet or heavy bottomed saucepan place the oil, onions, garlic, parsley, coriander, salt and pepper. *Then* turn your burner or flame to low and saute until soft and translucent with no browning at all, stirring occasionally. Add paprika and allow to blend over heat for 1 minute.
• Add grated tomato, stir to blend.
• Turn heat up to med and add tomato paste. Stir and blend with other ingredients for 30 seconds. Add water and stir well. Add lemon juice to suit.
• Turn heat to med-high and bring to a bubble adding more water to reach your desired consistency. Here is personal choice time. Acceptable sauce tomatish can run from nearly "chicken broth" thin to as thick as canned tomato sauce and just a bit thicker. I like mine on the thicker end of the scale though sauce tomatish is never so thick that it doesn't slide nicely from the spoon.