Jennifer O’Connor
You can find ideas for creative living in many places. I can spend an hour in a yarn or fabric store just looking at the colours and touching the different materials.
A trip to the art supply shop can take just as long, with all the paper, paints and inks ready to become something new. Something about a certain shade or the weight of a button can inspire a new project.
I also love to create in the kitchen and am always adding to my scrapbook of recipes. Recently, I’ve been trying recipes from Morocco: A Culinary Journey with Recipes from the Spice-Scented Markets of Marrakesh to the Date-Filled Oasis of Zagora by Jeff Koehler.
“The food of Morocco is rich, sensual, and colorful,” Koehler writes, “sophisticated and artfully presented. From the vast array of small plates offering fresh and cooked ‘salads’ that begin or accompany meals, to the delicate sweet meats and, inevitably, mint tea, this North African kitchen not only delights but surprises.”
Koehler’s recipes are easy to follow and use a variety of ingredients for delightful flavour combinations. You can make a simple meal for yourself, a special dinner for two or host a whole dinner party.
Beginning with a description of the culinary history of the country and an overview of its various regions, Koehler then lists some key ingredients: almonds, dried apricots and olives, as well as khlea (dried, seasoned strips of beef) and smen (clarified and preserved salted butter). The recipes that follow are divided by primary ingredient (eggs and poultry, “couscous) or menu heading (street food, sweets and desserts, drinks).
One weekend, I decided to make a complete meal — appetizer, main dish and dessert — from the book. I began with beet salad with green onions and fresh herbs, a simple dish that “will delight even those who rarely eat beets.” You’ll want to when they’re in a dish like this.
Besides the red root vegetable, green onion and black pepper, you’ll need lemon juice, olive oil, parsley and cilantro. Most of your prep time will be spent boiling the beets (45 minutes) and allowing the flavours to blend together (1 hour in the fridge).
Next, I served Chicken tagine with preserved lemons and plives. I already had many of the ingredients (butter, yogurt, garlic, plus the parsley and cilantro I’d bought for the salad). The only item I had to seek out was preserved lemons. You can make your own by canning them with salt — Koehler offers a recipe — but the process takes one month. I found a jar for $5.99 at St. Lawrence Market.
I only needed one lemon for this dish, but I’ve looked for other ways to use them because they’re so tasty. (Vegetarians will find options here too, although I suspect they’ll mostly rely on salad and soup combos.)
To finish the meal, I prepared orange with orange flower water and cinnamon. This is a simple, flavourful dish (do add some sprigs of mint, as Koehler suggests). Later, in the interest of research, of course, I made sweet couscous, playing around with the recipe by skipping the raisins and replacing the powdered sugar with a teaspoon of honey. Couscous is now a dessert ingredient in my house.
Inspired by this revelation, I’ll come up with other creations, for sure.
You can contact Jennifer O’Connor at thriftyflair@gmail.com or follow her on Facebook.
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