kaye16's Reviews
7 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 7Sort by: Title 
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The Food Of Morocco
By Paula Wolfert
Ecco - 2011
Carrot and Golden Raisin Salad : page 77
I made this several hours before serving, rather than the night before and it was fine. The orange flower water was a nice accent and not overpowering.
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Another nice Moroccan salad. (I seem to be collecting these for some reason.) Easy to make. Good for compamy, picnics, etc., because it could easily be made the night before. Very tasty.
A half recipe would easily serve three.
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Neither of us are big fennel fans, so I was suprised how much we liked this. The fennel and lemon flavors blended well. The large chunks of preserved lemon peel seem to have disappeared into the sauce. The long cooking develops a thick tasty sauce with bright lemon flavors. Because I was making only a half recipe in a skillet that was probably a bit too large (the next size smaller is cast iron and wouldn't do at all with lemon, I'm sure), I added more than half the water, to keep it from cooking completely dry.
- For dinner for two, I used four thighs, rather than two whole legs.
- Quite some clock time required, so this isn't a weeknight dinner, but I'd guess it holds well for company.
- Nothing difficult in the preparation. It's easy to do the chopping while the previous step completes cooking with minimal attention.
- Served with basmati rice. I suspect plain couscous or some nice bread for soppy would be better, but rice was fine.
Definitely a do-again.
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Crushed Spiced Carrot Salad : page 78
By household consensus (two of two), this has leaped to the top of our favorite carrot salad recipe list.
Because I was not as organized as I should have been, I served it still slightly warm, rather than room temp. Nevertheless, it was still extra yummy and eaten up.
I might use slightly less olive oil next time. It wasn't bad as it was, but we bought thought less would be more.
The squeeze of lemon juice at the end (two squeezes in my case) really brightened the taste and made this extra special.
Very good.
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Grated Cucumber Salad with Oregano : page 73
We liked this quite a bit.
I made a half recipe with a whole cuke (I think what's called an English cuke in the USofA, but the only kind usually available).
Wrung out the grated cuke in a dish towel.
Used dried oregano, it being winter with no fresh in the garden.
The blend of tastes (cuke, lemon juice, oregano, olives) worked quite well.
This was a nice addition as a side salad.
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Preserved Lemons : page 21
Rating based on instructions. This is the second time I've made preserved lemons. I found the instructions in Wolfert's earlier book Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco to be clearer. Also, the earlier book offers an optional spice mixture to be added to the lemons as they're "brewing".
The newer instructions also say to refrigerate the lemons for up to a year. The older ones say that they will keep a year. Period. I can't imagine that such an acidic condiment needs to be refrigerated. At any rate, we've survived the last jar sitting on its unrefrigerated shelf.
I'd suggest using smallish lemons for this. It takes a lot of effort to jam five bigger lemons into a one-liter jar. And have lots of extra lemons on hand for the juice to cover. Both times it's taken much more than 1/2 cup.
I'm still not sure if I should use coarse- or fine-grained salt. I used coarse this time, but I see there's still quite a bit undissolved on the bottom of the jar. I can't remember if the first batch was like this with the finer salt.
(Ha, I've just noticed that the single lemon remaining in my older jar has the same kind of grayish tint that the jarred ones in the shop have. Not really gray, but the color is less vividly lemon yellow. I wonder when this happened that I didn't notice.)
I have the feeling that a "recipe" for preserved lemons is a bit of an overstatement. It's really more like a technique; probably easier to see someone do it in person. Quantities are all approximate.
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I made a half recipe. The tomatoes were a bit wimpy as they are at this season; the roasted peppers came from a jar; and (oops!) my one red onion was bad, so I substituted a shallot. Very tasty.
Another very good salad from this book.
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