MOROCCO: Orange & Almond Basbousa

In conjunction with our focus on Morocco week, as well as making their Morocco Lapbooks the kids also had fun making this lovely Moroccan cake.

Here is the recipe and method:

Ingredients:

• 115g butter, softened
• 1 orange
• 100g golden caster sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 150g semolina
• 100g ground almonds
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• icing sugar, for dusting
• greek-style yoghurt to serve

Syrup:

• 300ml orange juice
• 150g caster sugar
• 8 cardamom pods, crushed

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4. Grease and base-line a 20cm/8 inch cake tin. Grate the rind from the orange, reserving some for the decoration, and squeeze the juice from one half. Place the butter, orange rind and caster sugar in a bowl and beat together until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs. In a separate bowl, mix together the semolina, ground almonds and baking powder, then fold into the creamed mixture with the orange juice. Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, or until well risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes.

2. To make the syrup, place the orange juice, sugar and cardamom pods in a saucepan over a low heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and simmer for 4 minutes, or until syrupy.

3. Turn the cake out into a deep serving dish. Using a skewer, make holes over the surface of the warm cake. Strain the syrup into a separate bowl and spoon three quarters of it over the cake, then leave it to stand for 30 minutes. Dust the cake with icing sugar and cut into slices. Serve with the remaining syrup drizzled around, accompanied by yoghurt.

Yusef grating and squeezing the orange

Samira weighing out and creaming the butter

Basma giving it a mix

Amina giving it a mix too

Samira making the orange syrup

Sliced and ready to eat

Bsahtek, insha’Allah!

 

Ramadhan Recipes: Algerian Chorba

Ok, a little late, but here is my recipe for Algerian “Ramadhan” Chorba. Chorba (pronounced Shorba) is an Arabic word meaning soup but the recipes vary largely from country to country, region to region.

This recipe was taught to me by my mother-in-law (may Allah bless her) when she came to visit this summer. It is usually eaten at least once a week and almost every day during Ramadhan. It quickly became popular in our house with the kids asking for it on a regular basis. And because it’s so simple to prepare and cook, I don’t mind cooking it often. Plus it’s nice and healthy too.

As a mother of three daughters, masha’Allah, I am keen to teach them how to cook good food using fresh ingredients from scratch, and fortunately my daughters are also keen to learn. My eldest daughter is 6 years old and is already eager to get started in the kitchen, masha’Allah. I think this recipe is very easy for her to learn to prepare because most of it involves grating vegetables which is not hard to do at all.

So let’s get started:

First, add a couple of tablespoons of oil to a large pan.

350-500 gms Diced lamb.

Add the lamb in bite-size pieces to the pan.

Finely chop a large onion (it doesn’t have to be a red onion, but we like red onions).

Add the onion to the meat.

Grate into the pan 2 large courgettes.

On top of that grate one large potato.

Then grate in one small carrot.

Add in 1/4 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp black pepper and 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon.

On top of that, add a handful of fresh coriander leaves.

Finally add in some pureed tomatoes or a small jar of Dolmio (or similar to that).

Mix up the ingredients and heat gently for 10-12 minutes.

Cover the mixture with water until the pan is at least half full. The ingredients should be floating freely. Cook on a gentle, bubbling heat for 45 mins.

Add in a generous handful of vermicelli and some chickpeas (tinned chickpeas) NOTE: If you are using dried chickpeas add them in at the beginning).

Allow to cook gently for a further 10 mins.

Serve accompanied with borek.

BISMILLAH AND ENJOY!

Ramadhan Recipes: Algerian Borek

Asalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu …

OK … Being married to an Algerian it was only a matter of time before I became obsessed with Algerian food so I’m going to share with you a borek recipe that is cooked pretty much on a daily basis during Ramadhan. It is traditionally eaten with chorba (soup).

As a mother of three daughters, masha’Allah, I am keen to teach them how to cook good food using fresh ingredients from scratch, and fortunately my daughters are also keen to learn. My eldest daughter is 6 years old and is already eager to get started in the kitchen, masha’Allah. 

First of all, add a tbsp of oil to a pan and gently start browning some lean mince. The leaner the better. Can be lamb or beef.

Finely chop an onion and add to the mince.

 

Finely chop some fresh parsley and add to the mince and onion.

Stir the mixture and when the mince is cooked, turn it off and leave to cool. It is important the mixture is cool so that the borek doesn’t break.

Lay out the borek sheet onto a clean, dry work surface.

Spread some soft cheese onto the bottom edge of the borek sheet.

 

 

Spoon some of the mince mixture onto the sheet. (NOTE: at this point traditionally, Algerians would add a few sliced green olives on top of the mince but I don’t like olives so I have left this ingredient out)

HARIIIIIIIIISSSSSSAAA!!

 

Squeeze on a little harissa (chilli paste).

 

Finally add a little more soft cheese.

 

Fold in the edges of the borek sheet making sure they overlap slightly. 

Start to roll the borek making sure to keep the roll tight.

 

 And it’s ready to cook in shallow oil.

 

Drain excess oil using napkins and serve.

NOTE: Once the borek are made they should be covered with cling film and stored in the fridge until they’re ready to be cooked.

BISMILLAH AND ENJOY!