Moroccan

By Food & Wine
Updated May 09, 2017
Delectable Moroccan recipes, including a lamb tagine with green olives and semolina pancakes.
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Trout with Preserved Lemons, Raisins and Pine Nuts

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In Morocco, the mountains of the Middle Atlas region are the only source for trout. "It's so high up, you can go skiing there," Paula Wolfert says. "Parts of the region look like Switzerland." This light, brothy dish reminded her of one she had at famed French chef Michel Bras's restaurant in southwestern France. In fact, she uses his method here, poaching the fish gently in a preserved-lemon broth so the texture stays silky.

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Fresh Tomato and Caper Salad

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When guests sit down to the dinner table, Moroccan hosts often set out small salads to eat with bread or on their own. Paula Wolfert found this salad in Essaouira, along the Atlantic coast. She says it's rare to see capers in Moroccan salads, even though the country is one of the world's leading suppliers.

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Moroccan Carrot Salad with Spicy Lemon Dressing

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Susan Feniger likes to make this salad early in the day, so the carrots marinate a bit in the dressing. Harissa, the North African chile paste, adds fiery heat.

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Hanger Steak with Charmoula

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This dish was inspired by Moroccan lamb kebabs, which are marinated in charmoula—a tangy sauce of olive oil, garlic, herbs and spices. Here, Mourad Lahlou uses the sauce for hanger steak. He salts the meat a day ahead; the simplified recipe calls for salting the steak right before cooking.

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Moroccan Chicken with Apricot-and-Olive Relish

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This grilled chicken dish transforms the sweet-savory elements of a Moroccan tagine—apricots, olives, couscous—into a light meal. The marinade and relish are both flavored with eucalyptus honey, which has a deep, herbal flavor that's delicious with the smoky chicken. Plus, the honey caramelizes on the grill, which makes the chicken extra-crispy.

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Chickpea Tagine

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Christine Manfield drew from her travels to plan the menu at her Universal Restaurant in Sydney; she created this fragrant stew after a trip to Morocco's High Atlas Mountains.

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Moroccan Chicken-and-Couscous Soup

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A mainstay in Morocco, steamed couscous topped with a very liquid stew is undeniably delectable, but not exactly quick. We've found, though, that combining all the ingredients in a soup yields similarly sumptuous results in a much shorter time. The dish is decidedly spicy; if you prefer less heat, just reduce the amount of cayenne.

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Moroccan Couscous-Stuffed Chicken Breasts

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The unusual addition of dried apricots provides a fruity twist to an otherwise savory dish.

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Moroccan Carrot Salad with Oranges and Medjool Dates

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This gorgeous, lightly sweet salad is terrific with roasted chicken and great for a buffet.

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Fiery Moroccan Lamb Merguez

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Hank Shaw likens sausage-making to jazz: "You have all these standards, but there's room for improvisation." With this spicy merguez from North Africa, adjust the seasonings to vary the flavor intensity and heat.

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Lamb Tagine with Green Olives and Lemon

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When making most stews, cooks typically brown the meat before braising it; here, Ethan Stowell skips that step, which simplifies the Moroccan recipe and gives the lamb a buttery, melt-in-the-mouth texture. The dish is vibrantly flavored with ginger, cumin, coriander, olives and lemon; the broth is delicious over couscous.

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Moroccan Chicken and Potato Salad with Olives

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A savory lemon dressing with cumin, paprika, ginger, and oregano gives this salad an exotic flavor. Serve the salad warm or at room temperature.

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Moroccan Olive Bread

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Berber women sell loaves of dense and crusty bread in market stalls throughout Morocco. In this recipe, thickly slicing the olives before placing them on the unbaked bread allows the briny oil from the cut sides to seep into the dough.

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Tangier Street Bread (Kalinté)

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This bread is Tangier's version of socca, the chickpea flour-based pancake of Nice, France, but it's much thicker and more custardy, like flan. Moroccans eat it by the slice on the street, sprinkled with cumin or smeared with harissa, but it's also delicious spread with cold salads, like Fresh Tomato and Caper Salad.

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Beet, Pickled Cherry and Crispy Shallot Salad

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Moroccans often start a big meal with several small salads, including one with marinated beets. Mourad Lahlou combines roasted beets with mizuna to create the large salad here.

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Slow Cooker Moroccan Chicken with Apricots, Olives and Almonds

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This stew of sorts is best paired with a warm, flavorful couscous.

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Sautéed Chicken with Celery-Root Puree and Chestnuts

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Mourad Lahlou poaches fresh chestnuts sous vide to accompany chicken breasts and buttery celery-root puree. F&W's adaptation calls for store-bought chestnuts that are already peeled and cooked.

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Skirt Steak with Moroccan Spice Rub and Yogurt Sauce

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Moroccan cuisine is known for lamb, not beef, but Grace Parisi loves the way a Moroccan spice rub tastes with a good, juicy skirt steak.

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Moroccan Roasted Chicken

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A Moroccan take on a classic worldwide dish, this variation is full of spices.

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Shrimp-and-Vegetable Tagine with Preserved Lemon

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When Mourad Lahlou first came to the U.S. from Morocco to study economics, he taught himself to cook because he was too broke to eat out. He had never heard of famed Mediterranean-food writer Paula Wolfert until she walked into his first Bay Area restaurant over 10 years ago. "She knew more about my food than I did," says Lahlou. He then began using her 1973 cookbook, Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco, to help him make recipes like this spiced shrimp stew; the dish is on his menu in San Francisco.

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Merguez-Spiced Lamb Shanks with Chickpeas

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Tanya Cauthen likes flavoring supremely tender braised lamb with a North African spice blend that includes cumin and fennel seeds. Lamb shanks are great for serving at dinner parties, since they look so dramatic, but lamb stew meat—cut from the shoulder or the leg—is equally delicious. Or, for a less gamey flavor, substitute beef short ribs.

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Semolina Pancakes

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Every morning, cafés in Marrakech serve these crêpes, called begrhir, drizzled with honey or spread with apricot jam. Cooking the crêpes on only one side leaves a lacy network of tiny holes, perfect for catching the sweet toppings; the fine semolina provides a lovely sandy texture. Paula Wolfert adapted this recipe from one in the book La Pâtisserie Marocaine by Rachida Amhaouche.

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Chicken Tagine with Artichoke Hearts and Peas

Tina Rupp
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To give this Moroccan stew flavor without much fat, chef Joël Robuchon simmers it in a spiced broth. Artichoke hearts add a lovely spring flavor; they're also one of the best vegetable sources of antioxidants.

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Moroccan Lamb and Vegetable Couscous

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This classic couscous is loaded with slow-cooked lamb and poached vegetables, and spiced with generous amounts of cumin. Generally speaking, couscous isn't really spicy (though harissa, the traditional, fiery chile-garlic North African condiment, can add a bit of a bite), which means it can partner well with a rich, firmly structured red wine such as Merlot.

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Moroccan Lamb Stew with Noodles

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Paula Wolfert learned a chicken dish called chaariya medfouna from a private cook named Karima. "Chaariya means noodles," Wolfert says. "Medfoun means a surprise or something hidden.” In Paula’s adaptation, the steamed noodles cover tender chunks of lamb spiced with cumin.

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