As the second course of our 4 course Moroccan meal this past weekend, I present the Trio of Moroccan Salads; these salads came out of our second cooking class at Maison MK. Our Chef, Omar El Ouahssoussi ran a very professional kitchen and both JT and I were equally impressed; colour coded cutting boards, one for meat and one for vegetables!
The class started out meeting the chef and the guide (not sure why, our chef spoke near perfect English) and we headed out to the souks to buy the food for our class. Our first stop was the vegetable vendor, where we bought onions, carrots, aubergine (egg plant) and courgette (zucchini). Then off to the spice vendor; I thought this was for our entertainment as the kitchen would be well stocked with the required spices, but the chef actually bought spices to give us as a gift! Then we stopped at the meat vendor where we bought our lamb and lastly the fresh herb vendor where we picked up some mint. But I digress, back to the salads.
As our starter we have chosen to prepare the three salads that Chef Omar taught us to make, Aubergine, Courgette and Carrot Salads. We will serve them as close to the way Chef Omar served them to us. While preparing the salads, the one thing Chef Omar mentioned is that in Morocco, it is better to over cook than under cook, so the salads are all cooked vegetables richly flavoured with spices. I imagine this was originally done to rid the food of bacteria and if the food had spoiled a bit, the spices would make them palatable…but not in our case, the salads were unbelievably delicious! Over cooking reminded me of an article Greg sent over about a month or do ago from the New York Times. Click here for an interesting read.
Chef Omar generously gave us printouts of each of the recipes we cooked; sadly the translation is not as good, but I will fill in the gaps with my memory!
Aubergine Salad
Ingredients:
- 2 medium aubergines, chopped evenly into 1 cm or 1/2 inch cubes with the skins on (recipe calls for 1kg, which is too much)
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 3 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- Salt and paper to taste
- 1/4 cup each finely chopped fresh cilantro and flat leaf parsley.
Directions:
- In a large pot cover the chopped aubergine with water, add the lemon juice and stir well (the lemon prevents it from turning brown)
- Cook over a medium simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the aubergine is soft.
- Drain water well and return to hot pot and cook off as much liquid as possible.
- Add garlic, tomato paste and spices and simmer for another 10 minutes, mashing the soft aubergine with a fork. Mix in both oils.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Once cooled to room temperature, add the fresh cilantro and flat leaf parsley and mix in well. Serve cold or at room temperature, shaped into little molds garnished with arugula and spinach.
Courgette salad
Ingredients:
- 3 smallish courgettes, coarsest grated it cut into small even cubes
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp unsalted butter
- 1 tsp white vinegar (to help maintain the bright green colour)
- Salt and paper to taste
- 1/4 cup each finely chopped fresh cilantro and flat leaf parsley.
Directions:
- Melt butter in a medium sized frying pan and stir fry the courgettes until soft.
- Add the vinegar, garlic and the spices.
- Mix in both oils and season with salt and paper to taste.
- Once cooled to room temperature, add the fresh cilantro and flat leaf parsley and mix in well.
- Serve cold or at room temperature, shaped into little molds garnished with arugula and spinach.
Carrot salad
Ingredients:
- 3 large carrots cut into small even cubes
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- Salt and paper to taste
- 1/4 cup each finely chopped fresh cilantro and flat leaf parsley.
Directions:
- In a medium saucepan, cover carrot cubes with water and simmer until they are soft.
- Strain water off and return to pan and cook the remaining moisture off.
- Add the lemon juice, garlic and the spices and cook for about 5 minutes longer (carrots should be cubes but soft enough to squash – but don’t squash them), remove from heat.
- Mix in both oils and season with salt and paper to taste. Once cooled to room temperature, add the fresh cilantro and flat leaf parsley and mix in well.
- Serve cold or at room temperature, shaped into little molds garnished with arugula and spinach.
And I’ve finally got all the photos up on Shutterfly, so if you’re interested (and I am beyond flattered if you are), you are welcome to view our humble vacation photos in this link.
Hi Eva!
Got your link via Fiveeurofood.com. You have a great blog!
I really like how you present the 3 salad..genius! And you’ve chosen the healthier version of making aubergine salad.
You made them just the way we would make them back home in Morocco! If only I can have some Moroccan olive oil where I live now :(.
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Thank you so much Nada, how kind of you to say. We really enjoyed our cooking courses in Marrakech, they taught us a lot about Moroccan cuisine. I use my Moroccan olive oil very sparingly, to make it last! !
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I love salads, but I have never seen a trio salad like this one! It’s an awesome combo, and I wished they do this in restaurants. I’ve always find it hard to choose the salad for my meal and wished I could have a few at one go!:p
Now, if only they have this…. 😀
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Thanks Christy. The salads were entirely different than anything I’ve had, but the were tasty; add a couple of shrimp and it’s a meal!
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Just finished eating the aubergine salad which I made as part of our dinner tonight! Delicious! Thanks for sharing it 🙂
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Wow! That’s so cool Charles. I’m very glad you enjoyed it!
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Those salads look very interesting. I meant..I never had any salad prepared like those. Love the appealing shape of trio.
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The over cooking of the vegetables sure was unusual, Angie. The raw arugula greens helped with texture.
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Oh and glad you liked the article!
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It was an interesting take on the traditional cookery methods of these old countries, Greg. I suspect Britain got their bad wrap on food for much the same reasons.
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Ha, I was reading the comments and thinking oh I don’t know what undated butter is either! You got me! These look just wonderful.
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Thanks Greg. Spellcheck doesn’t work out well if it’s a real word. We’ve had some really interesting substitutions!
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Eva, what a spectacular presentation of the salad trio! Looks gorgeous. I will definitely head over to shutterfly to view your photos… thanks for the link.
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Thanks Kelly. I generally prefer my salads uncooked for better fibre, but these flavours were so unique, it more than made up for it.
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Fantastic album. It is so beautiful there. There were pictures that looked like what I imagined Morocco looked like and others that were totally surprising. Thanks for sharing these Eva! It was fun to take a little photo vacation to get my day started. 🙂
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Thanks Kristy; it seems like a lifetime ago! I cannot believe how fast time is racing by.
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Yay! I’m heading over to check out your photos right now. I can’t wait! I love the presentation of these salads Eva. Just gorgeous! 🙂
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Thanks again, Kristy. Chef Omar actually presented in more of a leaf shape, but the idea was similar – I didn’t have a leaf shape mold.
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Great photos, Eva! And I’m going to try the trio this week. Love eggplant and zucchini. Never thought of making a carrot salad, but it sounds great too. Thanks!
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Thanks Michela. It’s a little odd that they cook their salads but it was a nice deviation for us. You could probably add some beans or tofu to make a complete meal. Not authentic but it would fit the flavour and texture profile.
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Such a great trio! I’d welcome any one of the 3 but seeing the all 3 presented like this must have generated a number of oohs & aahs at your table. Isn’t arabic architecture, especially around and inside the mosques, beautiful? The designs so intricate and it’s hard to believe that the calligraphy is, in reality, writing.
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Thanks John, our friends really enjoyed the meal. It’s true about the architecture of the Mosques, unbelievable detail for this era! Did you know that there are only two Mosques in the world that non-Muslims can visit? Both in Morocco!
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Aaaaah, photos! I thought they’d never come 😀 No no, I realise you’ve had a lot to do. I’m going to go and waste the next hour looking at your photos! Can’t wait 🙂
The salad looks amazing too (salads even) I’m not sure about the courgette one, but I think I’d adore the aubergine one and the carrot one (I’ve really been out of a courgette mood recently). By the way, what is undated butter?
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Charles, I’m surprised that with your level of cooking knowledge that you don’t know what undated butter is.
Typo! Unsalted! 🙂
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Ahaha, ok, that explains a lot! My first thought was “maybe it’s unsalted” but then it seemed like an odd typo so thought I’d inquire. Was wondering if maybe it was butter where the manufacturer refuses to stamp an expiration date on it, so you just need to use your nose to *guess* when it’s gone rancid 😉
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Thanks for your comments on the photos, Charles! I didn’t even know Shutterfly could do that!
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No worries Eva. You mean the comments? Well, it tried to make me create an account but then I noticed I could log-in with Facebook 😉 Did you ever try using Flickr? I don’t use them myself for photosharing (use to though), but they’re considered quite good because when they compress the images to optimise them for the web album they do it in a way which doesn’t compromise image quality as much as other sites!
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Yes, I meant comments Charles! I choose Shutterfly years ago because my yahoo photo sharing site was shutting down and it was one they offered to migrate all my albums for free. I wanted a site you didn’t have to register on to view the photos as I was unsure of how savy my relatives in Budapest were; I didn’t want them to freak out over the registration process. Shutterfly has an amazing custom photo book feature, and they keep sending me thank you’s of free photo books (trip advisor too)! I haven’t paid for a photo book in months!
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