These days I am finishing work on a book about Moroccan cuisine.
To do this, I traveled to Morocco several times.
I must tell you that three products are very popular in Morocco,
these are lamb shanks, these are chicken wings and legs and quails.
But Moroccans love quails with some kind of crazy love.
And they are very easy to prepare.
Look, poured some water, poured some oil.
You can, in principle, first oil, and then water, it does not matter.
We fall asleep onions. And onions, as always in Moroccan recipes, a fair amount.
Here I have 8 quails.
For each quail, almost 100 g of onion, diced.
And immediately fall asleep all the spices.
As for spices, I wanted to talk to you separately.
Here is turmeric. Without turmeric, I must tell you,
almost no dish is prepared in Morocco.
About half a tablespoon.
Zira, who is loved in Uzbekistan, in India, in Iran, is loved in
the same way in Morocco.
Without zira, too, few dishes are cooked.
In principle, cumin could be taken ground.
And that might even be better.
See how much, a quarter tablespoon for 8 chickens.
That's not a lot.
Not a single festive dish in Morocco is cooked without saffron.
If the dish is festive, and quails are undoubtedly a festive dish,
then there must be saffron.
Cinnamon. Moroccans love cinnamon much more than I love it.
For them, cinnamon is also a symbol of the holiday,
a symbol of some very good taste.
Such a small cinnamon stick will not significantly change the picture,
but it will definitely leave a shade of Moroccan cuisine.
Usually Moroccans use black pepper,
but it is for the preparation of quails that they take white.
Do you know, why? Quails should remain light.
So like this, and about a third of a tablespoon of white pepper.
You don't worry. A fair amount of quails, 2 kg.
It will not be too sharp, it will be as it should.
There is something surprising in the fact
that in Morocco they take fresh parsley directly and fry it along with onions,
because we are used to sprinkling ready-made dishes with parsley, and Moroccans fry.
And if fried, then, in principle, you can use dried parsley.
It can be fresh, but in winter weather, when the parsley is what it will be, it is
better to take dried parsley, the one that was collected in the summer.
Well, I have a fresh one, and thanks to "Kamis" I also have a dried one.
But there is one spice in Morocco that even "Kamis" does not sell yet.
This spice is called, speaking in Arabic, a bowl of chorus.
It's actually incense, it's the resin of the cedar tree.
Here is the incense, which is mainly used in church services,
is mined in Oman from another tree. And here is the cedar.
And these resin droplets are used in Morocco as a special spice.
Firstly, they give a slight coniferous flavor,
and secondly, they do not allow the products to boil soft.
Quail is a very delicate product. And if you cook it for a long time,
and Moroccan dishes are prepared, as a rule, for a very long time.
Now you will see and understand it all.
You can add a choir bowl and you'll be fine.
Well, one more ingredient, in general, not a spice, but no less fragrant.
Honey. Put a spoonful of honey.
You know, this all already smells incredibly delicious,
but we have to add another very fragrant
and very interesting ingredient, almonds.
Peeled, blanched, that is, clean almonds with skin removed.
Smells incredibly delicious. And look how beautiful it is.
And it’s even a pity to mix this beauty, but you have to force yourself.
And now we lay out the quail neatly.
The quail is a delicate bird.
You remember that from the very beginning, when we first started cooking,
I first poured water, then oil, and then added onions.
Nevertheless, everything is already fried.
And this is the Moroccan way of cooking.
Everything is prepared under the lid.
And constantly, as it boils away, a little water is added and added little by little.
At the same time, the heating is very strong.
Water is both evaporated and added at the same time.
It's time to insert a bouquet of parsley for beauty and salt.
To understand how much salt I took from the mill,
I first grind without removing the lid.
It's about half a tablespoon. I think it's not enough.
We must take at least the same amount.
And now, when the tagine has everything you need, you can close the lid.
Yes, yes, I did not make a reservation, this is tajine.
Of course, the original, authentic tagines
that have been used since ancient times have always been ceramic.
But now Moroccan cooks cook in ordinary pots,
in copper, maybe cauldrons,
or in large, spacious aluminum pots,
and they only serve in tagines. And everything is prepared under the hood.
Well, at least we have a real tagine lid.
And here's another subtlety.
Usually, when cooking under a lid, the fire is reduced to a minimum,
but not in Moroccan cuisine.
Here the fire must remain as it is.
Sometimes it will be necessary to lift the lid and pass a spatula there from below
so that nothing burns anywhere, and constantly add water.
Once again, the main technique: boiled away, added, boiled away, added.
And so many times, until it becomes unbearably tasty, and until it is ready.
I am here, while it was boiling, of course, I turned back and forth 2-3 times.
But now it already smells so that you can’t turn around,
don’t wait for anything like this, there’s no power.
I want to show you what dishes are in Morocco.
Look what a work of art.
Such works of art are usually sold to tourists there.
You see, some kind of metal decorations, everything is very bright.
You can serve fruits, but Moroccans usually eat either from such a dish,
which in fact is no different from the Uzbek one,
an ordinary pottery dish, or directly from tajine.
I think let's try this with you.
Look at how the quails turned out.
This breast is scorched.
Well, what about the sauce? And I'll probably warm up the sauce again.
I will now explain to you why.
Look, there is some part of the sauce that is more baked,
which has already begun to caramelize,
and there is that part of the sauce that has remained yellow, light.
See, the color of the sauce is getting prettier.
And if you stir it actively, then these pieces of onion,
they disappear, they dissolve, and the sauce becomes homogeneous.
Now everything is ready, now we serve. The almonds that were cooked
along with the quails from the very beginning
became soft,
but these almonds have just been lightly fried in butter,
crispy and fragrant.
I will decorate the dish on top with these almonds.
So the dish is easy. All that is required of us
is not to be too smart, but to trust the experience of good Moroccan chefs
who shared this recipe with me, culinary luck.
And, of course, bon appetit!