I enjoy writing about food, especially the traditional dishes, maybe because I am getting older and being more conscious of losing the truly authentic recipes that our mums and grannies used to cook for us. Writing about food enables me to share few of my mother's recipes, so needless to say where my passion for food comes from! My mother was not just a great cook, but also an exceptional baker and a loving lady who could cure all the troubles of one's life with a simple smile, warm hug and few magic sweet words. She was so creative and with whatever she had on hand, or any left overs, she miraculously came up with a delicious dish. She used to spend hours cooking in her kitchen, a big variety of delicious dishes, that the whole family thoroughly enjoyed. No one cooks like my mother did! My mother's specialities were “Roasted chicken and Moroccan pie”, known in Morocco as "Djaj Mhamar and Bastila". Even if she is no more with us, she is still known for her two fabulous dishes, that no one is able to duplicate! She used to make two versions of the popular classic Moroccan roasted chicken:
1-Sweet version, served with fried almonds along with caramelized prunes and sesame seeds.
2-Sour version, including preserved lemon and green olives sauce.
The way my mother made this dish, either served with sour or sweet sauce: "Oh, my yum", all I could say “Yarbi Salama”, which roughly means “God have Mercy!”. Whenever she made that dish, I couldn't stop eating it and that sauce in which the chicken was cooked, was out-of-this-world, delightful, and flavourful, and the meat was unbelievably moist inside and tasty, it was to die for! I still remember our house got filled with that wonderful aroma of slow cooked chicken over a charcoal brazier, called in Moroccan-Dialect "Majmar” or “Kanoon"!
Khadija El Mary
