Assalamo alykum & welcome to Chapter 9 of Ramadan An Event to Share. Today we have with us Sakina Boulal  from the blog Sakina’s Lifestyle .  Sakina is from Morroco , but resides in Oman. Today she shares with us the Morrocan celebration and food habits of Ramadan with the recipe of morrocan Harrira & Mkhamer or Batboot

I’m sakina from Morocco with a multicultural background living now in Muscat, Oman, passionate of cooking as I have done my studies of international culinary, I have published a cookbook: “bachelor’s cooking” available in amazon.com. Now I’m a hospitality Trainer and lecturer.

Ramadan is the Muslim’s holy month that focus on spirituality, charity, good will, forgiveness, extra prayers……However, the tradition and culture are different from place to another.  In Morocco, Ramadan is well celebrated and it is all about preparations starts 10 or 15 days ahead, you will see the markets full of ingredients and with  things used to celebrate the holy month.Preparation start with ingredients being washed, dried and grinded to prepare Chebbakia, briwates and sellout which are special pastries prepared for Ramadan that is a must at the Iftar table. Traditional clothes specially made to celebrate the 1^st day of Ramadan and 26^th of Ramadan laylat Elkader. Every home in Morocco must purchase a new utensil of the table of Iftar, specially a traditional pottery piece like a bowl, wooden soup spoon.The Ramadan starts with a cannon sounds that will accompany us during the month at the al Maghreb when to break the fast and Emsak the start of the fast. During the Ramadan, the families are visiting each other’s and exchanging food between others. The Iftar which is called Ftour (breakfast) is normally composed of soup, Sweets, Bread, Boiled eggs, dates, milk or Juice, tea and Coffee; some people add a tagine that can be with meatballs, meat and vegetable, chicken or fish.

Laylat  Elkader is celebrated differently in Morocco, except the sound of prayers and the smell of Bukhoor everywhere, the celebration of the newly fasting children as a bride with theHenna, traditional clothes and make up. With start the recipes of all the dishes mostly prepared at the Ftour table as below:

Morrocan Harrira

When we say Harira, we say Morocco, it is our famous and most popular tomato soup with lentil and herbs that can be vegetarian or non vegetarian. It can be prepared during the whole year but it is a must soup dish that found in each Moroccan table during Ramadan.

preparation time: 20min                 cooking time:  1hour      serving: 6 people

 Ingredients:

• 100 g meat cut into small pieces
• 3 Table spoon of lentils
• ½ cup of chickpeas soaked overnight and pealed, Or  can
• 4 big tomatoes blended
• 1 small grated onion
• 1 Tbsp of chopped celery leaves with the stem
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley and coriander with the stem
• 2 tbsp of tomato paste
• 5 ltr of boiled water
• 2 tbsp of fine vermicelli

Spices Used

• salt to taste
• 1 tea spoon of ginger powder
• 1 tea spoon black pepper
• pinch of cumin
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric
• 1 teaspoon of paprika

Thickening:

• ½ cup of all-purpose flour
• 2 cups of room temperature of water

To Serve

• 2 tablespoon of lemon juice
• 2 tablespoon finely chopped parsley, celery and coriander leaves
• lemon wedges
• dates

Preparation

1. Boil the lentil for 5 min so will lose the black color
2. in a pot add the meat, lentil, chickpeas, leaves, onion, tomato puree, tomato paste and all the spices.
3. Add the boiling water, stir, cover the pot, cook on high heat till all boil than put it on medium heat and let it till the chickpeas and the lentils are cooked
4. Add the vermicelli and let it cook
5. Now we will thicken our soup
6. Combine the flour and water till it’s well blended
7. Add the mixture slowly by stirring till the soup gets thicker as you can control the texture or the soup by adding more or less.
8. Out of the fire, add the lemon juice and the finely chopped leaves.
9. Check the seasoning
10. Serve it with lemon wedges and dates

Mkhamer or Batboot

Batboot or Mkhamer is a type of flat bread cooked in the pan fryer can be stuffed before or after cooking; usully in morocco we stuffed them before cooking with cheese, mixed vegetables or meat, or we serve them plain with jam, butter, olive oil and honey. This bread can be used to make a great sandwiches or a shawarma. This the Moroccan pita bread.

preparation time: 60min        cooking time 15 min      serving: 15 bread  

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup of All Purpose Flour
• ½ Cup Fine Semolina
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• 1 teaspoon of Yeast
• ¾ Cup Warm water

Preparation:

1. In a bowl, mix the flour, semolina and salt
2. Add the yeast and then water
3. Combine all the components, you will get a soft dough, don’t get scared it’s fine
4. Cover the dough for 10 min to rise
5. Kneed it and make it a ball
6. Flatten about 0.5 Cm with dust of flour so no sticking; cut into circle at the desired size, you can use a glass or a cutter.
7. Cover the little circles for 15 min to rise.
8. In a hot pan put you little bread for 2 seconds and turn, then cook it, it will rise which means its cooked and easy to open.
9. You can eat them with butter and honey, Or you can stuff them with meat, chicken shawarma, vegetables or cheese to enjoy them .

To know  more about Sakina  connect with her on Blog,  Instagram.