Charmoula is not trendy

plus the softest bread to scoop it up

….it’s certainly not a new ingredient in some new hip restaurant

RECIPE BELOW

One big thing you find everywhere in the Mediterranean world (and not only there): pounding salsa’s in a mortar. Chermoula or charmoula, is no exception. A Moroccan (and Algerian) marinade/salsa that you have to pound until sweat is rushing down your cheeks!

No fancy kitchen machines, no fancy nothing, no cookbooks in those Moroccan kitchens. But wisdom of hands that know how to move.

Typically charmoula is a marinade for fish, such as the sardine toasts that i love so much. Cleaned fresh sardine filets, rubbed generously with charmoula, then opened and ‘glued’ to each other, thus forming a toast not of bread but of sardines. You dust them with a little semolina and fry them in hot oil. Pile a stack of those on a plate and life is great I promise you. Only a side of finely chopped red onion and tomato makes it complete and naturally some Moroccan bread torn to pieces. You do not only wish to be on a simple street terrace in Tanger, you feel you are!

That is the kind of chermoula I’m talking about. The typical simple one, not hip nor trendy just as it is. Yes charmoula chermoula, it’s all fonetic and all the same root. But… of course I’m like you and everyone, my kitchen machine sometimes takes over the mortar. And with a simple chermoula, it’s perfectly fine.

And now let’s do this: you need a bunch of fresh coriander, sweet paprika powder, cumin, salt, garlic, olive oil and Moroccan khal: the typical vinegar in a plastic bottle. Don’t worry if you can’t find it: lemon juice or just a plain vinegar will do too (but not a wine vinegar, somehow that would not feel right).

It could typically go like this: you mix let’s say 1 bunch of coriander with some sea salt and 1-2 cloves of garlic, then you add 1/2 a tbsp of cumin powder (make sure it’s fresh and not stale) and 1 tbsp paprika powder, taste and add more if you like, same with the vinegar and you end with olive oil. It’s all about balance: adjust and taste all the time! it should be quite pungent but nothing overpowering too much. You could even use some hot paprika, although in this recipe I’m using a spicy oil apart. It needs to be quite salty as you will use it as a condiment or marinade. This is the classic version and really the best way to start.

Now that you got this, you are ready to dive deeper into the delicious charmoula universe.  

Because there you are: charmoula just entered your life. Now you can use it in endless ways, with chicken, with other kinds of fish, inside fish patties, and yes with a whole lot of vegetables. You can play with it. Use it raw, use it in a stirfry or in the oven. Add maybe some preserved lemon to it. But don’t mess with too much.

I threw it in in this delicious dish/meze salad, actually it’s even a whole meal in itself.  A kind of country baladi Moroccan salad. Fried cauliflower and cooked chickpeas tossed generously in chermoula and fresh grated tomato. Drizzeled with a fiery chili oil or harissa as you like.

And i just got a crazy delicious hot pepper paste from my mother in law from Morocco, where they live part of the time. So we had that on the side. And look at those olives she brought too!

And it’s time for the real Moroccan fork and knife: soft pillowy semolina batbot breads. Baked in the pan, really easy. To scoop up everything.

Fried cauliflower chickpea salad with chermoula & fluffy batbot

1 big meaty ripe tomato
1 head of cauliflower
oil, to fry
400 g of cooked chickpeas
1 batch of chermoula like the one above (although I mixed in 2 cloves finely chopped and fried golden as a little twist!)
1 tsp of chili flakes and 1 tsp of tomato puree

1 Grate the tomato and mix with some olive oil and salt.
2 Divide the cauliflower into florets.
3 Heat the oil until a piece of bread turns golden. Fry golden in small batches and drain on kitchen paper.
4 Mix the cauliflower, chickpeas, tomato and chermoula
5 Stir loose the chili tomatopuree a dash of water some olive oil and salt .
6 Serve the salad with the chili oil and fresh bread, extra olives and pepper paste or harissa. You could even serve this with an extra soft egg on top if you like.

The fluffiest Batbot bread baked in the pan

a blissfully soft, pillowy dough….

Cooking with glasses is very logical, just use the same glass in one recipe

4 glasses of semolina
1 tbsp. yeast
½ tbsp. sugar
1 glass of lukewarm water
1 glass of lukewarm milk
1½ tbsp.  milk powder
2 tbsp. olive oil
½ tbsp. aniseed
½ tbsp. fennel seed
fleur de sel

1 Mix the semolina with the flour in a bowl. Add the yeast, sugar, water, the milk, the milk powder in another bowl and leave for a while until it fizzes.
2 Add half of the flour mixture to the wet mixture, stir well and let stand again for 5 minutes.
3 Fold in the rest of the flour mixture and the olive oil, aniseed and fennel seeds and ½ to 1 tablespoon fleur de sel. Knead very well for 10 minutes. Divide into 10 to 15 equal balls and press and roll out thinly on a flour dusted surface, place on a clean tea towel. Place another clean tea towel over them and let rest for 15 minutes.
4 Heat a frying pan on medium heat (no high heat) and fry them in a few minutes on each side until nicely puffed up, lightly browned batbots, kind of pitas.
You can tear/slice them open just like a pita. Eat straight away with the chermoula salad. Enjoy, bsaha!