Jewish (Moroccan) foods (part 2)

Honey, I'm home.

Phyllo dough, powdered sugar, almonds, chocolate and honey.  These are the main ingredients you're most likely to find in Moroccan sweets.  There are also Moroccan petit fours and they are not to be confused with the French variety filled with cake and marzipan.  They usually have some sort of nut (walnut, pecan, almond) as it's center and surrounds itself with crystallized sugar or honey and caramel to harden it. 

Moroccans love their honey and basically drizzle it on many recipes like it's a condiment.  It's used in Adafina (aka Dafina or Hamin) or the Sephardic cousin of "Cholent" (a Jewish stew that is usually simmered overnight for 12 hours or more, and eaten for lunch on Shabbat day (the Sabbath). Source: Wikipedia).  This is a desserts blog, but I'm sure Adafina will pop-up later on... love those chickpeas!

So you've heard of Moroccan cigars.  Well those are typically filled with spicy ground beef.  The dessert variety are also called cigars, but these are filled with almond paste or chocolate.  Yes, of course, they are also drizzled with honey!

More honey, you ask?  Well there's always Shebakia.  This is where the honey meets the deep fryer.  This hard-to-pronounce delicacy is more of a cookie topped with sesame seeds and mixed with rose water.  The dough is deep-fried in vegetable oil and shaped into a flower-like, flavor-full bouquet of comfort.  The color is a dark amber, due to the added turmeric and cinnamon (turmeric in dessert, yup).  

Another Moroccan favorite is the Fijuela.  It's fried dough and honey again, but has less ingredients, so the color remains more beige.  The shape is different too and is flash-fried to remain flexible as it's rolled into kind of a hay wheel.  

All delicious, but you won't find these desserts in the healthy aisle.  Okay, so carbs, gluten and type II diabetes aren't that common in North Africa, but these desserts go great with mint tea.  When visiting Marrakesh, though, make sure to ask for fresh "nana" (spearmint).  It'll wake you up... after the heavy meal followed by the fried desserts :)  

Chanukah's coming up and we should talk latkes and soufganiot next time.  Not to forget Moroccan beignets (or doughnuts) dipped in... you guessed it.

Got Kosher? Visit thekosherkitchen.com for ways to order.