Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Menu from Morocco: Kebab Koutbane

So my first menu is from Morocco and last night I made Kebab Koutbane, a typical Moroccan dish that is also an excellent hors d'oeuvre to serve at any time (Sandler, 1970).

The ingredients I used were:
1lb of beef steak
1/2lb of beef suet
1/4 of finely chopped onions
2 Tbs of parsley
1/2 of olive oil
1tsp of salt
1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper
1/4tsp of garlic powder
1tsp of ground coriander
1/2tsp of ground cumin
I yellow pepper(optional)
I green pepper (optional)
I red pepper (optional)
I packet of bamboo skewers

I went to the local grocery store in state college to buy the ingredients and everything seemed simple and easy to find and purchase except for the beef suet. Fortunately for me, there was a butcher at this grocery store and he directed me to the section were the beef suet were kept.

Kebab Koutbane is simple and easy to make. I began by cutting the beef and the beef suet into small cubes. Then in a large bowl, I mixed the olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, ground coriander, and ground cumin together. This blend of spices and oil is referred to as the Moorish Marinade. I then blended the beef and suet cubes with the marinade and I allowed the mixture to marinate for about 4 hours. This gave me enough time to go to the office as I had a meetings with my research advisor and another research assistant on our project.

After my day at the office, the beef and the suet had marinated well but prior to threading them on the skewers, I cut the remainder of my onions as well as the yellow, green, and red pepper i purchased into small cubes. Now, the traditional Kebab Koutbane recipe does not require the use of yellow, green or red pepper, but since i love pepper, I included them in my recipe.

I threaded the pieces of beef in my own unique style of threading. Sometimes I alternated the beef with the peppers, sometimes the beef suet with the peppers. I think the beauty of this recipe is to do what makes you happy. If you are a meat lover, thread plenty of beef before the peppers. If you love peppers, do the same. Now this is also the unique part of this recipe, you are suppose to grill or broil using a hot fire grill. Well since i didn't have a grill, I used my oven and an aluminum pan. I turned the oven to 450 degrees and I broiled the Kebab for about one hour.

When they were ready, I arranged them on a serving dish and I garnished with fresh parsley sprigs....




(Recipe from Bea Sandler's The African Cookbook, 1970)

2 comments:

  1. looks good Juliet,I'm sure it tasted good too. I can't wait to see what other recipes you whip up. Best of luck with your dissertation.

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