Recipe

Kibbeh is to the Middle East what stampot is to the Netherlands. It is a dish with which you make a kind of ‘cake’ of bulgur with (sweet) potato or pumpkin for example and an intermediate layer of fried vegetables, nuts, herbs, spices. Here is a delicious hearty version with leeks and potato. Very surprising in taste. You could almost eat it as a pancake.

Red peppers become so deliciously sweet if you simmer and braise them for a long time. It makes a tagine dish so delicious. Here the peppers still get help from medjouldadels, the kings of dates. In recent months, since our last visit to Morocco, I have started to use even more dried fruit in dishes. With potatoes, in kibbehs and also here with the bell pepper. Truly a find of Moroccan and Middle Eastern cuisine. The pine nuts give the earthy character and the coriander seed in abundance gives it its own signature. It was ‘the favourite’ of many guests when we had this in the menu at the beginning of September. Now at your home.

The sweetness of the beet, the sour/sour of the pomegranate molasses and the sourberries, the nutty, earthy and crunchy of the pistachios… And the fresh bed of yogurt make this an ultimate salad that everyone really likes. Even those who are not so fond of beets. We ate this earlier this year in a restaurant in Marrakech and remembered it because it was so tasty.

I had been looking forward to including this dish in the menu for a long time. But each time I felt that it did not fit into the composition of the main courses, until last week. It was the perfect moment. And they were also terribly tasty, according to all the guests. Success assured.