Beef with couscous and dried apricot

Inspiration from far away

Inspiration for this recipe, beef with couscous and dried apricot in orange sauce comes from Moroccan cuisine. Moroccan cuisine is a real exotic on the plate.

Those who came, remained and passed through this beautiful country affected its cuisine.

It was so in the case of both the colonists and the immigrants.

What are these basic elements of Moroccan cuisine

From the first settlers Berbers (translation- free men, who inhabited the North Africa) they received couscous.

Arabs brought spices and dried fruit. Moors brought olives and citrus. Turks brought them cevapi, just like they did to us.

The most common spices are dried ginger, caraway, salt, black pepper and turmeric and they are a part of almost any couscous. Cinnamon is in fruit salads. Parsley and coriander are the basis for any course.

As for dried fruit and nuts, the most famous are date palms. Dates are a real Moroccan specialty.

What do they eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner?

Breakfast most frequently consists of bread, olive oil, tea or various Moroccan pancakes.

They eat using only their right hand and only the first three fingers (thumb, index finger and middle finger), and the rest of them are considered dirty.

Lunch is the most important meal during the day, when everyone gathers round the table and the lunch begins when the head of the family says ‘Bismillah’ (in the name of God). They serve everything at once. The meal consists of a great variety of salads, tagines and couscous. For dessert, they usually have a fruit plate and some tea.

Dinner is light, it is usually some kind of soup, or some lunch leftovers.

Moroccans like coffee and cafés. Cafés are for men only, but in some towns, women are allowed to visit them as well.

Traditional coffee is black, but nowadays, they drink it with more or less milk.

Some of the famous courses are:

• Couscous is Berber dish made of fine semolina covered with vegetables. It is usually made with seven different kinds of vegetables: carrot, pumpkin, zucchini, string beans, cabbage, tomato and beet.
• Tagine is Berber stew of meat and vegetables, which they traditionally cook in concave dirt pot which enables steam to rise, condense on the inside of the free walls and fall onto meat and vegetables.
• Pastille comes from Andalusia, it is kind of pastry (like the pie crust) with chicken or pigeon meat, with a dash of cinnamon and sugar. Because it is very difficult to prepare, it is made only for certain ceremonies.
• Harira is the most famous Moroccan soup with tomato and beef.
• Zaaluk is a kind of cooked vegetable salad. It’s a vegetarian dish which is easy to prepare.
• Muhaalabia– just like every woman in Serbia has its own recipe for the little vanilla cookies, in Morocco, they each have one for muhaalabie. Cold and creamy rice pudding with pistachio, some honey and they use sweet cream for decoration.

Beef with couscous and dried apricot

Beef, because Moroccans use any meat but pork in their cuisine.

Couscous because it’s part of their tradition.

Dried apricot because they’re part of Arabic culture.

Orange sauce for exotic flavor.

Broccoli because…