Whole Fish - Authentic Moroccan Cooking
Morocco has access to such abundant resources of fresh fish, so one will find many authentic Moroccan recipes using a whole fish.
Tonight my oven is the host of one such whole fish recipe. While what I am making is not exactly an authentic recipe it is based on one. I am using one of many Moroccan Fish Tagine recipes I have with my partner’s request to try it with a whole fish.
The ingredients: I start with 5 peeled whole potatoes whic I cut into cubes about 1 inch square, add to that the following vegetables all chopped into pieces of about 1 inch two green peppers, two yellow onions, three peeled carrots, two fresh tomatoes, and the last thing is about six cloves of garlic. Since he loves his Moroccan fish with some heat I toss in a few whole very hot red peppers, in this case a gift from a Filipino friend.
Spices include turmeric (or saffron if you wish) lemon pepper, white pepper, Hungarian paprika, crushed red pepper.
I roast the vegetables in water and a few drizzles of olive oil mixed with the spices. The whole thing is done in a roasting pan with the above liquid just deep enough to cover all the vegetables.
I start the oven on 450 degrees and slowly lower it about 50 degrees every half hour until the vegetables are tender but not mushy or falling apart. I finish the dish with the oven at 325 after placing the whole fish (tonight it’s a medium size red snapper about 8 inches long and about 5 inches from pectoral to dorsal fin) in the middle of the vegetables and adding a bit more liquid. When the fish skin is slightly crisp and the  flesh appears to be white and flaky you’re done.
I’ll post pictures of it plated for those who want to see how colorful and impressive this simple recipe looks on the table. I grant those who would complain that the way I described the preparation and cooking process is not a recipe that anyone could follow except me, but I promise it will be added to the authentic Moroccan cookbook in a recipe format and will pictures of it being prepared step by step.
Pita bread is a must to sop up the juice, but other than that it’s a complete meal with nothing else necessary unless you wish to add some salads before you serve the fish.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Comments Off
Filed under: Moroccan Fish Tagine, Moroccan food, authentic Moroccan recipes, authentic moroccan cooking, moroccan cooking, moroccan cuisine, moroccan recipes, moroccan tagine, tagine
Zaben – white almond nougat. 