Rockin’ Moroccan

I had a pound of South African sausage sitting in the fridge, so I had to make use of it. It's supposed to be very good barbecue, but the weather is horribly frigid and I'm not ambitious enough to brave the great outdoors. So, I looked up South African recipes and tried to find something to utilize this. They were almost all very heavy, not unlike southwest or Creole cooking, but with some Indian spices thrown in. The recipes that were appealing were Moroccan, so I went with that instead.

The sausage itself is new to the butcher shop and no one there could tell me what was actually in it, so I had to try it to find out for myself. I found many recipes for boerewors, a South African sausage, which is a combination of beef and pork flavored with pepper, coriander, nutmeg, thyme, allspice and cloves. As far as I can tell, this sausage had similar if not the same seasoning and is crucial to the flavoring of South African Black Eyed Peas. This recipe is top notch in my books and also gave me an opportunity to use up some of that enormous bunch of fresh bay leaves I purchased. Beans and sausage are a good pair, in my opinion, and the flavor of all of those spices and the aroma that filled the kitchen is wonderful. I definitely noticed more of an aromatic to the bay leaves in this dish, but as far as I'm concerned, bay leaves are as essential to a dish as celery. They do make a difference, but I'm not sure I'd ever notice if it was left out.

I took another stab at making quinoa after my horrible blunder with Apricot Quinoa Pilaf. I've been informed that it's essential to rinse quinoa extremely well before cooking because of treatment and husks and some other such thing that might actually be toxic to eat. Good thing my previous attempt was like inedible rancid orange zest so I didn't consume anything toxic! The Moroccan Quinoa was edible, but just seems like couscous that takes longer to prepare and is more expensive to buy. I'm not sure what makes this labelled Moroccan cooking other than maybe the turmeric. I'm not sure I'll ever prepare this again, but it was improved by topping it with a Moroccan Vegetable Tajin.

In looking up tajin I'm not quite sure what defines it. If it's supposed to be the traditional name for tagine, then this recipe bears no resemblance to that. At any rate, it's basically tomato and cumin infused root vegetables with chick peas. It's what I should've made instead of Bengali Squash last month, because that was bland and dry. The flavor is pleasant, like a mildly Indian-flared Tomato Soup. It's a good blend of vegetables. It just pales in comparison to the black eyed pea dish that I didn't have much interest in eating it.

I started making Rusks as a sort of after dinner snack/dessert, only to realize that I'm supposed to keep them in the oven for twelve hours. I've learned this time and time again, but rule number one of cooking from a recipe is always to read the recipe before trying to prepare it. As far as I can tell this is the African version of biscotti and is fully intended to be soaked in a strong cup of coffee. After 20 minutes of baking, they're still not exactly light and fluffy. I soaked one that has yet to be dried out to nothing in rooibos sweetened with honey and thought it was similar to a biscuit crossed with biscotti. Shannon said she actually preferred it to a Buttermilk Biscuit. To me, that's saying a lot, since I absolutely love biscuits. I suppose the rest of the rusks will be ready in time for my morning coffee now.