The Scent of Orange Blossoms: Sephardic Cuisine from Morocco [Hardcover]

I just made Kitty Morse's Mint tea from her book Scent of Orange Blossoms. For years I have been digging and chopping away at a large patch of spearmint that takes over a section of my yard trying to get rid of it. Now after making Kitty's mint tea I am looking for another empty space to plant more. A simple infusion of fresh spearmint leaves, a little green tea and some sugar provided am amazing treat.

A celebration of Jewish cuisine that came from the interaction between Jews and Moslems in North Africa and Spain. When the author Kitty Morse led eating tours of Morocco, the highlight was a meal at the villa of retailer Danielle Mamane in Fez el Jdid. Both women have collaborated on this well designed and interesting book of recipes. I recommend it for its recipes, design, stories, and photographs. In addition to recipes, letters between mothers and their newly married daughters, and introductory stories, the authors list menu plans (with recipe page numbers) for the Jewish holidays, as well as the more Moroccan Jewish celebrations of La Mimouna (Pesach period), Hillula (visiting sages), and Kappara (pre-Yom Kippur). For Jewish weddings, there is the customary flan (t'faya). For Mimouna, the recommended recipes are Chicken with Orange Juice; Sephardic Mafleta pancakes; and couscous with raisin and onions confit. My favorite recipes include Walnuts with Pomegranate Seeds (which uses a heavy dose of orange blossom water); a cucumber with lemon salad; fish filets made in Fez style (with tomatoes, potatoes, and garlic); Fresh Fava Bean Soup with Cilantro for Passover; Chicken Couscous with Orange Blossom Water for Yom Kippur; Harira or Lentil and Chickpeas Soup (for Moslem Ramadan and Jewish Yom Kippur break-the-fasts); Meatballs in Onion Cinnamon Sauce, Chicken with Saffron and Ginger and Onions; and Honey Doughnuts for Hannukah. There are Fish Fillets a la Fassi (Fez style); Dafina Shabbat Stew (skhina); Chicken with Garbanzo Beans in Tetouan style; and Tangier style Potato Stew that uses preserved beef (kleehe). The Tagine of Beef uses carrot and turnips as well as cilantro, garlic, ginger, and tumeric. The Cornish Hens with Fresh Figs uses 12 figs and 12 threads of saffron; the Chicken with Onion and Tomatoes uses toasted almonds, ginger and eight threads of saffron. Preserved fruits, lemons, and kumquats play an important role in the cuisine. There is a recipe for Sephardic Shabbat Challa, and the Top of The Shelf spice that is often used; it includes a blending of cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, allspice, mace, salt and ginger. La Maguina, a vegetable and meat frittata, is sliced like meatloaf. Some unique soups and salads are a white and chard soup a la Tangiers; a fennel salad; a tomato and bell pepper salad with garlic, paprika and sugar; fava bean salad with cumin; and tomato with preserved lemons.

The Scent of Orange Blossoms is a lovingly assembled cook's tour of a regional cuisine that obviously has special meaning for the author. All eight of Kitty's cookbooks have been beautifully written and illustrated, but this one, with its mouthwatering recipes and pages of luscious photos by her husband Owen, is truly a feast for the senses.

I spent three wonderful years living in Morocco and although I learned many recipes from Moroccan neighbors and some from Kitty herself, I have found in her latest book new combinations of spices, fresh vegetables and meats that I can't wait to try. Most of the Sephardic families had left Morocco when I lived there in the seventies and most of their recipes had gone with them. Kitty's meticulous research with Danielle and the wonderful stories and letters that illustrate this tome make it as much a history book as a cook book.

More than anything else, at this time of great conflict and crisis in the world, The Scent of Orange Blossoms is a wonderful reminder of how Jews and Arabs can live (and cook) together in peace and harmony as they did for centuries in Morocco.

I must go now and begin preparing my preserved lemons (p. 20).

Salaam and shalom.