Salat al-Jazar

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Salat al-Jazar 
Moroccan Carrot Salad

Recipe shared by John Rivera, along with these notes:

Photo Credit: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U2SRG2QLMtc/TkKVhLe1EAI/AAAAAAAABGc/FtYWpPt6wko/s1600/The_Mediterranean_Sea_Sardinia.JPG

From various internet sources:

 Situated on the northwest coast of Africa, Morocco is one of three countries which make up the Maghreb ("furthest west"), the other two being Algeria and Tunisia.

Morocco's reigning monarch, King Hassan II, likens his country to a desert palm: "rooted in Africa, watered by Islam and rustled by the winds of Europe." A poetic description for a place which can appear mystical, magical and foreboding all at once.
While spices have been imported to Morocco for thousands of years, many commonly-used raw ingredients are home-grown: mint and olives from Meknes, oranges and lemons from sunny Fez, prickly pear from Casablanca and shad from the Sebou River. Also cultivated in Morocco are pomegranates, almonds, dates, walnuts, chestnuts, honey, barley, cherries and melon. Seafood is abundant along the Atlantic coast while lamb and poultry are raised on higher ground. 
The Moroccans are quick to point out that the best meals are found not in the restaurants but in the homes. In this land of good and abundant food, the emphasis is clearly on preparing your own. It is worth mentioning that women do virtually all of the cooking in this very traditional country.
Both fresh and salt water fish grace the Moroccan table. While it is commonly prepared as a stew, it is sometimes fried and often stuffed. A popular fish tagine, which is prepared with potatoes, tomatoes and green peppers, shows a strong Andalusian (Spanish) influence. The Moroccans believe that in a tagine, the sauce is everything!

Along with this, two books have piqued my interest in Morroccan food. The first was one Ron sent me, a volume in the Time-Life Foods of the World series titled A Quintet Of Cuisines which included a section on Maghreb Cooking. The second was a cookbook on Mediterrenean Cooking that my beautiful wife gave me a few years back.

 It is from the Mediterrenean cookbook that I made this recipe, a delicious carrot concoction. It's simple, but wonderfully rich in it's final form. Here's how:

3 large cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons plus 1/4 cup of lemon juce (up to 3 lemons, total)
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon sweet paprika (see notes below)
1 to 2 tablespoons fresh, chopped cilantro
1 pound carrots
2 cups water
Lemon wedges for serving

In a mortar, crush 3 large cloves of garlic with about 2 tablespoons lemon juice; about half a lemon if not too juicy. Turn this into a paste. Then, in a small separate container, pour about 4 tablespoons olive oil, then add the juice of another two lemons. The amount of lemon juice should be just shy of a quarter cup, and this means juicy lemons. Add 1 scant teaspoon of all three spices, cumin, cayenne and sweet paprika. Mix well until it forms a thick liquid. Then after rinsing, chop up about 2 or 3 tablespoons of cilantro and add it to the sauce mixture. Combine this with the garlic/lemon paste and set aside.

Meanwhile cut 1 pound of baby carrots in half, lengthwise. You can use regular carrots if you want but baby carrots are very convenient. Put 2 cups water into a skillet to a rolling boil. Once boiling add the carrots, cover tightly and boil for about 3 or 4 minutes. You want to cook the carrots until they are still firm, and can just barely stick a fork halfway into them. Check often as they boil. Once ready, drain in a colander and mind the steam! 

Pour the sauce mixture over the carrots and coat fully. At this point it can be refrigerated for later, but it is meant to be served at room temperature immediately after garnishing with lemon or lime and cilantro. This salad is meant to be eaten with ones fingers, and can also be served as an appetizer course.

This salad is everything that it is advertised to be, and much, much more; a stunning painting and a marvelous overture - it also has the virtue of being very, very easy to make. As per the recipe above, here are all the ingredients needed to transport you to the Maghreb:

A note on carrots: for the sake of convenience, I used baby carrots, but "normal" carrots can be used with equal success; simply slice them to lengths the same size as baby carrots, and then halve them lengthwise.

A note on cilantro: This herb has never, ever, set well with me, but I wanted to give it a try with this recipe, so I used it instead of substituting with flat-leafed parsley. I did, however, keep the amount modest: only a single tablespoon. The result, I believe, was just right, and kept everything in balance without any over-powering pungency; feel free to double the amount, if you choose.

A note on spices: The beautiful Mrs. Tas is highly capsicum-intolerant, so I used only half the cayenne called for in the recipe; I was going to actually use chili powder instead (check the ingredients label, the flavours are all basically there), but we didn't have any on hand. Also, I made a spot decision and chose to try this recipe with Pimentón de la Vera - otherwise known as smoked paprika - rather than sweet paprika, in order to impart the warm, earthy dimension into the dish. Finally, based on a suggestion, I added just a hint of cinnamon - maybe a quarter teaspoon. The result, in my opinion, was very well balanced with the paprika, the cayenne and the rest of the flavours that make up this salad. 

As I said above, this recipe is very easy to prepare; first, I washed and halved the baby carrots lengthwise:

Next, I squeezed half a lemon over three good-sized cloves of crushed garlic, and gave them a whirl in the food processor:

After this, I added the spices to the pulverised garlic and lemon juice:

Clockwise from top: 1 teaspoon of cumin, 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne, 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and 1 teaspoon Pimentón de la Vera. I also added the juice of another two lemons, which totaled a quarter-cup.

Next, I added a tablespoon of chopped cilantro:

Finally, I drizzled in the olive oil and gave the entire mixture a few pulses in the food processor. Here's what we ended up with:

Now came the time to prepare the canvas that this work of art would be painted upon; I brought two cups of water to a boil:

And added the halved carrots:

I covered them tightly and boiled them for 3 or 4 minutes. The idea here is to just cook them just halfway through or so, so that they are soft on the outside, yet still fairly firm inside. You do not want the crunchy-raw, nor do you want them to be mushy.

When the carrots were just right, I drained them well:

And then introduced them to the sauce that I created:

And stirred it all together:

This salad is meant to be served simply, with just a bit of lemon or lime for squeezing and perhaps a dusting of additional chopped cilantro, if you are partial to that:

I was eager to try this, and wasn't disappointed in the slightest. The entire dish was a work of visual, aromatic and flavourful art. It smelled absolutely and perfectly exotic as the warm carrots opened up and mingled with the spices and garlic; the aromas wafting up were wonderful, stretching from the dusky, earthy cumin and pimentón to the heights of refreshing crispness characterised by the bright lemon, carried by the cinammon and cayenne. 

Visually, it sure looked incredible to me, with the deep, rich, orange of the carrots beautifully accented by the bits of green from the cilantro and yellow from the garlic, all enhanced by the sheen of the olive oil:

The taste, however, is where the real fireworks began. The warm sweetness of the carrots balanced in perfect counterpoint with the fresh, sour bite from the citrus and the earthy richness of the cumin, pimentón and garlic. The cayenne and cinnamon added a rich, warming depth that wrapped itself around me, bringing heat without being hot. The result was a very pleasant and fulfilling explosion of taste sensations. Even the olive oil had a part to play in this symphony, binding everything together and lending its Mediterranean basso nova as a foundation for the the entire experience.

The only way to truly know this is to try it. You will be impressed with the simplicity of this salad, and enthralled with its flavour - and I'm willing to bet that you will be able to close your eyes and almost feel the sunny breeze in your hair as you hear the waves breaking against the cliffs of the Moroccan coastline....