Orange Blossom & Honey: Magical Moroccan Recipes from the Souks to the Sahara

Food and travel writer Gregory-Smith has been collecting recipes in Morocco since 2007 and this stellar collection proves to be a great entry point to the cuisine. A chapter on street foods includes flatbread stuffed with ground beef and sharply seasoned steamed chickpeas piled onto rolls to make sandwiches; another chapter showcases stunning tagine recipes, including one that combines beef and prunes and another of preserved lemon and rabbit. A recipe for meatballs in tomato sauce topped with eggs is inspired by dishes eaten at service stations around Morocco, which double as humble roadside diners (“being advised for the third time to eat at the local gas station... I got a real surprise”). Gregory-Smith excels at adapting traditional cooking methods for the Western home cook: lamb that is typically roasted in a cone-shaped mud fire pit in the Atlas Mountains is converted into lamb shoulder roasted until tender, then shredded and served with pomegranate seeds, herbs, and feta. (As for the original, he describes tying “the lamb carcass to a wooden cross” and rubbing fermented butter on it.) “Oranges are eaten in abundance,” the author asserts, and they appear in desserts like a syrup-infused cake; he also includes a chapter on spice mixes and how to make preserved lemons, a key ingredient in many dishes. Colorful photos round out this excellent and inviting primer on Moroccan cuisine. (Sept.)