make | MOROCCO | houmous

Happy 2014 everyone!

We are SO excited for the new year and can't wait to start blogging again.  This year, we thought we would take each month to explore a different country for our make posts.  This January, we are headed to Morocco!

Neither of us have ever been to Morocco, so we're using this month to do a little research into this exciting country.  Marrakesh, the capital, is supposedly a super-busy mash-up of spice, crowded markets, tiny alleys, and street vendors.  One thing that has always excited me about the town is the kind of explosion (or perhaps it would be more accurate to say fusion) of colours, cultures, and histories.  There's the Arab, African but also Spanish influence, as it's so easy to reach via the straits of Gibraltar.

The cooking is based around the communal fire or oven.  Families take their bread down there to bake and come back a few hours later to collect it.  Men sit with ovens where people drop off their tangias (the clay pots with the conical roof, used to cook stews called tagines).  Spices are really central to cooking, and Moroccan food uses loads of them on a regular basis.

We're excited to see what Moroccan food is all about and we hope you are too!

We've started off our culinary trip with a basic recipe for something everyone loves - houmous! Most houmous is made with a combination of tahini paste (ground up sesame seeds) and olive oil, but our version uses natural yoghurt instead of oil to make for a lighter dip.  We utilise one of our favourite spices - smoked sweet paprika - to give a slightly different flavour to our dip.  We think it's yummy, and we hope you do too!

Enjoy today!!

- rosinaviolets    x

Houmous
Makes the sort of amount you can buy in the shops!
Lasts as long as the yoghurt does, kept in the fridge, covered.

200g can chickpeas, drained (reserve the water)
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice
4 tablespoons natural yoghurt + 1 tablespoon water from the chickpea can
1/2 teaspoon (or less, to taste) salt
1 teaspoon tahini paste
1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon (or more, to taste) freshly ground black pepper

• This is probably the easiest recipe ever... Take all the ingredients, and put them in a blender.  Blend. 

• Taste to see if you want to add more seasoning.  

• Put in a dish and sprinkle some more black pepper on the top.

Done :)