Apples of Love: Moroccan Recipes and Lore for the Jewish and Islamic New Year

I created this Lamb and Apple Stew with Almonds and Couscous recipe for both the Jewish and Islamic New Year. Even though they follow different calendars, both holidays coincide this year. Many people are surprised to learn that the Hebrew term for New Year, Rosh Hashanah, is so similar to the Arabic Ras as Sana. In addition to etymology, there are also common spiritual and culinary threads that the two faiths share. Apples, for example, are associated with Rosh Hashanah recipes because the Talmud states, “I did not find the world desolate when I entered it and, as my parents planted for me, so do I plant for my children,” (Talmud Ta’anit 23a).  For this reason planting, cultivating and harvesting apple trees is a New Year tradition which links generations of Jewish families.

This stew recipe is a wonderful way to incorporate the apple’s significance into an entree.  The recipe itself was derived from Medieval Arabic recipe, known as Tuffahiya.  During those times, apples were a classical metaphor for love.  People would give a bitten apple to their romantic interests as a sign of their affections.  While apples are not specifically associated with the Islamic New Year, traditional Islamic medicine believed consuming them straightened the heart. Indeed modern medicine confirms the many health benefits of apples, and since October is National Apple Month, it is a great time to use them a little more often. For more inspiration, check out my An Apple a Day post here.

Honey, the other Rosh Hashanah culinary staple, is highly praised in Islam. It is believed that the Prophet Mohamed once said, "By him in whose hand is my soul, eat honey…for there is no house in which honey is kept for which the angels will not ask for mercy. If a person eats honey, a thousand remedies enter his stomach and a million diseases will come out.” The Prophet himself used to drink a glass of honey and water each morning on an empty stomach.

             

Lamb and Apple Stew with Almonds and Couscous

Before potatoes and tomatoes arrived in the Middle East from the New World, apples were common stew ingredients.  Most of these recipes were forgotten once the new ingredients were introduced.  In Morocco, however, some of them are still popular.  Some people use chicken or mutton in the recipe instead of the lamb.  Others add honey, orange blossom water and cider to glaze the meat.  I created this version in which the apples and onions disintegrate while the lamb is slowly cooking, and create a rich brown “gravy,"  great for serving with couscous – and the Gazelle’s horns cookies make the perfect dessert.

                                                                                                Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 teaspoons olive oil, divided

2 pounds boneless lamb shoulder, cubed

1 yellow onion, sliced

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

salt

freshly ground pepper

juice of 1 lemon

2 cinnamon sticks, divided

4 Granny Smith apples, peeled and quartered

1 cup blanched almonds, slivered or chopped

1 cup Moroccan-style couscous

4 tablespoons freshly chopped mint, divided

Preparation:

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.

Add lamb and brown on all sides, (approximately 5 minutes).

Add onion and stir.  Sautee, uncovered, until tender, (approximately 5 minutes).

Season with ground cinnamon, ginger, and salt and pepper.  Stir to mix well.

Add lemon juice. Stir.

Cover with water and bring to a boil over high heat.

Reduce heat to low and add 1 cinnamon stick.  Stir to mix well.

Cover and let simmer for 45 minutes.

Add apples and almonds and stir.  Cover with lid slightly ajar and simmer for another 45 minutes, or until tender.

Ten minutes before meat is finished cooking begin making couscous:

Bring 1 cup of water, 1 teaspoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 cinnamon stick to boil in a medium saucepan.

Take off heat, add couscous and stir with a fork to mix.

Cover saucepan tightly and set aside for 10 minutes.

Remove lid and fluff couscous with a fork. Add remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Remove cinnamon stick and stir in 2 tablespoons of freshly chopped mint.

Transfer to a warm serving platter.

Remove lamb from heat, stir well to incorporate all ingredients.

Discard cinnamon stick and transfer to a warm serving platter.

Top with remaining 2 tablespoons of freshly chopped mint.

Gazelle Horn Cookies/Kaab el Ghzal/Tcharak

            In Morocco, the image of the gazelle is often a metaphor for beauty, grace, sophistication and sweetness.  There it is said that “even a beetle, in the eyes of its mother, is a gazelle.” Perhaps that is why the most popular Moroccan cookies are named after the gazelle.  Many versions of them abound.  Most authentic Moroccan cookbooks offer at least three varieties.  While the cookies are quite labor intensive, the ingredients are simple and they can be made in stages. Both the almond paste filling and the cookie dough can be made up to a month in advance and frozen.  The cookies themselves can be made a month an advance and frozen as well.  You will need a 3-inch round or oval cookie cutter to cut the dough.  Serve with hot green tea with mint or Arabic coffee.

                                                                                                Makes 3 to 4 dozen

Ingredients:

Cookie dough:

2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

zest of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon active, dry yeast

1/2 stick unsalted butter or margarine, at room temperature

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 tablespoons orange juice

1 teaspoon orange blossom water

Almond paste:

1/2 cup whole blanched almonds, ground

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon orange blossom water

1 teaspoon almond extract

For topping:

2 teaspoons orange blossom water (for sprinkling)

1 cup confectioners’ sugar (for rolling)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (for sprinkling)

To make the Cookie dough:

In a large bowl fitted to a standing electric mixer combine flour, sugar, lemon zest and yeast. 

Add butter and combine well.  Add eggs, vanilla, orange juice, and orange blossom water and mix on low speed until dough is smooth and elastic. 

If dough seems tough, add water, a tablespoon at a time, until the correct consistency is reached.

 When dough is smooth and elastic form it into a ball. 

Place in bowl and cover with a kitchen cloth.

Let stand while preparing almond paste.

To make almond paste:

Place almonds, sugar, orange blossom water and almond extract in a food processor.

Mix well to form a paste. 

Add water, tablespoon by tablespoon until a smooth, dense paste forms.

When paste is ready, you should be able to roll it into balls easily.

Remove paste from food processor and form into a ball.

Break off grape sized pieces. 

Place a bowl of water next to you to dip your hands in.

With wet hands, roll into 3/4 - inch long cylinders that are about 1/4-inch thick and set onto a plate.

Keep dipping your hands in water to facilitate shaping the almond paste.

Repeat this process until all of the almond paste has been formed into cylinders.

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.

Line 2 baking sheets with silpats, parchment paper or butter.

Place the cookie dough out onto a lightly floured working surface.

With a rolling pin which has been dusted with flour, roll the dough out as thinly as possible.

Using a 3-inch oval or round cookie cutter, dipped in flour, stamp the cookies out of the dough.

Space the cookies as close together as possible to utilize the most dough.

Lift the excess dough from around the cookies shapes, and shape into a ball.

Roll out the excess dough and form as many additional cookies as possible.

Place 1 of the almond paste cylinders on one of the edge of each cookie.

Roll the cookies up, covering the almond paste with the dough, and pinching the edges to seal.

Roll the cookies between the palms of your hand and the work surface to elongate and seal.

Curve the ends to shape into crescents.

Place crescents 1-inch apart on cookie sheets.

Bake cookie sheets side by side for 15-20 minutes, or until lightly golden.

Remove from oven and sprinkle each cookie sheet of cookies with 1 teaspoon orange blossom water.

Place confectioners’ sugar in a large bowl.

Place cookies in bowl and shake (lightly) to coat.

Place cookies on wire racks to cool.  Sprinkle with cinnamon to serve.