Customer Reviews

Cooking at the Kasbah: Recipes from My Moroccan Kitchen

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I used this book to help create a very successful Moroccan dinner party. I used 9 recipes from this book. The Lamb Marrekesh Stew, Tomato and Eggplant Salad, Dates with Almond paste and especially the Chicken B'stila were EXELLENT! The instructions were clear and I liked that Kitty Morse indicates how far in advance the dishes can be made and which ones are freezable.

There was plenty of information about Moroccan dining to help me make the dinner more authentic. We washed our hands at the table with orange blossom scented water and ate with our fingers. Our guests LOVED it.

Kitty has included a list of suppliers which I found very useful. I was even able to order Moroccan wine and beer from an importer on her list.

I hoghly recommend this book. It is the first book I have ever felt motivated to rate. It is that good!

My husband is a Moroccan and I am a Taiwanese. I love Moroccan food and always want to learn how to make those delicious dishes my mother-in-law made. When I bought this book, my husband and his brother thought the recipes must be westernized. After they tasted my Briouats(shrimp and ground beef) and B'stilla (seafood and chicken), they changed their minds. Most recipes are authentic and easy to follow. It's a great book. I love it!

Don't let the slimness of this volume fool you, it is loaded with info and recipes and charm. From its beautiful color photos to its warm and personal intro and associated history and culture to go along with more than 100 recipes, this is a fine resource for those of us who want to continue our delving into Moroccan cuisine.

Fascinating the history of her family in Morocca and their long-term commitment to remain there and contribute to the preservation of the architecture and culture. Passed on was Kitty's love for the people and their food.

What attracts me and just might you also is the seductive use of fragrant spices, herbs and dried fruit in wonderful, delectable dishes such as: Stuffed Meatballs with Dried Sweet Onion Sauce, Tangine of Chicken with Preserved Lemons and Artichoke Hearts, Briouats of Shrimp and Chinese Rice Vermicelli, Chicken B'stilla (the best! cinammon laced chicken filling in razor thin pastry, here made of phyllo), or the Spiced Tomato and Honey Coulis, or the Sweet Cinnamon Couscous with Dried Fruit.

Worth the inclusion into the venturesome gourmet's repoirtoire. A delight to thumb through and to cook from.

Cooking at the Kasbah by Kitty Morse is one of my favorite Morroccan/North African cook books. This book has deliciously wonderful recipes such as K'seksoo Beïdaoui (Couscous Casablanca style) and Briouats, not to mention several tangine recipes. The photography in this book is excellent and Morse gives good information about the cuisine and to some extent culture of Morocco. I loved the section on the Moroccan Kitchen which details a list of certain ingredients that make the cuisine so unique.

Morse breaks down the recipes into the following sections: Basic recipes; Soups and salads; Savory pastries and breads: meat, poultry, fish and vegetable dishes; Couscous; and Beverages and Desserts. Out of all of these, the first section on basic recipes I found to be important. This section includes some recipes of ingredients to other recipes throughout the book, i.e. preserved lemons.

Overall I definitely recommend thus cook book to all cooks that what to try they hands at cooking Moroccan food.

Having traveled throughout Morocco several times and savored the food from La Mamounia Hotel to a bus driver's humble two room home, I found Cooking at the Kasbah a treasure. The tantalizing recipes are presented in an uncomplicated and motivating format. The photos capture the sensuality of the food and presentation. The cultural insight offered in the introduction and throughout the book provide a virtual tour of this intriguing country. I have several Moroccan cookbooks and this is my favorite.

"Recipes from My Moroccan Kitchen, COOKING AT THE KASBAH", by Kitty Morse is instantly captivating. One is immediately emerged into the heart of a culture through stunning photos and easy to understand recipes. Everything in this book makes it easy for a beginning cook to have immediate success with dishes rich in tradition and flavor. The Shish Kabobs Marraskesh Style were an instant hit and so easy to prepare. I was especially pleased to find mail-order sources as well as detailed explaintion on how to prepare, serve and even eat these Moroccan treasures. Kitty Morse has created a wonderful book for anyone interested in expanding their own tastes. "Cooking at the Kazsbah" also makes a welcome gift.

Having lived in Morocco, I was instantly transported back to the wonderful sights and smells of Moroccan cuisine. The history and photos within the book really bring the culture alive. Kitty Morse has adapted the recipes to make cooking easy for those of us who don't have a souk nearby. Her Chicken B'stilla recipe is the best I have found and the Saffron Vegetable Soup is excellent.

Even before I opened it, I liked "Cooking at the Kasbah." This is a crash course in Moroccan cooking--a subject that I wouldn't have said interested me particularly, but which is made very inviting by author Kitty Morse.

Listen and learn from just one of the fascinating tidbits within: "Smen, an aged butter similar to Asian ghee, is a prized flavoring ingredient in Moroccan dishes. Berber farmers in southern Morocco bury a tightly-sealed pot of smen on the day of a daughter's birth, unearthing it years later to flavor the couscous served on her wedding day."

The recipes are surprisingly easy and well-thought-out, although the use of a bigger typeface would have been a good idea. Laurie Smith's sumptuous photographs are especially to be commended. Using a lens which seems to have perhaps been coated in honey, she manages to impart a golden, glowing, richly colored look to every dish she shot for this book. "Cooking at the Kasbah" would not have been nearly as wonderful without Smith's photographic contributions.

hi, i am a moroccan from casablanca but i live in the united states, when i first saw this book and read the reviews, i thought i found the perfect cook book, but when i got it, i was not too happy with it, first off, there are only a few recipes, some of them are traditional , well this book is perfect for someone who had never tried the real moroccan food and is a beginner, but for someone who knows moroccan food and what it is suppose to taste like should try to find another, i personaly was iffy about getting a moroccan cookbook from a non moroccan author, but some of the FEW recipes are good but i would rather get one that is writting by a moroccan author. i give the book a 2-3 star but it is not EXCELLENT, and i want EXCELLENT.

Finally, a book that makes Moroccan cooking approachable, flavorable, and beautiful. The photographs are wonderful - setting the mood for the cooking - real and rustic. The B'stila B'djej is out of this world, the Briouat B'Kemroon - creative, delicious and innovative, and K'seksoo B'kemroon - light and refreshing. The head notes give excellent background, history, and author's hints. Morse's book invited me back to an arena of food that I had walked away from.