During Spain's infamous Inquisition, Jews were forced to flee the country for more welcoming shores. Many of these refugees landed in northern Africa, specifically Morocco, and a unique cuisine was born of the marriage of Spanish, Moorish, and traditional Jewish culinary influences. SCENT OF THE ORANGE BLOSSOMS celebrates this cuisine, presenting the elegant and captivating flavors passed down through generations of Jews in Morocco. The mouthwatering recipes include Fresh Fava Bean Soup with Cilantro for Passover, Chicken Couscous with Orange Blossom Water for Yom Kippur, and Honey Doughnuts for Hannukah. Illuminating the important connection among food, family, and tradition, the recipes are interspersed with letters between mothers and newly married daughters, discussing special events and menu planning. • Features black-and-white photography of traditional Sephardic families.• Includes sample menus for all major Jewish holidays.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Morse, author of eight cookbooks, teams up with Mamane, a resident of Morocco's "cultural capital" Fez, to bring the unique cuisine of Moroccan Sephardic Jews to the American table. When Spanish Jews fleeing the Inquisition settled in Morocco, they combined culinary elements of the three cultures into a vibrant new one. The dishes that resulted follow the traditions and biblical prohibitions of the Sephardim, and marry together foods available in Morocco along with ingredients and culinary refinements brought from Spain. The opening chapter describes the basic ingredients and methods, and the recipes that follow cover everything from soups to meat, breads to fish, and desserts to drinks. From the Chicken with Onions, which uses saffron and ginger, to the Meatballs in Cinnamon-Onion Sauce, the dishes, redolent with spices, incorporate the exotic flavors of a rich tradition. Descriptions accompanying the recipes share cultural details: the Lentil and Garbanzo Bean Soup, for example, is used by Muslims to break fasts during Ramadan and by Sephardim to do the same after Yom Kippur. Also interspersed throughout are letters from mothers to their daughters recounting special events and personal reminiscences of Moroccan Sephardic life in communities and in kitchens. These welcome additions to the recipes provide charming pictures of a lifestyle and culture, and make this volume as enjoyable to read as it is to cook from.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In the 15th century, the Spanish Inquisition forced a huge wave of Sephardim to immigrate. Many settled in North Africa, especially Morocco. Among other changes, ingredients such as chili peppers, tomatoes, saffron, and orange flower water entered the Sephardim kitchen. Today, however, primarily because of immigration and the demands of modern life, the Sephardic tradition is disappearing. With that in mind, Morse, the author of several other North African cookbooks, and Mamane, whose ancestors fled to Fez during the Inquisition, determined to document the Sephardic contributions before it was too late. Along with recipes such as Passover Fava Bean Soup and Thursday Evening's Butter Couscous, they include holiday menus, Mamane's nostalgic reminiscences of her extended family, and historical background. Strongly recommended.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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More About the Author
Kitty Morse hails from the "real "kasbah" in Morocco. She was born in Casablanca of a French mother and British father, and emigrated to the United States in 1964.
She is the author of nine cookbooks, five of them on the cuisine of Morocco and North Africa. They include Cooking at the Kasbah: Recipes from my Moroccan Kitchen (Chronicle Books), The Scent of Orange Blossoms (Ten Speed Press), and The California Farm Cookbook (Pelican Publishing).
Kitty's career as a food writer, cooking teacher, and lecturer, spans more than twenty-five years. More recently, she became the author/publisher of the second edition of A Biblical Feast: Ancient Mediterranean Diet for Today's Table.
Her next book bears the working title of Mint Tea and Minarets: A Memoir of Morocco with Recipes.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a spice filled welcome addition to Jewish cookbooks,
This review is from: The Scent of Orange Blossoms: Sephardic Cuisine from Morocco (Hardcover)
A celebration of Jewish cuisine that came from the interaction between Jews and Moslems in North Africa and Spain. When the author Kitty Morse led eating tours of Morocco, the highlight was a meal at the villa of retailer Danielle Mamane in Fez el Jdid. Both women have collaborated on this well designed and interesting book of recipes. I recommend it for its recipes, design, stories, and photographs. In addition to recipes, letters between mothers and their newly married daughters, and introductory stories, the authors list menu plans (with recipe page numbers) for the Jewish holidays, as well as the more Moroccan Jewish celebrations of La Mimouna (Pesach period), Hillula (visiting sages), and Kappara (pre-Yom Kippur). For Jewish weddings, there is the customary flan (t'faya). For Mimouna, the recommended recipes are Chicken with Orange Juice; Sephardic Mafleta pancakes; and couscous with raisin and onions confit. My favorite recipes include Walnuts with Pomegranate Seeds (which uses a heavy dose of orange blossom water); a cucumber with lemon salad; fish filets made in Fez style (with tomatoes, potatoes, and garlic); Fresh Fava Bean Soup with Cilantro for Passover; Chicken Couscous with Orange Blossom Water for Yom Kippur; Harira or Lentil and Chickpeas Soup (for Moslem Ramadan and Jewish Yom Kippur break-the-fasts); Meatballs in Onion Cinnamon Sauce, Chicken with Saffron and Ginger and Onions; and Honey Doughnuts for Hannukah. There are Fish Fillets a la Fassi (Fez style); Dafina Shabbat Stew (skhina); Chicken with Garbanzo Beans in Tetouan style; and Tangier style Potato Stew that uses preserved beef (kleehe). The Tagine of Beef uses carrot and turnips as well as cilantro, garlic, ginger, and tumeric. The Cornish Hens with Fresh Figs uses 12 figs and 12 threads of saffron; the Chicken with Onion and Tomatoes uses toasted almonds, ginger and eight threads of saffron. Preserved fruits, lemons, and kumquats play an important role in the cuisine. There is a recipe for Sephardic Shabbat Challa, and the Top of The Shelf spice that is often used; it includes a blending of cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, allspice, mace, salt and ginger. La Maguina, a vegetable and meat frittata, is sliced like meatloaf. Some unique soups and salads are a white and chard soup a la Tangiers; a fennel salad; a tomato and bell pepper salad with garlic, paprika and sugar; fava bean salad with cumin; and tomato with preserved lemons.
37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Scent of Orange Blossoms,
By Pat McArdle (Arlington, Virginia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Scent of Orange Blossoms: Sephardic Cuisine from Morocco (Hardcover)
The Scent of Orange Blossoms is a lovingly assembled cook's tour of a regional cuisine that obviously has special meaning for the author. All eight of Kitty's cookbooks have been beautifully written and illustrated, but this one, with its mouthwatering recipes and pages of luscious photos by her husband Owen, is truly a feast for the senses. I spent three wonderful years living in Morocco and although I learned many recipes from Moroccan neighbors and some from Kitty herself, I have found in her latest book new combinations of spices, fresh vegetables and meats that I can't wait to try. Most of the Sephardic families had left Morocco when I lived there in the seventies and most of their recipes had gone with them. Kitty's meticulous research with Danielle and the wonderful stories and letters that illustrate this tome make it as much a history book as a cook book. More than anything else, at this time of great conflict and crisis in the world, The Scent of Orange Blossoms is a wonderful reminder of how Jews and Arabs can live (and cook) together in peace and harmony as they did for centuries in Morocco. I must go now and begin preparing my preserved lemons (p. 20). Salaam and shalom.
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing mint tea by Kitty Morse,
By Waves "TMS" (WI) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Scent of Orange Blossoms: Sephardic Cuisine from Morocco (Hardcover)
I just made Kitty Morse's Mint tea from her book Scent of Orange Blossoms. For years I have been digging and chopping away at a large patch of spearmint that takes over a section of my yard trying to get rid of it. Now after making Kitty's mint tea I am looking for another empty space to plant more. A simple infusion of fresh spearmint leaves, a little green tea and some sugar provided am amazing treat.
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