Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Television

(man chanting over loudspeaker) - In the neighborhoods of Fes, Morocco, there's a unique and fabulous approach to flatbread.

It's called khobz.

It's a thick flatbread that's served almost at every meal.

Houda Mehdi-- she's a home cook in Fes-- demonstrates how to prepare the dough, which is then baked in a communal oven called a ferran.

Plus, we learn two other Moroccan favorites, harissa garlic shrimp and salmon matbucha, made with tomato, garlic, and paprika.

Please stay tuned.

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(people talking in background) - (speaking Arabic) - (speaking Arabic): - (calling in Arabic) - (speaking Arabic): - (speaking Arabic): (laughs) BAKER and MEHDI: MEHDI: - (speaking Arabic): MEHDI: REZZAK and MEHDI: MEHDI: REZZAK and MEHDI: MEHDI: - So, one of the great culinary mysteries, I think, is that there are two categories of breads.

There are flatbreads and loaf breads, right?

So we don't have a great tradition in this country of flatbreads, which is yet another mystery, because they're so easy to do and so delicious.

Most other countries, many other countries, do use flatbreads.

This one is a quote-unquote flatbread from Morocco, although I've had similar breads in other places, like near the Sea of Galilee and Turkey.

And khobz, and it really isn't a flatbread, though, because it's about this thick.

So it's sort of in between flatbread and loaf bread.

The good thing about it is, it's a great all-purpose bread.

They use it for everything, including using it almost as a utensil to pick up food, for dipping into sauces and condiments.

We really, really love this recipe.

First of all, it has a lot of interesting ingredients, starting with all-purpose flour.

You should always weigh your flour when baking, particularly important with bread.

And here's a quick little rule: all-purpose flour is 130 grams per cup.

And so we have three cups of flour.

That would be 390 grams.

We're adding a little semolina.

Semolina is just a flour.

It's made from durum wheat, which is high in gluten, and that runs about 170 grams per cup.

Then we have wheat bran, sesame seeds, flaxseeds, and I think this is an optional ingredient: it's fennel seed.

It gives it a very distinctive flavor.

If you want a more generic flavor, you can leave this out, but we happen to like it.

You know, of course, rapid-rise or instant yeast.

You can just throw it into the dry ingredients.

Active-dry yeast does need to be proofed, because it has some dead cells on the outside of the granules, which have to be softened and dissolved.

And a little bit of salt.

We're just going to mix those up before I add the water and oil.

Now, we spent some time in Fes with Houda Mehdi.

She's a home cook, and she made the dough there, and shaped it and brought it on boards to the ferran, which is the local bakery-- which is a great tradition-- and then comes back and picks it up later.

So we're going to add the water now.

And just a few tablespoons of olive oil.

So we're just going to mix this for a few minutes till the dough really starts to come together.

So that's pretty well mixed now.

It's been about five minutes.

We're going to let this sit now for 20 minutes.

So we'll cover this with a kitchen towel so it doesn't form a skin on top.

And we'll be back in 20 minutes, add some more flour, and finish up the dough.

So the wet dough has rested, and now we're going to add some additional flour, all-purpose flour.

So we're going to knead this dough for about seven minutes till it's a nice cohesive ball, and it, you know, feels good in the hands.

It has that smooth texture on the outside.

So that should be good.

Let's check it out.

By the way, if the dough is a little too wet at this point, you could add a little more flour, a tablespoon at a time.

Okay, so now we're going to divide this into three pieces.

Okay.

So we're going to want to shape the dough as you would for a dinner roll, for example.

You want to go around it like that and tuck it underneath to make it nice and taut.

And then we're going to put it into a round that's about seven inches.

Okay.

So we have a half baking sheet.

We've sprayed it and oiled it so it's non-stick.

We'll put them on here.

Offset them.

Good.

And we're going to let that sit for about an hour.

It's not going to fully double, but sort of almost double.

And then we'll go to the next step.

So we've let it rest for an hour.

And, and they've risen, but probably a little less than double.

One thing we do have to do is just cut in the middle, like, a three-inch slit.

Like that.

These now go into a hot oven, 475, which kind of mimics the temperature in a wood-fired oven, only for 18 to 20 minutes.

We'll take them out, let them cool a bit, and take a taste.

So our khobz is out of the oven.

It has a lovely aroma, and I have to say that Houda Mehdi, who taught us this recipe in Fes, this is her recipe, and she adds the fennel seeds and some other things.

So I think she takes what may be a plainer recipe and really adds a lot of flavor to it.

But it's really the texture that I love, too.

So it has some chew, but it's still on the light side.

It's really unique, and as I said, with the fennel seeds and some of the sesame seeds, it also has a lot of flavor, as well.

Now, the other thing that she taught us when we were there is to make this taktouka, which I've made a bunch of times.

It's kind of like what the Greek gods ate on Mount Olympus every day.

It's green and red peppers, tomatoes, some cumin, maybe a little harissa paste, some garlic.

And as I said earlier, with this, with this bread, they use it to dip into food, they use it to pick up food.

It's almost a utensil, actually.

It's an all-purpose bread.

So the best thing to dip it into, however, is this taktouka.

That's really good.

It's a lot better than onion dip.

So I'd like to thank Houda Mehdi in Fes for teaching us this recipe.

Also the taktouka, which is an all-purpose dip.

It's really terrific.

And this is not a hard recipe, but it's an all-purpose bread you can have around for almost anything.

It lasts a pretty long time, as well.

So give it a shot.

Khobz, a great recipe from Fes, Morocco.

- This stewy, spicy Moroccan shrimp dish is deeply flavorful, but astoundingly simple to make.

It's based on a version of crevettes pil-pil, a dish our friend Houda Mehdi showed us in her kitchen back in Fes, Morocco.

All of the elements-- the warming spices, the sweet-tart tomatoes, the citrusy lemon, and that herbal cilantro-- all came together to form this beautiful sauce for briny, sweet shrimp.

And that's where we're going to start.

I have a bowl of extra-large shrimp here that have been peeled, deveined, and patted dry.

But we also threw in a little bit of salt about 15 minutes ago, and that's a very important part of this process.

We found that by salting the shrimp early, it seasoned the shrimp throughout, so don't skip that step.

Now that that's all sorted, we can take a look at our sauce.

Here I have a 12-inch non-stick skillet that's set over medium heat, and we're going to throw in half a cup of olive oil.

Now, I know that sounds like a lot of oil, and that's because it is.

But we need that much to gently oil-poach all of our shrimp, and that way they stay nice and succulent and plump.

We'll heat this oil until it's shimmering, and then we'll throw in some grated garlic, as well as some harissa.

Now, harissa is a paste that's made out of chilies, garlic, olive oil, and a couple of spices.

And you can typically find it in a lot of grocery stores at this point, but if you can't find it at yours, you could always go online.

We'll throw our garlic into the pan.

Along with the harissa.

And as soon as these two start bubbling together, you're going to be greeted with quite the aroma bomb.

But it gets better.

We're going to be throwing in some spices, as well, but not until we cook this for about 30 seconds, just to warm everything through.

So while those flavors marry, we could go ahead and talk about the other flavors we're going to add in, which involve sweet paprika, cumin, coriander, as well as a little bit of turmeric.

What we're doing is, we're blooming spices and getting that flavor out.

Now, once you throw the spices in, you want to cook this mixture for about one to two minutes until it darkens just a little bit.

But mostly you want to follow your nose.

You want to smell everything that just went into that pan.

So next, we're going to go ahead and throw in our shrimp.

So we'll throw this in along with some tomatoes that have been diced up.

It's at this point that you want to reduce your heat immediately down to low.

Give everything a nice little stir just to get that sauce coating everyone.

And then you're going to want to shimmy this into a nice even layer, because what we're going to do is pop a lid on it.

Now, we're cooking this over low, gentle heat with a lid on it, so that way we don't overcook any of our shrimp.

It's been about four minutes, and at this point, we're going to pull our shrimp pan entirely off the heat.

We're relying on the residual heat of the pan and the sauce to gently cook the shrimp all the way through.

Do not remove the lid at this point.

That's the only thing that's keeping all the heat in.

So, while that finishes cooking, we can go ahead and look at some of the other accoutrements we're adding in.

Here I have some cilantro.

We're just going to give that a nice rough chop.

Beautiful.

And we'll go ahead and add that into our shrimp along with some lemon juice.

Again, we're adding in brightness right at the very end to make all the flavors pop.

So first with the lemon juice.

And, of course, our cilantro.

And as you can see, all of that shrimp is cooked all the way through, but they're not curled up into tight little circles.

So we're going to let those flavors marry.

And while we do that, let's add a little pizzazz to our presentation here.

I have a whole bunch of lemon slices, and I'm just going to line this platter in a nice little ring with these lemon slices.

Excellent.

And then all we got to do is pour all of this shrimp right into the center and get every last drop of that sauce, because, trust me, you're going to want to serve this with some warm flatbread to sop up each and every drop.

And there you have it.

In 30 minutes, we just made a showstopping meal that is deeply rich and incredibly flavorful.

This here is Moroccan harissa garlic shrimp ready for your dinner table.

- So today, we're going to be making a salmon with matbucha.

Matbucha is a North African condiment, kind of a cooked salad with a whole lot of flavor and a whole lot of fresh, beautiful ingredients that are cooked down into a jammy consistency.

We happen to find that it's a pretty good way to cook salmon, as well.

So to start my recipe off, I'm actually going to go ahead and season my salmon separately before I make my matbucha.

So I've got about two tablespoons of olive oil.

Some sweet paprika.

A little bit of harissa.

And I add a quarter-teaspoon of black pepper.

And half a teaspoon of salt.

And then I'm going to grate about a teaspoon of lemon zest directly into my bowl.

You want to make sure not to grate down to the pith, because it'll make your dish a little bit more bitter.

We want that bright, lemony, beautiful flavor.

So I'm going to coat my salmon with this marinade and let it sit while I make my matbucha.

And that will mean that my fish will have a lot more seasoning and a bit of a punch.

Start with a little bit on each.

And this marinade is so strongly flavored with the paprika and harissa, and I know it's going to mean a lot of flavor.

And I'm going to let these hang out while I start making my matbucha.

So I've got about two tablespoons of olive oil here, and I'm going to put it into a pan that's going on medium-low.

I don't want this to get super-hot, because I don't want to cook the tomatoes and peppers too quickly.

I've got canned whole tomatoes, they're with their juices, and I've crushed them by hand.

I'm going to go ahead and add that to my skillet.

We have some sliced garlic and some roasted red peppers.

Now, these are great to add straight out of the jar.

They are soft, they are silky, and they're going to add a great sweet pepper flavor to our dish.

All right, we've got a little bit more harissa.

And some paprika.

So now that I've combined all my ingredients in my skillet, I'm going to leave it over medium-low for about ten to 15 minutes and make sure that it's covered, so that when I'm done, I'll have that nice, thick, jammy consistency.

Look at that, it's bubbling.

Mm, that smells good.

I'm going to give it a quick stir, and then I want to add about two teaspoons of lemon zest just to brighten this up a bit.

So my salmon's been marinating for a little while, and it's ready to go into my matbucha.

I'm going to take these and put them in skin side up, and this is going to make sure that my dish cooks a little bit more evenly.

Now that I've nestled my salmon into my sauce, we're going to cover it and let it cook for six to eight minutes.

Ooh, that smells good!

All right, looks like we're looking pretty done here.

So I'm going to pull this off of my heat.

And then I want to transfer my salmon to my platter.

And when it's getting to the platter, you want to make sure that your salmon is skin side down.

If you want to remove the skin here, go for it, but it's not necessary.

So I'm going to return my sauce to medium heat over here, get it to come up to a simmer.

I'm going to add a bit of lemon juice.

And a handful of chopped olives.

Give it a good stir.

And I'm not going to let this cook super-long.

Only about two to three minutes, just to make sure that the ingredients all get to hang out together for a little bit.

This is also a really good time to check for seasoning, so let's give it a taste.

Need a little bit of salt and pepper.

Just a little pinch.

All right, I'm going to give this a good stir, let it finish up for about a minute, and then we're ready to plate.

Now it's time to take our sauce off the heat and spoon it over our salmon.

So our olives and lemon juice were only in there for a couple of minutes, but from the smell, I can already tell that they've imparted a lot of flavor.

So this looks beautiful all on its own.

But I'm going to add a couple of little garnishes.

It's totally optional, you don't have to do it.

But I like the little pop of color that they're gonna give.

So I'm going to sprinkle a little bit of flat leaf parsley.

This is more a me preference.

If you want to use cilantro here or any other herb that you love, go for it.

And then I've got some thinly sliced jalapeos just for a little kick.

Remember not to touch your eyes after messing with these.

And there you have it.

Here is our salmon with matbucha.

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- Funding for this series was provided by the following: - That meal.

You sauted, you seared, and you served.

Cooking with All-Clad.

Bonded cookware designed, engineered, and assembled in the U.S.A. for over 50 years.

All-Clad: for all your kitchen adventures.

- They're going to be wonderful nibbles.

They're often served on the side with... Um, we're going to go around.

Theirs is not million-dollar melons, but expensive strawberries... ...that are hothouse-grown.

And they're delicious.

- Wow.

- The variety is tochiotome, which is a particular varietal that's extremely sweet.

And they have some samples out if you want to take a sample.

- Yeah, I'd love to take a sample.

Mm, those are delicious.

- Aren't they good?

(people talking in background) (utensil clanging) (griddle sizzling) - Fried banana with caramel sauce.

- It's fantastic.

So this is called kluai nam wa, which is these bananas here.

We have something similar to it in the States called burro banana or Thai banana.

And he makes a batter, and he cooks it in the palm oil for a while-- ten, 15 minutes-- at a relatively low temperature.

- I'm not going home.

- You dig it?

- I'm here.

Do you have an extra room in your house?

- Yeah, we do.

(laughs)