The Food of Morocco

by Paula Wolfert, Quentin Bacon (Photographer)

“A cookbook by Paula Wolfert is cause for celebration. Ms. Wolfert may be America’s most knowledgeable food person and her books are full of insight, passion and brilliance.”
—Anthony Dias Blue, CBS Radio, NY

“I think she’s one of the finest and most influential food writers in this country…one of the leading lights in contemporary gastronomy.”
—Craig Claiborne

Paula Wolfert, the undisputed queen of Mediterranean cooking, provides food lovers with the definitive guide to The Food of Morocco. Lavishly photographed and packed with tantalizing recipes to please the modern palate, The Food of Morocco provides helpful preparation techniques for chefs, home cooks, and any serious student of the culinary arts and culture. This is the perfect companion to Wolfert’s classic, Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco—a 2008 inductee into the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame—and fans of Claudia Roden, Elizabeth David, Martha Rose Schulman, and Poopa Dweck will be delighted by this extraordinary culinary journey across this colorful and exhilarating land.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Morocco, Travel, Reference

528 pages, Hardcover

First published October 4, 2011

Reviews

[Elizabeth Theiss Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not just a collection of recipes, Paula Wolfert's exquisite love letter to Moroccan cuisine is a masterly comprehensive introduction to Moroccan culture through cooking. The book is beautiful ion every way--gorgeous photos, lovely typeface and smooth paper. It is a pleasurable object. The recipes are a nice selection of classics along with unusual regional recipes. Those that I've tried have been transcendent. I am a fan of Moroccan cooking and have worked my way through several cookbooks. Wolfert's is the most interesting and deeply informative by far.

[Jeanny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am having so much fun with this cookbook! Paula Wolfert's recipes are accessible, even to someone like me who lives in a place where there aren't a lot of specialty ingredients. Making couscous by the method she describes yielded results that provoked immediate queries of "How did you get the couscous so fluffy?" from my guests. I've made several things from the book and read enough more recipes to know I want to make a lot more. I've never been to Morocco and only been to one Moroccan restaurant. Paula Wolfert's recipes make me feel like I'm cooking and eating pretty close to real Moroccan food.

[Tanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible bread chapter!
Her writing is like reading a romance right down to the steamy parts;-)
Have to try the tomato magic!! pg 41

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a huge, high-quality coffee table book. Somewhere I would love to visit when a pandemic is not active. Fun facts: Argon trees are native to Morocco and the oil from the nuts is used in cooking. Capers are a major export of Morocco. I believe I will skip spiced brain salad with preserved lemons. Any recipe in the seafood section looks fantastic as well as the beans and legumes and vegetable sections. There are many chicken recipes which sound very good too. This book makes me appreciate our visits to restaurant in Old Scottsdale called the Moroccan. It looked like a tent inside and we sat on fancy pillows and a low table to eat and watch belly dancing. I wish that place was still open.

[Kate]

Made the Tangier-style harira. A LOT of Tangier-style harira. Check the yields on these recipes, because they are generous (and often require very large pots). This book doesn’t fuck around when it comes to ingredients or techniques, which is fascinating but also some recipes are fairly time- and labor-intensive. That said, what a wealth of info about Morocco and Paula Wolfert is such a great writer!

[k · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing introduction to Moroccan food. It's got a lot of stuff you'd expect--lamb and fish tagines, chicken with preserved lemons and olives, couscous, orange salads. But it's got so much that's off the beaten path, ranging from dessert couscouses to salads made with lamb brains. It also has tons of information about staples of Moroccan cuisine like preserved lemons, meat confit and spice blends, as well as recipes to make them if you can't find any locally. Finally, it has lots of little tidbits about how to structure a Moroccan meal, which is perhaps not what you'd always expect. If you want a comprehensive (if lengthy) guide to Moroccan food, this is a wonderful book.

[HarperCollins Canada · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's stop #9 on Summer Passport and we're in Africa!

This Moroccan cookbook has gorgeous photographs and a lot of interesting background on the various dishes and particular flavours that Moroccan food is known for (such as saffron, argan oil, and Moroccan cumin seed).
The recipes themselves are easy and delicious, bound to impress even your toughest dinner guest.

Find out more about Summer Passport on our tumblr site: http://summerpassport.tumblr.com/#

[Ariadna73 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Check out my spanish blog's entry about this book: http://lunairereadings.blogspot.com/2...



This very elegant book makes a great decorative element in a house. It has beautiful pictures; magnificent drawings and delicious recipes. I loved it; though I couldn't fix any of the dishes because they are really complicated.

[ChaCha Ala Mode]

The pictures in this are fantastical. Having dreamed of visiting Africa my whole life, the visions in my head are very close to this book. I guess maybe Morocco has been calling to me for years. As a vegetarian most of these dishes were not ones I would prepare, however the idea of preserving lemons and maybe substituting in lentils or chickpeas for some of these dishes sound divine!

[Kerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent food porn, but ultimately impractical for many ordinary at-home cooks. Not only do you need special equipment, access to esoteric ingredients, lots of space, and lots of time, you have to constantly reference recipes-within-recipes, for example, spice rubs. I'm sure the dishes in this book are unbearably good. But they are probably the best if someone else makes them.

[Calamity Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

incredible eye-candy. the best cookbook i've seen of it's kind. i'm sure the recipes are good, she's paula wolfert, but i'm still too busy pretending i'm on an edible vacation to try any recipes. for lovers of moroccan food, this is a to-die-for book.

[Jared · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful pictures and descriptions of Morocco food adventure. I want to be Paula Wolfert, but I don't necessarily want to go through the work of trying her recipes, which invariably include hard-to-find special ingredients.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent cookbook with enticing recipes and beautiful photography. The resources for ingredients are also listed in the back as well. This should be part of everyone's cookbook collection.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a beautiful cookbook. I am hungry now.

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't really*read*this, just looked at the gorgeous photos and read a recipe or two. Currently making Moroccanish soup for lunch-food network is more my recipe speed than Paula.

[Wilma Rebstock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a lovely book. The recipes are comprehensive and the photos and details are lovely.

[Paula Wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous cookbook filled with lovely photos and many recipes I enjoyed aking.

[Anne]

Other than the fish & poultry recipes it looked to be an interesting cookbook. I was particularly interested in the breads, desserts, and beverages.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is absolutely the best resource for anyone wanting to try his hand at Moroccan cuisine. Highly recommended.

[Kathleen Chriqui · Rating 5 out of 5]

I use this book at least once a week in my kitchen! Love everything about it.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and pretty pictures too, but I wish there were more photos of the food.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really pretty book, with mouthwatering photography. The recipes are traditional, uncompromising but well adapted to the modern American kitchen. Authenticity is the goal, not trendy nouvelle fusion. For instance, she allows for the use of readily available instant couscous, but insists that the traditional method of multiple steamings and fluffings be employed.

On the negative side, the bread recipes are volumetric only, with no provisions for weighing. And despite it appearing dozens of times throughout the book, there is no recipe for making harissa, only a note to buy an imported jar of it.

Bonus points for multiple shout-outs to Joan Nathan and including her recipes as the expert on Jewish Sephardic cooking rather than trying to muddle through it herself.
She also gets credit for omitting a couple of recipes for foods she talks about, because she wasn't sufficiently satisfied in how they came out to include them in the book. It would have been nice had she figured it out or found a source, but it's brave to not just give in and print it anyway, as happens in too many cookbooks.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A travelogue thru food of somewhere I have always wanted to visit. 517 pages of beautiful pictures of beautiful food. Roasted Beet Salad with Cinnamon; Haroset (Moroccan Dessert Truffles made with dates, apples and almonds) of which I'll be making both. Maybe it's time I did buy that tangine I've always wanted and make another batch of preserved lemons.

[X]

(I can't give this a star rating since I did not read it in its *massive* entirety)

Being primarily interested in baking, I greatly enjoyed the sections on pancakes, breads and desserts in this. The recipes are helpfully contextualized, photographed and explained.

It takes me back to the time I spend in Morocco, and inspires me to bring those flavors back into my life through baking!

[Morocco Sahara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Www.MoroccoSaharaDesertTours.com offers complete Morocco travel packages, including transportation with English-speaking drivers and local guides. We offer a variety of activities like camel trekking & desert camping, desert tours, ATV adventures on the dunes, and event organization.

[Aoife Greene · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to take your love of Moroccan food to the next level this is your book. Not for beginners in so far as she talks straight and tells you what you must not compromise on.

[A. Czepyha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Avocado Date milk....yes please. Eggplant chermoula...thank you. These and many more delicious, approachable recipes await you in this cookbook. Beautiful photography enhances the experience. Your taste buds will thank you for the spice rack investment.

[Sarahbee05 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring. I'm ready for a trip to Morocco! Or at least ready to purchase a tagine.

[Katie]

Great resource - complete guide to Moroccan recipes. Instructions and information are very authoritative. Takes commitment and time to follow recipes because if you live in a small, rural area many ingredients are not available or need to be ordered via internet.

I didn't rate it because its helpfulness is dependent on individual resources and purposes for using the book.