Taktouka
Roasted green peppers and tomato cooked down together, where the peppers are charred and skinned rather than fried raw.
Vegan.
Ingredients
- 6 green peppers
- 800 g ripe tomatoes, grated
- 6 cloves garlic, crushed
- 100 ml olive oil
- 2 teaspoons sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 bunch flat parsley, chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- a pinch of cayenne
Method
- THE PEPPERS ARE CHARRED AND SKINNED, NOT FRIED RAW, and that is what separates this from an ordinary pepper and tomato stew. Blackened over a flame and sweated under a plate, they come out smoky and soft and the skins pull away in sheets. Chopped raw into the pan they stay sweet and slightly grassy, which is pleasant and is a different dish.
- AND THEY ARE NOT RINSED AFTER SKINNING. Running water takes the smoky oil away with the charred skin and most of the point with it. Rub the skin off with the fingers and accept a few black flecks left behind.
- GREEN PEPPERS, NOT RED. Red are sweeter and make something closer to the aubergine salad on this site; green keep an edge that stands up to the tomato.
- Peppers blackened all over -- on a gas flame, under a hot grill, or on a barbecue -- 15 minutes, turning.
- Into a bowl, covered with a plate, 15 minutes. The steam loosens the skins.
- Skins rubbed off with the fingers, stems and seeds removed, and the flesh torn into strips.
- Tomatoes halved and grated on a coarse grater until only the skins are left in the hand.
- Oil in a wide pan over a medium heat. Garlic 1 minute without colouring.
- Grated tomato in with the paprika, cumin, cayenne and salt. Cooked 15 minutes until thick and darkened.
- Peppers in. Cooked a further 15 to 20 minutes, UNCOVERED, crushing with the back of the spoon as it goes, until there is no free liquid and the oil has risen to the surface.
- Parsley through off the heat.
- Cooled to room temperature. Served with bread, and better the next day. Keeps four days.
Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.
Filed under Morocco · All recipes