Rfissa Recipe
Rfissa is one of the most special dishes of Moroccan cuisine, but not as popular as couscous or tajin, which we met in Morocco a few years ago. We had the chance to taste it in a two-table restaurant that we entered by coincidence. The owner of the restaurant and the lady who also cooks said that rfissa is not a dish of that region, we were very lucky. Since the restaurant is so small we could also see the food being prepared for service and to be honest the complex look of the food didn't look very promising. But after tasting it, I realized how wrong I was. It was one of the most pleasantly flavored meals I've ever had in my life. It was impossible to forget it. I did it a few times after I came, but I didn't have a chance to photograph and share it.
Rfissa is actually a kind of tirit like eggplant beef tirit. Tirit is the general name of the dishes prepared by soaking stale bread with water or brought. Rfissa is made by slicing plain katmer called msemen in Morocco or stale bread and soaking it with a spicy chicken dish with green lentils. The indispensable spice of the dish is fenugreek seeds.
If you are interested in Indian or Moroccan cuisine and you are experimenting at home, you have come across before or will come across. Buying it and keeping it at home can allow you to experiment with a wider variety of dishes. You can also use fenugreek to make vegan baked beans with pastrami without adding pastrami to the beans.
Although the ingredient list of rfissa seems a bit long, the thing that really extends the list is the spices. They are also only added to the pot, no special treatment is done. Actually, all the ingredients are like that. No roasting or any other pre-cooking is done before the actual cooking process. All the ingredients are added to the pot at the same time and boiled. Only lentils are boiled in a separate pot, probably because of their colour. In my opinion, from this aspect, rfissa deserves to be included in the list of practical recipes.
Enjoy the recipe...
Ingredients
- 1 small whole chicken or 8 chicken thighs,
- 1.5 cups of green lentils,
- 2 onions,
- 4 cloves of garlic,
- 4 tablespoons of olive oil,
- Salt,
- Water,
- 4 plain katmer/msemen.
Spices;
- 1 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds,
- 1 teaspoon of turmeric,
- 1 teaspoon ginger,
- 1 teaspoon of black pepper,
- 1 g of saffron,
- 1 teaspoon of red sweet ground pepper,
- 1 teaspoon of crushed cloves,
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon,
- 1 teaspoon of cumin,
- 1 teaspoon of nutmeg,
- 2 shells of cardamom.
Preparation
- Take the olive oil in a pressure cooker,
- Add the half-moon chopped onion and the sliced garlic,
- Add into the chicken,
- Add the spices,
- Add enough water to cover them, close the lid and cook until the chickens are tender,
- Take the washed and drained lentil in a separate pot,
- Add enough water to cover it and cook until they are soft,
- Drain the lentil and add into to the chicken,
- Add salt and cook for a few more minutes and remove from heat,
- Finely chop the katmer and distribute it on the serving plates,
- Spread the chicken and lentils on them.
Enjoy your meal...