Shwarma In The Slow Cooker

by Amanda Mouttaki

See more at: http://marocmama.com/2012/12/slow-cooker-chicken-shwarma.html

Shwarma in the slow cooker is delicious and won’t make you sweat all day tending the meat.

Ingredients

3-4 chicken breasts
1 tsp sumac
1 tsp each salt and pepper
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 1/2  Tbsp cumin
3 cloves garlic chopped finely
1 Tbsp ginger
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp cardamom
chili pepper (to taste, add more if you like heat, omit if you don’t)
juice of 1 lemon
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
water

Directions

1. Trim chicken breasts of any excess fat.  Place in a bowl and add the sumac, salt and pepper garlic, turmeric, coriander, cumin, ginger, cardamom and chili pepper (optional).

2. In the bottom of your slow cooker add the vegetable oil and add the chicken.

3. Pour the lemon juice on top and add enough water to almost cover the chicken.

4. Cook on low heat for 4 hours, until the chicken is falling apart, keep on warm until just before serving

5. A few minutes before eating, transfer the chicken and liquid to a large pan.  Shred the chicken with forks, and turn the heat to high.

6. Watch the chicken as the liquid reduces.  You will want all of the liquid to be reduced, and the chicken to just slightly begin drying up.  At this point it’s done.

Serve the shwarma in warm pita bread (you can also try this fantastic recipe for gluten free wrap bread I found!) Condiments you may want to also include are Arabic garlic mayonaise, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and other mezze style dips.

Photo Credits: Amanda Mouttaki

Moroccan Avocado Almond Smoothie

by Amanda Mouttaki

See more at: http://marocmama.com/2012/02/moroccan-avocado-smoothie.html#comment-27910

Ingredients

· 1/2 ripe Hass avocado

· 1 cup almond milk (I use vanilla flavor and omit other sweetener)

· 1 tsp sugar or other natural sweetener

Instructions

Note - You can use any type of milk, and can add other fruits to this as well - apples and bananas are common. If you opt not to use almond milk - add almond extract or fine crushed almonds (this is how they do it in Morocco). The taste is meant to include almonds.

· Cut the avocado in half and remove the pit.

· Slide the avocado fruit from the skin and place into a blender.

· Add the milk and sugar and blend until there are no pieces of avocado remaining.

· It is very important that the avocado is ripe or else it won't blend well. The consistency should be thick but smooth. You can add more milk if you prefer a thinner smoothie.

Photo Credit: Amanda Mouttaki