Moroccan Matbucha

A hot vegetable sauce called Moroccan Matbucha is typically created with tomatoes and peppers. Many people consider it to be Israel’s national sauce. The color is red and orange; the texture is paste-like; the structure is heterogeneous; there are pieces of vegetables; the flavor is peppery and sweet; the taste is fiery and unpleasant. A vegetable stew can also be referred to as “matbukha.”

Moroccan Matbucha ingredients

  • Peppers, sweet (400–500 g).
  • 200–300 grams of tomatoes.
  • 4 chili pepper units.
  • 1 head of garlic (5-6 cloves).
  • 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (olive or sunflower).
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • Paprika powder, about half a teaspoon.

What steps go into creating Moroccan sauce with matbucha?

There isn’t a single recipe for the seasoning. Every home and cook has a unique way of preparing matbouhi. All compositions contain fleshy tomatoes, but the peppers used in them differ. Use paprika or pepper to season the sweet Bulgarian kinds or the juicy California varieties.

There must have been a time when the sauce was really spicy. The formulation of the condiments, created in an era before refrigerators, was intended to delay spoilage and lessen pathogenic organisms that had already infiltrated the food. People started experimenting with the flavor of matbouh sauce, making it sweeter or spicier, when the possibility of long-term storage became accessible.

Moroccan Matbucha Cooking Directions:

  • To get a consistent sauce, remove the bell pepper stalks, membranes, and seeds while leaving the chili stalk alone. All of the veggies should be thoroughly cleaned under running water. Puree 2 tomatoes and 4 red bell peppers in a blender until they are mushy, then transfer the mixture to an enamel pan. Roast 4 chili rings and 1 garlic clove cut into cloves in a pan with sunflower oil. Add the chopped roast to the pot after bringing everything to a simmer and letting it cook until almost all of the liquid has evaporated. Stirring is necessary to prevent burning. Add 1 tablespoon each of sugar, salt, and paprika powder before turning off the heat. If you don’t want to keep it for a long time, you can add additional seasonings.
  • If the seasoning is served as a side dish, Moroccan Matbucha is made as a stew. 2 kilograms of peeled and cubed tomatoes, cooked for 1–2 minutes in boiling water The three pods of the bitter chilis should be removed, chopped, and added to the saucepan with the tomatoes. Steam everything for at least an hour over low heat, until it is pasty, and crush the garlic (4 tbsp). California peppers (2 pieces), with the membranes and seeds removed, are sliced into large squares and combined with 2 tablespoons tomato paste and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Until the vegetable pieces are tender, stir and simmer. Remove from heat and quickly turn off. Add salt and pepper right before serving, if desired.
  • accompanied by onions. In Morocco, onions are added to the ingredients to give matbucha its bitter flavor. When using white onion or onion, the taste must be judged by personal preference. 200 g of onion rings are cooked in sunflower oil in a thick-walled pot until golden, at which point paprika powder is added (1 tsp.). In the same pan, add 200 g of hot, juicy green or red bell peppers and stir for 5 minutes. Add four crushed garlic cloves, four chopped bitter peppers, and four to five chopped tomatoes. When all the vegetables are cooked through, remove the pot from the heat, add salt and pepper, and blend with an immersion blender until smooth. Seasoning is served cold.
  • Only 4 tablespoons of chicken broth are required. 3 green bell peppers, 1 stemless green bitter, 1 red paprika, huge garlic cloves that have been peeled and cut into wedges, 2 tablespoons of paprika, 0.5 teaspoons bitter black pepper, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon sugar are all roasted in sunflower oil for 3 minutes.
  • Cook, covered, over a very low heat, stirring frequently to prevent burning, until all of the vegetables are tender. Pour in the broth until a spoon can be easily turned, then turn off the heat and let cool. Keep chilled until required.
  • This sauce is for winter. You may make Moroccan Matbucha with Recipe #3. The amount of components is only increased in this scenario; otherwise, experimentation is not necessary. It takes 2 kg of tomatoes, 4-5 pieces of bell pepper, 3 pieces of bitter, 1 kg of onions, and a head of garlic. In addition to salt and pepper, vegetables are cooked, not merely softened, and spices like cumin and coriander are used to improve flavor. Once you’ve used a blender to grind it, bring it back to a boil. In sterile jars, the seasoning is applied hot, and sunflower oil is used to brush the exterior.
  • Moroccan Matbucha sauce is produced by small private businesses. Vegetable cutting, washing, and packing equipment are all found on production lines along with agitators and vacuum chambers for heat treatment. The food is contained in flat, 250 mL food-safe plastic cans. Ingredients at a minimum include tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, salt, two kinds of peppers—one sweet and one spicy. The label lists the different kinds of stabilizers and preservatives. Pasty and completely homogeneous in texture.

Outside of Israel, it is very rare to find Moroccan Matbucha in supermarkets. The demand for the spice is not very high. On the other hand, private retailers allow online orders. Each person must decide for themselves whether it is worthwhile to order the product without knowing how it was preserved.

View the recipe for pomegranate narsharab sauce as well.

Vegetable stew sauce is known as Moroccan Matbucha.

I’ve recently grown increasingly attracted to Israeli cuisine because I appreciate this country and the people who over many years built a prosperous state in the desert. In Israel, everything is in bloom. Citrus groves, greenhouses, and the cheeks of girls. When you eat a local green lettuce leaf, the liquid runs out of the leaf. Red, orange, and purple carrot types are available. White, specked, and deep purple eggplant variants are available. Mama, kindly! What about olive oil, then? If it is bitter, it is mildly bitter and not at all unpleasant. Freshly baked bread crusts should be dipped in it, lightly salted, and then enjoyed. When I described this culinary paradise to my friends and included dishes like Moroccan Matbucha, shakshuka, babaganush, and tkhina, they all correctly nodded and started making pasta. I started experimenting because I felt driven to extend their culinary horizons.

We will need:

  • three slices of red bell pepper
  • 4 pieces of 4 huge fresh tomatoes.
  • 1 piece of red chili pepper
  • 1 large onion, 1 piece
  • 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
  • five garlic cloves
  • paprika red, 1 teaspoon.
  • 2 squeezes Zira.
  • using olive oil to fry
  • to taste, add salt to the dish.
  • additional tools and supplies.
  • Casanok or cast iron pot gloves

laying the groundwork

I’d like to focus on the spices. Grammy always says, “A chicken should be a chicken, not a ballerina on a diet before a debut.” With spices, the same is true. They ought to be able to taste and smell. Paprika has a light aroma, and even when stored correctly, after grinding it, it turns to red powder after six months. Not to worry. Halloween is always celebrated, and you can dress like a Native American chief. However, when cooking, you must use a fresh spice with a hot flavor. You’ll be able to taste zira right away. It is lively and nutmeg. The zira seed looks similar to cumin or dill seeds. Please feel free to smell them!

Cooking

  • Peel the peppers, onion, and garlic, but do not peel the chile.
  • To cook a tomato, remove its skin or, as recommended by chefs, blanch it first.
  • Cut the bell pepper and onion into small cubes each, as well as the garlic into large bits.
  • The onions should be cooked in olive oil for ten minutes at medium heat before being added with the paprika and cilantro. Stirring with a spoon helps to finish the process.
  • Throw in the chopped chili peppers and seeds after another 10 minutes.
  • After that, include bell peppers in the cauldron.
  • The food in the pot simmers for another twenty minutes. Time for some tomato paste and cubes. Combine everything once more.
  • Salt and garlic are used as garnishes. You add it, stir it, and then taste it.
  • Put a lid on the cauldron, lower the heat, and collect the matbuch every half an hour. As necessary, add water. All vegetables must soften, but they shouldn’t turn like mashed potatoes. Three to six hours are needed for cooking. Everything is based on how large the vegetable cubes are. Large chops took six hours, while little chops took three. Everything is up to you.
  • Since you don’t understand what Jewish patience is, I can say with honesty that you still have a chance. Serve it with fresh bread, as a spaghetti sauce, with lamb for matbucha, your best friend, and with eggs for shakshuka, the most welcome of the dowry relatives.

Grandma’s wise advice

Moroccan Matbucha can be prepared in bigger quantities and kept in glass jars with lids. You could make it winter-themed. You should omit the chili peppers if you are sensitive to heat. Although it differs from the traditional recipe, it won’t make you feel sick.

Hacelim, commonly known as pâté d’aubergine,

If the weather was awful outside, Granny would look up at the sky and say, “Imagine the clouds floating across the sky, like a porcelain Madonna set.” Birds soar and resemble teapots in a tumbler of delicious, freshly brewed Indian tea called “Three Elephants.” It will then be slightly happier even if it will still be depressing for the soul. I groaned and made some enticing tea to take my mind off meaningless things.

We will need:

  • Medium-sized eggplant, cut into 4 slices.
  • 2 tablespoons of traditional mayo
  • one garlic clove
  • the veggie oil
  • To taste, add salt and black pepper to the food.
  • Associated tools and materials:
  • Oven, tray, foil, and strainers
  • Bowl.

Participating in the Bazaar

Pick your eggplants wisely. You must shake hands and become friends with each one of them. Take an eggplant in your hand, that is. The vegetable ought to be sturdy, flawless, and defect-free. It is a “female” eggplant if you notice a dimple there, and a “boy” eggplant if there isn’t one. Because “girls” have more seeds and are “not allo” in this dish, the male gender is preferred in this instance.

Cooking

  1. In this instance, the smoke’s flavor is very important. Therefore, if you have gas, spread two eggplants with vegetable oil, pierce them many times with a knife, and bake them for around 40 minutes at 180 degrees. The other two should be separately wrapped in foil, pierced with a knife, and placed on a big burner right away. Every five minutes, check and flip. When the eggplant is extremely soft when pressed, it is finished. The same approach can be carried out with an inside burner or a barbeque. If you’re starting to become a cooking aficionado like myself, I suggest getting one. It’s a cool device, or a gizmo as it’s more generally known these days.
  2. Remove the skins from the warm eggplants and lay them in a sieve over a basin. The extra liquid ought to drain. It is bitter, to start with. Second, the pâté will be watery without the juice.
  3. Using a knife with a wide blade, we set the eggplants on a cutting board and start chopping. Next, we add two tablespoons of mayonnaise, a squeezed garlic clove, salt, and a little black pepper, and continue chopping and combining all the ingredients. It ought should take about fifteen minutes. There is no reason to get tired of this repetitive activity. You might imagine taking a trip to the Maldives. I still encourage you to dream, even if you believe it to be all a dream. Yes, miracles do happen!
  4. Taste and season with salt and pepper once the mixture is consistent. No mixers or blenders are permitted! Logically impossible, but if you adopt this method, the flavor will be, as they say in Odessa, “unfortunate.”
  5. After putting the pâté in a mold, chill it in the fridge for a few hours.
  6. Toast some boruda bread, top with hacelim, add some green onions or some finely chopped sweet yalta for decoration, and serve to your friends and family. Believe me, exactly one minute after you start the tasting experiment, they will be as proud of you as I am. That proves that we’re all here together!

Composition and calorie count of matbouha sauce

The recipe, quantities, and kind of ingredients used all affect the sauce’s vitamin and mineral content. Low nutritional value. After stewing in tomato juice, the seasoning has a calorie value of 60 kcal per 100 g.

Matbouha cooked in vegetable oil contains 79 calories per 100 grams, including:

  • 1 gram of protein
  • 1.5 g fat.
  • 10.3 grams of carbs.
  • dietary fiber, 1.2 g.

The condiment is rich in ascorbic acid, choline, lycopene, nicotinic acid, and beta-carotene vitamins. High levels of sodium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, silicon, iron, zinc, and manganese can be found in Moroccan matbucha. The product contains a tiny amount of iodine despite having nothing to do with the sea, at the expense of sweet peppers. Leucine makes up the majority of the 12 essential amino acids. The remaining 8 amino acids are largely glutamic and asparagic acid. The sauce also includes pectins, tannins, and organic acids (malic and citric).

There are also details on the ingredients and caloric content of Subiz sauce.

Matbukha’s advantageous traits

The spiciness of the condiment speeds up peristalsis and stimulates the digestive system. In the regions where the sauce recipe was developed, maintaining water-electrolyte balance and preserving vital moisture are also important goals.

The benefits of matbukha for health include:

  • The delicious substance boosts the production of the happy hormones noradrenaline and serotonin, which lessens nerve agitation, prevents the onset of sadness, balances the emotional background, and enhances sleep.
  • by preventing pathogen activity, lowers the risk of inflammation, including stomatitis and periodontal disease.
  • enhances total body tone and blood circulation. The “jumping” of blood pressure ends, and it stabilizes.
  • enhances memory function, coordination, and impulse control.
  • It enhances immunity, lessens the likelihood of illnesses during the season of epidemics, and replenishes the body’s vitamin and mineral stores thanks to its high ascorbic acid content.
  • Women who included matbukha in their daily diet experienced a decrease in the frequency of PMS and a stabilization of their menstrual cycle. Hot peppers and tomatoes, which are present in the sauce, are aphrodisiacs for men. The stimulating effect improves sexual desire and seminal fluid production.

It is important to note that lycopene, a substance in tomatoes that does not degrade when heated, gives matbouha an antioxidant effect. It reduces the risk of developing breast cancer as well as all forms of intestinal cancer by accelerating the removal of free radicals that are circulating in the circulatory system and intestinal lumen.

Risks and contraindications for matbukha

If you have digestive issues linked to higher gastric acidity, it is better to avoid using the sauce. Consuming matbucha in Morocco might damage the stomach, digestive system, and oral mucosa that has ulcers. You must decline to start the diet if your chronic pancreatitis, ulcer disease, or enterocolitis flares up.

It is not worth tasting daily seasoning for gout, arthritis, or osteochondrosis during recurrent attacks because to the high oxalic acid concentration. For the same reason, only use the tasty component in dishes if you have cystitis or urolithiasis.

For people who are prone to hypertension, the ability to increase body tone presents a challenge. Bitter pepper, which is one of the essential constituents, puts more strain on the cardiovascular and digestive systems.

Items in the color red pose a risk to people who are prone to allergic reactions. When learning a new flavor, keep in mind that the main components of the sauce are red: tomatoes and two different kinds of peppers.

Moroccan recipes for meals with matbucha

The spice is considered to be commonplace and is served with fish and meat dishes, pasta, as well as being used in pizza and sandwiches. On the other side, you can’t make shakshuka eggs without matbucha. The pepper and tomato sauce are brought to a boil in a frying pan with a thick wall, and then eggs are added. The pan is then covered with a lid while the eggs cook. Quick, enjoyable, and nourishing.

Moroccans make delicious dishes with matbucha:

Stew. In a frying pan with a thick wall, cook onion rings. Add finely chopped young veal when they are ready, and simmer, stirring frequently, until a crimson crust forms. When the liquid is gone and the meat is cooked and mushy, add the tomato and pepper spice and cover with water. Cook for 40 minutes.
Fried fish. One kilogram of fresh herring is cleaned, the large and small bones are taken out, and the herring is then cut into pieces. Fish is rolled in a flour-salt mixture. In a pan, add approximately a finger’s worth of refined sunflower oil. Fry the billets until a crispy coating forms, much as in a deep fryer, and then arrange them on a “pillow” of red onions that have been sliced into rings. Add tomato-pepper sauce on top, then bake at 160–170 °C for 15 minutes. The herring is cooked through in this amount of time. The meal can be prepared in a pot, 250 mL of water added, and 15 minutes of simmering time. Before serving, fresh herbs, including chopped parsley and dill, are sprinkled over each piece.

There are also recipes for meals that use velouté sauce.

Facts about matbucha in Morocco that are important to know

The formulas for the seasoning, which date back to the 18th century, are not very old. During this time, tomatoes lost some of their unique appeal to the inhabitants of the Middle East. Jews who immigrated to Israel around this time carried the matbucha recipe with them. Since the list of ingredients did not go against kashrut customs and the taste was just mildly spicy, it was incorporated into the diet. Additionally, as germs multiply quickly in heat, pepper spice reduced the microbiological risks of food when freezers were still being developed.

Housewives in hot climates like matbouha sauce because it takes less time to prepare. After all, it is sufficient to chop the ingredients into random shapes, throw them into a pot, and cook them on a low heat while going about your daily activities, occasionally going back to the kitchen to combine everything. Dinner is almost ready when the cooked vegetables are ground to a smooth consistency. So why not learn this straightforward recipe and provide happiness to your dogs as well?

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