Seffa

Sweetened couscous dish with butter and spices

[[Commons:Category:Seffa|Media: Seffa السفة]]

Seffa (Arabic: السفة) is a Maghrebi term^[1] for a dish of sweetened semolina cuscus with butter, cinnamon, and almonds.^[2] The dish may incorporate meat,^[3] and also alternatively be made with vermicelli or rice.^[4]^[5] This dish is generally consumed at the end of a meal, before dessert. It is often served at traditional marriage ceremonies and family gatherings.^{[citation needed]}

Seffa can also be served with chicken (السفة بالدجاج) or with raisins (السفة الحلوة بالزبيب).^[6]

According to Emily Gottreich, the version of seffa involving a mixture of butter with chicken, or other meat, is a "distinctively Moroccan dish" traditionally only found in Muslim homes owing to the Jewish dietary prohibition on the mixing of meat and dairy in a single meal.^[3]

However, seffa in its simpler form, flavoured with just sugar and cinnamon, is prepared by Moroccan Jewish communities on the night of the Mimouna. This dish is also known by the French: Couscous Sucré et Sec (sweet and dry couscous).^[7]

There are also sweetened cuscus dishes besides seffa, such as mesfouf.

References

^ Harlan Walker (1990). Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery, 1989: Staplefoods : Proceedings. Oxford Symposium. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-907325-44-4.
^ Albala, Ken (2011). Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-37626-9.
^ ^a ^b Gottreich, Emily Benichou (2020). Jewish Morocco: A History from Pre-Islamic to Postcolonial Times. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781838603618.
^ "القيمة الغذائية ل "السفة" المغربية يعرفنا عليها نبيل العياشي في "صباحيات"". 2M (in Arabic). Retrieved 2020-04-28.
^ صبري, كتبه: صفاء (2014-05-19). "طريقة تحضير السفة المغربية". مشاهد 24 (in Arabic). Retrieved 2020-04-28.
^ "Seffa, Mesfous Zbib : couscous sucré aux raisins secs - Dziriya.net". dziriya.net (in French). Archived from the original on 2017-09-05. Retrieved 2017-09-05.
^ Katherine Romanow (September 2013). "Mufleta, Zaban and Sushi: The Development of the Mimouna and its Foodways from Morocco to Montreal" (PDF). Concordia University.