Chermoula

Tagine cooked with chermoula marinade

Chermoula or charmoula is a marinade used in Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian cooking. It is usually used to flavor fish or seafood, but it can be used on other meats or vegetables.

Chermoula is often made of a mixture of herbs, oil, lemon juice, pickled lemons, garlic, cumin, and salt. It may also include onion, fresh coriander, ground chili peppers, black pepper, or saffron.

There are many different recipes that use different spices, and the proportions vary widely. In most recipes, the first two ingredients are garlic and coriander.

A Moroccan version comprises dried parsley, cumin, paprika and salt and pepper. It is the original seasoning for grilling meat and fish in Moroccan cuisine.

Recipes

• recipe for a fresh cilantro & parsley based Chermoula from the New York Times, 2009
• recipe for fish chermoula relying more on spices and less on fresh herbs, from Gourmet, 1994
• Algerian Chermoula also suggests different uses including marinades and dressings.
• Chermoula aubergine with bulgar and yoghurt. Recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi from the Guardian newspaper (UK) dated 12th June 2010