Intro to Marrakech

With stops in Seattle, London and Casablanca, I landed in Marrakech, Morocco, jet-lagged and disoriented after nearly 20 hours of travel. After a short ride from the airport, I arrived at Dar Egbert, the home of Hakima’s Moroccan Cooking School where I would spend the week exploring the culinary delights of Marrakech.

I first learned about the school when my mom called from Seattle and said “Guess what? I am going to cooking school in Marrakech.” It sounded so exciting, I invited myself along. My mom had seen a brochure about the school in a furniture store in Seattle and was instantly intrigued.

The school is a nonprofit organization founded by Carolyn Watts from Port Townsend, Wash., with the intent of teaching Moroccan women literacy and job skills. Our cooking instructor Hakima Saih was benefiting from the program by attending school part time when she was not in the kitchen.

Watts and Dar Egbert caretaker Hassan Saih welcomed us to our new home with candle light and freshly brewed mint tea, a trademark of Moroccan hospitality. The courtyard was filled with orange trees and the sweet scent of orange blossoms greeted us. A light supper of salads had been prepared, including roasted beets with cilantro and a sweet, melon salad with mint and orange blossom water. After the meal and two glasses of mint tea, I felt relaxed and revived from the journey.

Class is in session

After breakfast of freshly squeezed orange juice and baghir – semolina pancakes served with fig jam and honey – we were off to the market to buy ingredients for dinner. Our first cooking lesson would be a chicken tagine with preserved lemons, olives and potatoes. A Moroccan tagine is a slowly cooked, stewlike dish, traditionally cooked over charcoal by the Berbers in the Atlas mountains. Tagine is also the name for the pot with the conical lid in which this type of meal is cooked.

On the short walk to the market, we watched as donkeys pulled wooden carts loaded with fresh produce. Our cooking instructor Hakima selected a live chicken, and while it was being plucked and cleaned we gathered potatoes for our tagine and tomatoes, peppers and cilantro for a cooked Moroccan salad. Strawberries were in season and we selected some enormous, beautifully fragrant strawberries for dessert.

We snacked on some salted roasted almonds while we learned the art of preparing a tagine. The inside of the clay pot is often rubbed with oil or preserved butter, adding to the flavor of the dish. Meats, vegetables and spices are added and cooked for several hours over low heat, often starting in the morning as most Moroccans enjoy their large meal in the middle of the day. Children come home from school and many workers enjoy a midday break with their family before heading back to work.

The class schedule for the week was quite flexible, with plenty of time for sightseeing. We would shop at the market in the mornings when the locals shopped, and our group of four would reconvene in the kitchen at 5:30 to prepare our evening meal. We spent several hours cooking and several more enjoying our meal and conversation. We had four evening lessons during the week and other impromptu instruction while we helped Hakima prepare soups for lunch or make chocolates for dessert.

Exploring the souks

One could spend weeks exploring the souks, or markets in the medina (old city) of Marrakech. There are surprises around every corner in the alleys of the market place which goes on for miles. Brightly colored carpets hang for sale on the walls of the buildings, providing a beautiful backdrop for the activity below.

The spice markets are a delight, with herbs for cooking, cosmetic use and medicinal purposes. Food vendors sell produce, live chickens, fresh meat and local delicacies such as sheep heads soup and snails. The olive markets are a visual feast, with mountains of olives – green, black, dried, spiced, large and small. There are booths of Moroccan sweets, most made with honey and different kinds of nuts. Dried apricots, nuts, dates and necklace-like strings of dried figs are also popular. There are stalls piled high with fresh mint, attesting to the popularity of the favored mint tea.

The central square of the old town, Djemaa el-Fna, comes alive at night as dozens of chefs set up mini restaurants outside with portable grills and bench seating. They arrive ready to serve soup, grilled meats, tagines, fresh squeezed juices and mint tea. The square offers music, dancers, storytellers and more for post dinner entertainment. We visited the medina several times over the week just to take in the atmosphere.

Land of bread and honey

Bread lovers delight in the fresh khubz, or circular, crusty Moroccan bread served with each meal. As Moroccans traditionally eat with their hands, bread is used to help pick up the food and soak up sauces. In most families, bread is baked fresh daily or at a minimum bought from local shops each day. As we wandered the alleys in the old part of the city, we watched the locals carry their bread dough to the community wood-fired ovens for baking. Wrapped in brightly colored tea towels, each family marks their bread with a name or seal, drops it off for baking and returns to pick it up before the midday meal. The baker we visited estimated that he baked roughly 500 round loaves each day.

Hot fresh bread, cheese, olives and small packets of honey make for a perfect picnic lunch. Moroccan honey is sold everywhere, and available in many flavors, such as eucalyptus and jasmine. For dessert, look for the ladies selling trays of chewy coconut macaroons, or stop by one of the numerous French bakeries for croissants, crepes or petit fours.

Cooking Berber style

On our sixth day the class took a trip to the Ourika Valley, an hour drive from Marrakech. The views of the snowy Atlas mountains are stunning, as are the cliffside dwellings of the local Berber people. We wanted to see how people lived and cooked in this traditional, rural area of Morocco.

We were invited into a local Berber house for a tour and mint tea served with freshly baked bread with honey and olive oil. The family we visited had their own beehive in the house and a cow living on the first floor to provide milk and butter. The mother of the house cooked for her eight children over several small charcoal fires and a propane burner. Although this house had electricity, many rural families do not have electricity or running water.

We stopped at a scenic riverside cafe for lunch of beef and vegetable tagine with olives – perfectly tender meat and slightly smoky flavor from the wood fire. Inventors of tagines, the Berbers have been cooking these delicious slow-cooked dishes over small charcoal fires for centuries, and it is easy to see why they are still popular today.

Couscous

Couscous is considered to be the national dish of Morocco. The name couscous denotes the grain as well as the finished dish. These small semolina grains can be prepared sweet, for dessert, or savory as a main course. Couscous is cooked in a couscousiere, where the grains are steamed over a fragrant stew of meats and vegetables, imparting flavor to the couscous during cooking. The finished stew is then served on top of the grains.

In our final day of cooking school, we learned the technique of working the grains by hand, adding more olive oil and water during cooking so that the grains do not stick together. We prepared a stew of chicken with eight different vegetables that was served on top of the couscous. It was delicious and worth the work.

Here are recipes from Hakima’s Moroccan Cooking School:

Chicken, Preserved Lemon and Olive Tagine

This is one of the most popular tagines in Morocco. It can be prepared in a large cooking pot with a lid.

2 preserved lemons (recipe follows) (see notes)

One whole chicken, cut up with skin removed except on thighs (4 to 5 pounds)

2 grated onions

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon pepper

Pinch of saffron threads

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup olive oil

4 cloves pressed garlic

1/2 cup water

6 potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters lengthwise (see notes)

1 large handful of green olives, rinsed to remove extra salt

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Rinse preserved lemons quickly in running water to remove excess salt. Cut open and scoop out the lemon pulp. Discard pulp or save for another use. Tear remaining lemon rind in small pieces. Mix chicken, lemon rind, onions, ginger, pepper, saffron, turmeric, oils, garlic and water in large covered cooking pot. Heat slowly to a boil and then reduce heat to low and simmer 40 minutes. Add potatoes and cook 10 to 15 minutes more until potatoes are cooked. Add green olives, parsley and cilantro and stir, heat 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Transfer to heated serving platter, arranging olives on top and potatoes around the side. Serve with bread.

Notes: Fresh lemons are not a good substitute for preserved lemon. According to the “Food Substitutions Bible” by David Joachim, cooks can substitute each preserved lemon with: 1 sliced fresh lemon, 1 teaspoon salt and a pinch of sugar heated in 2 teaspoons olive oil over medium heat until the lemon is very tender, about 20 to 30 minutes.

Keep potatoes covered in lightly salted water until ready to use.

Yield: 6 to 7 servings

Nutrition per serving: Unable to calculate.

Preserved Lemons

These can be ordered online from chefshop.com or you can make your own. You will need a large sterilized canning jar.

4 lemons

Juice from 4 lemons

Salt

Wash and dry 4 lemons. Cut a large X over each end of the lemon, cutting through the peel and into the lemon. The lemon should have deep cuts, but not fall apart. Stuff each cut with salt and place in jar. Cover lemons with additional lemon juice (and water if necessary) until fully covered. Close the lid and let the jar sit in a cool cupboard or in the refrigerator for 3 weeks.

Yield: 4 preserved lemons

Nutrition per serving: Unable to calculate.

Moroccan Tomato and Pepper Salad

Moroccan salads are often cooked and then cooled before serving

3 whole, fresh mild green chili peppers, such as Anaheim

6 to 8 whole tomatoes, skins removed

2 cloves garlic, pressed

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons oregano

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika

Pinch of saffron, for color

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro

Roast the peppers over an open flame or under the broiler until the skin is evenly charred. Place in paper sack to facilitate peeling. Peel and cool peppers, slice into long thin strips then dice into 3/8-inch pieces.

Chop the peeled tomatoes into 1-inch chunks. Place in saucepan with all other ingredients except roasted peppers and cilantro. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes, crushing tomatoes with a spoon. Add peppers and cilantro, cooking for another 15 minutes until it thickens. Serve with bread for dipping.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving, based on 6: 172 calories, 18 grams fat (2.5 grams saturated, 92 percent fat calories), less than 1 gram protein, 3 grams carbohydrate, no cholesterol, 1 gram dietary fiber, 389 milligrams sodium.