I discussed what to cook with the instructor (the owner of the riad). She is an Australian who married a Moroccan gentleman. She's lived in Morocco for more than 10 years. She also has a Moroccan assistant whose English is very limited. We've decided to make quite a few dishes. I didn't recognize some of the dishes but I said "yes" to almost all of her suggestions because I wanted to try things that I didn't even know.
I was told that I'll have a classmate just for today. A very nice English man showed up as she started teaching us how to go to the market and buy ingredients in Arabic. After the super short Arabic crash course, we headed to the market. The market is located in a place I would not have expected. The inside was pretty big and looked very "authentic" (if you know what I mean....). Many groceries, produce, meat, poultry and seafood. The seafood looked super fresh which I didn't really expect because Marrakesh is not that close to the sea. It seems they ship fresh seafood every day from nearby ports. And some of the meats are "SUPER" fresh. They are really fresh because they are still alive (think chicken, pigeons and rabbits). We just told them how many we wanted and how we were planning to prepare them. Usually we ordered meats first and then continued with other shopping. After all the shopping was done, we'd just pick the meats up.
We took turns ordering the ingredients in Arabic. Basically we were just reading whatever we wrote down in our notebooks. People at the market were nice enough to tolerate our horrible pronunciation. I really enjoyed this because I had the riad owner as a "back-up",
As soon as we came back from shopping we started to make Moroccan mint tea. We started by washing tea leaves. First we poured hot water very gently onto the tea leaves. The liquid is poured out very gently again and saved (this is not to wash the tea leaves). Then, we poured hot water again (not gently this time) and shook well. We repeated this 3 times in order to remove any dirt from the leaves. The reason the first water is saved is that it's the best part of the tea. After that, we filled the pot with clean hot water along with sugar and a bunch of mint. Then, we let it sit for a while. When served, it's poured from high above the cup "3 times" to cool the tea a little and also to create foam. I'm so glad to know how to make real Moroccan tea.
Mssamen
I learned how to make this with the Moroccan assistant. This is like a baguette for the French or pasta for the Italians so don't mess with Moroccans about mssamen! The Moroccan assistant was very specific about how to knead the dough (which is a non yeast dough). You have to hold both hands in a specific way and press them down in a specific way (yes, very specific...). No matter what I did, the assistant kept laughing and didn't approve it. What's the difference??? Neither me or my English classmate could get her approval.....
The rolled out dough is folded with a small amount of oil so that it makes layers.
Tomato chutney with egg
This is the instructor's creation. Normally the tomato chutney is served alone but she added eggs on top. It looks like shakshuka which is typical breakfast dish from northern Africa to the Middle East. But she didn't know about it, so maybe not in Morocco? Anyway this is very good!! We had this for lunch and it was definitely the favorite dish of the day for both me and my English classmate.
Chicken Tajine
Tajine is the famous Moroccan cooking pot. The shallow pot and cone shaped lids function like a slow cooker. This chicken was the one that was alive a few hours ago. The English classmate said the meat was still warm. But we later figured out that the warmth is from the hot water the butcher used to clean it. When I filleted a fish that was alive a few hours before, I felt some muscle spasm because the nerve system was still alive. So, I was a bit afraid that I may feel the same thing from the chicken. Luckily I didn't feel any... Good.....
The chicken was prepared with preserved lemon. The lemon was cut into a half and pressed into the top of the chicken before cooking. That's probably the traditional way, but I wish we could use chopped or mushed preserved lemon to enhance the lemon flavor. Still, good though.
Sardine kefta tajine
This is another good dish. Like I said above, the seafood was very fresh at the market. And so was this sardine. It looked like we could have eaten it raw - it was that fresh. The filleted sardine was mashed with herbs and spices by hand so that you could tell this is really a fish ball. The result was very "good" fishy balls (without that bad fishy-ness). I wish we hadn't cooked it so long because the fish was so fresh. But everything in a tajine pot should be cooked slow and long. So, this must be cultural.
Cous cous
The Moroccan assistant did most of the preparation for this. She spent quite a bit of time rubbing cous cous with oil and water until it gets the right texture. Then, she steamed it with water flavored with spices and lemon juice. This is something I didn't know at all. Then, she rubbed it again with oil. I'm so glad I got to see the proper way to prepare cous cous. The is the presentation used for a special occasion so it's not always garnished with powdered sugar, cinnamon and almond as you see in the photo below.
After lunch, we went to the spice market. A young Moroccan man welcomed us with tea and explained the different spices with in very good English. This is a spice market for bulk purchase so it doesn't look like a store but the corner of the warehouse.
By the way, we often used the spice, called Ras El Hanout, which means "Head of the shop." This is mixture of essential spices, such as cardamom, nutmeg, anise, mace, cinnamon, ginger, various peppers, and turmeric. But the recipe varies based upon who made it. I would say this is Moroccan version of garam masala.
After we came back from the spice market, we continued cooking.
Egg dipped cauliflower
Boiled cauliflower is broken down to smaller pieces and dipped into an egg, spice and herb mixture, then fried. Again, this is another satisfying vegetarian dish.
Squid
The squid was marinated in various spices & herbs and orange juice for a few hours, then cooked slowly. Both me and the English classmate thought that squid is supposed to be cooked quickly to avoid making it tough. But because the squid is marinated and cooked slowly, the squid meat was very flavorful.
Baked meringue and saffron custard
We made two deserts today. The baked meringue is the same one that we had last night. Saffron custard is another typical Moroccan desert.
I guess we did a lot in one day... I just can't wait for the next two classes!
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