Clock Cafe Cooking Day

A few weeks ago I went down to Fes for a cooking class in Clock Café. This highly recommended course is something I have wanted to do for a while as I have yet to master the intricacies of Moroccan cuisine.

I went to the cooking course with Megan, the mum of one of my students who has uprooted her family of six to come on an adventure to Morocco for eleven months while helping educate local farmers on the ins and outs of successful sheep breeding. Trin, a friend of Megan's from Australia who is currently based in the UAE was visiting for a week and decided to come along. Trin has been working in the genetic selection and breeding of racing camels for one of the wealthiest sheikhs and was quite fascinating to listen to. In the UAE camel racing is much bigger bucks than horse racing. It is a spectator-less sport and is basically a lot of men in pick up trucks driving around in the middle of the desert chasing after camels ridden by robots that are controlled by whistling into remote controls. I digress, but this blew my mind.

The cooking course at Clock Café is far more than just a simple cooking class. Starting with a menu discussion with other students (a mother and daughter from England) and introduction to the incredible friendly teacher, Souad. You then go out into the local food area of the medina where for about thirty minutes you walk around learning about the different stalls. The confusing variety of stalls usually specialise in one or two things. You build up a relationship with vendors by repeat business and then get the best cuts of meat, freshest vegetables, and the warmest and softest bread.

After an education in olives, bread, vegetables, oils, spices, fragrant water and smem (presevered butter, note preserved as in rancid), you retrace your steps slightly wiser and a lot smellier from trying oils and buy what you need for the class.

The Clock Café is deep down a narrow alley and is a warren of rooms and levels that rise steeply up to a remarkably comfy and airy multi-levelled roof garden. As well as offering some of the tastiest and healthiest Morocco fusion food, it offers Arabic classes, calligraphy classes, art exhibitions and Sunday sunset concerts of local music. The cooking class was to be held in a private but spacious kitchen and dining area in one of the many hidden rooms within the old converted riad.

Matching aprons on, you are walked through the spice and flavour combinations that make up the basics of many Moroccan foods. Souad was an entertaining and cheeky teacher, who was keen to test whether we had been paying attention by quizzing us when we had finished preparing the three course meal and were waiting for the pressure cooker to do its magic. After she was sure we could remember everything she encouraged us to ask any questions about Moroccan life that we had yet to have answered.

I have lived in Morocco for nearly a year and yet the secret life of women has remained largely hidden from me. Wherever you go you see men... working in the souqs, medinas, marches and shops. Mostly you just see them passing entire chunks of each day sitting putting the world to rights in one of the million cafés there are everywhere. Souad gave us a bit of a window into the world of women. Explaining about the importance of family, in general, but in particular your relationship with your mother in law; “happy mother in law = happy life”. When not working Souad will take some cakes round to her mother in law's house where a collection of women will sit and gossip about love, life and health for hours at a time. Seriously, I think it is a miracle that anything ever gets done here with all the talking, coffee drinking and cake eating that occurs.

After a fair amount of gossiping we sat down to our three course meal of Zaalouk, followed by lamb, prune and apricot tajine, topped off with Kunaffa, a tasty and incredibly light dessert of toasted Moroccan filo pastry with frozen rose water yoghurt, honey, walnuts and cherries. Sadly I haven't got the recipe for the dessert yet, but should be able to remember it, the tajine recipe is as follows...

Lamb, Prune & Apricot Tajine

800 grams lamb (or beef if you prefer) for lamb shoulder is best.

150 grams dried prunes

150 grams dried apricots

1 big red onion, finely chopped

1 cinnamon stick

1 tsp ginger powder

1 tsp black pepper

1 pinch saffron

Splash of olive oil

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 small bunch of parsley and coriander, finely chopped to garnish at end.

1 tsp of cinnamon powder

2 tsbp of sugar

1 tbsp of butter

Wash the prunes and boil in 1 litre of water until soft.

Marinade the lamb in the olive oil, garlic, ginger, saffron, salt and pepper for a good 10 minutes.

Put the onions and the lamb into a big pan or pressure cooker. Cook on a high flame, turning the lamb on all sides. Add cinnamon stick and water to nearly cover. Turn down the heat to medium. Stir and cook for about 30 minutes (depending on cut of lamb) if using a pressure cooker, 45-60 minutes if not. If lamb is not tender continue cooking. If the tajine is watery, let reduce till thicker.

Remove the water from the prunes and add the sugar, cinnamon powder and butter to the pan. Heat on a medium heat for around 10 minutes until they are caramelised. Add the apricots to heat through.

Mix the fruit through with the tajine and garnish with herbs to serve.