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.
