Cooking class
I got to attend a cooking class in a home in Salé! The couple who live in the home own a home-stay business (where they place students in Moroccan homes during their study abroad) and they offer cooking classes through some of the language schools in Rabat. So with my American friends Diana and Rani and a couple of others, I discovered the way to make a Tajine l'Hout, or a fish casserole.
I got to attend a cooking class in a home in Salé! The couple who live in the home own a home-stay business (where they place students in Moroccan homes during their study abroad) and they offer cooking classes through some of the language schools in Rabat. So with my American friends Diana and Rani and a couple of others, I discovered the way to make a Tajine l'Hout, or a fish casserole.
Here are the ingredients: prepared onions, carrots, green peppers potatoes, and tomatoes; cilantro or parsley leaves and stems, salt, cumin, paprika, garlic, lemon, and olive oil for the spice mixture; fish filets (these are something mild flavored). The fish are open to the center, and have slits cut into the outside.The vegetables are eggplant and red peppers that will be mixed with cumin and spices and cooked separately. The carrots and potatoes have been parboiled because they take longer to cook than the fish or other veggies.
Mix the spices with olive oil and lemon juice in a bowl. Stack the veggies, beginning with the parsley stems on the bottom, and then onions (lowers possibility of burning veggies on the bottom of the tajine), the parboiled potatoes and carrots, and place tomatoes around the edge of the tajine so the liquid is at the outside. Fill the center cavity, slits, and outside of fish with the mixture. Layer fish, green peppers, and lemon slices. Cook on a slow fire until the veggies are tender and the fish is flaky.
About an hour later, we were eating-- in a mixture of western and European styles-- forks and knives for the green salad and eggplant mixture, and using bread to grab the tajine. Watch out for those bones!! Oh, yeah, they had wine, too!
From Najat's kitchen:
La Soupe de Legumes:
carrots, turnips, onion, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage parsley, leeks, salt and pepper, a little chicken or meat if you want.
Cook over heat until all veggies are completely cooked. Use a hand-blender to puree. Serve with bread.
Le Dessert Yogurt:
vanilla yogurt, ripe bananas (use local ones if possible), ripe fresh raspberries
Mix and stir like a soup. Serve in bowls.
La Soupe de Baboule:
onion, anise, oregano, salt, olive oil and water. Boil. Add a grain which is a little like cracked wheat, but it's not wheat, and it's not corn. Continue cooking until these grains are soft, about 4 minutes. At the very end, add just a little milk. Serve.
Tajine: Vegetarian or with Meat
Line the bottom of your tajine with lots of onions, quartered. On top layer large cuts of carrots, sliced potatoes, zucchini, sliced tomatoes, some sliced onion, brussels sprouts, and green beans. Make a mixture of about one tsp each of cayenne pepper, ginger, turmeric, black pepper and salt. Sprinkle over veggies. Add about 6 oz of olive oil and 6 oz of water. Cover and cook over a low fire until the veggies are tender (about 35 minutes.) If you want to add meat or chicken to this, add it at the bottom sitting on top of a lot of onions. Garnish with olives, red piquant paste and lemons.
Topping for the Couscous:
To be fair, I didn't learn how to make the couscous. The process has many steps, and I think this is the reason that they really only serve it on Fridays, and the whole family has to be home to eat it-- because there's a lot after you go through the whole production to get the couscous grains right. But here is the topping, that was delicious and you could probably put on other dishes:
onions, raisins, sugar, cinnamon. Cook all this in a little vegetable oil. Serve when the onions are well cooked, and have a carmelized sweetness.
Garnish with hard cooked eggs and a cooked chili pepper.
La Soupe de Legumes:
carrots, turnips, onion, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage parsley, leeks, salt and pepper, a little chicken or meat if you want.
Cook over heat until all veggies are completely cooked. Use a hand-blender to puree. Serve with bread.
Le Dessert Yogurt:
vanilla yogurt, ripe bananas (use local ones if possible), ripe fresh raspberries
Mix and stir like a soup. Serve in bowls.
La Soupe de Baboule:
onion, anise, oregano, salt, olive oil and water. Boil. Add a grain which is a little like cracked wheat, but it's not wheat, and it's not corn. Continue cooking until these grains are soft, about 4 minutes. At the very end, add just a little milk. Serve.
Tajine: Vegetarian or with Meat
Line the bottom of your tajine with lots of onions, quartered. On top layer large cuts of carrots, sliced potatoes, zucchini, sliced tomatoes, some sliced onion, brussels sprouts, and green beans. Make a mixture of about one tsp each of cayenne pepper, ginger, turmeric, black pepper and salt. Sprinkle over veggies. Add about 6 oz of olive oil and 6 oz of water. Cover and cook over a low fire until the veggies are tender (about 35 minutes.) If you want to add meat or chicken to this, add it at the bottom sitting on top of a lot of onions. Garnish with olives, red piquant paste and lemons.
Topping for the Couscous:
To be fair, I didn't learn how to make the couscous. The process has many steps, and I think this is the reason that they really only serve it on Fridays, and the whole family has to be home to eat it-- because there's a lot after you go through the whole production to get the couscous grains right. But here is the topping, that was delicious and you could probably put on other dishes:
onions, raisins, sugar, cinnamon. Cook all this in a little vegetable oil. Serve when the onions are well cooked, and have a carmelized sweetness.
Garnish with hard cooked eggs and a cooked chili pepper.
From Driss' Kitchen
Tajine
Tajine
Add some olive oil to the bottom of your tajine and start heating. Slice onions to cover the bottom.
Add a half chicken, spices, including, cumin, curry, garlic, ginger, and cayenne.
Add carrots, salt (that's the white) chopped cilantro. Then cover with sliced potatoes and green peppers. Cook this with the lid on for about 25 minutes. You need to set the tajine on a metal place of some kind, not directly over the flame of your stove. Otherwise, the tajine could crack during the cooking, which this one did, and things had to be restacked in a new tajine bottom. This explains why I see single bottoms around in different kitchens!
Add sliced potatoes and green peppers.
Mix additional amounts of the spices with some water and oil, to the tajine, add peas and sliced tomatoes, cover, and cook for another 45 minutes or so. Put water in the little opening in the handle of the lid of the tajine. When that water has evaporated, you need to add water to the tajine. Continue to cook for another 45 minutes or so.
Complete by garnishing with pickled lemons, olives, and a bunch of cilantro. Cook about 10 minutes more.
Place the tajine in the center of your table, and give everyone a loaf of bread. Someone says, "Bismi Allah!" and it's time to enjoy!