Cooking in Morocco 3: Fun in the kitchen

The Moroccan cooking class felt like a professional cooking show, with all the beautiful vegetables and spices already displayed in dishes in a beautiful, enormous kitchen. 

Dressed like the locals.

We jumped in to help as much as we could. Apparently, not all people who have taken their cooking class were willing to get their hands dirty! What's the point of a cooking class if you aren't willing to learn by doing? This earned us brownie points with everyone there and they taught us a few extra dishes in return. 

The kitchen was also a flurry of languages. Comments and instructions went from one end of the chain to the other and back again, going through Moroccan Arabic - French - English and then back again with the response or jokes. As the person in our group with the most French speaking experience, I got to do the bulk of the French to English translation. I love cooking, but I also had a lot of fun practicing my translation - it's been a REALLY long time and I was surprised at how much I remembered. All this translating might seem like it could bog things down, but it was a fun flurry of languages and passion for cooking and it certainly kept us all laughing all the way through! 

Beauty in nature.

Plating our food so it looks as beautiful as it tastes. 

We all took turns frantically scribbling everything down in the notebook. This was the only way to remember everything since we were cooking 10 dishes approximately simultaneously. 

We took the class very seriously...really.

I assure you, we were working very hard...

One piece!

Master Chef Bram finishing the sugared apples with fleur d'orangier yogurt. 

Making meatballs for the kefta. 

The best part of a cooking class is the end - tasting all the wonderful things you've created! There is a special prize for anyone who reads through to the bottom (spoiler: it might be recipes!).

Our first course - Moroccan salads. Includes aubergine, green beans, and the salad that essentially means 'salad of whatever you happen to have lying around'

The suspense! This was also our only meal with wine on the whole trip - we decided to try a local vintage with our fancy meal.

An easy dessert, but hard to beat. Moroccan oranges are the best! This is simply sliced oranges with strawberries, cinnamon, and powdered/icing sugar on top. Simple, beautiful, and delicious!!

Salade Aubergine

Ingredients: 

• Aubergine - cut up, remove some skin, rinse in H2O 
• Paprika - 2 heaping teaspoons 
• Cumin - 2 heaping teaspoons 
• garlic - 2 heaping teaspoons 
• olive oil - 2 tablespoons 
• salt - 1 teaspoon + some later 
• coriander 1.5 teaspoon 
• 1 cup water 

Directions: 5 minutes in pressure cooker. Squish them. Taste and season and let them boil down until it's a thick consistency.

Tajine Viande Agée Kefta

Ingredients: 

• 7 tomatoes 
• 1.5 tablespoons parsley 
• 2-3 teaspoon garlic 
• 1 heaping teaspoon cumin 
• 2 heaping teaspoon paprika 
• 1 heaping teaspoon salt 
• olive oil 2+ tablespoons 
• Ground meat - ground with onion, parsley, cumin and salt 
• egg 

Directions: Slice bottom of the tomato and then grate tomatoes into skillet. Mix in parsley, garlic, cumin, paprika, salt, and olive oil. Put tajine on fire and cover (or use a regular large sauce pan with lid). After 5 minutes, stir well. Make meatballs from ground meat (mix in onion, parsley, cumin, and salt if not pre-ground in). Add meat balls to tajine and cover. Wait until meatballs start to cook. Add egg on top and recover. Cook ∼20 minutes.

Bon apetit!