Moroccan Tagine Recipes

Berber Kefta Tagine

10-12 tomatoes
Bunch of parsley
5 heads of garlic
3 TBSP paprika
2 TBSP ground ginger
1 TBSP cayenne pepper
Salt to taste
~ 1 cup olive oil (to taste)
500g ground beef
1 large saucepan

Peel tomatoes, dice into small pieces and place in large saucepan. Mix olive oil with spices and salt and put into pan with chopped parsley and sliced garlic. Put on stove and turn on high heat, cooking uncovered. Roll ground beef into small meatballs. Once tomato mixture has been cooking at a medium boil for ~20 minutes, drop in meatballs. Cook until meatballs cooked through. Take off heat, ladle into large serving dish with equal distribution of meatballs throughout. Place dish in middle of table with bowl of fresh baked bread and eat Berber style.

Note: Eating Berber-style means having the large plate of Tagine in the middle while people break off chunks of bread and use bread pieces to pick up bit sized portions from the communal plate. No utensils necessary! The tradition is to eat from the outside in (so as to avoid burning tongue), and from your side of the plate.

Chicken or Fish or Meat or Vegetarian Tagine

Tips:
If cooking chicken, can use all parts of chicken - bones in is better. Wash chicken with water and lemon juice.
If cooking with fish, debone but leave skin on, and leave out green peas from the recipe.
If cooking with meat, must use small pieces – if cooking a large roast will need to use a pressure cooker to cook meat separately. Use the same spices to flavour the meat.
For a vegetarian Tagine, just exclude the meat from the recipe.
Make sure all vegetables are cut thinly to decrease cooking time.

0.5 TBSP chili pepper
2 TBSP paprika
2 TBSP cumin
0.5 TBSP black pepper
Coarse salt to taste
~ 1.5 cups olive oil (to taste)
4 chopped onions
2 tomatoes, skinned and diced
2 green peppers, sliced thinly
3 potatoes, sliced thinly
2 parsnips, sliced thinly
1 zuchini, sliced thinly
2 handfuls fresh green peas, shelled
Handful of green olives, pits in
Bunch of parsley, chopped
3 heads of garlic, sliced
1 lemon, sliced
2 cups of water

Mix all spices, excluding salt, with the olive oil. Put the onions and carrots into a large cooking pot. Place meat/chicken/fish on top, then add all the rest of the vegetables, while adding in most of the olive oil and spice mixture so all is covered with spices. Tuck the parsley into the middle of the mixture. On top of everything place the garlic, rest of olive oil with spices, coarse salt, lemon slices and olives. Add water. Cover the pot and cook for approximately 30-45 minutes on high heat. Check meat or chicken at 30 minutes to see if it is cooked. When done, spoon out onto large dish so that meat is in middle and vegetables are ladled on top and around with equal distribution on serving dish. Place cooked lemon slices on top for garnish. Serve with white rice or Berber-style with bread.

NOTE: For camping, you can use the vegetarian version of the Tagine. Build a fire with hot coals and place a grill on top. Put food into a fire-friendly pot (a clay one if you want to go true Moroccan style) and place on grill. Cook for approximately 30 minutes, until potatoes soft.


Answer to the Moroccan Lion joke:

The elephant was not at the lions wedding because he was stuck inside the refrigerator.
Badoom-ching!

On to Turkey...

Taghazout

The coast. The beach. The sun and the surf. Here was a great place to spend our last few days in Morocco. And we couldn’t have scripted it any better.

Our bus took us from our new family home of Tafraoute to Agadir on the Atlantic coast. From this larger centre we found a local bus to take us 30km north to Taghazout, a small fishing village known for its great surf. As usual, locals stepped in right away to offer all manner of assistance and possible accommodation. We struck gold with our first stop with an apartment overlooking the beach complete with kitchen. The place looked like it hadn’t been cleaned since it first opened, a fact that helped us bargain for a good price. After putting in some elbow grease of our own, we agreed the place was perfect. The rooftop balcony jutted out towards the ocean like the prow of a mighty vessel and we spent much time up on deck in the sunshine enjoying the incredible view.

When we arrived we found the third floor apartment occupied by a friendly and fun Spanish duo – Laura and Pelli. It turned out that Pelli was hooked on all manner of board sports from downhill longboard to snowboard to wakeboard to surfboard. He had met Laura working up at their local ski hill outside of Madrid (who knew they had ski hills there?) and the two decided to escape to Taghazout for a three week surf trip. Patricia was called into action early as Laura had a pretty seriously swollen ankle from a recent surf accident. We agreed that she must have suffered the fall after riding a huge 6 metre wave while rescuing a baby seal from the jaws of a vicious shark. Based on what she saw, Patricia recommended a trip to the hospital for an x-ray as soon as possible – good thing, because Laura ended up having an ankle fracture that needed casting! Who knew saving baby seals could be so dangerous.

With a kitchen available to us and after having been inspired by Hamid’s amazing cooking in Tafraoute, we decided to try our hand at some Tagine recipes. When our apartment owner, Mohammed, found out about our plans he extended amazing Moroccan hospitality in buying all of the food, teaching us the “real” price of produce and giving us a full-on cooking lesson. We set up our room for a dinner party and soon we were all enjoying a delicious meal over friendly chatter in English, French, Spanish and even some Arabic with all of our apartment neighbours.

We spent our days in Taghazout walking the coastline for some exercise and adventure. We also got briefly woken every morning around 4am when the fishermen would fire up their engines and head out to the ocean to check on their nets. On our second night in town we got to enjoy the fruits of their labour as we picked up fresh fish straight from the dock for a seafood Tagine. With the previous night’s lesson and after some watching over by Mohammed the food hit the plate and with a look of delight everyone agreed that it was a hit. As usual we retired to the rooftop terrace after our meal to enjoy the stars and the fresh sea air.

Our last day approached and as we had yet to hit the surf, we made plans to set out early with Pelli so Ben could catch some waves. After gathering the gear and some bread and cheese for breakfast, we hopped on the local bus headed for Banana beach - a reputably good spot to surf given the current tide and wind conditions. Pelli and Ben worked the waves for a few hours with Pelli giving lots of good surfing tips in Spanish, some of which were clearly not understood as Ben and board sailed through the air. But some waves were actually caught and it was a really fun session in the sunshine. Now we felt we had really gotten a chance to sample everything that Morocco had to offer.

That night we said our goodbyes to our Spanish friends and caught an overnight bus from Agadir, arriving very early in Casablanca. As our plane with Air Arabia only left at 6pm, we had to find a place to loiter until it was time to head to the airport. We installed ourselves at the Four Seasons, where Patricia had the most expensive cafe latte of the entire trip so far - 6 euros!! It was worth it to have a comfortable place to relax, and we felt very classy (for a change).

We boarded the plane with excitement, for that night we would be landing in Istanbul! We had heard wonderful things about Turkey, and were looking forward to spending at least a month there exploring the many different regions of the country.

However, before closing the chapter on Morocco, we will leave you with one more Moroccan joke:

“The king of all animals, the lion, is getting married. Which animal did not attend the lion’s wedding, and why?”.

Tafraoute

We hopped aboard an early morning bus after another delicious crepe breakfast and looked forward to turning the page on Marrakesh. All we knew of our next destination, Tafraoute, was that it was set in a beautiful stretch of the Anti-Atlas mountain range with oases nearby and good mountain biking opportunities.

We decided given our previous good luck in hotel hunting that we would walk the town on arrival and choose a nice base for our latest adventures. We arrived after sunset, making us a bit apprehensive. Suddenly around the corner we saw a familiar face from Hicham’s extended family. He connected us on the spot with a friendly local named Hamid, who we would see from then on at least twice a day. As Hamid directed us around town to the various hotel options, another friendly stranger, Mustafa, appeared on the scene to recommend his brand new hotel, Hotel Argana. After stopping by and hearing the amazing price, we quickly agreed. As we unravelled our travel story to our new friends, we quickly realized that we actually had friends in common! All of these fantastic people seemed to have been transplanted from the Sahara desert in search of work and were helping each other out. It wasn’t long before we were connected with their friend who rented bicycles – another Hicham.

Morocco is very literally all about connections. And as we had been discovering, this simple fact can make or break your experience in this closely knit country. We now had Mustafa the hotel owner, Hamid the restaurant chef, Hisham the sports equipment owner and we soon met Mohammed the friendly carpet salesman. Although Tafraoute is a fairly small town, we frequented our friends businesses on one end of town during our visit and had friendly interactions each time we passed by.

On our first day we got organized to do a 40km bike ride from Tafraoute through the nearby Ameln valley. Due to our snail-like morning speed, we set out just after lunch during the hottest part of the day. We later found out that the temperature hit 35C in the shade that day! The surroundings were very fantastical with crumbling granite mountains, an oasis filled with palm and other exotic trees and beautiful old mud brick homes set into the hillsides.

As we did each night, we retired for dinner at the Kasbah Restaurant where Hamid cooks up the most delicious Tagine in Morocco. We tried a different variety each visit and would be hard pressed to choose a favourite among them – Kalia (small roast surrounded by veggies and topped with fried eggs), Beef with prunes and almonds and Kefta (homemade meatballs in tomatoes and spices). He also had the best Moroccan salad and Harira soup we had tasted.

From the front terrace of our hotel we had a delicious breakfast and watched the local traffic on its way into town.

The ladies of the area had a unique type of flowing black robe with different colours of fringe that seemed to be a single piece of material wrapped all the way up the body and around the head. They also typically carried supplies from woven baskets with straps around their foreheads. Not sure about black in this climate where locals say that in summer the temperatures easily reach the mid 40’s.

On our second day of mountain biking we set out to see the famous painted rocks created in the 1980’s by some whacky Belgian artist. It was a nice dirt track bike ride in the late afternoon sun through a small village and then out into a small valley between strangely shaped rocks. Patricia was clearly inspired by the landscape.

As we rounded the next corner, we could see the dramatically coloured stones come alive. The effect was quite amazing and it was surreal to climb through the boulders only to find other coloured shapes in the distance.

Lest you think that the friendly Mohammed played no part in the story, we must reveal that we were finally inspired to bring home our very own piece of Moroccan artwork. It’s a very happy piece done in the uniquely Moroccan Glaoui style. It incorporates three traditional methods of carpet creation – knots, weave and embroidery. This amazing type of carpet making tradition arose when the Berber Pasha Glaoui (a Marrakesh viceroy) married women from three different tribes who decided to work together, each in their own traditional style, to bestow upon their husband a unique and collaborative carpet. We were able to put our new-found bargaining skills to the test, and had a wonderfully satisfying experience that left us with a gorgeous carpet – now we just have to figure out what to do with it! Thankfully shipping was included. ;)

Our time in Tafraoute was up, but it had completely restored our faith in Morocco by showing us up close the amazing personal experiences that are possible. The landscape and exercise had also rejuvenated our traveling spirit and it was with newfound energy that we boarded our bus for the coast.

Answers to the previous Moroccan jokes:

For the camel: 1. Open the door 2. Put the camel inside 3. Close the door

..The elephant: 1. Open the door 2. Take out the camel 3. Put in the elephant 4. Close the door

...wahh wahhh wahhhhhhhhhhhhh ;)

Marrakesh

We arrived in Marrakesh at sunset, and began our search for a hotel with internet as we had been out of touch for some time. The streets were thronged with people enjoying the last weekend of the two week Moroccan holiday period. We persevered and were rewarded with the wonderful Hotel Afriquia with its colourful tile work, courtyard with orange trees and a nice room with WiFi connection. That night we went out for dinner in the famous Djema-el-Fna square, where every evening hundreds of stalls set up to cook delicious and fresh typical cuisine. As we walked by, the waiters tried to entice us to dine with them and both locals and tourists sidled up to the long picnic-style tables to enjoy the atmosphere and meals.

It is a colourful experience, full of smells and sights and sounds, as the rest of the square is taken up by many groups of performing artists with their story-telling, comedy or musical instruments. We walked around after dinner and sat in on a Berber music group, and it was easy to see why Marrakesh’s original public square has been deemed a World Heritage site. The richness of culture that is passed on from the performers to the audience every night is astounding.

However, one “richness” was passed on us against our wishes. We could not resist getting close to the snake charmers and their reptilian companions for a photo. As we posed for a picture, one of the handlers moved to quickly remove a snake from around Ben’s neck! A thought flashed through our minds: Was a near deadly strike narrowly avoided? Apparently not. The reptile proved to be deadly only from the other end as before the snake charmer made his quick move, the snake had let loose a bowel movement that could only have been developed after food poisoning in Bolivia! We retreated to our hotel to do some laundry and regroup.


The next morning we went around the corner to a local café and had our favourite Moroccan breakfast: crepe with cheese and honey and coffee with milk. This was followed by our daily dose of fresh orange juice from the plaza stalls.

We took a stroll through the Bahia Palace, once home to a very important Vizier (advisor to the Sultan) and built by the best artisans of the time. The home was enormous and artwork was exquisite.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the old medina with its narrow winding streets filled with colourful stalls selling everything from leather goods to natural beauty products to brightly embroidered clothing and silver jewellery. Patricia bought some cosmetic Argan oil, which is reputed to have remarkable properties for both skin and hair health, while the cooking version of the oil has an aromatic nutty scent. The traditional process for creating Argan oil requires goats to process the fruit exterior in their digestive system with the farmers rescuing the nut from amongst other goat undesirables. We assume the farmers then clean the nuts well before toasting them and pressing them into the delicious oil. Yum…

For lunch we found the best sandwich stall of our trip so far, with fresh grilled beef and all the trimmings.

That evening we met up with Hicham, who was staying with his friend Hassan, and together we enjoyed a coffee on a patio in the afternoon sunshine. Then we took a taxi out into the Ville Nouvelle to watch the Barcelona vs. Real Madrid game (El Classico).

After only one day in Marakesh, we found that we were growing tired of the constant big city hustle with almost every interaction with local people involving a scheme to relieve us of as much money as possible – offensive prices and sometimes even language. This was certainly the worst we had experienced of the Moroccan culture and we had to remind ourselves that we had many amazing earlier experiences and there were many more to come. To preserve our sanity and our experience, we decided to treat ourselves to a luxury spa hammam experience high above the fray.

In Chefchaouen, Patricia had gone with our Spanish friend, Christina, to experience a hammam as the locals do it. A hammam is a place where both men and women go, although at separate times or in separate places, to scrub themselves clean and gossip about once a week. The typical experience consists of a building with an anteroom for changing and three connecting rooms: the first slightly warm, the next warmer, and the last steaming hot. Hot water is provided by the bucketful, and the ladies sit on their stools and apply black mud soap. They then use their loofahs and help each other to vigorously scrub away all the dead skin, a process which can take more than half an hour. After the scrub they rinse off and apply a layer of “gommage” – a dark mud mask to the body. This is followed by shampooing and brushing of the hair all while chatting away the time. It was a wonderful, new experience. In Marrakesh we found a luxury spa hammam run by a friendly Frenchman. Patricia went for the typical treatments and then was joined by Ben for a one hour massage on the rooftop terrace. Ahhhhh… we left feeling relaxed and ready to take on our last night in the city.

The Koutoubia is the minaret of the main mosque just outside of the medina, and we spent some time sight seeing before buying some supplies for a joint dinner with Hicham and friends that night, sharing a home cooked delicious chicken tagine in the wee hours.

It was with sadness that we bid farewell to our Moroccan friend Hicham; Inshalla we will meet again! The next morning we boarded our bus to Tafraoute, heading towards the south of Morocco for more mountains and friendly experiences...

Gorges and Oases

We awoke early in order to catch a bus from Rissani to our next destination, the Todra Gorge. There was enough time to get a breakfast including fresh orange juice and for Ben to try out Hicham’s friend’s motorbike around town.

We got lucky and on the bus ran into two people from Quebec whom we had met on our trek through the Rif Mountains. Jerome and Michelle were also heading to the Todra Gorge and after seeing the great places that Hicham had arranged they decided to join the tour. The more the merrier!

Not knowing what to expect, we were completely blown away by the oasis leading up to the distinctive narrow gorge! Crumbling mountains surround the lush valley full of palm, fig, apricot and almond trees and all the land is planted with everything from beans to wheat. The foliage attracts many song birds and the running water and shade provides a much needed coolness in the middle of the desert. It was like paradise.





Our hotel was incredible, right in the middle of the oasis, with many areas for hanging out, wonderful food and breakfast on the terrace.

We stayed two nights, and on the second night there was a drum party with lots of singing and dancing.

With such amazing surroundings we could not resist setting out on a few forays into the craggy peaks. Hicham arranged a tour guide to lead us through the oasis and the old Kasbah with its crumbling mud brick walls.

We continued up the mountainside to find some of the local nomads who live a few years at a time in temporary encampments made of piled stone. They earn their living selling goat milk and meat, spending most of their days on the mountain herding the flock. In order to purchase supplies they walk great distances to reach the nearest town. Despite their basic existence, the ladies we encountered were extremely hospitable, offering us mint tea and their own delicious home made bread – similar to a roti with bits of onions, tomatoes and spices. We were happy to sit and talk for a while and Ben entertained them with our binoculars.

Fortunately Ben had his desert turban and was able to blend in with the locals...well, almost...

The walk back through the oasis was stunning, with the birds singing in the palm trees and the setting sun casting a golden light on the surrounding mountainside and old kasbahs.

The next day Hicham arranged for his friend, Redouan, to drive us the rest of the way to Marrakesh in his 1978 mercedes taxi (grand taxi). On one of our stops Ben had a chance to play soccer with some of the local kids.

We stopped for a night in the Dades Gorge and another night in Ouzazarte, also in amazing hotels. The Dades Gorge had incredible rock formations that looked like wax melting into the oasis below - the scenery was so beautiful it had us jumping for joy!

In Ouzazarte we had a tour of the old local Kasbah where we stopped by a Berber pharmacy filled with all kinds of natural herbs and remedies including the famous Argan oil.

As the sun dipped low on the horizon we visited a picturesque old hilltop Kasbah and watched the fading light from its ancient walls and pathways.

On our last day, we drove through the High Atlas, where the tall rounded mountains are dry and dotted with small villages.

It has been amazing to see all the different landscapes of Morocco, from lush, snow capped mountains in the north, arid high mountains in the south, sand dunes in the deserts and oasis-filled gorges. Now we part ways with our Quebec friends as we head to Marrakesh for some big city adventure.

The camel joke from the previous post received a lot of spirited answers! Here's the answer we got in the desert from our giggling Moroccan guide: Open the door, put the camel in, close the door!

Another joke from the desert:
How do you get an elephant into a refrigerator in four moves?