Moroccan Cooking - part of any Fez tour

One of the most requested additions to a visit to Fez is to learn how to cook Moroccan cuisine. Gail Leonard is the "go-to" person when it comes to organising food adventure. The View from Fez asked Gail why Moroccan cooking experiences were so popular.

Gail with her favourite spice merchants

"Part of the answer is that once people taste good cooking in Morocco they notice just how different the taste is from anything you might find in a Moroccan restaurant in other countries," Gail says. "But there are many other factors. The method of cooking is important. For example, some of the most delicious dishes are cooked slowly. This is particularly true of tanjia cooking. This is even slower than a tagine."

Tanjia cooking is a method in which the ingredients are placed in an earthenware pot and then taken to a bakery where it is cooked for almost six hours. (see description and recipe here)

Tanjia preparation - Photo Tara Stevens

Gail says that another reason for the difference in taste is the ingredients. "Morocco has an abundance of fresh and artisan made produce that is superior in taste,' she explains. "Fresh vegetables, spices and herbs. The souks are full of wonderful seasonal fruit as well."

There is another side to Moroccan cooking that is very different from many countries. "In Morocco cooking is not a solitary affair. Its is a social affair that is lost elsewhere," Gail says, "Cooking with Moroccans is about storytelling; about passing on very old traditions and techniques."

ALL ABOUT GAIL

Gail, who has a first class honours degree in professional training and development, will be leading the food adventures for The View from Fez World Sacred Music Tour in 2012. Gail is a self-confessed food obsessive hailing from Yorkshire, but currently living in the Fez Medina where she started her company Fez Food. Her skills for seeking out small artisan producers and amazing ingredients translate into culinary adventures all over Morocco and range from wine tasting in the hidden wineries of Meknes, to tours of ancient olive presses, artisan couscous co-operatives and contemporary cheese farms.

Along with Gail's food adventures, other offerings on The View From Fez World Sacred Music Tour include workshops on travel photography, visual art, yoga and talks on architecture and Moroccan culture.


You can find out more about Gail here: Fez Food
You can find the details of The View from Fez Tour here: 
You can find authentic Moroccan recipes in The View From Fez cookbook



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Tanjia: recipe for a slowcooked Moroccan feast

The View from Fez ventured into the souk this week to learn how to cook a tanjia, a traditional dish from Marrakech.

The tanjia is a classical clay pot that is used for cooking. The same word is used for both the pot and the resulting dish - rather like the word tajine. A tanjia is a well-known bachelor dish, and every man in the medina will tell you how difficult it is to make (perhaps it is, for men who don't usually cook!). Ingredients differ around Morocco - in Marrakech they don't use onions; in Fez they do.

the butcher adds meat to the tanjia

photo: Tara Stevens

First we took our tanjia to the butcher on Tala'a Kebira, and asked for 1kg of lamb on the bone. He chopped it up for us, and stuffed it into the tanjia. Meanwhile, we cut an onion into large chunks and tossed it in along with a whole head of garlic, a small preserved lemon and some salt and pepper. The butcher has his own blend of ras al hanout (mixed spices)and threw in a fistful along with some chopped parsley and fresh coriander. Then we added some oil and water, and went on our way.

our butcher prepares the parsley and coriander

photo: Tara Stevens

Our next stop was the spice seller where we added some saffron threads, cumin and some bayleaves. At the olive stall, we begged a small chilli and threw that in too. It was nearly ready for the oven.

The Ain Azleten hammam has an oven next door to heat the water, fuelled mostly by sawdust and woodchips. This was our final stop. On the step of the oven, we mixed the contents of the tanjia with a long-handled lemonwood spoon and then secured some aluminium foil over the top. Handing it to the farnatchi (the man who looks after the fire) at noon, we were told to return at 6pm when it would be cooked to perfection.

And so it was. We went back to the hammam around 6, armed with some towels in a basket for easy of carrying, and took it home. Turned out into a serving dish, it was a delicious feast - the tenderest of meat falling off the bone, quite rich with the bone marrow that had seeped into the unctuous sauce, spicy but not hot. Served with bread and a light tomato salad, it made a wonderful meal for two.

Tanjia pots cooking in the coals at the hammam oven

Here's the recipe for a Fassi tanjia. You could, of course, use beef (or even camel) instead of lamb, and experiment with apricots or almonds, adding different vegetables if you wish. If you don't have access to a tanjia and a hammam oven - a slow cooker or a very slow oven will produce the same result. Unless you can turn your oven down very low, you won't need to cook it for 6 hours.

RECIPE FOR TWO PEOPLE
1kg lamb on the bone
1 large onion, cut into chunks
1/2 preserved lemon, flesh discarded
small head of garlic
salt and pepper
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp ras al hanout
1 tbsp loosely packed saffon threads
5 bay leaves
half a small bunch each of parsley and coriander, roughly chopped
a small piece or fresh ginger or a small red chilli
200ml water
100ml good olive oil

Mix all the ingredients in a tangia. Seal the top with foil, and cook in the hammam oven for around 6 hours.

With our thanks to Gail Leonard at Fez Food. Contact Gail to find out about foodie tours of the medina, including cooking your own tanjia.

See our complete list of Moroccan recipes here : The View from Fez Recipe List




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Making Couscous - Photo essay

Recently two of The View from Fez team took part in a traditional couscous preparation course. Australia's legendary young chef, Katerina Annels, has kindly done a review for us. Suzanna Clarke took the photographs. Here is Katerina's report...

Mmmm, couscous, one of those lovely intangible things. When I am told that we are going to a traditional couscous class I am delighted. But when can I use this skill? I imagine a process like making fresh pasta, hours spent over the dough. Undoubtedly worth the effort, but a somewhat daunting experience for a newcomer.

We wind our way to café clock. spiral past the kitchens, dining rooms and up on to the terrace, with views across the Medina and I am told, the best camel burger in Fez.

In the corner of the terrace is a collection of expats and tourists gathered around a huge pot full of chicken cabbage and spices and emitting the most delightful smells. Amongst this group is Cynthia Berning, a young peace corps volunteer 1 year into her 2 year Morocco contract, and Atika Diouri, President of ENNAHDA (a women’s association, for cultural development, producing traditionally rolled couscous) our teachers. You will find links to Cynthia and the association at the end of this story.

We start with a coarse wheat flour, wholegrain is the best (it creates a wonderful nutty flavour to the couscous) placed in a large, flat, glazed ceramic tray. A light sprinkle of water (too much will make the couscous into a dough), and perhaps a pinch of salt. Using the flats of the hands we rub the water into the couscous, those with more practice creating beautiful spiral patterns, as the flour turns to crumbs.

Once the crumbs are formed the couscous is pasted through a course sieve, a little more flour (finer this time) is added to the crumbs too large to fit through the sieve, and remixed until they to pass through.

See the rest of the photo essay here: Traditional Couscous

We suggest you also take a look at the Couscous Chronicles. Information on the women's association can be found here.

See all The View from Fez Moroccan recipes here: Moroccan Recipes

Moroccan couscous - the traditional way

Couscous, or seksu as it's know in Moroccan Arabic, is one of the staple foods of the Maghreb. It's made of ground semolina that's moistened and rolled in flour.

Moroccan couscous

These days we usually buy ready-cooked couscous in packets from the supermarket, but there are parts of Morocco where it is still hand-rolled by village women and the difference in taste is remarkable. This is the 'real thing'.

Cynthia Berning, a US Peace Corps volunteer, has been working with a women's association in the small mud village of Khoukhate, some 130km south of Fez in the Middle Atlas, with the aim
of bringing back an appreciation for the art - and taste - of hand-rolled couscous.

Cynthia Berning

"The majority of women and girls [in the village] are still illiterate and thus have few opportunities to contribute financially to providing for their families", explains Cynthia.
"Enter the Association ENNAHDA ('rebirth' in Arabic), an association with the goal of increasing the standard of living for all residents of Khoukhate through the creation of employment for the women of the village."

When the operation started two years ago, it was limited to couscous production. But the business has now grown to include jams made from locally-grown fruit - fig, apple, apricot, orange, carrot and watermelon, there's herb-infused olive oil, almond butter, and the Moroccan high-energy snack 'zmita'. All the products are marketed under the name 'El Karma', which is Moroccan Arabic for fig tree, and is also the name of the natural spring in the village.

Now the association has an eco-tourism project where groups of visitors are welcomed to Khoukhate to learn the secrets of a good Moroccan couscous, and at the same time experience traditional rural life. Visitors roll their own couscous from scratch with the local women, and then cook it and eat it for lunch.

Couscous preparation: step 1

Step 2: sifting the couscous

Couscous ready for sale

The association has teamed up with Fez Food and Cafe Clock and it's now possible to learn this traditional art in Fez - great for people who don't have the time to go out to the village. There are monthly couscous workshops at Cafe Clock, conducted in English, French and Darija. The three-hour session begins with fresh vegetables, wholewheat flour, and water brought from the village spring. It finishes with lunch, and could be the best couscous you've ever eaten.

The next workshop is at 11h30-14h30 on Friday 13 November at Cafe Clock. For details and to book, contact Fez Food. Fez Food also runs excursions to the village.

For a peek into Cynthia's adventures in this tiny village, visit her blog, Couscous Chronicles. Information on the women's association can be found here.

See all The View from Fez Moroccan recipes here: Moroccan Recipes

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Moroccan cooking unites nations

Popular Moroccan cooking show host, Choumicha, is delighting Algerian audiences during Ramadan.


Al-Arabiya News Channel reports that Choumicha's Ramadan recipes are uniting Algerians and Moroccans in a way that politicians have failed to do.

The recipes, both sweet and savoury, are so popular that people from both countries are coming together to break the fast in the late afternoon, especially in the border areas.

Choumicha has signed several contracts with Algerian companies to sell her recipes. Her clientele includes the wives of senior officials from both countries despite the on-going political disagreement between Morocco and Algeria over the Western Sahara region.

Last Ramadan, Choumicha signed a contract with the Algerian daily newspaper al-Chorouk al-Youmi to publish her recipes every day of the Muslim holy month and this year she has signed up with an Algerian radio station.

Despite her huge success, Choumicha only made her first visit to Algeria in June this year and was impressed by the huge welcome she received. She commented that although there are political issues between the two countries, Moroccans and Algerians themselves are friendly towards each other.

Samir Boudjaja, Commercial Manager at al-Chorouk al-Youmi, said that the circulation of the newspaper increased significantly when they started publishing the recipes last Ramadan. He added that a competition will be held for Algerian women and the winner will be awarded a flight to Morocco where she will be taught how to cook by Choumicha herself.

Moroccan Ramadan Recipe

Ramadan wouldn't be the same without sellou, a sweet, nutty, moreish nibble. Here's how to make it:


1/2kg flour
1/2kg sesame seeds
1/2kg blanched almonds
250g icing sugar
3/4 tbp cinnamon
1/2 tbp ground aniseed
1/4 tsp gum arabic, powdered
1/4 tsp salt
375g butter

First, brown the flour in a dry pan, stirring constantly. Sift into a large bowl.
Wash and drain the sesame seeds, brown them in a pan and grind.
Brown the almonds in a pan and grind them too.
In the large bowl with the flour, add the sugar, almonds, aniseed, cinnamon, gum arabic, sesame and salt.
Melt the butter and allow the milk solids to fall to the bottom of the pan (or use clarified butter). Add the butter to the dry ingredients, leaving behind as much of the milk solids as you can. Mix well.
Form into a pyramid shape on a serving plate, sprinkle with icing sugar and decorate with browned almonds.
You can also mix sellou with some honey, form into balls and dip in sesame seeds.



See all our Moroccan recipes here: MOROCCAN MENU!

A Moroccan Cooking Lesson in Fez

For a while there were only a few people teaching Moroccan cooking in Fez. Now the competition has well and truly been turned up and there are many places in the Fez Medina where visitors can learn to cook Moroccan dishes. Recently The View from Fez reported on Cafe Clock and Gail of FezFood having joined forces to launch a new Moroccan cooking school called Clock Kitchen and we will report more about that at a later date.

Today we will look at one of the several guest houses and riads that offer visitors to Fez the opportunity to spend a day learning the finer points of Moroccan cookery.

When Bronwen and Glen Edwards from Australia wanted to experience Moroccan cooking first hand they teamed up with Samira from the blog A Moroccan kitchen. Samira works at Riad Laaroussa and has the gift of making everyone feel at home in her amazing kitchen.

What follows is an introduction to our photo-essay of the day that Glen and Bronwen spent with Samira. The full story is on THE PHOTO JOURNAL

Before setting out Samira updates her blog

The food and vegetable souq is crowded

Samira checks the quality of everything

Bronwen and Glen are impressed by the freshness of the vegetables.

At the butcher, Samira not only selects the meat, but insists on how it should be cut.

All through the shopping trip Samira takes time to answer questions and point out things of interest.

The photo essay continues on The View from Fez Photo Journal


For more information about Samira and the cooking classes, please visit Samira and Sabah's blog - A Moroccan Kitchen.


Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Cooking in Fez: Launch of Clock Kitchen

Cafe Clock and Gail of FezFood have joined forces to launch a new Moroccan cooking school called Clock Kitchen.


Clock Kitchen is herer to help you gain access to and intensify your sensory experience of Morocco! From recipe to souk, through preparation to place, Clock Kitchen, located in the gastronomic capital of Fez, will chaperone you every step of the way.

Learn traditional Moroccan cooking with chefs Tariq and Souad, members of the team who have helped make Café Clock into ‘probably the best café in Morocco’ (Footprint’s Morocco Guide 2009). They have grown up with the secrets to traditional Moroccan cooking and are passionate about keeping them alive.

What better insight into the people of the ancient Fez Medina than by fully immersing yourself in the huge diversity of flavours that keep them going? If cooking is an expression of a culture, then Fez and Clock Kitchen are shouting out loud!!

Whether beginner, connoisseur or cordon-bleu trained, the workshop is for everyone who wants to jump into the melting pot of the medina and not just teeter on the side looking in.

If you want to know your brochettes from your brioutes, your chermoula from your chekchouka, and your harissa from your harira, let Clock Kitchen guide your way.

Mostly it is for anyone, individuals or groups, who want to have fun topped off with a feast!

Flavour is universal – so wherever you are from - let Clock Kitchen help set your taste-buds free!

Workshop Structure

Start the day at 10 am by choosing a personal menu that you want to learn to prepare and enjoy eating. Then it’s off to the souk, dodging the donkeys, bargaining with vendors, where Tariq will get you shopping for the freshest and best ingredients. For Clock Kitchen students it’s 'access all areas'!

Food sustains Fez and you can help sustain it too. By learning how to shop locally you will help traditional vendors stay that way.

By 3pm you will have practiced traditional techniques, understood the diversity of sumptuous flavours and enjoyed the 3-course feast that you have created. You will also have experienced the warm hospitality that’s at the real heart of Moroccan cuisine and is the essence of Café Clock’s Clock Kitchen!

Don't miss out on this unique sensory and cultural experience!

Book your place now by emailing Fezfood@gmail.com or calling Gail on +212 (0) 655 324 082.

Current workshop availability from 25th May 2009.

A one day cooking workshop costs 550 Dirham per person and includes ingredients, a goodie bag including a Cafe Clock T-shirt and recipe booklet to take away.

If you are interested in participating in a two-hour bread-baking workshop including a visit to the Feranne (600 year old community oven), or a one-day patisserie workshop, please also send your enquiry to Fezfood@gmail.com

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Moroccan Chicken Tagine Recipe

Recently Moroccan Treasures posted an interesting video of a chicken tagine recipe being cooked in a simple Moroccan style.



See all our Moroccan recipes here: MOROCCAN MENU!

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Cooking Moroccan-style

Moroccan food is one of the most sensual, appealing unashamedly to the senses in a way that no other cuisine can match. It's world-renowned for its delicious combinations of spices in tagines (casseroles or stews), the delicate b'stilla pastry that wraps a mixture of chicken or pigeon with nuts and dusted with sugar and cinnamon, its perfect patisserie served with mint tea ... it's all mouth-wateringly good.

A Moroccan meal starts either with harira, the traditional soup with vegetables, tomatoes, chickpeas and lamb, or with a huge array of cooked salads. These are usually vegetarian and can include carrots with cinnamon, aubergine puree, marinated courgettes. red and green peppers and various types of olives. They're served with flat rounds of bread that are used to dip and scoop.

A tagine might well be the main course. The conical-lidded pot of the same name is found everywhere - lift the lid and savour the tantalising waft of spices. Traditional dishes are chicken with preserved lemon and olives, lamb with prunes and almonds or kefta (meatballs) in a tomato sauce with eggs. Or of course it could be couscous, traditionally eaten for Friday lunch but always available in restaurants. Meat and vegetables are served over the couscous, along with the sauce they were cooked in. Fish is excellent too, either cooked in a tagine or smothered in chermoula herbs and spices and grilled over coals.

Interest in Moroccan cuisine is growing world-wide and there are Moroccan restaurants in every major city. Visitors to Fez can spend a day learning the finer points of Moroccan cookery with Lahcen Beqqi who runs courses at a local guesthouse. Lahcen takes his clients to the souk first, to buy the ingredients for the meal. And this is not a trip to the supermarket - the market has tiny stalls where vegetables are piled high, plump and colourful, and most of all, seasonal. Then it's back to the guesthouse kitchen for a day of preparation and cooking and then eating and enjoying. See Lahcen's recipe below.

Lahcen with the BBC's Rick Stein

Canadian connection
Well-known Canadian chef and food writer, Deb Rankine, was so enthralled with the cuisine on a recent trip to Fez, that she's putting together a foodie tour in November this year called the Culinary Caravan.
Chef Deb (above) says, 'My focus at Culinary Caravan is to envelop my clients and students with the scents and flavours of other cultures. I comb both the world and my own backyard for authentic ingredients to integrate into my dishes.'

Participants on this tour will stay at the magnificent Riad Ibn Battouta and have three full days of practical cooking instructions (and eating!), as well as shopping for ingredients - and no doubt souvenirs such as ceramics, jewellery and carpets - relaxing on the rooftop terrace at the riad, exploring the medina, enjoying the hammam and plenty of sampling the wares of local restaurants.

For those who can't make it to Fez, there's always the popular blog, Moroccan Kitchen. Put together by Sabah and Samira of Riad Laaroussa, it gives a taster of what you can expect from Fassi cuisine with the recipes served at this magnificent guesthouse.

Sabah and Samira work on the blog

Lahcen's recipe for Lamb, Prune and Date Tagine

For 3 people:

* ½ kilo of a shoulder of lamb
* 250 grams of dried prunes (around 30 prunes)
* 6 dates (pitted)
* one big red onion, sliced
* 200 grams of roasted almonds
* one cinnamon stick
* one pinch of ginger
* one pinch of saffron
* one pinch of salt (or to taste)
* one pinch of pepper (or to taste)

Wash the prunes and soak them in one litre of water. Put ginger, saffron, and lamb in a big pot. Cook on medium flame. Mix for one minute. Add olive oil and onion. Leave for 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper. Drain the prunes but keep the water! Pour it into the pot with the lamb. Let the meat cook for 1 ½ hours (or however long it takes to cook) on a medium flame. *You can also leave it on a low flame and let it cook longer. 15 minutes before serving, add the prunes and dates.

top photo: Suzanna Clarke

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Samira & Sabah - from Moroccan kitchen to Moroccan blog

Samira & Sabah are two enterprising women who began a blog called A Moroccan Kitchen and although we have mentioned them before, we thought we should remind you to check them out. You will find their blog here: Moroccan Kitchen.

You can email them at: sabah@riad-laaroussa.com

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Discount accommodation and cooking lessons in Fez.

A discount of 40% is being offered by Riad Laaroussa - but there is a catch! It is only for a very limited time and you will probably need to be quick. The discount is only available for the first week in February and also the first week in March.

Discount accommodation is almost unheard of in Fez, but one of our favourite super-riads has decided to make a move in that direction. It is a good sign of competition in the market place and hopefully other riads will respond by lowering some of their prices. The value-adding of free Moroccan cooking lessons is also a smart move as Moroccan cooking is in vogue worldwide and a chance to learn in Morocco is bound to be popular.


Having visited their kitchen, I can say that this is a wonderful opportunity to learn some of the great Moroccan recipes from a very fine cook - Samira. Everyday, around 10 am, guests will be invited to go to the market with Samira (english speaker, not totally fluent, but ok) then when they return with fresh ingredients, they will be encouraged ( with a glass of wine) to learn from Samira as she cooks the meals for that day. So, for example, if pastilla is on the menu, then the guests will not only learn the techniques but that evening have the pleasure of sampling what they have produced. It sounds like a winner to us.



Contact Riad Laaroussa,
3 Derb Bechara, Fes-Medina, Morocco .
Tel.: +212 74 187 639
isabelle@riad-laaroussa.com
contact@riad-laaroussa.com

Riad Laaroussa website


Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Learn Moroccan cooking in Fez.

Here at The View from Fez, we enjoy great Moroccan cooking and although we pride ourselves on making our own preserved lemons and cooking a mean tagine, we certainly don't have the skills of Lahcen Beqqi. Recently he has started running small classes on Moroccan cooking so that you can learn the secrets of the local cuisine.

As he says, "Moroccan cuisine is said to be one of the most important cuisines in the world and Fes is considered to be the capital of Moroccan cooking. Every visitor to Morocco can savor the delights of its gastronomy when they taste tagines, pastilla, and couscous in the various fine Moroccan restaurants. However, few tourists get the chance to experience the preparation of Moroccan cuisine; something that is essential to understanding the culture. When you take cooking lessons with me, you will experience first-hand the process of food preparation that Moroccans perform every day, from choosing your own fresh ingredients in the open-air market, to cooking in a traditional Moroccan house."

Lahcen is not only a great chef, but an excellent teacher and his lessons in Moroccan cuisine are more than simply cooking. The lesson starts in the morning, at around 9:30, when he takes you on a trip to the open-air market (or the “souk” in Arabic), where you will buy all of your fresh ingredients. Lahcen will teach you how to pick the freshest goods. You will also be able to pick up a local wine for your meal. After grocery shopping, you will return for your lesson, which will be held at Dar El-Hana, a beautiful traditional Moroccan home restored to be a guest house. In the beginning of the lesson, Lahcen will provide you with typed and printed recipes for the meal that you will be making. He is more than happy to accommodate vegetarian needs, as well. Finally, what is more satisfying than to eat food that you have prepared? You and Lahcen will eat your dish for lunch, when you may choose to try eating “à la Marocaine”, using bread and your right hand, instead of a fork and knife. The length of the lesson depends on the cooking time for the dish, but usually, a lesson will last about 5 hours (from the grocery shopping to eating).

Lahcen is a Berber from the south of Morocco, in the High Atlas. He grew up in Amellago, a small agricultural village in the Gris Valley. Amellago is situated between Imilchil, where the annual Marriage Festival is held, and Merzouga, the entry to the tallest sand dunes of the Sahara. Lahcen’s father is a shepherd and a farmer, so Lahcen spent his childhood in the mountains, taking care of the herd, and in the field, helping his parents farm the land. When he was 10 years old, his parents sent him to another town for school. This is when Lahcen learned to cook for himself. After he got his baccalaureate and finished high school, Lahcen worked in a small restaurant and he became fascinated by the work of the chef. This is when he decided that he wanted to make cooking his career. He went to hotelier school, but he got his most valuable experience when he worked in Azrou alongside a Moroccan chef named Aziz, who had been trained at the world-renowned cooking school in Laussane, Switzerland. With Aziz, Lahcen learned how to make cooking an art. Since then, he has continued to perfect his art. He is adventuresome in his cooking, yet at the same time remains dedicated to exploring Moroccan cuisine from every region of the country. As well as teaching cooking lessons, Lahcen works at a guest house in Fes as the chef de cuisine.

Here's one of Lahcen's great recipes:

Lamb, Prune, and Date Tagine

This dish is a traditional Moroccan tagine. Because it is sweet and it includes dates, it is often served when a family has company over.

For 3 people

* ½ kilo of a shoulder of lamb
* 250 grams of dried prunes (around 30 prunes)
* 6 dates (pitted)
* one big red onion, sliced
* 200 grams of roasted almonds
* one cinnamon stick
* one pinch of ginger
* one pinch of saffron (pistils)
* one pinch of salt (or to taste)
* one pinch of pepper (or to taste)

Wash the prunes and put them in one liter of water. Let them sit. Put ginger, saffron, and lamb in a big pot. Cook on medium flame. Mix for one minute. Add olive oil and onion. Leave for 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper. Take the prunes out of the water and put them aside. Keep the water! Pour it into the pot with the lamb. Let the meat cook for 1 ½ hours (or however long it takes to cook) on a medium flame. *You can also leave it on a low flame and let it cook longer. Add the prunes and dates in the last 15 minutes.

Visit Lahcen's website for more details. Moroccan Cooking Lessons

Samir's fish tagine with preserved lemon and chermoula

Preserved Lemons Samir Style



See all our Moroccan recipes here: MOROCCAN MENU!

Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb recipes