The Food and Drinks of Marrakech - Indulge your senses

A trip to Marrakech allows you to indulge in a host of tastes and experiences in the small space of one City.  From shopping in the souks and eating street food to the extravagance of fine bars and restaurants and lazing by the pool, Marrakech truly is a city of contrasts.

Soaking up the sun, absorbing the smells of spices and the hustle and bustle of market trading in the souks is a  fascinating way to pass a day but for me, Marrakech comes to life at night.  As dusk settles, the main square is transformed into possibly the world’s largest street kitchen. 

 

 

With stall sellers pulling you this way and that to eat food at “one-one-seven the stairway to heaven” and so many stands specialising in sheep brain, it is difficult to know where to pitch your butt. 

 

Having a week in Marrakech allowed us to explore kebabs, sausages, tagines, cous cous, Moroccan sauce, flat breads, the works. 

 

The cous cous is particularly interesting.  It is much more simple than what you would buy in a packet in the UK.  The base is cous cous seasoned lightly and it is the stewed vegetables served on top which really add the flavour.

You could reinvent a similar dish by making cous cous in salt and water in much the same way you would boil and simmer rice – make sure you stop before it becomes gloopy!  For the vegetables, chop carrots, cabbage and onions into large chunks.  Place them in a pan covered with beef or chicken stock and add in chick peas.  Stew them in the stock with spices such a saffron, turmeric and paprika.  Serve the vegetables on top of a plate of the seasoned cous cous.

 To make similar kebabs and sausages to those on the Moroccan stalls, roll your meat (chicken, beef or lamb) in herbs and spices such as ground coriander, cumin, pepper, paprika, and mint.  Then spike it with a skewer.  These would be perfect cooked on a barbeque but an oven grill would work just as well.

Moroccan sauce (or so the street sellers call it!) is delightful as a dip with flat bread.  It is essentially a salsa of chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic, fresh coriander and mint and a little heat (a drop or two of tabasco sauce would work well here but a chopped chilli would do just as well).

My hunch is that you won’t be making your flat bread like this…

…so I suggest buying it readymade!

We ate endless tagines in Marrakech, we quite simply couldn’t get enough.  The basis of a tagine?  Well, with a tagine dish ideally or just a ceramic casserole dish, add chucks of meat, stock, vegetables and any herbs and spices you can get your hands on.  Pop the dish into the oven on a low heat for as long as you are happy to wait…

 

…that said, I definitely had a favourite tagine whilst we were in Marrakech…

 

To attempt to recreate this tagine:

(serving 2-3)

Ingredients:

600g of meat

2 medium onions

3 cloves of garlic

150g of almond flakes

2 pinches of saffron

Tsp of ground nutmeg

Tsp of ground pepper

2 star anise

1 large cinnamon stick

600ml of stock

250g of figs

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 160 °c.

Choose a meat, probably lamb but I would go for beef as I personally think Lamb tastes like the smell of sweaty men on the tube.  Depending on how many people you intend to feed, I’d suggest 600g of meat for two hearty portions or three people. 

Seal your meat in a frying pan with a little olive oil but be careful not to cook it.  Add the meat to a casserole dish or tagine pot.

Cut two medium onions into chunks and lightly fry in a tbsp of olive oil for around 3-4 minutes (or until starting to turn golden brown), to release the sweet onion flavours.  After the first 2 minutes add in three crushed cloves of garlic, which should give off a strong smell as it cooks through.  Pop the onions and garlic into your pot with the meat.

Lightly roast 150g of almond flakes in a clean frying pan.  To do this, put your frying pan over a medium heat and once hot add the flakes.  Leave the flakes to toast for a minute or so then continue toasting them on the heat stirring/flipping them continuously.  Once they have changed to a golden shade of brown and are smelling delicious, pop them into your casserole or tagine pot.

Add enough hot beef/lamb stock to your dish so that the contents is just covered.

Add 2 pinches of saffron (this will give your dish colour as well as flavour), 2 star anise, a tsp of ground nutmeg, a tsp of ground pepper, 1 large cinnamon stick and stir.

Pop the lid on your dish and cook it in the pre-heated oven for approximately 3 hours (most importantly, until the meat is tender and ready to melt in your mouth).  Check the dish hourly to make sure there is enough stock to prevent the meat from drying out. 

After the first 1.5-2 hours of your dish cooking, chop the figs into halves and stir them into the dish.  Then return the dish to the oven.

Serve immediately whilst still sizzling in your casserole dish/tagine with cous cous.

Good snacks in Marrakech:

The climate in Morocco means it is perfect for home grown nuts and figs.  These are sold by the barrel in the main square and on the streets of Marrakech.  Don’t miss out, they’re a perfect healthy snack (and no doubt great for moving along your digestive system!).

 

What not to eat in Marrakech:

Morocco isn’t really a great place for dessert, or at least not for a traditional British palate.  Whilst the fruits are wonderful and the mint exquisite, Moroccan desserts are spice based.  My biggest mistake of the trip (probably because I didn’t try the sheep brain) was trying what looked to me like a chocolate bomb in the Medina.  It was a pear shaped mass of dried spices which I did my utmost to swallow politely in front of the stall seller who had lovingly made the…well…yack ball, for want of better terminology.

Tipples:

Definitely, definitely do try real Moroccan mint tea.  The traditional method for making this tea is to soak crushed dates and add fresh mint leaves.  As the mint is so tasty, the less traditional, purely sugar based mint teas are still nice but the date juice tea is much better.

Many cafes around the souks have roof top terraces.  My suggestion would be to get their mint tea and when you’re weary from the hustle and bustle, watch the chaos of the markets from the top of the world.

Where not to get it from – carpet sellers…in exchange for one small cup of mint tea you WILL be expected to purchase a rug!

The oranges are incredibly sweet in Morocco and great for a sweet tooth like mine as well as a much needed refreshing cool drink in the warm climate.

And the street sellers are truly happy to serve you their juice…