Nostalgia

A frequent complaint about this blog is that I don't write often enough. Now that's partly because I’m a lazy bum, but also coz I only write when I think the restaurant I visited last week, my last travel experience or the idea in the head is good enough to make a fab post. But this stubborn preservation of standards has taken its toll on the frequency of posts.

So, as a sincere attempt to change this, I have decided to share a few recipes on the blog. Few of them are my own, few are not, but rest assured they are all really good and have something special associated with them.

To start with, I have one that brings back great memories from the IIM Calcutta campus that I called home for two years. There was some great food in that place, but only one thing on the menu stands out as original and unique - Spicy Maggi from the New Hostel night canteen. I've endured the endless wait for the Maggi to get ready (while seeing it getting made) so many times, that I'm pretty confident I have an accurate mental note of the recipe. It looks like this and tastes much better than it looks...:)





Ingredients

Maggi Noodles, 1 packet
Water, 2 cups
Small Onion, 1 no - finely chopped
Tomato, 1 no - finely chopped
Green Bell Pepper, 1 no - finely chopped
Green Chilies, 2 nos - chopped into large pieces
Garlic, 2 cloves - finely chopped
Tomato Ketchup - 2 tbsps
Chili Sauce - 1 tbsp

Method

Bring two cups of water to a boil and mix in the tastemaker in a microwave-oven container. Add the tomato ketchup and chili sauce and stir well. Add the chopped onion, tomato, bell pepper, green chilies and garlic. Break the Maggi into four pieces and add it to the mix. Heat the mix in a microwave oven at 250C for about 5 mins. Stir once and heat for a further 3 mins. Serve immediately.

On campus and outside, I've had several versions of Maggi noodles - Egg Maggi, Chicken Maggi, Fried Maggi, Curry Maggi - but Spicy Maggi from IIMC's New Hostel remains a firm favorite and I’m sure most of my batchmates would agree. Try this incredibly simple recipe and I'm sure u'll agree too...:)

Recipes from the Maghreb

As promised, I'm gonna share recipes of some of the Moroccan delicacies I've tried to re-create in my kitchen. Most of these are native to North Africa in general and versions vary from country to country. The debate as to where the origins of Couscous/Tagine etc lie and which country has the best recipe is usually between Morocco and its rival-in-the-kitchen Tunisia. It's safe to assume though, that Morocco wins the contest hands down...:)
Secondly, some of these dishes may be hard for you to cook in your kitchen for lack of a Tagine or the authentic Moroccan spice mixes. However, if you manage to find suitable substitutes, do give them a try, for Moroccan cuisine is one agreeable to all kinds of palates and wont disappoint.
So on the menu today is a soup, an Omlette and a Tagine.

Harira
Its the staple soup in Morocco and is found on the menu at most retaurants. It's made from chickpeas and vermicelli and is a good fast-breaker during Ramzan in all of the Maghreb.

Ingredients

Chickpeas, 1 cup
Tomatoes, 2 nos
Onion, 1 no
Garlic, 5 cloves
Cilantro
Vermicelli, 25 gms
Olive Oil, 3 tbsp
Mutton stock or water, 750 ml
Ras-el-Hanouf - Moroccan 45 spice powder, 2 tbsp (Dont know the substitute for this, may be garam masala powder will do)
Moroccan white spice powder, 1 tbsp
Turmeric, 1 tbsp
salt and pepper to taste
Wheat flour, 2 tbsp

Method
Soak the chickpeas in water overnight. Fry the chopped onions and garlic cloves in olive oil till soft. Now add the chickpeas and cook on a low flame for 15 mins. Add salt and pepper to taste and the 45 spice mix, the white spice powder and the turmeric. Add the mutton stock/water and turn up the flame. Let it boil till the chickpeas turn soft. Puree the tomatoes and add to the boiling soup. Add the vermicelli. Dissolve the wheat flour in 1/2 cup water and add to the soup once the vermicelli is cooked. Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with flatbread.

Omlette Berbere
This is the mother of all omlettes I've had so far and is usually cooked in a Tagine. It takes minimum effort, and if you dont fuck it up, gives stellar results.

Ingredients
Eggs, 3 nos
Tomato, 1 no finely choped
Onion, 1 no finely choped
Green Bell Pepper, 1 no finely choped
Garlic Cloves, 3 nos finely choped
Ras-el-Hanouf - Moroccan 45 spice powder, 1 tbsp
Moroccan white spice powder, 1 tbsp
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Olive Oil, 2 tbsp

Method
Heat the Olive Oil in a Tagine and fry the Onions and Bell Peppers till cooked. Add the garlic and saute for a minute. Add the salt, pepper and spice mixes and mix well. Add the tomatoes and cook for a minute till soft. Now add the eggs carefully, keeping the yolks intact, so that the eggs cover the rest of the ingredients. Turn the flame off immediately and cover the Tagine with the lid. The eggs will cook in the internal heat of the Tagine and the result is easily the best omlette you've ever had. Here's what it looks like.





Fish Tagine

Tagine cooking is like a sub-cuisine in itself and there are so many varieties, that one could write a book about it. This recipe is from Essaouira and is simple enough to make.

Ingredients
Fish, preferably Kingfish (less bony), 4 cross-section pieces
Tomato, 1 no chopped into quarters
Onion, 1 no chopped into squares
Green Bell Pepper, 1 no chopped into squares
Garlic Cloves, 5 nos finely chopped
Ras-el-Hanouf - Moroccan 45 spice powder, 2 tbsp
Moroccan white spice powder, 1 tbsp
Turmeric, 1 tbsp
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Olive Oil, 2 tbsp
Water, 1/2 cup

Method

Heat the Olive Oil in a Tagine and fry the Onions and Bell Peppers till cooked. Add the garlic and saute for a minute. Add the salt, pepper, turmeric and spice mixes and mix well. Add the Fish pieces and cover with the lid for a minute. Add the tomatoes and Mix well to spread the flavour of the spices evenly. Add 1/2 a cup of water and heat with lid on for a minute. Serve hot with flat bread.

This brings the sequence of Morocco posts to an end...an amazing eight months after the trip actually happened. An unquestionable proof of my lethargy.
Morocco has been one helluva fascinating discovery. Its incredible how much there is to see, do and eat in a country smaller than all its North African cousins. So fuck Egypt and the pyramids, if you want great food, Morocco is where its at.

...And the rest

What else could I call this post after the one about Place Djema El-Fnaa? That one eating experience was greater than the combination of all the other meals I had in Morocco. However that should in no way make you think that the rest of my stay there was anything less than excellent as far as the food was concerned. During my two weeks there, I ate a lot of great food, missed out on some things and made sure I avoided some others. And the list is pretty long.

The a la Menthe (Mint Tea)
This is to Moroccans what coffee is to the French. It is everywhere, from the wilderness of the Atlas mountains to the stylish streetside cafes of Casablanca. And not without good reason. The flamboyant waiter in red at Djema El-Fnaa even called it Whiskey Marocaine (Moroccan Whiskey). We had seen it on the Globetrekker show and read about it on Wikitravel. We had our first mint tea in a Casablanca cafe and it was instantly addictive. I'm not exaggerating when I say that each one of us had, on an average a litre of mint tea everyday from the time we landed in Morocco. We cannot reach an agreement about which was the best, but my favourite was in a small cafe near the Medina gate Bab Bou Jeloud in Fes. This cafe had only coffee and mint tea on its menu and the tea came in the biggest possible glass, was full of mint and had two sugar cubes on the side. Specialization is the name of the game, even when it comes to something as simple as mint tea!

Tagine
If mint tea is the most common drink to be found in Morocco, the Tagine is the most common sight in any eating place. It's a clay vessel with a large conical lid and lends its name to most things that are cooked in it. So many different things are cooked in a Tagine in so many different ways, it should actually be classified as a sub-cuisine. During my time in Morocco, I tried the following

Vegetable Tagine
Chicken Tagine
Meat Tagine
Meatball Tagine with Tomato Sauce

Other Possible Tagines are Fish Tagine from Essaouira, Chicken Tagine with Plums and many others. My favourite was the Chicken Tagine we had in a Berber tent in the middle of the Sahara desert at Erg Chebbi.

Couscous
Morocco is the true home of what is considered a generic Arab/North African dish. Made with great effort (and skill), it has a texture quite similar to our Upma but is more granular and can be served with vegetables or meat. I wasnt very sure how this would turn out, but a well-made Couscous is definnitely a treat.

Grilled Seafood
Morocco's Atlantic coastline has good fish and two of its beach-towns, Essaouira and Agadir have great outdoor stalls that serve freshly grilled seafood. At Essaouira, I was really spoilt for choice. Giant crabs, lobster, cuttlefish, squid, sardines, snapper, turbot and more. I chose the Red Snapper, Sardines and some squid. This was then grilled and served with salad and bread. The Snapper was easily the best I'd had thus far, so were the Sardines. But the bastards burnt my Squid. Shall never forgive them.

Harira
I've already written about this one in the post on Djema El-Fnaa, but I had a lot of it throughout my trip and it deserves a second mention. It provided much needed nourishment after the gruelling trek to the Jebel Toubkal base camp and we always started our set meals in Fes with it. The Djema version is clearly the best though.

Berber Omlette
This is the mother of all Omlettes, the Omlette to beat all Omlettes. Three unbeaten eggs cooked in a Tagine with onions, tomatoes, peppers and spices. Had it only once on my way to the desert and the taste is still with me.

Fes restaurants
Fes was clearly the best city experience in Morocco. Getting lost in the alleys and souks of its gigantic Medina is an exotic and unforgettable experience. The restaurants in Fes were value-for-money, served great food and had typical Franco-Arab names like Chez Hamid and Chez Rachid. Thank you Chez Hamid for your filling breakfast and Chez Rachid for your Meatball Tagine in Tomato Sauce.

Sweetness in Chaouen
Its peculiar how hill-towns always have great bakeries. And its even more peculiar when you find out that this holds true not only in India, but also in far-away Morocco. Chaouen is in the Rif Mountains, known for 'relaxation'. After getting suitably 'relaxed', we stumbled upon an awesome bakery called Aziziya. It had awesome pastries, ice-creams and milkshakes - treats we could appreciate even more since we were 'relaxed'.

Pastilla
One of the things I missed in Morocco was this sweet-cum-savoury Chicken/Pigeon meat filled pie. The idea of a meat-filled pie being sweet in taste didnt quite appeal to me and the portions would have been too large for 2 non-vegetarians.

B'saara
This is Harira's poorer cousin and is only found in Fes. Its a soup made with butterbeans and garlic and is served with a dash of olive oil and bread. I couldnt try it for lack of time in Fes and the inconvenient location of the stalls serving it deep inside the medina.

Kalia
I knew I wouldnt be eating this the moment I saw it on Bizarre foods. Its meat preserved in fat and stored for weeks before its cooked with eggs. It smells awful and is supposed to taste even worse. Wonder how Moroccans eat it.

Morocco certainly lived up to its reputation for great food, and though I've never been to Tunisia, I'm sure Le Maroc will kick its ass in the contest for best food in North Africa. I've managed to smuggle some spices home and have also brought back a small Tagine. Will share recipes from the Maghreb in the next post so watch this space...:)