Lenderking - Tanjia Marrakchia

Tanjia Marrakchia

By Eben Pierce Lenderking

Concerning the spices of Arabia let no more be said.
The whole country is scented with them and exhales
an odour marvellously sweet.

Herodotus

Bourbon & Pierce, Publishers London

Eben Pierce Lenderking
108, rue de Berima
Marrakech, Morocco

TANJIA MARRAKCHIA. eBook edition copyright 2016 by Eben Pierce Lenderking. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address Bourbon & Pierce Limited, Publishers, info@bourbonandpierce.com.

To my lovely wife, the perfect Tanjia Marrakchia .

A culinary adventure written for
the guests of Dar Les Cigognes.

Repeatedly written and occasionally published in
Marrakech, Morocco, until finally properly printed
in October 2007. eBook edition published 2016.

Contents

Grilled Bell Pepper Salad
(Balfelfla mechouia)

Herb Salad
(Baqqula)

Broad Bean Pure
(Byesar)

Aubergine Caviar
(Zaalouk)

Smoked Aubergine
(Moutabal)

Aubergine Salad
(Ba danjale)

Potatoes with Wild Thyme
(Btata bfliou)

Tajine of Okra and Tomatoes
(Marak matisha bel melokhias)

Moros y Cristianos
(Black beans and rice)

Pastilla of Pigeon, Fassi-Style
(Bstila bel hmame)

Pastilla of Seafood
(Bstila bel houte)

Sauted Sardines
(Sardines achiq et maachouq)

Chicken Tajine with Dried Apricots and Pine Nuts
(Tajine ba djej wa michmiche wa louz)

Sauted Chicken Livers
with Orange Flower Water and Roasted Hazelnuts

Chicken Tajine with Lemon and Olives
(Djej mqualli)

Roast Chicken with Nigella Seeds
(Djej ba sanouj)

Cornes des Gazelles
(Kab el ghzal)

The Serpent
(Mhancha)

Sweet Pastilla with Milk and Almonds
(Kheneffa or Chakchouka)

Moroccan Pancakes
(Rghaf)

Honey Pancakes
(Beghrir)

Apple Milk Drink
(Sharbat)

Almond Milk Drink
(Sharbat bil looz)

Preface

While we have endeavoured to explore the wonders of Moroccan food on our own, a few inspiring sources have helped us to find the way:

• Paula Wolfert , Moroccan Cuisine
• Touria Agourram , La Cuisine Marocaine
• Fatema Hal , Cuisine du Maroc
• Viviane and Nina Moryoussef , La Cuisine Juive Marocaine
• Sam and Sam Clark, Moro
  

  At the back of the book you will find a more complete list for further reading. The past few years has seen an explosion in titles. We are delighted by the growth and interest in Mediterranean cultures, foods, and particularly North African and Moroccan.

  The geometric designs used to mark chapter endings are Berber icons found in their colourful carpets. The architectural drawings of Dar Les Cigognes are the work of Charles Boccara d.p.l.g and his team.

  Front cover photo of Dar Les Cigognes by Jean Bernard Yaguiyan; rear cover photo by Alan Keohane, featuring Abdellatif, our indomitable first gardien who faithfully slept on the building site. Inside back jacket photo by Rush Kress.

  

  

  Dar Les Cigognes

  Would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth, and like an air plant be sustained by the light. But since you must kill to eat, and rob the newly born of its mothers milk to quench your thirst, let it then be an act of worship.

  Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

  On holiday from Britain one cold winter, and after a grand tour of the country, our travels ended in a magnificent riad , now operating as one of Marrakechs finer small hotels. My future wife and I could not but fall in love with the beauty of the place, its mystery and seduction.

  Perhaps we caught the Millennium Bug and, taking leave of our senses, embarked on a journey that we are still following. We bought a house, only realising our folly as we landed in the cold, grey light of a January morning at Gatwick airport. We took one look at each other and burst out laughing, as much from dread as from the absurdity of it all. What had we been thinking?

  Back a month later, and every month thereafter for the following years, we increasingly fell under the spell of this endlessly captivating country. Marrakech, though changing so rapidly, remains an intensely vibrant city, rich with the blood of North Africa coursing through its veinswith a sense of the fabulous and mystical, but above all, alive.

  The culinary arts are an expression of this passion and, insofar as cooking is a kind of performance art, in Moroccan cuisine we see ample evidence of the fabulous, the need to tell tales, at least a pinch of mysticism and, most certainly, magic. This form of self-expression is ultimately about the home and the hearth, which is profoundly appropriate for the culture and the place.

  This book is an attempt to capture that unsuspecting ability to surprise that every Moroccan possesses and that is so much a part of the cuisine.

  

  Origins of Moroccan Cuisine

  Al maghrib al aqsa; furthest land of the setting sun

  The Arabic name for Morocco

  The Northwest corner of Africa, where present-day Morocco is situated, has seen the footprints of many cultures, all of which have left their traces on the cuisine. The Berbers, the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Visigoths, and the Jews all came and made their marks on the culture long before the first Arab invasion. These early imprints were to prove deep-rooted. Although the Arabic cultural influence on Morocco has been profound, Moroccan cuisine, as an expression of the national character, has proved more resilient.

  The two outer reaches of Arab influence, Moghul India and Andalucian Spain, ultimately share this power. The Arabs were the ultimate messengers, carrying with them the rebirth of Western culture with its origins in Greco-Roman thought, rescuing us from the Dark Ages but also bringing spices from one side of their empire to the other. While the Indian sub-continent can be said to be the birthplace of sophisticated spicing, without the Arabs, the influence of Indian cuisine would not itself have been so profound. As each culture across the Arab Empire adapted this culinary sophistication, the use of aromatics, and the layers of subtlety of Moghul cuisine only again reached such dizzying heights when reaching its Western limit, where there was already a strong culinary tradition and an Empire able to incorporate the learning into its own cuisine.

  The Arabs brought the culinary secrets learned from the Persians and Indians to Morocco, while from the trans-Saharan caravan routes came all manner of sugar and spice. The result of this confluence was something uniquely rich and fundamentally different from the rest of the food of the Arab world, strongly African. In Morocco, you will find no hummus , falafel , tabbouleh , moutabal , or any of those other common Mediterranean Arab dishes. To be sure, you will find similar items, particularly amongst the starters in Morocco, but it is more likely that the influence ran the other way.