This is the first of many back logged updates I will be posting this evening. I will not be fulfilling all of the teasers from the last post but at least this one will have a major cooking portion. Read up and enjoy. The most recent post without a date attached was written today.
April 9, 2011
Last month I had the joy of a weeklong visit from my Dad and Uncle Jimmy, aka James or JB. Our first three days we spent in Fez. Having picked up my Morocco guidebooks for the first time just nights before, I was able to take us to beautiful treasures in the medina that despite my many stays in Fez I had never seen. (Most of these sights can be seen in my facebook photo album “Fez with Dad.” When I find the time to change the link to the right to Flickr instead of Picasa so I can upload straight from iPhoto, you’ll be able to find them there.) However, more than just showing them the beauty of the maze that makes up the old medina, I was excited that they were able to experience the sense of community at the heart of why I love Fez. Right after they arrived, while waiting to meet up with the building manager of Dar Bennis, we ran into David Amster, the owner of Dar Bennis and Director of the American Language Center in Fez, as well as one of my close Moroccan friends Camilea who works at Café Clock. Then when we arrived at Dar Bennis, a beautifully renovated medina home, I noticed we were located literally around the corner from my good friend Omar Chennafi, a rising freelance photographer and native of Fez. During our stay we ran into Omar several more times out and about as well as many Peace Corps volunteers in town for both work and play.
While in Fez we had the treat of spending a good deal of time with David who gladly shared his bountiful knowledge of the architecture and history of Fez. He also gave us a tour of his current renovation project, a true medina palace, photos of which can be seen in the album mentioned above. As we made our way through the medina it seemed as though every shop owner told us they knew David and so would give us a good deal.
Leaving Fez we made our way to my site Boumia. The true highlight here was what I have mentioned before as the “food experience.” My Dad and James wanted to learn the Moroccan way of making couscous and my host mom, Halima, was more than happy to oblige. You see here in Morocco couscous is not a 10 minute meal where you boil the dry grain in some water and serve. Here it is a 2-3 hour process. First, the veggies, meat, and spices that will be the center piece of the dish are all placed in a tall cauldron like pot of water and placed on the stove top. Once brought to a boil the couscous, with a small amount of oil worked in, is placed in a metal pot with a perforated bottom that fits on top of the steaming cauldron with all the goodies cooking underneath. After 30 min over the steam the couscous is dumped into a large ceramic dish and fluffed by hand. A small amount of water is added by way of quickly dousing your hands before fluffing, primarily to counteract the heat, possibly to add more moisture to the mixture, but sometimes this is left out, depending on how tough you are feeling at the moment. This fluffed couscous is then returned to its place over the steam and the process is repeated two or three more times as needed. All the mixing is done in a large ceramic dish and when the cooking is complete the couscous is spread over the whole dish, and the contents of the cauldron are then ladled on top. At all the key stages of the process, James took video while Halima explained through me what she was doing and why. She was delighted to share this integral part of her culture with us. Two questions that came up were what spices are used and do you leave the meat in the whole time? The spices are the typical Moroccan spices mentioned earlier, the most notable being cumin. Halima basically pointed at her spices and said all of them. As for the meat, whether it is chicken, lamb, or goat (or fat, or utter, or lamb head, or any other part of the animal you feel like tossing in), Halima’s response was you take it out when it’s done, aka figure it out.
A word of warning James can attest to: be very careful when fluffing the couscous! It gets just as hot as our couscous does in boiling water and my host mom just digs her hands in, but I think it’s safe to assume she just a bit tougher than the rest of us. I’m sure it would be fine to use spatulas or some other utensil to fluff the couscous. This is a very important stage for Moroccans and the couscous definitely turns out… well to put it simply, fluffier. And the last thing Halima would want me to tell you, is that while you can have it any day of the week, you can expect to have it on Fridays in Morocco.
