How To Cook Well In Morocco with Rory O'Connell Season 1 Episode 4
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00:00May your table always be full.
00:04Kerrygold. Proud sponsor of How to Cook Well in Morocco.
00:30We've had a long journey from Fez and we've arrived in the extraordinary city of Marrakesh.
00:45The sun has gone down behind the minaret of the Ketubia Mosque and behind me, Jamnail Fana, the legendary square.
00:53A melting pot of people, races, cultures. There are hawkers, suitsayers, snake charmers, witch doctors.
01:03You can have all of life's problems allegedly can be solved within this square.
01:08You can eat, drink and be merry. You will be charmed because if you're not charmed, if you're not excited by this astonishing cacophony of experience, I don't know what to say.
01:19I'm delighted to be here. Marrakesh holds such excitement for me and tomorrow we're going to open up that treasure trove.
01:49After last night's exuberance in Jamnail Fana, it's time to get back to the business in hand, which is to discover some interesting food.
02:08I'm joining Amanda Mutaki, a blogger and a guide whose expertise is Moroccan food.
02:16One of the specialities that Marrakesh is known for is the slow-cooked tangia, not to be confused with a tagine.
02:24And we're heading for a small butcher shop in the heart of the Medina.
02:27Amanda, tangia. We're here with Yassine. Thank you very much, Yassine. Lovely to be here.
02:32And the tangia refers to a dish and a sort of a pot. Isn't that right? Yes.
02:38Just like the tagine. And it's typically made with either beef or lamb.
02:44But we're having shin of beef today, isn't it? Yes, exactly. I recognise that.
02:48And that makes complete sense because it's a long, slow cooking, which shin of beef absolutely requires.
02:54Yeah. And then when you cook it for long enough, it has an incredible flavour.
02:58Yeah. And it gets this incredibly succulent, falling-off-the-bone type of consistency.
03:03Yeah. Fatty marrow melts down. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, you really get it.
03:05So this is a really simple dish. Yes.
03:07So Yassine here is cutting almost like steaks, like osso bucco.
03:12Yep. Loads of bone in the pot.
03:14Exactly. And then the meat. So the bone is going to give so much flavour.
03:18Oh, God, we're getting serious now. Yeah, OK.
03:20OK, no mess. Not messing around.
03:21No messing here. Yep. I mean, we're talking a protein fest here, aren't we?
03:25For sure. There is no vegetables in this. This is straight meat.
03:29OK. Next. The pos.
03:31Pub. Which is glazed on the inside, isn't that right?
03:34Yes. Yes. Typically.
03:35Here in Marrakesh, we'll speak before. Bismillah. Bismillah. Bismillah.
03:40So they always bless whatever before they do it.
03:42Oh, bless. Yeah, well, that's wonderful.
03:44It's best thanking for their good fortune to be able to have it, of course.
03:47Saffron, that looks like a...
03:49So that's a generous portion of saffron.
03:51Absolutely. Smen. OK, here we go again.
03:55Gosh, what a service.
03:56Do you have to go to your butcher and say, I'll have...
03:58Quite a takeaway.
03:59I'll have one of those, please.
04:00And then you take it off to somebody else's oven.
04:02Yeah, and cook it.
04:03Yeah, OK, so this is the preserved lemon.
04:05Yeah, and these do look more aged.
04:06These look really preserved, don't they, like that?
04:08Yeah.
04:08It's an almost marmalade-y smell off these, actually.
04:12Yeah. Because it's only salt and lemon.
04:14The preserved lemon, I think, is really the key to this dish.
04:18Yeah, it's such an important thing, yeah.
04:19No.
04:20You know cumin?
04:21Yes, I know cumin, and I love cumin.
04:23And that's lovely cumin.
04:24That's so aromatic, even though that hasn't been roasted or ground or anything.
04:27It just smells so strongly.
04:29And this is Moroccan cumin, of course, yeah.
04:31Some garlic.
04:32OK, lovely.
04:33A whole new way of crushing garlic coming up here.
04:36Here we go.
04:37All right, OK.
04:39That works.
04:40OK.
04:43Use what you've got.
04:44Yes, yeah.
04:46Lovely.
04:47So we've had beef, preserved lemon, cumin, garlic, sman, saffron.
04:54Saffron, yeah.
04:55OK.
04:55OK, I'll be interested to see as well how much water he puts in.
04:58Ooh.
04:59OK.
05:03OK.
05:04That's it.
05:05So just a little on the bottom.
05:07Yep, just to keep it from sticking.
05:08Keep it from sticking, create a little bit of steam.
05:10Yep.
05:10To get the flavours moving around the pot.
05:11Exactly.
05:12All of that.
05:13Lovely.
05:15Now, looking grace.
05:18Yeah, I mean, grace.
05:19Lovely.
05:20Merci, monsieur.
05:21So now, lovely old-fashioned, greaseproof paper.
05:24Exactly.
05:24Yeah.
05:25Rory.
05:27OK.
05:28Ah, fabulous.
05:29Thank you so much.
05:31This has been absolutely fantastic.
05:34OK.
05:36Really fantastic.
05:38Onwards, onwards to the oven, as they say.
05:46Communal ovens are used all over Morocco, and I've already seen quite a few.
05:49This one, however, is something completely different.
05:55Wow.
05:56This is really something.
05:57Watch your step.
05:58All right.
05:59Oh, good gracious.
06:00And this is a gentleman that's going to help cook our tangia.
06:03Oh, fantastic.
06:08Oh.
06:09Oh, he's going to check and make sure it's good.
06:11It's good.
06:12OK.
06:13So now he's going to take it down here.
06:15So this is the furnace that heats the water for the hammam, and these are the coals that
06:22would come from the whatever's burning in the oven, and then they just put a little
06:26bit on the side.
06:27You can see some here with the ash and the dirt.
06:29Oh, OK.
06:30And they're just, like, partially buried in the coals.
06:32We'll leave it here for at least four hours.
06:36Could be six hours.
06:37Could be overnight.
06:38Yeah, sure.
06:38Even better.
06:38Yeah, and the smell of the smoke and the heat.
06:41Yes.
06:42Ooh la la.
06:42So imagine in the summer when it's 50 Celsius.
06:45Unbelievable.
06:46OK, thank you so much.
06:48I've never seen anything like this in my life.
06:49You're a marachia.
06:50Yeah, really.
06:51There are no words.
06:52Yeah, isn't it cool?
06:54The original.
06:54It makes so much sense.
06:55The heat from the hammam.
06:56Do we need a drink?
06:57Yeah, I think so.
06:59Let's go.
06:59Wonderful.
07:00Thank you, Amanda.
07:01You're welcome.
07:02Love every moment.
07:33Wonderful.
07:35OK.
07:36Oh.
07:37I see.
07:38Oh.
07:40Look at that.
07:41Wow.
07:42That is absolutely fantastic.
07:44The colour that the saffron has given us.
07:46Yeah.
07:47It's really great.
07:48And a small amount of juice, which I presume would be very concentrated in flavour.
07:52Yeah, absolutely.
07:53Thank you so much.
07:54It's absolutely wonderful.
07:57Great.
07:57Well, let's taste.
07:58Tuck in.
07:58Yeah.
07:59Let's go.
08:00Oh, my goodness me.
08:00How lovely.
08:01The saffron preserved lemon.
08:05The balance is perfect.
08:06Yep.
08:07Bearing in mind that he put no salt into this dish.
08:11None.
08:12And it is absolutely perfectly seasoned.
08:15Mm-hmm.
08:15So that's the preserved lemon.
08:17Exactly.
08:17Highly salty.
08:18And that sourness, which works with all the other flavours.
08:21Mm-hmm.
08:21And it is tempting to sort of lean back and just have a little zizz on the radassiers that
08:27are designed, I think, for the purpose.
08:28Yeah, absolutely.
08:28But we have other things to do, so we must eat and crack on.
08:31So when you come to buy spices, I suggest stop for a moment, because there are spices everywhere.
08:49Wait and see where the locals are doing their shopping.
08:52And we're walking along here, and a line of locals developed, I thought, that's probably
08:57where I should go.
08:58And this really feels really authentic.
09:00All the spices look exactly as they should look.
09:03There are none of the synthetic colours that you come across in some of the other stalls.
09:09All manner of things you'd expect.
09:11Peppercorns, fenugreek, sesame, fennel, anise, cumin, turmeric, ginger.
09:19And then people are coming and asking for particular blends.
09:21They, of course, have big bags of rasalanout here with maybe 35 of the different spices
09:27that go into that ever-changing blend of spices all over Morocco.
09:32And cardamons, mace, raisins, sultanas, all sorts of things.
09:36Also, in little shops like this, you can buy perfume, you can buy soap, you can buy things
09:43for headaches.
09:44So there's a crossover between the old-fashioned pharmacy or dispensary and a spice shop.
09:50It's really amazing.
09:51And then over here, we've got dried spices.
09:54I'm looking at the little, beautiful little rose blossoms, and they have no unnatural colours.
09:59And there's hibiscus flowers, which look exactly as they should look.
10:02Dried bay leaves, all sorts of gorgeous things.
10:06Dried verbena, chamomile.
10:08Oh, yeah.
10:09Here we go.
10:09This is the soap that I was talking about, which part of the process begins life, or part
10:14of the ingredients, as an olive.
10:16And Moroccans use this all the time.
10:17And you see this stuff everywhere.
10:19And they use it not only on their body, particularly if they're going to the hammam.
10:23They put this on and leave it on and sit in a warm room.
10:26And then they'll shower it off.
10:27And it's a pre-hamam treatment.
10:30But also, they use it around the house as a general cleaning agent.
10:32And it's fascinating stuff, isn't it?
10:34And you can buy it like this in its very crude form.
10:37But they also have little ones which have been perfumed.
10:41So you could have this with a little lavender, if you wanted to make yourself smell particularly
10:45delicious and so on.
10:47Over here, there are little bags of clay, which is hard to tell from here.
10:50But yeah, you can see the clay in there, which apparently some Moroccan ladies use this on
10:54their face, I presume in the form of an exfoliant or something.
10:58This looks completely authentic.
11:00So my advice to you is look, stop, look where the locals are doing their shopping.
11:05And then you're going to have what's probably going to be a wonderful experience.
11:08Keri Gold, proud sponsor of How to Cook Well in Morocco.
11:24Keri Gold, proud sponsor of How to Cook Well in Morocco.
11:38After the excitement, the frenzy, the busyness, the bright light, the dark light, the smokiness
11:46of the souk in the Medina, sometimes I find it difficult to make a decision about buying
11:50something.
11:51It seems that all of my senses are too heightened.
11:54So I'm now going somewhere quite different, much calmer.
11:58You have no idea what lies behind these walls.
12:01It's an Aladdin's cave.
12:03Mustapha Blawi and his wife, Carol, created this vast shop.
12:12I think emporium would be a better word.
12:14Full of furniture, decorative items, linens, ceramics, antiques, so many of the things for
12:20which Morocco is well known.
12:23There are things here from other parts of Africa, India and Asia.
12:28And interior designers are drawn to this place like bees to honey.
12:35In these rooms full of the most extraordinary things everywhere, out of the side of my eye,
12:40I saw this lovely, I think it's an old sieve actually, filled with these, which are clearly
12:45belts.
12:46And in another part of the world, as in Connemara, the west of Ireland, you'd be forgiven for
12:52saying, that looks like a Chris, the traditional old woolen belts, but maybe slightly bigger
12:57than we're used to the size of them.
12:59So it's really beautiful.
13:01I've been completely taken by it.
13:03And then some of these belts, which in this case, this belt would have been worn by a Berber
13:09lady.
13:10And she'd wrapped it around herself several times, and then she'd find little pouches
13:15within the wrappings to, you know, to keep a few eggs safe for a tiny little bit of money
13:20or whatever it happened to be.
13:22So it's amazing.
13:23I mean, you know, the colours, the style of the weaving, everything about it is familiar
13:28to me, but from somewhere far away, absolutely astonishing.
13:31And then the more refined ones here are from the north of Morocco with a little bit of silk.
13:39So these would have been used on sort of a smarter occasion, perhaps like a wedding or
13:43something like that, but amazing to come across something that looks immediately familiar in
13:49these extraordinary rooms full of things, many of which are unfamiliar, but nonetheless
13:54ravishingly beautiful.
14:01Temptation doesn't even begin to describe what this shop is all about in terms of beautiful
14:13things.
14:14And I have some lovely bits of Moroccan pottery at home, which I use all of the time, actually,
14:18in ceramics.
14:19But I'm particularly drawn to these ones here because I have bowls in an almost exact colour
14:25with an almost exact pattern.
14:27So I think that's all going to work beautifully.
14:29So they, I hope, once we've negotiated a price, may be coming with me to Cork.
14:43We've come from the very centre of Marrakesh out to a residential area to visit somewhere
14:48I think is very special.
14:50This is the Amal Centre, and underneath it says Life Changing Food.
14:54Amal is the Arabic word for hope, and as far as I know, this place is full of hope.
15:07The Amal Centre was set up by a Moroccan woman called Nora Fitzgerald, which is not a name
15:13you'd expect, and we'll come back to that later.
15:16Morocco is still quite a patriarchal society, with women only accounting for 25% of the workforce.
15:21So the centre was set up in 2013 to teach young women from underprivileged backgrounds
15:27how to cook, and just as importantly, how to find work and gain some financial independence.
15:35We have about 35 students who stay with us for the year-long course.
15:39Yes, and then when they finish with you, they're ready to go out into the industry and to get a job.
15:45Yes, yes.
15:46Yes.
15:46And for many of them, it's going to be their first job in the formal sector and their first
15:50job in the food sector.
15:52Yes, so it's absolutely crucial bridge from poverty, really, to the possibility of earning
15:59money for themselves, their own money, to look after themselves, their children and their families.
16:05And you also have another cafe.
16:08Tell me about the cafe, which is run by deaf people, essentially.
16:13Yes, yes.
16:13So a few years ago, we had a cohort of deaf students, which is, it was a very interesting
16:20experience for both them and for our staff, who had to learn the basics of Moroccan sign
16:27language in order to communicate about food.
16:30Of course.
16:31And when our students graduated, unfortunately, we couldn't find any employers who would sort
16:37of take a chance and jump into the novelty of employing somebody who can't hear, essentially.
16:43So we decided to create our own place for them to work.
16:47Yes.
16:47And it's been amazing.
16:49It's, I mean, it's just one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard.
16:52What's the cafe called?
16:53It's called the Sign Language Cafe.
16:55Yeah, I mean, that's just, it's just so absolutely beautiful.
16:59Really, really, it is.
17:00How do you fund all of this?
17:02Well, part of it is from the meals and food that we sell.
17:08Yes.
17:08Part of it is from the cooking classes that any visitors to Marrakesh can participate in.
17:14Yes.
17:15And part of it is from donations.
17:18We've especially tapped into that in the times when we've gone through crisis, and that would
17:26be two times specifically.
17:28One is COVID.
17:29Yes.
17:30And one is the earthquake.
17:32Yes.
17:32And tell me, because we were talking about that a little bit earlier on, because I was
17:35asking you about Marrakesh and Morocco post-earthquake.
17:39And tell me what you did then at the time of the earthquake.
17:41That was fascinating.
17:42Cooking meals for people.
17:44Yeah.
17:44I presume I'd lost any means of cooking for themselves.
17:48Yeah.
17:48So we, we, it was all a bit of a shock, quite a shock to us, the earthquake.
17:54You know, we're not, it's not an earthquake country.
17:56It's not in anybody's kind of collective consciousness that an earthquake could happen here.
18:01So we got together pretty much the day after, and we thought, well, we know how to cook.
18:08Let's cook.
18:09Yes.
18:10You know.
18:10So we got to cooking, and that same day we were contacted by World Central Kitchen.
18:17Yes.
18:17Which is an extraordinary organization.
18:19Absolutely.
18:20Which does, responds to crises all over the world.
18:23Yes.
18:23So they believe people should be fed.
18:26Yes.
18:27In the darkest of times.
18:28Yes.
18:29And they said, we're here to distribute food to the mountains.
18:36Do you have food for us?
18:38And, you know, it was this thing.
18:40We were, we were planning to make 200 meals that day, and they were like, can you give us 500?
18:45Right.
18:45Okay.
18:46Yes.
18:46Yeah.
18:46And they said, and tomorrow, by the way, we'd love 3,000.
18:50Good Lord.
18:51So all your team just got together and, yeah, just got stuck in.
18:54Yeah.
18:54As cooks, too.
18:55Yes.
18:56Yes.
18:56We called out to volunteers, so this garden was full of people chopping potatoes and onions
19:02and cooking up a storm.
19:04Amazing.
19:04Yeah, absolutely amazing.
19:05And we, we cooked 3,000 meals a day for, for a good couple of weeks.
19:11Yes.
19:11Yes.
19:11Yes.
19:11That's truly inspiring.
19:13You are a huge inspiration to me.
19:16And what you're doing here is so important and so inspiring.
19:19But can we talk about your name, again, Nora Fitzgerald?
19:24I mean, I don't think, but correct me, it's not really a Moroccan name.
19:28So my...
19:29Your great grandfather, I believe.
19:30Yeah.
19:30Left Ireland.
19:31Yes.
19:32Left Ireland, moved to New York, as many Irish did at that time.
19:38Yes, indeed.
19:38So my parents are from the U.S. They moved here to Morocco.
19:43You were born here?
19:44Yes.
19:44Yes, yes, yeah.
19:45It's kind of an opposite migration than their grandparents had gone.
19:49Yes.
19:49One way across the Atlantic, they came back.
19:51Well, they must be extraordinarily proud of you, as I'm sure your great grandfather,
19:55he's up there somewhere looking down, must be so proud of you, because what you're doing
19:58here is incredible.
20:00But more than anything, I've learned more about the generosity of the Moroccan people, and I'm
20:05deeply moved.
20:21Wandering through the souk earlier today with Amanda, I spotted so many stalls selling dates,
20:26so it makes perfect sense to make something with this essential Moroccan ingredient.
20:34I have a wonderful memory of my mother waiting for the Majul dates.
20:38I'm going to make a little salad here to be served at the end of a meal, or even for breakfast,
21:03if you wish, combining oranges and some of those lovely dates.
21:07I'm just going to zest one of the oranges to get a little intensity of flavour that you get from the zest.
21:14OK, that's nearly going to do me a little bit more, like that, and now I'm going to segment.
21:22I begin by just cutting a little slice off the top of the orange, like that, and also from the other end, like that.
21:29Then I'm going to cut the knife, like that, and then I'm going to cut off the white line of the pit.
21:37And very importantly, I'm not just pushing my knife, I'm sawing my knife up and down.
21:42So now, I've just taken all of, pretty much all of the rind and the pit off.
21:47To get the individual segments, you start, you cut inside one membrane, like that,
21:53and then inside the other, the other membrane at the other side of the segment, and pop it out.
22:00From there on, you, again, cut inside the membrane, towards the centre of the orange.
22:06Now, at this point, if you come across a pip, and there's a pip in there,
22:10it's sometimes easier to pop out the pip at this stage to one side,
22:16and then slowly prise out the segments.
22:21So I'm taking my knife, I suppose, about 98% of the way into the centre of the orange,
22:27popping out a pip, like that, and then just pushing.
22:33It sort of pushes off the skin, or the membrane, like that.
22:38Now, a few more little ingredients to go in.
22:40My dates, of course.
22:42So with the dates, I have some already prepared.
22:44Cut the date in half lengthways.
22:46So cutting through the flesh, around the stone.
22:51Moving that.
22:53Okay.
22:53So I'm going to add in some more of those.
22:57I mean, this would be lovely served with ice cream, with creme fraiche, with yoghurt, with a cake.
23:04Just a little sugar to sweeten.
23:06That depends on the sweetness of your oranges and the sweetness of your dates.
23:10A little mint, delicious, to freshen up the flavours, as you can imagine.
23:16And then, a little bit of orange blossom water, again, for which Morocco is famous.
23:21And a few little drops of that.
23:23Not too much.
23:25So just carefully, just mix the dates in with the oranges, like that.
23:32Okay.
23:32That's looking really lovely.
23:34I'm going to slide this into a lovely little bowl.
23:36Like that.
23:40But a few little jewel-like pomegranate seeds would be absolutely perfect there.
23:45From the point of view of flavour, from the point of view of texture, from the point of view of appearance.
23:50Well, no explanation is needed, because you can see how gorgeous they look.
23:53So the oranges, the dates, the mint, the orange blossom water, the pomegranate seeds, and the smell, the aroma coming up from the plate,
24:05when all of those ingredients hit each other, is so transportative.
24:09Right now, I feel like I'm on a magic carpet on my way back to Marrakesh.
24:12It's quite wonderful.
24:43May your table always be full.
24:52Kerrygold.
24:53Proud sponsor of How to Cook Well in Morocco.