Marrakech and Essaouira

I have been to Marrakech and Essaouira six times now, beginning 13 years ago, when my husband Kent and I attended an amazing French wedding in 1998. Taking place in Marrakech, the wedding included a week of additional parties and excursions, including 2 days in Essaouira.  We smuggled in Grants whiskey, illegal then, for the opening cocktail atop a splendid Riad, strewn with rose petals and glimmering with candles, with the Katubia Mosque silhouetted in moonlight.  After the wedding we rode with nobility in horse drawn carriages deep into the Medina, torch bearers lighting our way as Berber bands serenaded us en route to a grand reception gala.  Memories were whetting my appetite for our arrival in Marrakech.

Getting off the train this time, I was amazed by the changes in the city. In the 5 years since I was last here, the roads have been greatly improved, the monuments cleaned, gardens manicured and even the souks were less dusty and chaotic. There is definitely a sense that life is better with King Mohammed VI, who has done a great deal for the country and for all his valued tourists.

Except for our last day, we had those brilliant blue Moroccan skies I dream about bringing balmy days and cool breezes at night. In Marrakech we stayed at Jnane Tamsna, an oasis in the Palmerie, 20 minutes outside the city.

Photo of Jnane Tamsna doorway

The owners, Meryanne Loum-Martin and her husband Gary have been friends for 10 years. I have known Bahija, their young female chef since she was barely out of her teens beginning her life as a cook. She and her husband and young children still live with her mother, the inspiration for her tagines and couscous.  She has turned into a remarkably accomplished chef who has taught herself English and is a fabulous teacher.

We had two cooking classes with Bahija in Meryanne’s sumptuous private residence and kitchen.

Cooking with Bahija

The first was on poultry tagines, which could be either chicken, quail or squab.

Chicken tajine with fennel, fava beans and tomato

Since there were 14 of us, we found 14 individual ceramic tagines in front of us.  Using the same base preparation (recipe below), we then created our own unique tagines; 7 savory and 7 sweet. We shared (and devoured) our tagines at lunch in the palmerie garden, preceded by several salads with greens and herbs from their gardens. .In fact all the delicious vegetables that we ate were grown at Jnane Tamsna.

Our second cooking class with Bahija was on couscous, made of course the traditional way. Bahija had us prepare 4 different kinds of semolina made from corn, barley, and two different wheats, one commercially ground and one ground by hand by her mother. It was THE BEST! We made a 7 vegetable couscous to go with all of the semolinas, reproducing the dish Moroccan Muslims eat every Friday on their Sabbath. Bahija also taught us how to differentiate real from fake saffron made with red food dye.  When you drop fake saffron in water it turns red rather than the beautiful yellow of the real thing. We capped off our class by learning how to make and serve mint tea properly.

Well satisfied, we went out to see all the important monuments in Marrakech, going into the souks, but here food, cooking, and gardens, including the exquisite Marjorelle gardens where Yves St Laurent’s ashes now rest, were the highlights of this part of our trip.

Group visiting Marjorelle Gardens

We traveled by van to Essaouira and stopped en route to visit an argon oil cooperative.

Grinding argan nuts

We arrived at lunchtime and enjoyed a seafood lunch at a restaurant on the beach and then the gang hit the shops in the souks this time on their own as it is easy to get around in Essaouira.

View of Eassaouira

The next day we attended another wonderful cooking class with  Nour-eedine who is an amazing teacher. We cooked a zucchini with chermoula and the best fish tagine I have ever tasted!

It rained our last afternoon and evening in Essaouira and our return to Marrakech was dramatic indeed. I had never seen a drop of rain in Morocco and there was red water rushing everywhere except luckily not on the main roads. So, we had to abandon our last night in the desert and settled instead into the beautiful Palais Calipau in the Marrakech medina for our last night and last coucous, this time Royal with lamb and chicken as well as vegetables.  We got on our airplanes the next day loaded with carpets, leather goods, jewelry, spices and many wonderful memories.

Basic Tajine of Chicken with Lemons and Olives - Serves 8-10 people

To this basic recipe, you can add other vegetables such as potatoes, turnips, carrots, fennel, fava beans, peas. 

3 whole chickens, cut up – reserve thighs, legs and breasts

10 tbsp olive oil

2 cups chicken stock, plus extra

2 garlic cloves, grated

8 tomatoes, seeded, peeled and sliced vertically

1 red onion, chopped finely

2 whole confited lemons, quartered or halved and cut into fan shape

1 tsp salt per tagine

½ tsp saffron for each tagine

½ tsp pepper per tagine

1 tsp ginger per tagine

Pinch of cumin and turmeric per tagine

Handful olives per tagine

2 tbsp chopped cilantro per tagine

Brine chicken pieces in lemon juice and salt overnight.  Place 5 tbsp olive oil in each tajine and cook chicken pieces skin side down, first over medium heat, turning often to keep from burning.  Add 1 cup chicken stock to each tajine to cover.  Cook covered for 20 minutes leaving room for air to escape.  Add 3 heaping tbsp of chopped red onion to each tajine.  Grate one garlic clove into each tajine.  Add more chicken stock as needed.  Placed confited lemon pieces or fans on top.  Add tomatoes, spices (except the cilantro) and olives into each tagine.  Cover and cook for 20-25 further minutes (45 minutes total). 

Just before serving, sprinkle with cilantro and add additional pepper.

Adventures on The Marrakech Express

To the lyrics of Crosby, Stills and Nash “The Marrakech Express” our porters packed up our Fez acquisitions and we were off to the train station, roller bags in tow. 

The trek down the side of the tracks then ACROSS the tracks with all of our luggage and into the first class train must have been quite a sight! Settling into three compartments, we piled our luggage wherever it would fit (we were a group of 14 but our luggage looked like it was for a group of at least 25!) 



Patti overseeing the luggage



Eventually our train set off, providing us with a variety of scenes along the way including green fields, storks, flocks of sheep and their shepherds, fields of mustard, some vineyards, cypress trees, military posts, and the ever present camels. 

Meknes, Rabat and Casablanca were just a few of the many stops, posing repeated challenges to me as people tried to invade our compartments since I had only booked 14 of the 18 seats.  It was a mad dance to see us moving into and out of compartments with our copious luggage scattered everywhere, including the aisles.

We were all ravenous by noon, so it was time to unpack our picnic lunch lovingly prepared by Fatima back at the Riad.  Alcohol is supposedly not allowed on the Marrakech Express (which is actually a milk train) but that didn’t stop us. I had warned everybody to hide the bottles of wine I distributed, but popping corks gave us away!  In our picnic, we discovered salads of eggplant, carrots and cumin, green peppers, rice and tuna fish, tomato and cucumber, and delicious French cheeses. Hard boiled eggs posed some peeling problems, and our shells were soon ditched in the bathroom for lack of wastebaskets.  The conductor discovered our dalliance but fortunately for us, he just smiled. At least half of our tasty lunch was left so we gave him our leftover bounty at the end of the trip, which he accepted with pleasure.

Our picnic (in red check bag) safely stowed with luggage!

After 7 hours of much hilarity, Marrakech finally came into view around 4pm.  We performed another hysterical transfer of people and baggage across a street with no crosswalk into 2 vans, once again with much muttering in Moroccan as they wedged things in.  I had worried it would be a long train trip, but everyone found it to be a fascinating adventure. 

Finally, we arrive in Marrakech

A Sublime Sojourn in Morocco

We made it!  In spite of political turmoil in many very-nearby countries, Kent and I and my twelve clients, now friends, arrived safely in Fez, the former imperial capital, last Friday to begin our ten day adventure in Morocco.  Nestled in the medina, our home for the first three days was the Riad Alkantara, lovingly restored by its owner Fettah Seffar who warmly welcomed us with mint tea and almond cookies on the terrace overlooking the pool and lush garden-- the largest in the entire medina.  Our guide in Fez was Mohammed Bouftila, affectionately called Momo, a  boyhood friend of Fettah’s.  Living near each other in the medina, they became friends at their neighborhood bakery where they brought their mothers’ dough each morning to be baked in the communal oven.  The Fez medina is divided into 270 such ‘neighborhoods’, each with its own communal bakery, mosque, school, hammam, and spring-fed fountain.  Fresh ripe vegetables, nuts, oils, cheeses, and lamb poured into their markets from the surrounding fertile Sias valley, awakening their palates at a young age, allowing them to tantalize us throughout our trip.

Both Fettah and Momo brought Fez to life for us by introducing us to many amazing artisans who are still creating the same beautiful leather goods, jewelry, ceramics and rugs as their ancestors hundreds of years earlier.  Fettah, himself an Oxford Ph.D., is an 8^th generation plaster carver.  We visited his workshop deep in one of his palaces (riads) undergoing restoration where he showed us his intricate plaster carving techniques.  Momo took us to visit a weaver who makes fabric for the Royal Family in the traditional way, and to the oldest (9^th century) and largest tannery in North Africa where several people bought gorgeous goat leather jackets.  It is the softest and yet most durable leather.

Bright colors at the tannery

We enjoyed several succulent tagines, including a beef tagine with quince, and a lamb tagine with spring peas and artichokes which Fatima, the cook, taught us to make in our Riad Alkantara cooking class and a superb Berber vegetable couscous.

A visual feast

After the class, Fettah had invited a henna artist to tattoo us in places and designs of our choosing, some selecting floral arm or hand patterns, others the striking Riad logo.

Traditional henna being applied

Sparkles adorned us as the henna dried.  Our gala dinner followed, lit by a thousand candles, as we dined on our own creations, accompanied by surprisingly good Moroccan reds and whites, a welcome new accomplishment by local vintners.  Tomorrow we set off for Marrakech.