Little Foodies Head Back to Morocco

We've had a few more Moroccan dishes this week. We've also been talking more about the country, famous places to visit, in particular Marrakech, the Atlas Mountains, the riad's (traditional homes with interior courtyards, gardens). All the beautiful things you can find in the Moroccan markets, among other things, lamps and rugs. We've been trying to show the boys lots of pictures so they can really visualise what it's like. I've also encouraged them to smell the dry spice mixes regularly so that it hits all of their senses.. I have a few little Moroccan style lamps and we've been putting candles in those. Not all of the food has been a big hit but they've tried everything which is great. Little was apparently very proud to tell everyone at school on Monday morning that we'd been learning about Morocco and tasting the food. I couldn't have wished for it to go any better really. We're also keeping a scrapbook of everything to do with our culinary travels. I'm very proud of my Little Foodies.

Some recipes follow. Will post pics of everything tomorrow as off to watch the children Maypole Dancing on the village green.

As promised my mother-in-laws recipe for lamb tagine. I've changed it a bit since it was given to me.
Lamb Tagine (that we ate on our first day of learning about Morocco) Serves at least 4
500-750g diced lamb (depending on how much meat you all like)
1 big onion finely chopped
1 teaspoon grated ginger
2 - 3 cloves or garlic, crushed or chopped
Spices (1/2 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, cumin & turmeric)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tin chickpeas (or you could soak your own, I'm never organised enough to do this)
Handful of dried apricots chopped
400ml stock (lamb, chicken or veg)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon of runny honey (optional - I always add it though)

We don't have a tagine so I cook it in the big Le Creuset pan.
I usually mix the spices together and sprinkle it over the lamb before cooking.
First heat the oil and then gently fry the onion and garlic for 5 minutes.
Add the lamb (coated in the spices) and brown the meat (you may need to do this in batches)
Add tinned tomatoes, honey and stock and cook for one hour on a low heat either in the oven or on hob.
Taste the stock at this point and it may need a little more spice mix. If so add about 1/4 teaspoon each of the cinnamon, cumin and turmeric).
Add the chickpeas, dried apricots and honey, cook for one further hour.

I also love making this with lamb shanks but if I do that I make a paste with the spices and some honey and tomato paste and coat the shanks in it before browning.
Serve with plain cous cous. Follow details on the packet, as everyone has their own way of doing cous cous. I always add olive oil before adding stock.

Zaalouk (Mashed Aubergine & Tomato Salad)
from Claudia Roden's Arabesque (A more fancy baba ganoush, which is easier, with fewer ingredients. Baba ganoush isn't stricly from Morocco which is why I chose to go with the Zaalouk. I'd probably stick with baba ganoush next time.)

I also made up a fish dish. Simply rubbed rose harissa over the fish and baked in a really hot oven for 25 minutes. Served with salad. (The boys didn't have this, they'd long gone to bed).

We've also made sweet mint tea, which I have drunk in Egypt and the Middle East, I guess it's popular in a lot of countries. I'd have loved to serve them in little intricate Moroccan glasses but we don't have any. Small liked this, Little wasn't so sure. I LOVE IT!

Tomorrow is our last day in Morocco I want to make Kefta Bil Hout (fish cakes), Briwat Bil Jban (little pies with goats cheese), maybe a few other small things if we have the time.... We're in discussions as to which country it will be on Sunday. Need to make a decision quick as I'll have to go shopping tomorrow...

Kitchen Travels - Little Foodies Morocco

The boys are really excited about trying different foods and learning about other countries. I chose Morocco to start because we regularly eat tagine type food and I know the boys love it. Isn't that missing the point I hear some of you say? Maybe, but for our first go and to keep them keen I couldn't risk giving them food they might not like and then expect them to have an interest in learning about the country it comes from. So Morocco it was... Remember this is aimed at two fairly small children, so don't expect anything high brow. Also it's me writing, so definitely don't expect anything high brow!! I decided against finding out about children as you type that into google and some pretty unpleasant things come up... We'll just stick with learning about the food and the countries and if anybody has any interesting information or ideas then we'd love to hear them.

Before we'd even finished breakfast the boys had learned that Morocco's official language is Arabic. It's part of Africa but is the only African country not to be part of the African Union. It's just opposite Spain. We also learned some Arabic words (from a great website that had sound). We can now say, hello, goodbye, my name is..., please, thank you, yes and no in Arabic. Actually the website wasn't that great as it had loads of pop up adverts so I wont recommend it.

We made lamb tagine with apricots from an old recipe that my mother-in-law gave me (I'll post it soon). We served this with cous cous and a nice fresh undressed salad. The boys wanted theirs layered, a layer of cous cous, a layer of tagine and a layer of salad.


We also made almond pastries in honey syrup (Birwat Bi Loz) from Claudia Roden's book Arabesque. I've had this book since it came out but the only things I've ever made from it have been the almond pastries. Having read through it a lot yesterday I'm going to try a few more things this week.

As most people with families will agree - it's one big juggling act. So with balls in the air we've been to Morocco and back again as Little has gone off to a birthday party. We'll visit again, either later today but most cerainly during the week. For a start we have a fridge full of ingredients conducive to Moroccan cuisine, including rose harissa which I was addicted to while I was pregnant, both times. Today was really good fun. It's raised all sorts of questions even from Small who when looking at the map of the world asked where England was, for a child under 3 I thought that was quite good... He was missing the point as we were talking about Morocco but at least he was showing an interest... I'm encouraged.