Day #3: A Berber Grandmother Teaches us to Cook Tagine

Day #3: A Berber Grandmother Teaches Us to Cook Tagine

Berger Village

On this sunny and clear but cool day we drive into the High Atlas Mountains, covered in snow. We arrive at a rural Berber village to the mud brick home of a grandmother who is our age. We learn she has had 14 children, but 7 have died. Two of her sons live in this village with their children and her grandchildren. 

Front Door of the Grandmother's House

We start by sitting in her courtyard and are served mint tea, a ubiquitous drink of greeting which they also call Moroccan whiskey. I have noticed that the pouring of tea is an art in itself. The Moroccan teapots have long, curved pouring spouts and tea is poured evenly into tiny glasses from a height. The grandmother seems surprised when we say we don’t want sugar in our tea.

Learning to Cook Tagine

Kitchen working and dining area

 Next we engage in a cooking class to learn how to make the traditional Moroccan tagine dish. John and Steve at one table cut up potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, onions and garlic.  They also open fresh pea pods. 

In a traditional tagine earthenware bowl, food is layered in the following order, onions and tomatoes on the bottom, followed by chicken, then potatoes, carrots and peas. Over the top the spices of local turmeric, ginger, red and black peppers and salt are spread along with olive oil, made from their olive trees. Finally preserved lemon is put on top. 

Tool for grinding grain

While the  men do this cutting we learn how make Moroccan bread with grains, yeast and salt. I believe the grain is durum wheat semolina but I am not sure. 

Tagine dishes on top of coals for slow cooking

Next is the slow cooking phase that includes putting tagine containers over large bricks of hot charcoal, leaving adequate space between the the coals and the tagine pot to avoid food getting too hot too quickly.  These are kept hot by our skilled use of bellows. 

The bread is put on a mud stove that simply consists of twig branches. Part of the kitchen consists of caged chickens and a huge pile of twigs. 

Oven for frying bread

Grandson dances in the light from the small window

While all this food is cooking we walk through the village and watch two potters make the traditional cone-shaped clay tagine containers. Apparently the domed lid traps steam and returns condensed liquid to the pot.  This cooking method seems a bit like the crock pot we used years ago. However, it is practical here because of the limited water supply. Water does not need to be added.

We enjoy this relaxed day in this Berber village which has electricity but no running water that we can discover. Basic living for sure and I cannot imagine how they make a living here. 

Afterwards we all eat together in the garden using our hands instead of utensils in the traditional manner scooping up the food with our bread. Eating around the tagine by hand has a lovely communal feeling. Our guide Hassan and our driver join us. 
They bring precious water for us to wash our hands

Grandchildren 

The Spice of Life
 Later back in Marrakech despite the rain Marie and I venture to the Jewish market where we get an education about Moroccan spices, healing herbs and teas.  Each stall has an amazing blaze of color with heaped bins of spices that are simply gorgeous to look at. I want to take many pictures here but it seems intrusive. The common spices seem to be cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, ginger, paprika, coriander, saffron, fennel, cayenne and sesame seeds. 27 spices are combined for the famous Moroccan spice mixture ras el hanout.  The shop keepers proudly give us samples to smell.

I enjoy learning about these spices immensely and this feels like an important part of the trip and culture. We learn that saffron made from hand picked crocus stigmas is considered to be the world’s most expensive spice, even more expensive than gold. It takes about 70,000 stigmas to yield just a pound of saffron! We also find that many spices are used for beauty products and illness remedies. We are promised that these will make our skin ageless!

Our last day in Marrrakech I hear some singing and happen on a marriage celebration outside the hotel. The women invite us in to dance with them and their children. John is turned away because no men are allowed and they are celebrating in a different place. What a special and joyful experience!