Maroque Newsletter
Welcome to the latest edition of the Maroque newsletter.
What a fabulous summer! Working when it's very hot is a bit sad, and my garden looks more like a Moroccan plain than deepest Suffolk. But I love it! My barbi hasn't been used so much in years, and evenings sipping wine on the patio make me feel I'm on permanent holiday. A lot of Moroccan food has such an affinity with sunny weather, I have had great fun playing with lots of new salads and barbi dishes, I have listed a couple of my latest favourites below.
This time in my brief summary of Moroccan cities, I am looking a Casablanca. Here's looking at you kid.
I have also introduced a new feature in my newsletters which I hope will become a regular, and that is my featured product. I take a single item that is new and tell you a little bit about it. I hope you find it of use.
Casablanca
If your images of Casablanca include Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, the city may disappoint: it is a long way from oriental romanticism. It's a modern city but still a Moroccan city: a great example of modern Morocco.
The centre of Casablanca is fairly impressive, with its big, lively boulevards, high, white, well-kept buildings, it's clean and efficient. The city has an old part called Ancienne Medina (ancient medina). Much of the old town was destroyed by the earthquake of 1755 and rebuilding took place around 1770. The city was rebuilt with tiny streets, full of shops and small squares and mainly smaller housing.
One of the most impressive sites in Casablanca is Hassan II Mosque. This immense mosque was commissioned as a gift to King Hassan II for his 60th birthday in 1989. Inaugurated in 1993, it contains a museum, steam baths, a library, a Koranic school and conference facilities. The largest mosque outside Saudi Arabia, it houses up to 25,000 worshippers. With a 175-metre (575-foot) minaret, it is the tallest religious structure in the world.
Casablanca is also Morocco's biggest and busiest port, and one of the largest on the African continent.
Recipes
What better way to feel you are in Morocco than eating Moroccan food on brightly coloured platters, with candle lit bejewelled lanterns illuminating your warm summer's evening.
Carrot and orange salad
This simple salad is refreshing, and the orange blossom water adds an unusual touch.
Ingredients
500g (1lb) carrots
3 oranges
4 tsp orange blossom water
4 tsp caster sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt
Ground cinnamon
1. Peel the carrots and grate finely (a good job to give a willing helper!).
2. Peel the oranges and cut the flesh into small pieces, catching the juices.
3. Mix the oranges, carrots, orange blossom water and sugar together in a serving bowl, adding plenty of salt.
4. Sprinkle ground cinnamon over the surface and chill well before serving.
Serves 6, as part of a salad selection
Chermoula
Chermoula is the life saver of boring fish. I know we should all eat more fish, and nothing beats fabulously fresh fish, but in practicality I'm often stood at the fresh fish counters in the supermarket thinking "what am I going to do with either salmon or a ubiquitous lump of white fish?"
Chermoula is a highly flavoured Moroccan marinade that is super with fish. There are hundreds of chermoula recipes all different: in every Moroccan cook book you pick up it will contain at least three versions. It is worth trying several and ending up with a hybrid of your own. My version contains saffron, chilli and fresh coriander, and we sell Nomades Chermoula that contains parsley, cumin and paprika.
Chermoula marinated fish can be grilled, barbequed, baked or pan fried, which ever suits the fish of your choice. Pan fried salmon steaks are good, cod fillet cut into chunks and marinated are great barbequed.
Ingredients
2-3 garlic cloves chopped
1-2 tsp ground cumin
Pinch of saffron threads
4 tbsp of olive oil
Juice of a lemon
1 small red chilli, seeded and chopped
1 tsp salt
Small bunch of fresh coriander, finely chopped
1. Place the garlic, cumin, saffron, olive oil, lemon juice, chilli and salt in a mortar and pound with a pestle, or alternatively put all the above in a food processor and wiz until finely chopped. I have a little baby processor which makes this a doddle.
2. Add the fresh coriander and mix in, or give an additional quick wiz to combine.
3. Spread the mixture over the fish of your choice and leave to marinade for at least 15 minutes.
Makes enough marinade for fish for 4
Featured item - Small octagonal Moroccan iron lantern with multicoloured glass (Ref. 20-10-111)
This new little lantern, only 34cm tall, makes a superb table top lamp but it also has a glass base so is ideal for hanging, especially if you are a bit limited on ceiling space.
It is hand crafted in Marrakech using iron, Moroccan and clear glass. Moroccan glass is paler in colour than Royal or Iraqi glass and has rolled patterns, often flowers, in relief on the glass. This makes the glass more resilient than the Royal glass but not as vivid in colour. The iron is cut with a design that will create amazing light patterns on your walls and ceilings. The iron is painted with a varnish to stop it rusting. If you are going to use this lamp with a candle, please remember the handle at the top will get very hot.
Site Update
Maroque has had a face lift! We have had a bit of a revamp on our front page, we have introduced a shortcut menu on the left which will hopefully help you navigate around a bit better and find some of our resource sections a little easier. I hope you like it.
We have some fascinating new items in stock, from a range of smaller lamps ideal for lower ceilings, to some sumptuous silver and camel bone chests and tables that look amazing. They really need to be seen in the flesh to appreciate the work on these. They would easily pass as breath-takingly expensive antiques, but they are new.
I was lucky enough to be Morocco in late June and had great fun choosing new items that should be with me in September. I'll write again when I have them in.
Thank you for your continued support. If you have any comments, ideas, suggestions I would love to hear from you. Please email info@maroque.co.uk
Kind regards
Julie Woodard
Maroque