My Moroccan Family Eats Fajitas

As a pitiful attempt to say thank you for all of the food that's been prepared for me, I made one of my favorite dishes for my Moroccan family: fajitas!!! In the great tradition of blogging cooking shows, I thought I would share the experience with you.

This culinary exercise was an adventure in substitutions. I wanted to make homemade tortillas to go along with the fajitas (Steve and I are sort of famous for our homemade tortillas), but I couldn't find shortening anywhere. Or lard. Or anybody who knew what either of those things were... So, I had to use butter.

(You will be happy to know that I even bought this butter all by myself with my mad Arabic skills. "Nuss kilo zebda." That means, "Half kilo butter.")

I mixed the butter with flour, salt, and baking powder (trying to describe baking powder in the grocery store was another adventure...).

Brahim provided this picture (and most of the other ones). This shot is to prove that I, in fact, was the one preparing the food.

Note to readers interested in making tortillas: using butter is slightly more difficult than using shortening. The shortening is softer and easier to mix with the other ingredients (I even left the butter out overnight, to no avail).

While the tortilla dough sat (they taste better if the dough is allowed to rest for a while), I chopped yellow peppers...

and red peppers...

and green ones.

I did the onions last because they make me cry.

I peeled the outer layers of the onions off with my hands. Brahim thought that was hilarious. I'm not sure why. He was really intent on taking a picture of it. (It's kind of relaxing to have somebody else take pictures of you cooking. Usually I have to stop cooking, wipe my hands, take a shot, set the camera somewhere safe, and resume cooking. I wonder if my budget would allow for a full time cooking photographer...)

Fresh garlic!!!!! Usually I have to use the stuff out of a jar. This time I got to mince it myself.

Sara helped me shape the tortillas.

That was really nice, especially since there was no tortilla press or rolling pin, and I had to press all the tortillas by hand...

We used some of the dough to make this adorable crocodile, complete with scales down his back. We're awesome.

Another picture demonstrating the difficulty of making tortillas by hand. (Hey Steve! I missed your mad skills with the tortillas press!)

We cooked the tortillas on a skillet on the gas stove. They turned out pretty well.

We covered the tortillas to keep them warm and then prepared to sautee the vegetables. The only oil we could find was olive oil, and I wasn't quite sure that was the flavor I wanted. So, we used butter.

Onions first so they get nice and tender.

Then we added the peppers and let them steam while we cooked the chicken. I was lucky enough to find a bottle of "Mexican Seasoning" at a supermarket in Marrakesh. I'm not exactly sure what was in it, but it was sufficiently fajita-ish.

We let the chicken steam to finish, and we added cilantro to the vegetables.

The final dish looked like this. The serving platter is typically used for couscous, but I took a few cultural culinary liberties...

I showed the family how to assemble the fajitas Alston style. (Steve's family spreads the sour cream on the tortilla first before adding the rest of the filling/topping.)

Note to readers: I couldn't find sour cream, so we used plain yogurt mixed with salt. I think I liked it better than sour cream.

The set up. Loubna is pretending that she doesn't notice I am taking a picture.

This is kind of a lame picture, but I wanted to show the homemade salso I made. It's in the blue tupperware tub on the left. I used canned corn, fresh tomatoes, fresh onions, cilantro, and lemon juice. Ordinarily I would have used lime juice and added black beans, but...I couldn't find them. It was still yummy.

This is Sara assembling her fajita. In addition to the "sour cream" and salsa, we also had cheese. It wasn't cheddar cheese. It was an orange hardish cheese. In fact, it was the only orange hardish cheese in the Marrakesh supermarket.

The verdict: two thumbs up from EVERY SINGLE family member, even though Brahim preferred to eat the filling with Moroccan bread instead of the tortillas. :) Wahoo!!!

Loubna in Marrakech

Brahim's classes are over by 11:00am on Saturdays, and we don't teach on Sundays. So, we generally leave Tahnaoute on Saturday afternoon and spend some time in Marrakech for the weekend.

On our most recent trip, Loubna came with us! Highlights:


-Loubna helping me find and select a skirt for one of my sisters (Hey Sena! I think you're going to like it!)

-Walking down the streets of Marrakech desperately looking for a store that sells ice cream (apparently it's winter or something).

-Going to a flea market to buy shoes for Loubna. Digging through piles of random shoes in hopes of finding something suitable.

-Wandering around a gigantic grocery store looking for ingredients for me to make fajitas for the family. (How do you explain shortening to somebody who doesn't have any idea what it is?)

-Sleeping in the same room and talking as we fell asleep. Neither of us woke up until 10:00 am the next morning. Teasing Loubna because she usually wakes up much earlier, and hearing her say, "Oh no! I don't want to be a lazy girl!" (That was kind of a jab at me. I typically get up later than the rest of the family. In my defense, when I don't eat dinner until after 10:00 pm, it throws my whole biological clock off.)

-Looking for an Internet cafe so that we could check our e-mail, watch YouTube videos, etc. Every cafe we came to was either closed or full. It was devastating. We finally found one tucked away several blocks from the house.

It's nice to have sisters, even in Morocco.

Souq- Visit II

I went to the souq again. This time I went with Zourikha, Brahim's wife. I was able to observe souq life from the perspective of a woman.

On my initial visit, I reported that there were more women than men at the souq. Turns out, that's only true when you go to the souq around noon. That's when the main meal of the day is served, so most of the women are at home preparing it. My second visit to the souq happened at about 4:00 pm. There were loads of women shopping then.

This is Zourikha picking out mint-like herbs for tea. They all have different nuances of flavor. I am not quite adept at picking them out. I can tell when my herbal tea tastes different, but I can't tell why.

Potatoes. They are generally used in tajines for lunch or dinner.

Carrots. Zourikha was a lot more selective than Brahim was when he did the shopping. Every woman likes carrots of a certain size and shape. Some prefer big ones. Zouriha seems to prefer skinny ones.

These are turnips. They serve the same culinary function as potatoes.

Here's another view of Zourikha choosing her produce. She was insanely embarassed that I was taking pictures of her. I think she only looked at me once the entire time.

All of the produce was weighed with this scale. Zourikha would tell the produce man how much (weight-wise) she wanted. If what she selected ended up weighing more, the produce man tossed a few out until it was the right weight.

I don't know why seeing the cauliflower in a bowl like this struck me as funny, but it did. It still does. I'm chuckling even as I type this.

These are Moroccan green peppers. They taste much like the green bell peppers I buy in America (I can even buy them in Shishmaref sometimes!!!). The only difference is that they're shaped differently. They're skinny and pointy.

Oranges. I love oranges (just ask my mom. She has to buy crates of them at Costco when I come to visit). Moroccan oranges are little and very sweet. We have them as dessert after every lunch and some dinners.

This is a truck filled with wooden crates. I was almost ran over by the men stacking the crates onto the truck. It was like they didn't even see me.

This picture is to illustrate a story. As Zourikha purchased her produce, she would hand it to Loubna and me. We would stash it in the large wheeled back brought especially for that purpose. Toward the end of our shopping trip, the large bag got kind of full. So Loubna, being the innovative girl that she is, tied the last bag onto the handle of the wheeled bag.

When we got ready to go home, Zourikha noticed the knotted bag. She was immediately embarassed and NOT going to walk home with a plastic bag hanging off of the cart/bag combination. She and Loubna "discussed" it for a while (I couldn't understand the conversation because it was in Arabic, but I imagine it went something like this:

"Mom, seriously, it's not a big deal."

"Please take it off."

"Why? Just leave it. Nobody's going to care."

"I'm not going to walk home with that bag hanging off."

"It's fine."


The conversation ended with Loubna trying to untie the bag. She was unsuccessful, so Zourikha tore the bag off the handle. The remnants of the knots are probably still there. :)

Globalization Is...

An old man wearing a jellaba and Nike tennis shoes.

Sunsilk buckets at the tiny hammam in Tahanoute.

Your Moroccan little sisters owning I-pods, and your little brother loving Mario.

Watching your Fulbright partner's brother chat with people in Florida and use the abbreviations "gtg" and "cu."

Watching Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, and Rachael Ray for the first time ever...IN MOROCCO.

Watching the Late Show with David Letterman almost every night.

Watching Al Jazeera for news. In English.

A Coca-Cola Plant in the middle of Marrakech.

Sidi Kaouki

Just a short drive from Essaouira is Sidi Kaouki. It is a beautiful. If you ever make it to the Atlantic Coast of Morocco, it's definitely worth a drive. One thing that contributed to its perfectness was that there were very few people there.

(Almost) just me, the waves, and the beautiful scenery. I took off my shoes, rolled up my jeans, and waded in the water for a while. It was very tranquil.

There were also a handful of surfers.

I'd never seen real life surfers before.

It was kind of fun.

I also got to see surfers wipe out.

Which was also kind of fun.

I know most of these surf pictures look the same, but I liked them all, so you, my captive audience, were subject to them. I love the waves. I love the sky. I mostly love that I wasn't the one swimming in the VERY COLD water.

This was my favorite surfing picture of the day. I don't know. Something about the color of the water and the sky and the waves. Ahhhhhh...

The Docks of Essaouira

A trip to Essaouira isn't complete without a visit to the docks.

It's a fairly typical maritime setting. There were lots of boats.

Some boats were small.

Some boats were big. (Uh oh, this post is starting to sound like a poorly written children's book...)

There were TONS of seagulls. I'm serious. Think pigeons at St. Mark's in Venice.

The seagulls hang around hoping for a fishy snack.

There were piles of fishing nets.

And one gentleman stretching his net out.

See how long it is?

Some nets were being used to bring up fish. These fishermen are helping, uh, do something with the net.

Some of the fish were being sold just feet from the water.

Here are some of the eels/snakes/whatevers.

More fish sellers.

This woman was scaling fish. (I have a confession to make: I pretended to take a picture of the boats in the distance before re-aiming my camera at the last second. I feel terrible. But not terrible enough to not post the picture.)

I was a couple of seconds too late with this picture, but it was hilarious. The woman in the far left asked the man in the middle to move her sheet of fish for her. So he did. (Okay, maybe hilarious was an overstatement, but it still made me laugh. Something about this guy bending over and dragging a cloth of fish around...)

Essaouira also has a sea wall. Sea walls are of particular interest to me because one protects my home in Shishmaref. (Hey Shishmaref kids! Do you think we need a sea wall like this?)

Sea gulls like sea walls too.

Like almost everywhere else in Essaouira, the dock had awesome views.

Ahhhhhhhh...