Learning to Make Tajine

Today’s visit in Marrakech was really inspiring. We visited the Amad (‘Hope’) Center, a nonprofit women’s training center. Women who come from disadvantaged backgrounds or abusive situations are given the opportunity to learn cooking-related job skills and some foreign languages to help them succeed in the tourist industry.

After a 9 month program, the women graduate as chefs or cooks in hotels, riads or restaurants. They have a 90% success rate of placing graduates in good jobs, or setting up their own business. Amad gives women scholarships for living expenses and stipends for their children, if they have them. The center has had 325 graduates so far and supports itself with offering catering, cooking classes (like ours) and selling cookbooks, totes, etc. A foundation called Global Pearls matches their earnings 50-50.

Currently, the center is providing earthquake relief in the form of sandwiches for the villages affected; building wooden shelters to replace the tents people are living in; and packaging and selling the walnuts and almonds harvested by the village farmers now that their access to market is more limited.

Now on to our experience! The chef (a graduate), along with a couple of assistants, instructed us on making 3 kinds of tagines—chicken, lamb and fish. Each had its own combination of spices and accompanying vegetables or fruits. They have a well-tended garden adjacent to their instructional kitchen. The staff were particular about making an attractive presentation as we built our layers of ingredients. Once everything was just so, the lids were placed on the tagines and the whole vessel was set over a charcoal wood fire. Normally , this meal would cook half a day or so, but we shortened that up so we could sit down to lunch and enjoy our efforts. Having eaten several tagines already in our Morocco travels, we felt we’d been taught well—very tasty!

A traditional tea ceremony followed, with green tea, mint, lemongrass and lemon geranium leaves. The tea is poured out high above the glasses (no mugs) to help cool it and oxygenate it, and not filled too full so you can pick it up at the top and not burn your fingers. We were told (as a joke?) that if you don’t want someone to return to your home, you pour their tea glass all the way full!Read more