Ever hear what a camel sounds like?

Check out that cud-chewing!

Calls to Prayer

Five times a day, we hear the call to prayer (including every morning at sunrise). Depending on the person, it can sound beautiful. One of our favorite times was standing on a rooftop, hearing the prayers echoing between 8 different minarets in the medina.

Enjoy the video. The first calls are at the biggest mosque in Morocco. The second are as we walked through the medina in Marrakech.

What, you no like drive inside?

Had to share some friends' experience. The same weekend we were in Marrakech, Jim and LuAnn (who teach with us at the school) were also there. To get to their riad (accommodations) in the medina (old city), they had to drive their rental car through!

In the words of Jim:
"You No Like Drive Inside? These were the loaded words posed by a scooter driver that was apparently challenging Jim's driving prowess and American know-how.For reasons of personal and national pride, Jim responded by a hell yes, "I drive inside". We actually made it to our destination without any real crisis, just some anxiety and a lot of nervous laughter. Moroccan life is quite an experience - uplifting and sometimes over the top, but we are loving it."



Enjoy a sample of Morocco. :)

Chicken Bastela

I spent New Year's day with Fatima, preparing the traditional Moroccan Chicken Bastela. (MORE traditional would be Pigeon Bastela, which I have eaten.) This dish is sweet and savory, and gave me newfound appreciation for the work Moroccan women put into their cuisine! (In America, it would be much easier to prepare because of the ingredients we have in the grocery stores). I couldn't resist writing this recipe in the "Moroccan" style to paint a picture of the amount of work it takes, and to share a little of Moroccan life with you. Fatima and I started by going to the market at about 9:00 am. We finished the Bastela four hours later...

Two things surprised me the most. First, we purchased our filo dough (feuille pour pastilla) from a man making each layer by hand in the market. We stood and waited while he made each fine layer, and payed a tiny amount of money for the whole thing. I was also amazed by how we made the almonds. I'm used to purchasing the almonds as I like and dumping them in the recipe. Not so... as you'll read.

I hope you enjoy reading the recipe as I do, and I do hope you try to prepare this dish. It's delightful, and shouldn't take you as long as it took us.



Chicken or Pigeon Bastela (or Pastilla)
As taught by Fatima, January 1, 2010

Ingredients
4 onions, minced or grated
1 small chicken (2 kilos) or a pigeon
1 bunch parsley, minced
2 or more cups of almonds (blanched, if possible)
2 cups yellow raisins
3 eggs
1/3 kilo feuille or filo dough
2 generous pinches of saffron
3 T cinnamon (or to taste)
2/3 cup sugar (or to taste)
salt
½ cup butter
Powdered sugar and cinnamon for garnish



Moroccan Process
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C (392 degrees F)

Visit the market, purchasing a live chicken to be killed and plucked. While the chicken is getting plucked, visit the feuille (filo) man and wait while he makes 11 thin layers of the stuff by hand. Pay only 10 dirhams for the feuille.

Cut the chicken into six pieces, soak in salt to clean. Rinse, soak again.
Add chicken, ½ onion (not sliced), and water in a saucepan. Boil until chicken is fully cooked.

In the meantime, wash and boil the almonds for a few minutes. Rinse, drain, and remove the brown skins from each almond.

Mince the rest of the onions.

Drain chicken, reserving the broth. Simmer the broth, some water, ½ tsp salt, and all of the minced onions. Keep covered.

Pull the meat of the chicken bones. Throw away the ½ onion it was boiled with.

Sort through the raisins, removing hard bits. Drain and scrub the raisins with water.

Fry the almonds in hot oil, stirring frequently until browned. Move the almonds to a plate to cool and drip (save the oil in the pan for later).

Put the almonds between two flexible cutting boards (or two towels) and pound with a hammer until crushed.



When the onions are very tender, add chicken and turn the heat up to medium. Keep uncovered from now on so the excess water evaporates. This mixture should be dry by the end.

Soak saffron in a little hot water. Once the water is saturated with color, add the water to chicken. Soak same saffron in more hot water, and repeat.



Add raisins, leftover frying oil (from almonds), cinnamon, sugar, crushed almonds, and minced parsley to chicken. Keep the chicken mixture at low to medium heat. By this time the mixture should be dry.

Wash the eggs. Scramble the eggs in a bowl and stir into the chicken mixture. Cover for 1 minute and stir some more. Bring to medium heat.

Melt butter (in Arabic: zubdah) and pour onto cookie sheet, spreading all over.

Put a layer of feuille overlapping each edge of the cookie sheet (the layers should overlap in the center). Layer three pieces of feuille in the center, with butter in between.


Add the chicken mixture to the top of the feuille and spread in a large circle almost to the edge of the cookie sheets (there should be plenty of feuille over the sides).
Fold each side over the chicken, adding butter to each fold. Add one more feuille over the top, tucking underneath the roll. Spread remaining butter on the top.







Cook for about 30 minutes, or until browned and fragrant.


Garnish with cinnamon and powdered sugar.


American Version
Buy deboned chicken breasts and drumsticks
Buy pre-made filo dough
Buy blanched and diced almonds (might still need to fry for flavor)
Buy clean raisins, eggs, and almonds that don’t need washing

-Karissa

Marrakech

Marrakech is known as THE place to visit in Morocco. All the action centers around Jemaa el-Fna, a historical square in Morocco. In the evening, we found open-air restaurants, musicians, and "carnival" games. During the day, we watched snake charmers, acrobats, and henna women. We actually found the square to be quite overwhelming- rather than casually taking in the sights we had to keep saying "la" (no) to people wanting to ask for money for each glance we took. (Vickie got henna-ed before she could even say no, and then I had to negotiate majorly so the bill wasn't insane.) Before it became such a sight (until the 19th century), Jemaa el-Fna was a place for public executions. I think I'll take pushy henna ladies over that...

Henna Hands

Open-air restaurant in Jemaa el-Fna. Stall after stall of this, men using American catch-phrases (one man quoted Obama's acceptance speech!) to get us to come and eat.


Wandering around the old part of Marrakech, the medina around Jemaa el-Fna, takes you past many wonderful sights. We walked through the souks, which are regions of the medina that sell specific goods. (I want to return to see the metalwork, basket, and dyers' souks.) As you walk through the medina, shopkeepers invite you to look at their goods and offer "democratic price," like for "family." Tom, walking with three women, received many comments from men saying he was lucky; and was twice offered camels in exchange for one (or all) of us. 6,000 camels for three women.

Tom and two of his women in the medina

A generous portion of saffron, worth more than its weight of gold but found in most Moroccan dishes

A typical spice shop in the Rahba Kedima "Old Square"

Spices backlit by colorful lamps

Selling carpets in the Old Square (in the medina off from Jemaa el-Fna)

A wander through the medina includes places of playful light

at center: Darbukka drum, made of clay body and fishskin head. above: Berber "guitars" with goatskin and wooden bodies.

This shopkeeper taught me to play a Berber square drum (they are decorated with henna). Harder than it looks!

Tom grooves on a Berber guitar

Christmas on a Camel

This year I had a dilemma to solve: how does one spend Christmas in Morocco? We stumbled upon a lovely solution while in Essaouira with our friends Vickie and Krista. In Essaouira we had a little tiny speck of a view of what things might have been like for Jesus... camels in the sand, donkeys around us in the city, people in turbans and flowy dresses, and open markets... Christmas and Camels. Remembering in a different way.

Vickie's camel, two-toe, wasn't enjoying the walk so much and kept sitting down and grunting. If you haven't been on a camel when it's sitting or standing, it's quite the surprising experience... every time. Traveling with these creatures over miles and miles would certainly be a challenging way to travel.


An Essaouira window wishing us the best. (courtesy of Krista)
Our camel beach (courtesy of Krista)
From Front: Vickie on Two-toe, Krista on Billain, Tom on Cappucino, and Karissa on Mustafa

Making Christmas Bright

As an expat at Christmastime for the first time, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it takes to feel fully present in the holiday. Warm, rainy weather and prevalence of a Muslim culture certainly contribute to my struggle to believe that Christmas is this week.

Some things I miss that have come to define signs of the holiday are: advent, Christmas music, snow, Christmas lights on homes, church, singing with my family, traveling to see loved ones, and of course, being surrounded by family. Smaller things, like my Mom’s Christmas cookies, hot cider, or going Christmas tree shopping the cold day after Thanksgiving seem to be a bit more important than I thought they were. I do not miss the commercial bombardment of the holiday, nor do I miss the horrible renditions of holiday songs playing everywhere I go.

I realize that a big part of what makes Christmas what it is for me is the traditions. Some of these traditions are from the Midwest, where I grew up. Others are from my family or from Tom’s family. This year is our first year together apart from those influences, and Tom and I have the challenge of choosing our traditions and creating our own traditions together. 

We have therefore surrounded ourselves with people in festive circumstances: school sing-alongs, Christmas parties, and baking Christmas cookies. Despite the crazy cost of Christmas decorations in Casablanca, we have decorated three of our plants like Christmas trees. We lovingly packed boxes of Moroccan delights for our family. Christmas day will find us along the ocean, wearing llama sweaters to block from the wind and celebrating with our colleagues (Jim and LuAnn), their children, and our friends Vickie and Krista from the U.S.

Moroccan Camel Ornament with Austrian Stars

Christmas ball on our tropical plant

Wishing you joy as you celebrate Christmas in your own way. Wishing you comfort as you miss those who cannot be part of your Christmas.

Peace,

Karissa