Talaa Kbira
The produce in the Fès medina, particularly behind Bab Boujloud, in R’Cif and in the Zqaq Rommane neighbourhood comes into its own in the summer. I wander through the medina, quite literally, day dreaming of all the things I could make with it. Of course, specific ingredients like fish sauce say, or coconut milk, occasionally do thwart me.
The thing I love most about cooking in the medina though is that you are forced to keep it simple: to find the finest beans, or beetroot, or tomatoes that you can, and make the best of them. Has anyone tried Clock’s harira lately? Served with a big pile of roughly chopped herbs – coriander, flat leaf parsley and sometimes mint and a wedge of lemon – it calls to mind the sort of fresh and aromatic, taste-bud tickling soups of South East Asia. Or the replacement to the chicken satay? A deconstruction of a Senegalese peanut stew that fits the Clock like a glove.
This week however, I had in my suitcase a copy of Elizabeth David’s little known ‘Is there a Nutmeg in the House’, and found myself going back in time with Liz as she cut around Egypt, France and Italy in the 1950s and 60s, delighting the English palette back home with her colourful market descriptions and tantalising, though often very simple recipes.
I think she would have loved the Fez medina and all that it offered, and so, somewhat humbly, this week I offer my version of the kind of recipes I like to think that Elizabeth would have come up with if she’d ever lived here.
On my way home this evening I picked up four, fresh eggs in r’cif. I stopped at the Place Seffarine where you may find a little old man, right in front of the medersa. He is always there, and I bought coriander and ddek lemons (small, thin skinned and exceptionally sweet lemons) from him. On my way home, I stopped at the Zqaq Rommane market, and bought small, red-skinned potatoes and plump, green chillies that looked like jalapeños. If you keep the seeds in, they provide a reasonable amount of heat.
Moroccan Tortilla (serves 4 as part of brunch, 2 as supper)
- 8 small potatoes, scraped, boiled to tender and sliced
- 2 whole green chillies, sliced
- 4 eggs lightly whisked
- Small bunch fresh coriander, washed and roughly chopped
- Salt, pepper and cumin
Add the cooked potatoes to a frying pan with a little olive oil and the chillies. Season with salt, pepper and cumin, and add the coriander. Pour the eggs over the top and cook gently over a medium head. When it is all set, prize the eggs away from the edge of the pan with a spatula, loosen the bottom and place a plate on the top of the pan. Flip it. Don’t worry if doesn’t all come free of the pan. Scrape the messy bits back into your tortilla on the plate, flatten with the spatula and slide back into the pan. Cook a couple minutes more to brown, then flip back onto the plate in exactly the same way. As you get more practised at this it will work better and better. The taste I’m happy to say is pretty good no matter what the tortilla itself looks like. Other good additions include thinly sliced courgettes and/or tomatoes, spinach and/or any other green, leafy vegetable, broad beans and/or peas and mint.
For parties, increase the ingredients as necessary. Make the tortilla then transfer to a well-greased terracotta dish (something like a tagine base, but make sure it is designed to take heat and not decorative). Take it to the ferran, and bake it whole for 10-15 minutes (you need to stick around and take a look now and then, the temperature of the fire and the freshness of the eggs make a difference in terms of how quickly it will cook). Serve straight from the pan in wedges. No flipping required.
Tip: this tortilla is best served with a generous dollop of fresh tomato chutney (the next recipe of the week). Happy cooking.
Yummmmm… again Thanks