Marrakech. June 8

This morning we got up and headed back into the Medina to meet our Intrepid cooking class. Karima, our guide and teacher, met us and it turned out that it was only ourselves doing the class that day. We followed her past the souks and into the small streets of the medina, where we stopped off to get our ingredients. Getting the vegetables and herbs were both pleasant and interesting parts of the process, however watching live chickens be weighed in front of you isn’t totally enjoyable. Once we had everything we needed to make Lemon Chicken Tagine and Moroccan tea, we were led to Karima’s family’s Riad and were shown how to make their amazing mint tea. For our own future reference, and your own if you’re interested, this is how it goes:

- 1x tablespoon of green tea into a teapot
- Swish some boiling water around in the teapot and empty
- Add a generous handful of cleaned mint leaves
- Add sugar (they love it sweet, but you can do whatever)
- Fill with water and simmer on the stove for 5 minutes
- When pouring, pour from up high and empty the first few glasses back into the pot to mix and then it’s ready!

After they prepared our ingredients and set them our of the table, including getting the chicken ready (phew), we were invited to come to a table in the centre of the Riad. Karima took us through the process, but assured us that we would also get a recipe sheet by email for future use.
While waiting for the tagine to cook, we drank more tea up on the roof and looked out over the city, which was great.

Our tagines were amazing, and the accompanying salad we made was nice and fresh too, it all went down a treat.

Karima took us back to the square, and along the way to a silverware shop, as caught up in our love for the tea, we had requested she show us where were can get the Moroccan teapots.  We both bought one under her advice and then parted ways back at the square.

We had a little wander around the square, and then walked back to the hotel where we hung out for the afternoon, avoiding the heat. That night we heading back in again to have another dinner at the night market, finding a stall that Khaled had also suggested. We ate skewers and cous cous, then headed back to the hotel again.

Love A&E