Memories of Morocco

Our recent trip to Morocco was actually the tail end, and culmination, of the month-long celebration of Eric's 50th birthday. I think we did it proud!

It was a our first visit to Morocco (and my first time to Africa). We landed in Marrakech, a city of disorderly chaos, "faux guides" (fake guides willing if not imposing help for money where the "help" is not always so helpful), souks (markets), old Riads, scooters and pollution. Don't ever make a sudden move left or right while walking on the street, or risk creating a multi-scooter collision!

In the hands of a personal travel guide and a Toyota 4X4, we headed south, crossing 2 mountain ranges along the way (the Atlas and a sub-range called the Anti-Atlas). It took two days to get to our destination in the Sahara desert, given our leisurely lunches, breakfasts, tea breaks, and stops for photos or tourist shops. It was on this part of the trip that we bought our six ceramic mini-tagines....which was almost immediately regrettable due to the obvious pampering they would then require....

Anyway, we got to the Sahara where, unbelievably, it was raining. It only rains there 3 days out of each year...and we couldn't believe our bad luck as we drove in it that day with no foreseeable break in the weather. Someone even suggested maybe we should stay in a hotel instead of camping. I wonder who would've suggested that. Then, at the end of the day, almost in a sudden gesture, the clouds broke free, and we saw a patch of blue sky and a ray of sunshine. Immediately the truck came to a halt and we experienced our first sunset in the desert. It even came with its very own rainbow. Suddenly, we felt extremely lucky. Isn't it often the case when something negative turns into something absolutely positive...

We arrived at camp and met the three guides who would be with us the next six nights of our excursion in the northern Sahara desert. Picture in your mind tents & sleeping bags & a roll of toilet paper! Actually, we camped a total of six nights, but at different locations each night...meaning we hiked distances of 9-12 miles, even 18 miles one day, to get from one site to the next. Here's where the dromadaires (camels) come into the picture! All five of them! This could not have been possible without these amazing animals. I've never seen a camel before, up close and personal....maybe at a zoo, but not so close I could look it straight in the eye, and pet it behind its ear and feed it some shrubs or arugula (yes, amazingly, we walked through a green patch of wild arugula plants...which tasted just like arugula, only kicked up into high gear!). Back to the camels - I didn't realize how amazingly beautiful their eyelashes are! Really long. We even had a younger, black camel, who seemed to be in his teen-age years if you know what I mean....sometimes a bit fiesty, not wanting to "do as he was told", and definitely wanting to be on his own! All in all, quite the possee.

Our camels were the one-hump kind (called dromadaire in french, or dromadary in english), as opposed to a two-hump camel (called chameau in french or bactrian in english). I had to look up the english names.....after being asked several times what's the name for a two-hump camel? I'm thinking to myself, isn't "two-hump camel" good enough? And, no, it wasn't quite satisfying enough to the french-speaking crowd. I couldn't exactly google it then & there....it would have to wait. But it certainly reminded me how very precise the french language is and how very precisely it is practiced!

It's pretty obvious by now that I enjoyed being with the camels. Ours were well-groomed even. I heard it from a very good source that sometimes they can be a bit smelly...and luckily ours were not! Did you see how they sit on their legs? Really incredible. I'll get back to that a bit later.

We were navigated through the desert by the expertise of our guides, but our guides did much more than simply navigate our group of four. Mohammid, Said and Zaid also unloaded camels, set up camp, and prepared each meal, got the campfire going, and shared their local music and culture with us. Always with enthusiasm and a genuine smile on their face...even after hiking all day (which left us wanting to recuperate just a little!).

Each day before leaving for our hike, we were fitted with white turbans to protect our faces from the sun. They worked like a charm. Also helped deal with the perpetual "bad hair day" problem. It was inevitable, you know. Bad hair. However, with these magic turbans, no problem! (They also work for unruly whiskers! j.k. !)





Each day we walked with the rhythm of the camels, a rather brisk pace at that, surprisingly. And if the pace got to be too fast or too much, the camels were there to offer a ride. My first time on one was a little frightening, I will admit. Anyone who has ever ridden a camel before knows how jolting it can be to get on or off....To get off a camel, for example, their big, long legs simply seem to collapse suddenly underneath them, front-end first and then back-end. Boom, boom. You feel like you're going to go flying over his head! Then you feel like you're going to be ejected out the back way. It makes for a somewhat rocky descent! All part of the adventure.

We had several memorable moments on this trip and I can't begin to describe them all. I will share this though, our last night at camp in the desert....it ended with a surprise dessert. A birthday cake! It was a huge surprise. The hearing-impaired brother of Said carried it from the nearest town, 1 hour away, by foot. Can you believe it? One hour away by foot. He also brought a few friends along. At first, we thought they were simply performing some sort of berbère (local) song and dance. In almost complete darkness, they approached the campfire in a single file line. The sheepskin drum, empty bidon (plastic container), and hand-clapping were making the rhythm, and loud but happy sounding guttural sounds were making the tribal songs. Then we saw someone carrying something with candles. It turned out to be a sheet cake!! They brought it over to the birthday boy and & birthday girl (Eric's sister also had a birthday recently). Their names were iced on the cake. It was deeply touching. Here's a video, although admittedly, it's not great quality but it's better than nothing, right?



The surprise birthday cake was actually a really great-tasting cake! After a week of local dessert, consisting exclusively of fresh mandarin oranges (at both lunch and dinner), this vanilla sponge cake tasted like heaven!! (as good as the mandarins were...). Who would ever have thought it could be possible to have a delicious western style cake in the desert....certainly not me. It was Eric's cousin, with several of these trips under her belt, who made the suggestion....and it was our new berbères friends who made it happen. Amazing, isn't it?

I'll leave you with a few other pictures of our trip.


Words that come to mind when I think of Morocco:
spirit, good will & natural beauty - mountains, palm trees, desert sand, herds of grazing goats and sheep, tagines, couscous...and so much more. It was a humbling experience, and an enriching one. And a great inspiration all around.

I don't think this trip would suit everyone, but if you're interested, I can share the details. And let me know if you'd like to join us on the next one we take!


p.s our six tagines made it home safe & sound. Couscous, anyone?

Random Food Photos- Best of 2008

These are just a few of my favorite photos (or favorite tastes!) from last year - all from our home kitchen. Doing these things helps me "train" or fine-tune cooking techniques, create new dishes, or allows me to simply work with natural products. Bon appétit!


Filet de sole, feneuil, betterave, pomme de terre "Ratte" à la sauce orange.

Sole, sautéed fennel, beets, fingerling potatoes and orange sauce.








Les Cèpes en saison (environ Novembre).

Porcini mushrooms, in season (around November).








Rôti de boeuf sur un lit de girolles et des épinards, potiron et jus de boeuf.

Filet of beef on a bed of sautéed chanterelle mushrooms and spinach, with baked pumpkin and a light beef sauce.






Pâte de tomate, farci de chèvre et ciboulette.

Tomato pasta ravioli with goat cheese and chive filling.










Tagliatelles aux épinards à la maison.

Home made spinach linguine.









Recette de Yannick Alleno, Le Meurice (3 étoiles): Timbale de langoustines et èpinards, avec coques à la sauce nantua, cappucino de langoustine et truffe noire.

Yannick Alleno recipe (3-star chef of Hotel Meurice): Norwegian lobster in a macaroni & spinach tower, with cockle in two lobster sauces and black truffle.






Truffes de chocolate

Chocolate truffles












Croquettes de pomme de terre.

Potato Croquettes (elegant "tator tots" if you will - mashed potatoes rolled in a cylinder shape & fried in olive oil).











Macarons aux vanilles et ganache chocolat.

French almond cookie (vanilla-flavored) with chocolate filling. Not to be confused with the American version called macaroons (based on dried coconut)!

Happy 2009

Thought I might share some New Year's Eve cheer a few days early....I think this picture epitomizes the grandiose feeling that each New Year's Eve brings, or at least, evokes: elegance, hope, celebration of what has been and what will be, good company and good cheer. No matter what the state of the economy today, I'm holding on to this ideal....

Blinis with smoked salmon, crème fraîche & caviar


Wishing everyone a happy and healthy, (and let's hope prosperous) 2009!
Happy New Year to you!

I'll be back in touch after we return from our "desert adventure". :)

Christmas in Paris, 2008 - Part 3

Here's what I saw last night on my walk home to our apartment: the blue Christmas tree in front of Notre Dame de Paris. And I almost had la place (the plaza) to myself. Hardly anyone was there. I love moments like that.


Then I passed by our little boulangerie-patisserie. I'm so glad to have this shop right around the corner...and in fact, it's a respected name here in Paris: Gosselin. Nice decorations outside; even nicer decorations inside!! It's hard not to stop and look in the window. The buche de noël are especially tempting...but I said to myself that I wanted to make one at home again this year. We'll see if there is enough time, or not, but it's always nice to have a back-up plan, isn't it?

Finally, on a more personal not...at home - here's our little Christmas tree (and us). The tree is cute, isn't it? Same size as last year...I'm starting to like the scaled down Christmas. By the time I finished decorating it, I was just getting tired of doing the job...which made it perfect timing. Any longer & I would've needed a break....any shorter & I would've felt like I wanted to do more.

Last year it was Eric who surprised me with a tree, all decorated. Mom and I were making the buche de noël in the kitchen without a clue that anything was happening out in the living room. What a surprise we had when, into the room we went, there we found a cute little tree, all lit up and decorated! This year, it was my turn. While Eric was off playing (I mean working) in the French Alps for the weekend, I decided to surprise him. He liked it. And what really makes our little tree complete are those little packages under the tree....sent all the way from Appleton, Wisconsin with hugs & kisses from mom & dad (hidden behind us).

Bonnes fêtes de fin d'anée - Happy Holidays to everyone.

Christmas in Paris, 2008 - Part 2

I think the Champs Elysée is always stylish when dressed in its holiday lights. This year, I think for the first time ever, there is a big Christmas market starting at Place Concorde and going along the Champs Elysée. In Chicago, a similar idea (but on a much smaller scale) is called the "Christkindlmarket". In Strasburg or in Alsace, the real Christmas markets can be found. Oops, that's a faux pas if ever there was one....I guess we need to actually go to Germany to see the real "real markets". (Right, Ulla?!)

Seeing as we have a thing for these markets, we decided to check out what the Champs Elysee has to offer. We heard that each country of the EU would be represented and would be offering specialty Christmas items from its region. Great idea we thought. We started our excursion at Place du Concorde & walked toward the Arche de Triomphe. The beautiful lights sprawling the Champs Elysée charmed us. I especially liked the spheres of lights sitting in a shallow pool of water, showing a spectacularly nice reflection. At Rue Montaigne, we were drawn in by the beautiful red lights lining the street. All of this was great. I do love lights. Here are some pictures - doesn't it look nice?

And it is a very nice idea, but unfortunately, I think the market itself somehow lacked a spirit. The spirit of what we thought it was going to be. Maybe the taxi driver got the story wrong about it having regional products from the EU countries. Maybe the time of day had something to do with our disappointment. First, avoid going on a late Sunday afternoon, like we did. It was absolutely packed with people, which obviously took the fun away from browsing each booth. Second, avoid (if possible), going there after it rains because the dirt path that boarders the relatively narrow paved sidewalk turns into a puddle of mud. This is especially a problem if you happen to accidently step in a big puddle (like someone I know!) trying to get a look at the rather maigre (thin) Santa Claus....! I wish we had seen a lot of really cool hand crafted items, but we only saw a few. And imagine our surprise when we saw a booth hosted by GDFSuez....not selling a tangible thing (or was it energy they were trying to sell? kidding)...well, it was hard to find the symbolism of Christmas anyway. We ended up seeing a somewhat limited view of the market given the dynamics at play that day, and when we got to the metro Franklin Roosevelt, we called it quits. Too many people; not enough energy to fight the crowd, and really only a limited interest in what merchandise we could see, unfortunately. Oh, well, it was worth checking out anyway. For the lights alone.

p.s. I heard that the ferris wheel at Place Concorde is really great -- each cabin is enclosed in glass and they're heated....doesn't that sound like fun?!

Christmas in Paris, 2008 - Part 1

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....everywhere I go....

Christmas in Paris is very nice. Definitely quiet, but nice nonetheless - most Parisians leave the city to spend time with their families en province (anything outside of Paris). So, that leaves lots of tranquility for those of us staying behind....definitely a good thing if you're looking for a stress-free holiday, and who isn't?

Over the past three years, I've seen more & more lights and decorations hit the streets. However, if you ask me, it's still not over-the-top, even if hints of commercialism seem to be creeping in. I started to see decorations before Thanksgiving, which gave me a chuckle since without the Thanksgiving holiday to officially happen first, it's kind of OK to see it start before the last Thursday of November, if you know what I mean!

Here are a few photos from yesterday - to share some holiday spirit from Paris.



This is the big Christmas tree inside the Galeries Lafayette department store: still beautiful as ever. I never seem to grow tired of looking at all of its regal splendor.

Below are some pictures of the decorated windows at Galeries Lafayette. Very adorable, in a festive sort of way. But, you won't find traditional holiday fare here - not one bit. No reindeer. No Santa. No snow or snowman. No green; no red. No North Pole...no wrapped gifts under a tree....well, you get the picture (abundantly). But, hey, we are in Paris after all, so who says it has to have the symbolism that I'm accustomed to back in the states??!!



Back to fantasy land Paris style....it's nice. I'm not sure I understand what some of the window stories are saying as far a Christmas goes...I mean, there are teddy bears dressed in surgical gowns flying through the air...and, pink flamingos standing on their heads on a patch of strawberries...(see below)?

It's all pure fantasy, simply put, and if there's a story interwoven between each window...well, I admit it went over my head. That's no matter - these elaborate productions are to be appreciated for what they are - full of motion, magic, and sweet dreams. They made me smile, even if I felt the colors were gearing me up for Valentine's day instead of Christmas. But I digress....

I'm glad I saw the charming windows at Galeries Lafayette this year...because Christmas without seeing their fantasy land is just not complete! (This must come from the many years of seeing the Marshall Field's State Street windows in Chicago....now called Macy's...but I'll always remember it as Marshall Field's). If you go to Galeries Lafayette or Printemps, however, be warned that the crowds can be large...













I hadn't expected to write this entire post on Galeries Lafayette...so more later on other photos of Christmas in Paris, 2008. A bienôt! (See you soon!)

Pumpkin Pie De-Briefing

At Ecole Ferrandi, we had debriefings after absolutely everything we did....so here's my de-briefing for pumpkin pie (that sounds better than post-mortem, doesn't it?). Or, we could consider it as pre-planning for Thanksgiving 2009, depending on how you want to look at it!

Can you believe that I had never made a pumpkin pie before in my life? Never! Am I American or not?!! Kidding. It's just that Mom was the one who always baked the best pumpkin & pecan pies ever. I always simply enjoyed them, along with the rest of my family. But this year I was on the line for making three of them. And 2 pecan pies (I never made those before, either.)

In order to make a pumpkin pie, you obviously need the key ingredient: pumpkin. Everyone always uses the canned stuff....Libby's 100% pure, right? Right. Normally.

But what do you do when you need to make 3 pumpkin pies, and have only enough cans of Libby to make 1? And you live in Paris, which means you can't just jump in your car & run over to the nearest Jewel food store to buy the other two cans. Your choices here are: (1) take a metro (subway) to The Thanksgiving Store in the Marais district (I kid you not, this is the real name of the store), and pay a fortune for the stuff, or (2) go to the outdoor market just steps from your apt & buy a fresh pumpkin & make it yourself.

I guess by the way I worded those two options, and the photos, it's pretty obvious which path I took (#2). Plus, if I can avoid the perpetually jam-packed metro line #1, I will. In a heart beat. And, wouldn't it be interesting to see what would happen to go grass roots on making a pumpkin pie? Here it is.

Make Pumpkin Purée as a replacement for Libby's - As easy as 1-2-3
1. Scrape seeds & strings from pumpkin & bake uncovered at 180°C until done, ~ 1 hour- 1.5 hours. Add a little water to bottom of pan, if you like, to prevent burning.

2. Scrape off the cooked pumpkin pulp from the rind & put pulp into food processor. Pulse until fine.

3. Drain overnight in refrigerator. I used a fine meshed chinois (strainer). If your strainer is not fine mesh, then I'd line it with a cheese cloth before adding the pumpkin. It is not necessary to actually pass the pulp through the strainer (passer au chinois in french) if the pumpkin texture is nice & smooth. I didn't do it, I'm glad to say!

Comparison: fresh pumpkin purée vs canned Libbys

Taste: the canned tasted like tin....there was no pumpkin taste. The fresh tasted like, well, pumpkin!

Texture: both were smooth; free of "strings"; no difference.

Color: the canned one was dull brown-ish; the fresh one was vibrant orange.

Substitution: a 1:1 (by weight) works well.



Mom's Pumpkin Pie Recipe - with fresh pumpkin

Pie dough for 1 pie
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp mace (optional)
15 oz. pumpkin purée
12 oz evaporated milk or ~8 oz crème épaisse (thick cream, as a substitute for 12 oz evaporated milk, another ingredient not readily available here).

1) Wisk eggs. Blanchir les oeufs ==> add sugar & wisk till it lightens in color slightly. Add all spices. Add pumpkin & mix. Add half the cream & continue adding more until it's a good consistency & not too heavy on the cream. Add more spices at the end if you need it. I found that I needed to add more because the taste of pumpkin was too prominant; I kept adding a 1/4 tsp here & 1/4 tsp there until it tasted good to me. In the end, I practically doubled the amount of spice.

2) Bake at 425°F (220°C) for 10 minutes & then reduce temperature to 350°F (175°C) & continue baking 40-50 minutes or until "clean knife test" says it's done. Be careful to watch your crust to assure it doesn't get too dark. If it does, cover with tin foil & it should be fine.

My Conclusions:

• There is no comparison between fresh pumpkin purée and canned 100% pure pumpkin. The fresh pumpkin just naturally tastes better.
• However, when it's baked in the pie, the difference between fresh pumpkin & canned pumpkin becomes less obvious, because of the spices, eggs, & cream.
• Therefore, I would use canned pumpkin if it were conveniently and cheaply available. Since that's not the case in Paris, I will use fresh pumpkin without hesitation & without fear that it'll turn out a strange pumpkin pie (these were my worries, oddly enough!!).
• When using fresh pumpkin, I'll always drain it overnight to remove the excess water because otherwise, it might affect the texture of the pie. AND, I'll add more spices (up to two times the quantity) to get the right balance between pumpkin & pumpkin pie spice.
• Substituting crème épaisse (ie, a thick cream, almost like a sour cream in consistency) for evaporated milk works perfectly fine but it's not a 1:1 substitution. My cream was extremely fresh and thick, so I stopped adding cream at about 1 cup (225g), or before it started to become too creamy-tasting.
• Making pumpkin pies in France does not have to be intimidating, even if it's for 25 people where the (self-imposed) stakes are high to make a perfect American pie! This recipe, with the substitutions, can be trusted and therefore, next time....no worries! You can even make the batter days in advance & then pour it into the prepared pie dough & bake it off the day before - this will make the holiday planning just a little easier, I think.
• American style pumpkin pie (meaning nice & thick) is still one of my favorites....and having a left-over piece of pie the next morning for breakfast with a nice cappuccino is very....yummmm!