La Maison Arabe Cooking Workshop

While it was Thanksgiving day back in New York, we prepared to have our most memorable non-traditional Thanksgiving in Marrakech. Wanting to immerse ourselves in the culinary traditions of Morocco, my wife arranged for the three of us to attend a cooking workshop at La Maison Arabe. This was an incredible experience that I would highly recommend. The workshop began with a lesson on the cultural and historical background of Morocco and its people and how food ties into those themes. It was great to have our son make note of what we learned throughout the rest of our experiences in Marrakech.

Following our lesson, we made our way to a plush lounge area to smell the various spices and herbs common to Moroccan cooking. We also were introduced to the method for making Moroccan mint tea with beat sugar. The higher one pours the tea the more respect it shows to guests.

Next it was time to cook! The kitchen set up was perfect with a monitor at each station to follow along. Since our class was a small group of three, our instructors brought us behind the main counter to make bread and get a head start on dessert. At our stations we made Zaalook salad, Taktuka salad, and Jack and I made Tajine de poulet while Lynette of course did a Tajine berere aux legumes.

At the end of our class, we received high honors with a certificate. We were also gifted tajine dishes to take home with beautiful recipe cards so that we can recreate the dishes.

Finally, it was time to enjoy our meal. It was a great time learning more about our co-cooking workshop attendee from Houston and swapping travel and holiday stories. The food was really incredible. We had a lot of Tajine in Morocco and hands down, these were the best. Below is the vegetable Tajine and the Moroccan tomato and pepper salad.

And here is the eggplant and tomato salad (a warm dish) and a perfectly layered creamy Pastilla au lait for dessert.

We had an unforgettable Thanksgiving learning about new cultural and culinary traditions. You can end your visit with a stop at the gift shop or as we did catching a bit of the World Cup at the cafe next door.