Archive for the ‘Holiday Travel in Morocco’ Category

How to Prepare Moroccan Terjla, Your Morocco Travel Guide

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Moroccan Terjla Prepared for the Table, as a Side Dish

Moroccan terjla (the Moroccan Arabic name) is frequently prepared as a side dish, and can be served either hot or cold.  Terjla, a succulent plant, known as purslane in English and verdolaga in Spanish, is not only one of the most delicious Moroccan plants, but it is simple to prepare.  Being a dark green plant, it is loaded with iron, vitamins, and minerals.  It also has a mild lemony flavor. When traveling to Morocco make sure to ask your Moroccan Travel Agency to recommend restaurants or local places where you can taste Moroccan terjla in a traditional restaurant.

Close-up View of the Moroccan Terjla Plant

Close-up View of the Moroccan Terjla Plant

Terjla is not often available in the major supermarkets because it is considered a traditional Moroccan dish, and the supermarkets often cater to products they feel will appeal to a broader audience of foreigners and less traditional Moroccans.  However, terjla can easily be found from late spring to late autumn in all the local vegetable markets.  The best place to find it in Marrakech is the small vegetable sellers just inside Bab Dukkala; however, it is found in many other places.  It’s a traditional staple in the cuisines of Fes, Casablanca, Tangier, Agadir, Ouarzazate, and Marrakech.

If you are traveling in Morocco, you are most likely to eat terjla in a private home.  If you are staying in a smaller hotel or riad and would like to try it, request it a day in advance, and they can look for it in the local market.  Most places would probably be delighted to prepare it for you.

How to Prepare Terjla

Traditional Moroccan Method:

Chopped terjla with whole garlic cloves

Discard any bruised leaves, and chop terjla (stems and leaves together) into 1/4″ (1/2 cm) pieces.  Put into a deep bowl.  Fill with water, and swish well; pour through a large strainer to drain out wash water.

Put terjla into water with some salt (it’s not a bitter plant, so take care not to oversalt it) and boil about 20 minutes until tender, but not limp). Drain water.

Season and toss gently with a clove or two (depending upon quantity) of freshly minced garlic, a little cumin, a little paprika, salt to taste (carefully) OR a very small piece of preserved lemon (but not if you added salt–use only one or the other), and a little olive oil.  Red olives can also be added.

Adapted Method which Yields Excellent Results:

Washed and trimmed terjla, ready to chop

Wash and trim the terjla of any bruised leaves (if it is just fresh from the market, it will only need to be washed).  I suggest swishing it two or three times in a deep mixing bowl of water.  Sometimes some very tiny black seeds will fall out if the terjla is in bloom.

Tiny terjla seed pods

But if there, these seeds are so tiny you don’t need to worry about them.  I trimmed off the tiny seed pods before chopping the terjla.

Chop terjla (stems and leaves together) into 1/4″ (1/2 cm) pieces.  Have ready one large unpeeled garlic clove for each cup of chopped terjla.

Two cups of chopped terjla placed in a steamer basket with two large garlic cloves

Choose one of the following cooking methods, both of which work:  boil chopped terjla with whole garlic cloves in plain water, or lightly salted water OR steam chopped terjla with whole garlic cloves in the basket for about 20 minutes.  (A Moroccan suggested the steam method to me, and I prefer it, since the vitamins don’t go down the drain with the boiling water.)

When the terjla is done, the garlic will be cooked inside.  Remove the garlic cloves, and carefully slice off the end.  The cooked garlic can be easily squeezed out into a small bowl from the opposite end.  Mash it into a paste with the back of a large spoon.  Add a small amount of black pepper and paprika to taste (1/8 tsp. of each for each cup of terjla).

slicing off the end of a cooked garlic clove squeezing a cooked garlic clove out of its skin garlic paste with black pepper and paprika in a bowl

Choose ONE of the following two : salt (lightly, to taste) OR a small piece of Moroccan preserved lemon (no more than 1/2 tsp. per cup of terjla, and take care not to use ANY salt).

Mix well, and add 1/2 Tbsp. of virgin olive oil for each  cup of cooked terjla (or more to taste).  Mix again well.  Add cooked terjla, and toss gently with a spoon until mixed well.  Optional, for olive lovers:  add two or three whole red olives for each cup of terjla.

Serve in side dishes at room temperature, warm on a cold day, or chilled on a hot day.  Terjla is delicious at any temperature.  Moroccans usually eat it with bread, as they do tagine; however, it may also be eaten with a spoon as a salad.

How to Find Terjla (Purslane) Outside of Morocco

Purslane grows in sunny areas from Canada to the Carribean, but is considered a weed in North America.  However, since it is a green vegetable used in Mexico and many Latin countries, you might be able to find it at Latin green grocers in North America.  (If collecting wild, take care that it is not in an area that has been deliberately poisoned as a weed.)

Wild summer purslane

According to experts, purslane contains more omega-3 fatty acids than any other green leafy vegetable plant.  It also contains vitamins A, C, and B, as well as iron, magnesium, calcium, and potassium.

Upright purslane species grown as a vegetable

Wild species often grow along the ground, while cultivated species often stand more upright.  It has been used both as a salad and medicinal plant with many uses for hundreds of years.  Purslane is commonly used in salads in France.  The plant is believed to be native to the area of India and Iran.

For more information about a Moroccan Terjla or a Taste of Morocco Private Tour

For more information about Travel and Tours to Morocco plus highlights on Moroccan culture visit Morocco’s Imperial CitiesSeaside Resorts,Sahara DesertBerber villagesA Taste of MoroccoMagical Kasbahs, Ruins & WaterfallsAbsolute Morocco, The Best of MarrakechFes, and Ouarzazate

Discover The Best of Morocco - Travel Exploration

Travel Exploration specializes in Morocco Travel. We provide Tours and travel opportunities to Morocco for the independent traveler and tailor-made tours for families and groups with a distinctly unique flavor. From Morocco’s Seven Imperial Cities, to the Magical Sahara Travel Exploration offers a captivating experience that will inspire you. At Travel Exploration we guarantee that you will discover the best of Morocco! Call Travel Exploration at 1 (800) 787-8806 or 1 (917)703-2078 and let’s book a tour to Morocco for you today.

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Moroccan Coffee and Café Ambiance, Your Moroccan Travel Guide

Friday, June 25th, 2010

A Café in Marrakesh, Morocco – Photo by Richard Mueller

Enjoying the ambiance in various Moroccan cities is partly what a trip to Morocco is all about. When traveling to Morocco, make sure to take time out to enjoy Moroccan coffee and the cafe ambiance that each city offers. MarrakechTangier, Essaouira and Agadir are known for having the most and the best cafe’s, the best variety of Moroccan Arabic coffee and are spacious, comfortable hotspots for people watching. Moroccan coffee is different from American coffee. The two most commonly-ordered types are black, served in a Moroccan teaglass, and coffee with milk, usually served in a cup, but sometimes in a tea glass.There are several types of coffee with milk.  The first is café cassé, which means black coffee broken with a little bit of milk.  The other common type is “café nss nss”  (no vowel in nss), which means half coffee (made with water) and half milk.

Café “nss nss”

The third type is café crème, which means a cup of hot milk to which instant Nescafé is added (but it is not made with cream, which was never available in Morocco until recently, but would never in any case be found in a café).

Enjoy Your Coffee on the Balcony at the Hotel Continental in Tangier, Morocco

Traditionally, mint tea has been the beverage of choice in Morocco. Some travel across the world just to sample authentic Moroccan tea in the land where its masterful preparation has become almost as much of an art-form as the Japanese tea ceremony. It is believed that tea was first introduced to Morocco in the 18th century, and began spreading through the country in the mid-1800s at the time the trade between the Maghreb and Europe started flourishing. It is reported that Sultan Moulay Ismail received many bags of tea and sugar as gifts and recompenses given by European envoys in order to release European prisoners. Moroccans quickly developed a fondness for the tea, but adapted it to their own ways by adding mint.

However, according to Euromonitor International, the amount of coffee consumption in Morocco has risen steadily among Moroccans, and has especially accelerated over the past few years.  An increasing number of cafés are opening all over Morocco.  Instant coffee, dominated by Nescafé is very popular in Moroccan homes.

A Café  in Agadir, Morocco

Moroccans make several variations of coffee in their own homes which you might like to try in your home.

Nescafé Classic

(Note:  Moroccans who use instant coffee mostly use Nescafé Classic –no substitute, or other type of Nescafé tastes the same.  If you prefer, use freshly brewed strong, black coffee in place of Nescafé crystals.)

Cafés in Essaouira, Morocco

Version 1:  Daily Morning Coffee, with Simple Continental Breakfast


Heat two cups of milk until boiling.  Let cool one minute; remove skin.  Stir in two rounded teaspoons of Nescafé crystals (or freshly brewed strong black coffee) and sugar to taste.  Moroccans often serve morning coffee in two thermos pitchers, one with black coffee, the other with milk, so that each person can mix their coffee exactly as they like it.

Version 2:  Coffee Spiced with Whole Cloves

Heat two cups of milk, together with three whole cloves, until boiling.  Let cool one minute; remove skin; disgard cloves.  Stir in two rounded teaspoons of Nescafé crystals (or freshly-brewed coffee) and sugar to taste.

Version 3:  Coffee with Black Pepper

Heat two cups of milk until boiling.  Let cool one minute; remove skin. Add 1/8 teaspoon of black pepper.  Stir in two rounded teaspoons of Nescafé crystals (or freshly-brewed coffee) and sugar to taste.

Version 4:  Coffee with Ras el Hanut

Ras el Hanut is a group of spices mixed together which translates as “top of the shop.”  It is used in a variety of Moroccan dishes.  Sometimes it can be purchased at Middle Eastern groceries, or better yet, on your own trip to Morocco!

If you do not have this spice mixture available, just  a pinch of a few spices can be substituted in your coffee.

Heat two cups of milk until boiling.  Let cool one minute; remove skin. Add 1/4 teaspoon of Ras El Hanout, OR a pinch of each of the followingground spices:  cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and black pepper.  Stir in two rounded teaspoons of Nescafé crystals (or freshly-brewed coffee) and sugar to taste.

Version 5:  Black Coffee with a Lemon Twist

Authentic version (probably imported to Morocco from France): To a cup of boiling water, add a rounded (or heaping, if stronger is preferred) teaspoon of Nescafé.  Or use freshly-brewed strong coffee.  Cut a 1/8-inch thick slice of lemon peel. Twist it for the oils to come out of the peel, and drop it into the coffee.  Add sugar if you like it.

Variation using Lemon Juice: Add a full tablespoon of lemon juice to strong black coffee. Add three+ tablespoons of sugar. Tastes a bit like strong, black coffee flavored with lemonade. (Note: Splenda might work, since it is made from real sugar– but aspartame products definitely taste really bad with lemon juice.) This variation is excellent, but I don’t make it often because of the amount of sugar required to balance the lemon juice. (Note that lemon juice doesn’t taste right in coffee unless real sugar is used.) An additional alternative is to use a bartender’s sweetened lemon-flavored syrup.

For more information about Morocco Travel and Morocco’s Cafe Scene

For more information about Travel and Tours to Morocco plus highlights on Moroccan culture visit Morocco’s Imperial CitiesSeaside Resorts,Sahara DesertBerber villagesA Taste of MoroccoMagical Kasbahs, Ruins & WaterfallsAbsolute Morocco, The Best of MarrakechFes, and Ouarzazate

Discover The Best of Morocco - Travel Exploration

Travel Exploration specializes in Morocco Travel. We provide Tours and travel opportunities to Morocco for the independent traveler and tailor-made tours for families and groups with a distinctly unique flavor. From Morocco’s Seven Imperial Cities, to the Magical Sahara Travel Exploration offers a captivating experience that will inspire you. At Travel Exploration we guarantee that you will discover the best of Morocco! Call Travel Exploration at 1 (800) 787-8806 or 1 (917)703-2078 and let’s book a tour to Morocco for you today.

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A Nomads Destiny, Traveling In Bouthgrar Mount Mgoun Moroccos Valley of Nomads, Your Morocco Travel Guide

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

The weather is very cold, almost frigid at times and the sun shines back lit against Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, which are covered by snow. Each peak tells a different story of a Nomad family who once climbed across it, stretching their journey from top to bottom, baking bread by fire, making tea at sunrise and sleeping under the stars in a bivouac, wool tent. These stories are forever, unchanged for centuries as is the way of life lived by the Nomads in Bouthgrar. They share their culture with guests who visit and those of us who live nearby, quietly inviting all into their caves, graciously serving up mint tea in their spotless shining glasses; made in china…. as we, westerners look across the vast landscape and wonder how and why.

Tichka-Pass-Ouarzazate-Marrakech 3

How and why would you be a Nomad? What is your destiny? Why do you stay? Do you know what exists outside your great, vast cool land? Does the hot sun and the cold country wear you down and what lies behind your shy gaze?

Nomad-Boy-in-Bouthgrar-Valley of Nomads

As I drove through the Tickha Pass a couple days ago, returning home to Ouarzazate from Marrakech, these thoughts kept fleeting across my mind. Having spent several days this past month in the Valley of Nomads, Bouthgrar, and with our Nomad friends Mohamed and family, it was their faces that continued to reappear in the morning light, alike miniatures in a dream. This holiday season Travel Exploration Morocco had the good fortune of hosting tours to Americans, Europeans and Swiss guests. While we could not participate on every tour, I at least had the good luck of meeting them all.

Alecia in Tickha Pass

Each guest and family had a different story about his or her adventure in the Sahara and in Mount Mgoun, with the first statement beginning with, “I never knew this part of Morocco existed nor did I realize that it was so beautiful.” They all made a point of telling me personally how moved they were to have visited our family for lunch in Ait Ouzzine (N’kob) village, receiving henna painted on their hands, to have driven across the pistes in the Sahara, trekked on a camel, traveled the Dades Valley pins, witnessed one-thousand ancient Kasbahs in Skoura palmary and to see this all juxtaposed against a rugged landscape.

Dades-Valley-Pins

What seemed to be magnified most and expressed to me by each of our visitors was the kindness and generosity of our local guides, drivers and the Nomad families they met Bouthgrar. It is deeply meaningful to be able to share the South I have fallen in love with again and again with others through Travel Exploration Morocco’s tailor-made tours. The “Real Morocco” often gets lost awash the big Imperial cities and their architectural grandeur. The cross-pollination of French- Morocco in Marrakech, an ever expanding International Casablanca and the heart of Morocco’s intellectual and artistic capital of Fes never seem to escape the push of travel agencies and the tourism board.

For me, I embrace it ALL, appreciating each city for what it has to offer. However it is the region of Ouarzazate that has slowly grown on me when I was not looking and its’ branches continue to sprawl leaving me tongue-tied at times. What lies beneath Morocco’s fascinating and magnificent Imperial cities is the most majestic place, a natural Morocco that colors ones vision with burnt orange backdrops and golden desert scenery.

Each time I step outside my home in this Saharan, dusty desert town where I live, its breathtaking landscape and sunlight accost my heart and suffocate me with happiness. The people walk in peace side by side and a handshake along with a smile tells one thousand words. I am finally feeling comfortable with my sketchy use of the Berber language and the locals know who I am when I arrive in the market place and stroll the streets alone. New friends from England and France are finding me to an extend invitations for a meal, a visit and a new conversation. It is a time for friendship.

And to witness this beauty is to have discovered a great secret from god. When someone asks my beliefs here, I shy away. To live among nature is to be all, a Muslim, a Jew, a Christian, a Catholic, a Buddhist, an Atheist. I have said a million times, if there is a god, the spirit of it is sure to be found in the Sahara.

M'hamid-Sahara-Desert

To sleep, in Ouarzazate is to fall into a deep, dream and be carried away across the dunes. I have never slept so well in 38 years but here when I shut my eyes, they close tight and in my rem-state of sleep, I am surrounded by the smells of exotic spices, the musty souk and most of all the locally made Berber perfume from saffron, musk and tree bark.

I had the good fortune of spending a full seven hours in the Tickha Mountains this week. Our drive, in spring, summer and fall that would take only 4 1/2 hours took much longer. We were held-up as were all of the cars that ventured across our great mountain in the midst of winter. After a hearty lunch in the High Atlas Mountains of Tadart, we muddled along and were stopped in rows, one vehicle after another for what seemed like days. I reveled in the passing of time slowly, as it does in Morocco. Thus, I saw a great opportunity to photograph the Tiz N’ Tichka Pass as it carried us through its varying altitudes.

My heart missed a beat a couple times when I stepped down from our 4×4 to capture the snow capped mountains with my camera and a charge that had already moved past the red mark, signifying no battery life. Somehow once again Morocco gave back to me more then I gave to her. I managed to take some photographs that I can marvel at when I see them, a memory of a day, an hour, a moment in time lost within the Tiz N’ Tichka Pass. The photos boast serene blue haze that is complimented by beaming, tiny car lights and the last seconds of the sun setting.

I am finally settled back in Ouarzazate again for just a week. There is always new venture around the corner here. I shall take the road to Marrakech on Sunday or Monday to meet up with Hossaine, who is just completing a sixteen-day tour circuit. We will have the pleasure of meeting our friends from England, Sarah and Sean who bon chance we met in Essaouira this past November. We are plotting a BEAD TOUR across Morocco!

Office- Spare Bedroom Fabric for Drapes & Moroccan Couches

Having enjoyed this weeks’ Sunday souk and coming away with a magenta and peach imported Spanish blanket, a royal blue and gold silk scarf plus mounds of vegetables for just under $40.00, I will finally dip into making headway with the marvelous embroidered fabrics I have purchased that lay beside me here. It is now time to create the healing home and I from the things I have collected during our journey during the past months.

Holiday season in the Maghreb, Morocco – The place to Travel and Make Your Home, Even if for Only a Week.

For a complete more information on Morocco’s Valley of Nomads & Visiting the Bouthgrar, Mount Mgoun Region

For more information about Travel and Tours to Morocco plus highlights on Moroccan culture visit Morocco’s Imperial CitiesSeaside Resorts,Sahara DesertBerber villagesA Taste of MoroccoMagical Kasbahs, Ruins & WaterfallsAbsolute Morocco, The Best of MarrakechFes, and Ouarzazate.

Discover The Best of Morocco - Travel Exploration

Travel Exploration specializes in Morocco Travel. We provide Tours and travel opportunities to Morocco for the independent traveler and tailor-made tours for families and groups with a distinctly unique flavor. From Morocco’s Seven Imperial Cities, to the Magical Sahara Travel Exploration offers a captivating experience that will inspire you. At Travel Exploration we guarantee that you will discover the best of Morocco! Call Travel Exploration at 1 (800) 787-8806  or 1 (917)703-2078  and let’s book a tour to Morocco for you today.

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