The Gourmet Foodies
My friend Kelly has got eight chicks together to make a *foodie club*.
Last night was our first divine dining experience:
A Moroccan Feast...
We started out with a glass of Riesling - which left beautiful honey flavours on the palate, and then we were invited to go into the lounge which was all set up with candles at a low table and embroidered cushions for sitting around it.
The whole evening was a real education, with history, culture and cooking tips. We began with a hand-rinsing ceremony with olive blossom water, which filled the room with its fresh citrusy scent. Then the feast began with olives and chermoula, and a broad bean dip (which was a wonderful hummus texture and delicate flavour, not like broad beans at all, thankfully!!), flatbreads, and a selection of spiced mixed nuts, all deliciously served with salted preserved lemons...
At that stage some of us lay back on the floor, sighing contentedly and wondering how we would fit in the next course: which was really no problem at all for Miss Piggy....
Ahmed's Tagine of Lamb with Figs and Sesame Seeds: this had been cooked slowly for several hours, and each piece of meat had a wonderful velvety texture and went surprisingly well with the figs (which are traditionally "not my favourite", having gutsed too many up my auntie's tree once when i was a little 'un), couscous, a delish beans-and-tomato concoction, and more flatbread.. which was really useful to scoop up delectable mouthfuls: Moroccans eat with only their thumb and two fingers of the right hand. Oh, and we were onto the berry-bodied Syrah by that stage.
The party continued as we all assembled our desserts: stacking rounds of thin pastry with ground almonds and cinnamon and fragrant orange blossom custard, and then we heaped our bowls with berries..
Lastly: mint tea, into which we spooned tiny little hard cubes of sugar. Lots and lots and lots of sugar.
But wait, there's more: The last surprise was a bong, which had strawberry tobacco in it from Kelly's travels... we tried and tried to make it work, but unfortunately all our teenage experience seemed to be lost in a gentle, full-tummied haze of forgetfulness....
Last night was our first divine dining experience:
A Moroccan Feast...
We started out with a glass of Riesling - which left beautiful honey flavours on the palate, and then we were invited to go into the lounge which was all set up with candles at a low table and embroidered cushions for sitting around it.
The whole evening was a real education, with history, culture and cooking tips. We began with a hand-rinsing ceremony with olive blossom water, which filled the room with its fresh citrusy scent. Then the feast began with olives and chermoula, and a broad bean dip (which was a wonderful hummus texture and delicate flavour, not like broad beans at all, thankfully!!), flatbreads, and a selection of spiced mixed nuts, all deliciously served with salted preserved lemons...
At that stage some of us lay back on the floor, sighing contentedly and wondering how we would fit in the next course: which was really no problem at all for Miss Piggy....
Ahmed's Tagine of Lamb with Figs and Sesame Seeds: this had been cooked slowly for several hours, and each piece of meat had a wonderful velvety texture and went surprisingly well with the figs (which are traditionally "not my favourite", having gutsed too many up my auntie's tree once when i was a little 'un), couscous, a delish beans-and-tomato concoction, and more flatbread.. which was really useful to scoop up delectable mouthfuls: Moroccans eat with only their thumb and two fingers of the right hand. Oh, and we were onto the berry-bodied Syrah by that stage.
The party continued as we all assembled our desserts: stacking rounds of thin pastry with ground almonds and cinnamon and fragrant orange blossom custard, and then we heaped our bowls with berries..
Lastly: mint tea, into which we spooned tiny little hard cubes of sugar. Lots and lots and lots of sugar.
But wait, there's more: The last surprise was a bong, which had strawberry tobacco in it from Kelly's travels... we tried and tried to make it work, but unfortunately all our teenage experience seemed to be lost in a gentle, full-tummied haze of forgetfulness....
posted by skatey katie @ 12:00 PM
6 Comments:
Yummy, yummy, yummy Moroccan food! I need to send you my chicken with fruit and olives recipe! Sounds like a fun night. Too bad it would take way to long for me to 'pop' over and join the fun. :(
I shall raise a glass to you in spirit from far away Canada at your next gathering....
This sounds just awesome. What a great time! You have been tagged by me for a meme. Take care! Oh, and post more of those awesome recipes!
Sounds like fun! We had dinner a few weeks ago at the house of a co-worker of my husband's. He and his wife are from Morocco. They served hummus and lamb shish-ke-babs, among other things.
Kate - I am not sure we could be food critics together. I think we would like EVERYTHING too much, we would never give a scathing review, and we would NEVER lose weight!! My mouth was watering at your descriptions, can't wait for our next food night! Our 3 foods are pistachios, salmon and rack of lamb - any ideas would be welcome - I'm thinking Pistachio icecream with White Chocolate sauce?
leighleigh
ummmmm... pistachios are *savoury* and icecream/white choc is *sweet*.. i am slightly fussier (fuss, fuss, i think he'd like to scream at us...) than you cos i can't mix savoury with sweet.
(it's like i eat all the choc off the scorched almonds and give the nut to hubby, or i have to save the nuts until i the choc taste has completely gone from my palate.)
but i agree that *Pistachio icecream with White Chocolate sauce* does sound completely decadent YES, everyone else in the world would completely *love* it :o)
yep, i would be a hopeless food critic.
sounds like a lovely evening
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