Riad Si Said in Marrakech - Cookery
Cooking with Malika at the Riad Si Said
During an afternoon at the Riad Si Said join Malika in the immaculate and beautifully tiled kitchen to prepare an evening meal.
The menu might include a Moroccan salad of roasted green peppers, tomatoes and onions dressed with lemon juice and argan oil, and a tagine msier, or chicken braised in a sauce of brine-pickled lemons (msier), onions, cumin, ginger, pepper and saffron.
For anyone unfamiliar with Moroccan produce, the lesson can begin with a market visit to learn about the basic ingredients you will use in the kitchen.
Conscientious Cuisine
As well as the talent of Angsana Riads chefs, the food is delicious because of the daily stock of fresh local produce, including bread baked in woodburning ovens of local bakeries, and seasonal fruit and vegetables produced according to the ancient and environmentally-sound methods of traditional Moroccan agriculture.
For example, the mint in your traditional Moroccan mint tea will have been picked that morning, the succulent oranges used for breakfast juice come from the vast centuries-old citrus groves that surround Marrakech, and seafood is dispatched daily from the beautiful Atlantic port of Essaouira.
The flavor and quality of Moroccan chicken and lamb can be put down to the lack of industrial style agriculture in Morocco. For instance, Moroccan chicken is free-range and Moroccan lambs grazes freely in pristine mountain pastures.
