Sade, Cooking, And Morocco

Lately it has been raining in Casablanca and I find it the perfect time to start chopping away on my new cutting board with my new knife. Sade is so therapeutic. I saw her in concert in New York with my friend Rani and she was amaaazzzzing divine actually. 

Anyways, I am so proud that I started cooking. In Morocco, it truly is the perfect place to learn how to cook because the food outside is usually overpriced and not good. And every Moroccan says, “The best food comes from inside the home.” I one hundred percent agree with this statement and one can always taste the difference between Moroccan food in a restaurant and in a house.

In the homes, Moroccans are cooking with a special dose of caring, warmth, and love-perhaps their hospitality goes directly into their food making the taste wonderful. The warmth of their hearts goes into preparation, but also time goes into preparation. Just like my fellow Indians, Moroccans spend hours and sometimes the whole day chopping, sautéing, mincing, boiling, and cooking away. There is obviously a lot of other things going on in the kitchen that I just do not know how to describe.. 

Being inside a Moroccan kitchen a couple times trying to learn, I feel a bit overwhelmed by all the different steps.  The cooker for couscous, the time it takes for things to sit out, and how to use all the different spices-it feels like one big question mark.  It is true that “Cooking is an art.” It is an art that I have not perfected, but I try my best at home. My cous cous taste nothing like a housekeeper who has been making couscous for 20 years or longer, but I enjoy it and I know I just have to keep practicing.

Many wealthy families in Morocco have a housekeeper who lives in the home cooking meals and taking care of the home.  This is a definite necessity for a Moroccan kitchen-someone who can spend the time cooking the food-it just takes too much time to prepare if you have kids and a full-time job. 

In my case, I do not believe “Practice will make Perfect,” but “Practice will make improvement.” If it doesn’t make improvement, there are always wonderful Moroccan women to hire to cook for me.”