200 g baby calamari tubes
200 g calamari tentacles or marinara mix
1 t (5 ml) turmeric
olive oil
1 t (5 ml) ground cumin
1 T (15 ml) honey
1 T (15 ml) lemon juice
2 t (10 ml) Ina Paarman's Chilli & Garlic Seasoning
2 lemons cut in half
2 T (30 ml) honey
1 punnet watercress or baby spinach

Defrost the seafood in cold tap water if frozen. Drain and pat dry between paper towels.

Toss seafood with turmeric, 3 T (45 ml) olive oil, cumin, honey, lemon juice and Chilli & Garlic Seasoning. Leave to stand at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Preheat a heavy frying pan, add a dash of oil and tilt the pan to coat the base. Brown the marinated seafood briefly in two batches. Leave to cool at room temperature. Can be pre-prepared to this stage ahead of time.

TO SERVE Heat the honey in a small frying pan until brown and bubbly. Place the lemons, cut side down, in the honey and cook until glazed and brown. Scatter greens over starter plates, add cooked seafood and lemon halves.

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This dish, which is particularly enjoyed in Marrakech, celebrates two of Morocco's most famous ingredients - green olives and preserved lemons.

8 chicken thighs, with skin on and bone in or a whole chicken cut into portions
2 preserved lemons (see recipe below)
3 cloves of crushed garlic
½ cup (125 ml) roughly chopped fresh coriander
½ cup (125 ml) roughly chopped fresh parsley
2 t (10 ml) Ina Paarman's Seasoned Sea Salt
3 T (45 ml) olive oil
1 t (5 ml) black pepper
2 t (10 ml) ground (dry) ginger
2 t (10 ml) turmeric
2 t (10 ml) ground cumin
1 medium onion, very finely chopped
1 T (15 ml) Ina Paarman's Chicken Stock Powder
1½ cups (375 ml) hot water
1 cup (100 g) green olives (lightly crushed with a meat mallet)

Slash through the thickest part of the thighs right down to the bone, with a sharp knife. Cut the lemons in half-scrape out the pulp and put it into a biggish mixing bowl. Shred the lemon skin into julienne strips and keep on one side for later. To the lemon pulp add crushed garlic, chopped coriander and parsley, Seasoned Sea Salt, olive oil, black pepper, ginger, turmeric and cumin. Mix together and spread this paste all over both sides of the chicken portions. Put chicken back into mixing bowl and cover. Refrigerate overnight or marinate at room temperature for at least an hour.

Place the chicken, with the onion and all the marinade ingredients into a heavy based saucepan or tajine and sauté until beginning to brown, to develop the spice flavours.

Dissolve the stock powder in the water and add to the chicken. Cover with a lid. Simmer slowly for 1¼ hours, turning the chicken two or three times during the cooking time. Crush the green olives with a meat mallet in a plastic bag. Stir in the olives. Sprinkle the preserved lemon strips over the dish. Boil fast for 5-10 minutes without a lid, liquid to a thickish sauce. Taste for seasoning. Serve with couscous.

CHEF'S TIP:

Use a heat diffuser on your gas or electric stove plate if cooking in a pottery tajine. The leftovers are delicious a day or two later. Chicken Tajine will freeze well for up to three weeks.

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We had this recipe as part of our master class in November, but we repeat it here in a smaller quantity.

The main advantage of this stunning method is that the lemons are not too salty, allowing you to make use of the delicious lemon pulp, which when using techniques are usually discarded.

We will be giving you more ideas for using preserved lemons in the coming months.

8-10 smallish thin skinned lemons
2 cups (500 ml) of water
1 cup of coarse salt
1½ T (22.5 ml) olive oil

Wash the jars in which you plan to pack the lemons (and the lids) with hot soapy water. Then rinse with boiling water.

Wash the lemons in warm water to which you have added ¼ cup of vinegar. Prick them all over with a fork (± 5 times). Pack into the sterilised bottles or jam jars.

Bring the water to the boil and dissolve the salt in it, some salt will remain undissolved. Pour this brine over the lemons in the jars until the lemons are completely covered. Add any undissolved salt. Pour a thin layer of olive oil over the salt water to keep the air out. Seal the jars with the lids. Keep in a dark cupboard for one week, before use, or for up to 8 months.

GIFT IDEA
Use small jars, put 1 or 2 lemons in each jar, great as gifts !

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Couscous is coarse semolina (a wheat product). It plays an important part in North African cooking. Dry, pre-cooked couscous is available from our supermarkets. The pre-cooked variety only takes minutes to prepare in a microwave oven.

1¼ cups (312 ml) quick cooking couscous
2 cups (500 ml) hot water
4 t (20 ml) Ina Paarman's Vegetable Stock Powder
2 T (30 ml) olive oil or butter
¼ cup (60 ml) parsley, chopped
1 t (5 ml) Ina Paarman's Green Onion Seasoning

Place the couscous, hot water and Vegetable Stock Powder in a microproof bowl. Microwave on high (100%) for 5 minutes. Add the butter and parsley. Stir to loosen with a fork and cook for a further 2 minutes on high (100%). Toss to blend. Add seasoning.

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These golden, scented pears, provide an exquisite light finishing touch to a Moroccan meal.

3 T (45 ml) honey
3 T (45 ml) sugar
1 T (15 ml) lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
1 cup (250 ml) water
large pinch of saffron threads
1 cinnamon stick
1 fresh lavender flower head plus 1 to garnish
4 smallish pears

GARNISH
fresh lavender flowers

Warm the honey, sugar and lemon in a smallish saucepan, big enough to hold the 4 pears. Add the water, saffron threads, cinnamon stick and flowers stripped from the lavender stem. Simmer for 5 minutes. Peel the pears, leaving the stems attached. Cut the bottoms level. Add the pears to the syrup, cover and simmer slowly for 20 minutes. Turn the pears two or three times during cooking.

Can be done the day before. Remove the pears from the syrup and boil the syrup fast without a lid to reduce the syrup and intensify the flavours. Return the pears to the flavoured syrup. Can be done the day before.

Serve pears with syrup, decorated with fresh lavender flowers.

CHEF'S TIP:

If saffron is not available, tint the syrup yellow with a few drops of yellow food colouring.

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This is the national drink of Morocco, drunk in the morning, offered throughout the day while bargaining, conducting business, or wandering about, and served at the end of a meal to aid digestion. A blend of Chinese green tea and fresh mint, traditionally sweetened with sugar lumps, it is incredibly refreshing on a hot day.

2 t (10 ml) Chinese green tea
small bunch of fresh mint leaves
sugar, to taste

Put the tea and mint leaves in a small tea pot and fill with boiling water. Infuse (steep) for 2-3 minutes. Pour into tea glasses, add sugar lumps to taste.

SERVING MINT TEA
At feasts and on special occasions, the making of mint tea can be an elaborate ceremony, the best green tea is chosen and only fresh spearmint (Mentha spicata). A fine silver-plated, bulbous-shaped teapot is selected for brewing and the heavily sweetened tea is poured, from a height, into fine glasses. For an additional flounce of ceremony, a fresh, fragrant orange blossom or jasmine flower may be floated in each glass. In winter, wormwood is sometimes added for extra warmth, and infusions flavoured with aniseed or verbena are quite common.

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