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40
cooking at home
By Alyssa Fry
Moroccan Feast
FLAVORS THAT POP FROM CAFÉ MARRAKESH
Flowing burgundy drapes enclosing dimly
lit dining areas. Ornate metal pots of steeping mint tea.
Aromas of garlic, cilantro and ginger. When you dine at Café Marrakesh,
you are taken to Morocco for a memorable experience.
Owner Majid El Mazouni has been in the restaurant business since
1985, when he first moved to Dallas from Morocco. His Moroccan creation,
Café Marrakesh, is the culmination of six years of planning, and
though it opened in January, it is still a work in progress. “I’m not the
richest guy in the world, so I’m still working on things,” he says. “The
work never stops; that’s a good thing about the business.”
Mazouni plans on bringing belly dancers in soon, and the dining
areas are undergoing makeovers. His tent rooms are the most noticeably
different aspect of the restaurant: Sheer fabric curtains hung from the
ceiling surround each handmade table from Morocco, providing the
most intimate of dining experiences.
The large dining room at the front of the restaurant, once a Taco
Bueno, will soon be transformed into a giant tent room for large parties.
Perhaps the most stunning option in Café Marrakesh is the upstairs area,
named the Kasbah Room. It seats 15 to 20 and features cushioned bench
seating around the entire perimeter, a flat-screen television and a stunning,
custom-made mosaic on one wall.
Mazouni says he likes that in the restaurant world, there is always a
new “it” place or concept, which is why he’s confident his labor of love
will succeed — it’s unique.
But Mazouni couldn’t do it all by himself. His right-hand man and
longtime friend Adil Nadir helped create Café Marrakesh’s menu of
mostly traditional favorites from home. Although Nadir is also from
Morocco, this wasn’t entirely an easy task.
“I’ve called my mother [in Morocco] for help with the recipes,” he says.
“Now I say, ‘Mom, I wish I had paid more attention to you in the kitchen.’”
house& home | August 2008 | house andhomeonline.com
Shrimp Sharmoula
One thing Nadir needed help with was the sharmoula sauce, used in
the shrimp sharmoula appetizer (see recipe on Page 42). The dish is traditional
in Morocco, but he never cooked it himself until moving to the
United States. Other traditional items include bastilla, a pie commonly
filled with meat or poultry. Café Marrakesh’s bastilla is made with phyllo
dough and filled with chicken, almonds and onion, and seasoned with
saffron, ginger and cilantro. Another common dish, tagine, is served here
with pride. Tagine is the name of the clay dishes in which the food is
cooked and served. One popular tagine is the Cornish Hen and Lemon
(see recipe on Page 42).
“Tagine is slow cooked,” Nadir says. “That’s what makes Moroccan
food good — patience.”
It also takes patience to make the preserved lemons in-house —
three months to be exact. Lemons are sliced, then smashed into a container
of water, olive oil and a lot of salt. They are very common in
Moroccan cuisine and can be purchased at Arabic food stores, but making
them yourself is always better, Nadir says. “Little things like that
make the food different,” he says. “You can’t pinpoint it when you’re
eating it. It’s just different.”
Mazouni says customers wonder what makes the flavors of the dishes
pop, and he tells them he’s using spices common in the United States,
he’s just using them a little differently.
Another, and perhaps the most important facet of Café Marrakesh, is
that all guests are treated like family. Mazouni and Nadir agree that hospitality
is No.1 in Morocco. “You can bring your own wine and sit in the
tent rooms to have your privacy,” Mazouni says. “We greet everyone with
open arms and make sure people feel at home.”
Recipes courtesy Cafe Marrakesh, 7989 Belt Line Rd., Ste. 315,
Dallas, 972.239.7775.