Our World in Food

In search of sustainable food systems: back home in Seattle, Washington

Moroccan Mint Tea November 28, 2011

Filed under: Morocco — Nicole @ 12:46 pm
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Un hombre vendiendo menta y otras hierbas en Marrakech

Traveling in Morocco has been challenging, for many reasons. I am a female, solo traveler and it is my first time in a Muslim country and my first time in Africa. Absolutely everything is different from what I am used to. When I first arrived I was scared to walk anywhere by myself, I spoke no French and I was terribly lonely. But now, after 3 weeks, I feel much more confident and comfortable traveling alone.

I’ve been moving around a lot through Morocco:

I started in Marrakech, the merchant town, and traveled North to work at an olive grove near Benslimane. I was treated quite poorly on the farm so I left to Casablanca, the economic center. Then I went even farther North to Chefchaouen, a beautiful, blue town in the mountains. I spent a few nights in Fez, then a few more in the port town of Essaouira and now I am back in Marrakech.

Thankfully, I found a travel partner, a Brazilian from Sao Paulo, who escaped from the olive farm with me! It was my first time on this entire trip traveling with another person, and it was incredibly enjoyable and so much easier than traveling alone.

It is remarkable how different I am treated here when I am alone and when I am accompanied by a man. Alone I am constantly stared at, cat-called, followed, and even grabbed by men on the street. But when I was with my travel buddy, André, I was never hassled. Of course, this angers me terribly, I should be respected with or without a man by my side!

But it seems that women in this country are rare and men are not used to interacting with them. Not only do you not see women out on the street (it seems like 1 in 20 people in public are women) but when you do see them they cover up. Most women wear a hijab (headscarf) and long robe or dress, but some also cover their entire face (sometimes not even showing their eyes) and even their hands (with gloves). Women are always in groups, hardly ever alone, and many aspects of life are segregated. For example, in mosques women pray in different rooms, behind men or do not enter at all.

For me the most remarkable segregation occurs in cafes. Morocco is full of cafes, where soft drinks and hot and cold nonalcoholic beverages are served. The setup is almost always the same: the drinks are prepared inside and customers mainly sit outside at small tables with chairs placed facing the street. The customers are almost always entirely men. When I do see a Moroccan women she is always accompanied by a man and will sit inside at the back of the cafe, never outside and never alone. It seems that cafes in Morocco are places for men to go and people-watch. I always feel uncomfortable walking past one.

En todos los cafes de Marruecos casi nunca se ven mujeres, normalmente son turistas como en esta foto.

I try to blend in with the locals wherever it is I am in the world, but here it is nearly impossible. Instead, I have decided to take on one important local custom.

It is prohibited for Muslims to drink alcohol, though you can find it here (Moroccan wine and beer especially). I have decided to refrain from alcohol for the duration of my travels here in Morocco (1 month). I am also refraining from drinking coffee, which is not nearly as popular a drink as green tea is. In fact, Morocco is one of the greatest green tea importers in the world.

The most popular drink in Morocco is Moroccan mint tea, or thé à la menthe, which is sweetened green tea brewed with fresh mint leaves. It is delicious, though often much too sweet! The preparation of this tea is very specific and therefore a matter of pride. If a Moroccan offers you tea it is considered rude not to oblige. It is not unusual to strike up a conversation with a Moroccan on the street and immediately be invited to his house for tea. Usually he will sit you down in his nicest sitting room or patio while he or a family member prepares the tea and sometimes bread and sweets. Asking for more tea is encouraged but offering any sort of compensation is impolite.

La bebida mas común en Marruecos es el te Marroquí: te verde con azucar y menta. Se sirve con muchas burbujas en vasitos de vidrio decorados y se toma a todas horas del dia.

Dulces especiales que se sirven con te en Marruecos. La mayoria son hechos con mazapan pero tambien hay algunos de miel, maní y coco.

The tea is served in small, decorated glasses and poured from a height of about 1 foot, creating bubbles in the tea. Moroccans believe the more bubbles the better! I have no idea why. A special, metal teapot is used to make this tea because it is actually brewed on the stove, but in a pinch it can be brewed in a regular teapot instead. This tea is drunk at any time of the day, during, before and after meals. If fresh or dry mint are not available sometimes wormwood is used instead!

This is a recipe I have come up with after observing Moroccans prepare the tea. As usual with my recipes on the road, precise measurements are difficult to acquire.

 

Moroccan Mint Tea

Thé à la Menthe

Enough to serve 4-5 people

  • Gunpowder green tea, loose leaf, enough to fill your palm
  • 2 teaspoons of sugar per person
  • 1 bunch of fresh mint
  1. Boil 1 pot of water.
  2. Wash the mint very well, leave the leaves on their stem.
  3. Place the green tea at the bottom of a metal teapot, pour just a dash of hot water in and swirl around for 15 seconds to wet the leaves. Pour out the water.
  4. Scrunch up all the mint into a ball and drop into the teapot. Place the sugar on top of the mint and then pour hot water over the sugar, leaving 2 inches at the top of the teapot.
  5. Place the teapot on the stove and leave for about 3 minutes, until the mint leaves start to bubble and rise up. Remove from the stove.
  6. Pour out one glass of tea and then pour back in to the pot. Again, pour out a glass and then pour back in to the pot. Repeat one more time. This mixes all the sugar in the tea.
  7. Moroccan mint tea is served in small, decorated, glasses from a great height. Begin pouring tea into a glass and raise the pot about 1 foot away from the glass to create bubbles in the cup. Drink immediately as the tea will get more and more bitter as it sits.
 

Beer and Caipirinhas August 2, 2011

Filed under: Brazil,Rio de Janeiro,Travel Recipes — Nicole @ 8:31 pm
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Meat and beer, very Brazilian!

Caipirinha, the national drink of Brazil! Only joking, that would be beer. Honestly, I have never seen people drink so much beer! Every single evening of every day of the week the bars, streets and plazas in every city are packed with people drinking beer. That’s right, even on the street. It’s not illegal to drink beer in public places; you see vendors everywhere lugging around a cart with empty cans on the outside displaying the merchandise or selling beer from an open van parked on the street. People buy beer from these vendors and hang out on the sidewalk, at the beach, in a park or in a plaza drinking with their friends. I think that’s fantastic! It brings a bunch of people together outdoors. The only ironic part is that it is illegal to sell beer in these public places. The moment a cop car drives by the beer vendors scatter! But the police could care less about the multitude of drunken Brazilians hanging out in the plaza! You gotta love Brazil.

Here in Rio de Janeiro I am couchsurfing at a place in the nice, middle class Flamengo neighborhood. Couchsurfing.org, for those of you who do not know, is an international network of travelers and hosts. You create a profile and list if you are surfing couches (traveling) or if you have a couch to offer a surfer (hosting). Couchsurfing is a genuine cultural experience with a local, and it ends up being less expensive and safer than staying in hostels (I’ve heard many stories of backpackers getting their possessions stolen in hostels).

Last night my host took me out to his neighborhood plaza. As I expected, it was packed with people hanging out and drinking beer, but there were also a few old men playing chorinho, traditional, acoustic Brazilian music. Without the beer I don’t think we would have had this nice gathering of people outdoors. The beer of choice is usually Skol, it is the cheapest, but it tastes like nothing! Second choices are Antarctica or Brahma, but the tastiest is the more expensive Bohemia. The interesting thing to note about Brazilians is that since the weather is typically warm here, they always drink their beer “gelada,” freezing cold. In fact, I have actually been served frozen beers a couple of times! Of course, this also helps to make the cheaper beers taste better. 

Now caipirinhas on the other hand, those are made with the national liquor, cachaςa, sugar cane liquor. Here in Rio I see more gringos, tourists, drinking caipirinhas than cariocas, Rio residents. Most likely because caipirinhas are more expensive than beer and Rio is an expensive city. Caipirinhas are made with lime, sugar, ice and cachaςa, but there are two variations that I also enjoy, caipivodka and caipifruta. The recipes for these three drinks are below.

A cachaça shop, there are thousands of different types of cachaças

The nightlife here in Rio de Janeiro feels a lot like Buenos Aires nightlife. People eat dinner late, about 9:30, go out to drink a few beers with friends, then go out to a club or bar, coming home around 2 on weeknights and God knows when on weekends! And they go out nearly every night! Just like porteños (Buenos Aires residents) it seems like cariocas never sleep!

Every Brazilian I have met has told me the same thing about my time in Rio, “aproveite, Nicole!” There is no perfect translation for aproveite, the nearest translation would be: live it up! There is no need to worry folks, I have certainly been aproveitando!

 

a caipifruta made with maracuja, my favorite!

Caipirinha

The trick to a good caipirinha is in the technique!

  • 1 small lime, with thin skin (more juicy), not thick grooved skin
  • 2 teaspoons of sugar, at least
  • 1 generous shot of cachaςa
  • Ice

 

  1. Cut the ends off the lime, cut in half then cut in quarters. Cut out the long, middle white membrane of each quarter. Cut in half again.
  2. Place lime chunks in a tall glass with at least 2 teaspoons of sugar, more if desired, and macerate with a wood mortar, releasing the lime juice.
  3. Add a shot and then some of cachaςa and a generous amount of ice. Shake in a shaker or mix between two glasses. Pour everything into a short glass and serve.

 

Caipivodka

Same as above but with vodka instead of cachaςa.

 

Caipifruta

Same as above but instead of lime use any other fruit. Some of the best choices are mango, kiwi or strawberry, but my absolute favorite is maracuja, or passionfruit. I had never had passionfruit until I came here to Brazil, and it immediately became one of my favorite fruits. Maracuja is great for drinks, in cakes and pastries, or straight out of the fruit. On the outside it looks like a sad, wrinkled up lemon, but the smell, the inside pulp and the flavor are out of this world! My favorite part about maracuja are the seeds, they crack like fireworks as you bite down on them! In my opinion maracuja caipirinhas are best made with vodka.

I’m going to miss maracuja caiprifrutas much more than Brazilian beer once I’m gone!

 

Chicha (home brewed beer) November 18, 2010

Filed under: Costa Rica,Mastatal,Travel Recipes — Nicole @ 11:10 pm
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Looks like an exact science...not always!

At both farms I’ve stayed at here in Mastatal we’ve made ginger beer. In Costa Rica the name for any home brewed beer or fermented beverage is chicha. You can make chicha out of nearly any fruit,  corn, ginger, turmeric etc… I’ve found I really like the spicy flavor ginger beer has. Ginger beer can range from a spicy sweet drink to a powerful alcoholic beverage, depending on how patient you are while preparing it. Ginger chicha is very easy to make but it requires attention daily for at least 2 weeks. Fruit chichas are much quicker to prepare, both are described below:

Ginger Beer or Ginger Chicha

These are more steps to follow rather than a true recipe. The secret is to taste as you go and adjust accordingly! Everything was prepared using a peanut butter jar and a 2.5 liter soda bottle. You can use any size bottle but the bigger it is the more chicha you’ll have!

  1. Fill a small jar 1/4th of the way full of grated fresh ginger and a little lemon juice and lemon zest (for extra zing). Add 4 tablespoons of sugar then fill the jar 3/4th of the way full of water. Stir and cover with a cloth.
  2. Let the jar sit for 3-5 days. You are trying to capture yeast from the air to have a bug from which to make beer from. You’ll know if you bug is ready if bubbles appear upon stirring. Check it every 2 days; it should be ready on the 4th or 5th day.
  3. Split the bug (everything, liquid and ginger) leaving half the bug in its original jar and the other half in a large plastic bottle. Add 1 TB of sugar and a bit more water to the bug in the small jar and this time seal it up with a lid. It should be fine to sit for 1 week before feeding it again with a little sugar and water. Continue feeding this bug weekly so that you can have a bug to take from and make ginger beer whenever you like.
  4. In the plastic bottle with the other half of the bug mix in ¾ cup sugar. Add water to fill the bottle about 90% full. Stir, cover with the lid and let it sit.
  5. Now all that is left to do is to burp the bottle every day. This is very easy to forget but it is essential!! Make it part of your morning routine or nighttime routine, like after brushing your teeth always burp your chicha. Burping means opening the lid little by little to let out the collected carbon dioxide. Continue opening the lid until you can take it off entirely. Close back up and repeat the next morning.
  6. Repeat the burping process for a week and then taste. For a mild non-alcoholic beverage it should be fine to drink after 1 week. Add sugar and water if you desire a more alcoholic beverage and then wait another week, burping every day. This can be repeated for up to 5 weeks for a very strong liquor.
  7. Don’t forget to feed your bug every week! After 2-3 months or when the bug becomes vinegary restart a new batch with fresh ginger.

Fruit Chichas

Instead of using ginger, nearly any fruit can be used to capture yeast and make an alcoholic beverage. Here in the tropics we use pineapple (the peel or the fruit), mango, papaya, star fruit etc… But I imagine back home in the states you can use apples, pears, cherries, plums etc… Here’s what you do:

  1. Cut up the fruit into pieces, enough to fill a large pitcher halfway full.
  2. If the fruit does not have enough sweetness on its own add some sugar. Otherwise it will not be necessary to add sugar unless you desire a more alcoholic beverage.
  3. Cover all the fruit with water. Cover with a dish cloth. Let sit for a few days and taste. Add sugar to make more alcoholic and continue to let sit if desired.
  4. Strain and enjoy!
 

Chai May 2, 2010

Filed under: Travel Recipes — Nicole @ 5:29 pm
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If you search for a chai recipe online you will be overwhelmed with spice combinations and ratios, at least I was. I began to fiddle around with the basic 6 spices: cinnamon, ginger cardamom, cloves, black pepper and nutmeg, and also added star anise and all spice. Every batch I made was different, which is fun, for a while, but I wanted to know what combination would yield the BEST cup of chai. I found it in the book Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet, by the ever-inspirational Frances Moore Lappé and daughter Anna Lappé. Their recipe uses the basic 6 spices and nothing more. The secret is fresh ginger!

The full batch is good for several cups, so once it’s finished I just pour it into a large glass jar, store it in the refrigerator and heat up a bit with some milk and honey when I have a craving!

Warm cup of chai

There is nothing more comforting than a warm cup of chai in a handmade mug!

Chai

Adapted from Hope’s Edge by Frances Moore Lappé and Anna Lappé. Makes 6 servings.

  • 5 cups water
  • 15 whole cloves (1 tsp.)
  • 20 cardamom pods
  • 35 whole peppercorns (1 tsp.)
  • 5 cinnamon sticks
  • 16 slices fresh, peeled ginger (2.5 inch pieces)
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 6 tsps black tea, loose
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 3 cups milk
  1. Bring water to a boil.
  2. Meanwhile, crush all spices in a mortar and pestle.
  3. Add spices to water and if using a large pot: cover, if using a small pot: leave uncovered. Boil gently for 30 minutes.
  4. The mixture should boil down to 3 cups. Remove from heat and let cool. Strain and store in refrigerator.
  5. Or, if you want to drink it right away, add black tea and steep for 3 to 5 minutes. Strain leaves and spices and pour back into pot. Add honey and milk while stirring. Bring almost to a boil. Serve.