By Moroccan Chef Alia*

Morocco News Tribune

Ingredients

0.6 pound (300 grams) fresh tomatoes

1 cucumber

1 small sweet yellow onion

2 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro

Juice of 1 lemon (to taste)

Peel of 1 quarter preserved lemon (optional)

1 tablespoon olive oil

Spices: 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin (to taste)

Directions

Step 1: Preparing the Ingredients

* The secret of the salad is how small you can chop the tomatoes, cucumber, and onion. When they are chopped into small pieces, then you get all of them in a bit and it makes a huge difference!

* Chop the tomatoes (with the skin), the cucumber, and yellow onion into very small pieces.

* Chop the preserved lemon peel (not the pulp) into very small pieces. If you dont have preserved lemon you can just skip it.

Step 2: Mixing the Ingredients

* In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients together: tomatoes, cucumber, onion, preserved lemon peel, lemon juice, chopped cilantro, olive oil, and spices. Mix well. Taste and adjust the spices accordingly.

Step 3:  Serving the Salad

* You can serve the salad in a bowl along with French baguette or Moroccan bread.

* You can make it look fancy by plating it using a large cookie cutter that you put on a plate, fill it with the salad, pack, then slowly remove the cookie cutter. The salad will be shaped nicely.

Bon Appetit!

(The video material is published with the author’s permission)

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By Mohamed Hikal

Morocco News Tribune

Taroudant, Morocco | According to some sources from Almassae, the police officer, who was reported to shoot three of his colleagues’ dead Sunday inside Machraa Belkssiri police precinct, was newly transferred from Tetouan destrict (north of Morocco) as a disciplinary measure. He was said to be constantly teased by his superiors.

The other officers had succeeded in disarming and subduing the man before they cuffed him and put him in custody inside the principal police precinct in Belkssiri, said the same source.

Until late yesterday, the reasons behind his acts were still unknown. This act cost the lives of three officers:  Rachid Agdir and Rachid Elhimer and Said Falahi.

However, some officers said that work stress and the low morale due to his transfer from Tetouan to Belkssiri are more likely to be behind the incident.

Alakhbar newspaper said that the shooter, who was from Tetouan, married and father of five, demanded that some highly ranked members from the police headquarters in Rabat be called in order to release four officers in addition to the three killed.

These negotiations lasted for long before ending in the bloodshed and the shooter got subdued.

In the same respect, Akhbar Alyaoum stated that the killer had been arguing with the chief commissioner. This latter forced him to wear his duty uniform after he had been used to function in plain clothes as a commissioner.

The same source added that the officer had been involved in a verbal argument with the chief commissioner before he withdrew his gun aiming at his rival. Other officers interfered to control him and got shot in the process.

It is worth mentioning that we covered the incident as it happened Sunday when a police officer in Machraa Belkssiri, north of Morocco, fired his gun and shot his colleagues Sunday inside the city precinct, resulting in the killing of 3 police officers and badly wounded.

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By Mohamed Hikal

Moroco News Tribune

Taroudant, Morocco | Morocco’s King Mohamed VI took a very symbolic and humanitarian initiative when he donated blood on Friday in Fez on the occasion of the opening of the regional center for blood transfusion in Fez.

This event came to celebrate the national campaign for blood donation that will last from the 8th to the 24th of March.

“Every blood donation could save 3 people…We can all be heroes,” was this year’s campaign slogan.

Morocco’s king initiative to donate his blood embodies, according to MAP, his generosity, high spirits, humanitarianism and his will to make of blood donation a national priority in public healthcare.

According to some news agencies, Princess Lalla Salma, along with other princesses from the royal family, is expected to donate her blood on Saturday in the national centre for blood transfusion in Rabat.

In the same respect, Morocco 24 association is intended to launch a very large blood donation campaign in Morocco starting from Rabat and Kenitra between the 18th and the 24th of March. This campaign aims at reaching 10 000 blood donations.

Abdelghani Bensaid, head of Morocco 24, stated that about 24000 people showed their support and praise for the campaign. This, according to Bensaid, is a sign of a future resounding success that the campaign is expected to achieve.

Besides Mr Bensaid added that a Flash Mob will be launched, featuring about 500 volunteers such as doctors and engineers in addition to a song performed by 9 Moroccan renowned artists.

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By Mohamed Hikal

Morocco News Tribune

Taroudant, Morocco | Amidst speculations surrounding the new press law, Moroccan Hespress magazine revealed that it was able to obtain exclusively the draft version of the new press and publication law in Morocco to be published in its tenth issue.

The scientific committee charged with issuing the law regulating press and publications, is finally done drafting ordinances regulating press and publication, electronic press, professional journalists and the law about establishing the national council for press.

These draft laws will be presented first to a legal commission and then to information ministry before it is finally handed over to parliament, according to the magazine.

The draft issued gives a clear idea on how authorities are expecting the national press to perform and work. That’s why very “particular “publishers and journalists were picked to go through the draft.

“They intend to get the press freedom into a new maze,” said Hespress chief publication manager Fouad Madani in his editorial.

“The new press law is expected to make journalists go through harsh conditions. So, no image could better describe the situation but a dark black cover to stand for the nearing era,” he added.

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By SamiraArabi

Morocco News Tribune

Agadir, Morocco| Constantine’s culture director Djamel Foughali said Tuesday that more than $ 191 billion will be necessary to rehabilitate the cultural facilities of city (431 km east of Algiers) and build others in anticipation of “Constantine, Capital of Arab Culture 2015” event, Algerian News Agency reported.

The suggested budget will be enough to finance a new program of 12 major operations suggested within the framework of this cultural event, Djamel Foughali told APS.

According to the same source, this project is supposed to build equipment of six annexes of Constantine’s Arts Centre, the rehabilitation and equipment of seven movie theatres, the building of a large theatre with a seating capacity of 3000 as well as building a national art and history museum.

Foughali added that Constantine, Capital of Arab Culture 2015” event is expected to help build and equip a palace of culture and a new exhibition pavilions, in addition to the rehabilitation of Mohamed-Laid Al Khalifa and la Medersa Arts Centers.

The Arab League Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ALESCO) on Sunday (December 30th) declared Constantine as the capital of the Arab culture in 2015.

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By Hassan Bendouz 

Morocco News Tribune

Agadir, Morocco |Staff Benda Bilili is a group of Congolese street musicians. They are homeless, handicapped and extremely poor, but their immense willingness, limitless ambitions and inspiring inner power took them up to the summit of fame and luxurious glory.

This music band is one of the most phenomenal and heart lifting success stories in the world music scene.

Staff Benda Bilili resembles to nothing you have ever seen or heard before. They are a group of paraplegic street musicians who lived in and around the grounds of the zoo in Kinshasa, Congo. Their incredible power lies in their stunning musical rhythms and typical instruments.

When you listen to their tones you feel the echoes of the mother land Africa .Their songs are shaped by the old-school rhythms, blues, reggae and African hits. The band is composed of four singers who are also guitarists, sitting on customized wheel chair tricycles and scooters.  

They are backed by an eye catching younger boy whose name is Roger Landu, he is an ex-street kid that the band sheltered under their wing. He plays a one-string electric lute that he designed and built himself out of a tin can.

Thanks to Renaud Barret, a film director producer and cinematographer, who discovered the band while filming a documentary in Kinshasa in 2004, staff Benda bilili was able to reach thetriumph of international music festivals and be widely known in all parts of the globe.

Renaud Barret, believing in their dream, has supported them with a feature-length film devoted to the life of Staff Benda Bilili, from the sidewalks of Kinshasa to their first concerts in Europe.

The lyrics of the Staff Benda Bilili are full of words of wisdom, and endowed with ironical advice to the miserable people who live in the streets. In Lingala, “Benda Billi” means “look beyond appearances”. 

This remarkable Congolese band Staff Benda Bilili could not bring such a courageous dream into existence if they were not armed with relentless energy and uplifting optimism.

In 2009, they released their first album, entitled “Très Très Fort”, which made the band one of the most emblematic African music groups around, as well as a symbol of resilience and triumph over calamity. It was in the same year 2009 that the band earned the Artist Award at Womex (World Music Expo).

Afterwards, they produced a follow-up album named “Bouger le monde”, which bears witness to the impressive musical evolution of the group, and to its unstoppable determination to keep making the world in love with their inspiring rhythms.

This incredible story of staff benda bilili is an interesting lesson and intriguing message to all cynics who don’t believe others could overcome the worries, fears and disadvantages to achieve their dreams.

Indeed, the only real disability in life is when one can not make full use of all one’s talents.

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By Moroccan Chef Alia

Morocco News Tribune

Ingredients

1 whole cleaned striped bass (or any other whole fish of your 1/4 cup of chopped cilantro

Vegetables:

2 medium potatoes – peeled and sliced

1 green pepper – cut into small strips

1 cup of baby carrots

1 tomato – sliced

1 lemon – sliced

Charmoula (Moroccan marinade):

1/2 cup of chopped parsley

1/2 cup of chopped cilantro

1/2 cup of tomato sauce

1/4 cup of olive oil

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

2 teaspoons of minced garlic

1 teaspoon of paprika

1 teaspoon of cumin

1 teaspoon of salt (to taste)

1/4 teaspoon of pepper (to taste)

Directions

1. Wash the fish with salt and lemon, and then rinse it with water. Make 3 deep cuts on the fish

2. Mix all the ingredients of the chamoula in a bowl.

3. In a baking pan place the potato slices. Put the fish on top or the potatoes.

4. Cover the fish (from the top and inside) with half of the charmoula.

5. Place the rest of the vegetables around and on top of the fish. Pour the rest of the charmoula over the vegetables.

6. Cover the fish with aluminum paper and let it bake in the oven at 350 F for 1 hour.

Bon Appetit!

(The video material is published with the author’s permission)

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By Hassan Bendouz

Morocco News Tribune

-Feature Story-

Agadir, Morocco—It has become part of the daily life scenes in the Moroccan cafés to find herds of common people from all ages gathering around tables of tea and coffee, debating football issues, arguing cheap politics and killing their life boredom with exchanging dirty jokes and non-stop gossip.

Few among them hold a newspaper for the sake of getting enlightened. Once opening a local newspaper, their eyes race to find any news story or article dealing with crimes of rapes, drug trafficking, or prostitution.

Café newspapers readers have a tremendous hunger to feed their greedy curiosity by digging in other people’s private lives. Indeed, they’re in a dire need to stuff their starving minds with the trivial details of soccer games, who killed who, who robbed who in the marginalized ghettos of the kingdom.

Some of these cafes’ regular attendees are middle aged men who spent 100 percent of their non-working time drinking lots of tea and switching seats in café terraces.

In Morocco, there are cafe terraces lining main squares and decorating backstreets.  It just looks as if the people in cafes outnumber those at work. I found it extremely abnormal that some of them come very early in mornings even before the café owners themselves. There is another category of people who sit around café tables the whole day simply by ordering a small tea pot or a tiny cup of black coffee.

This scene made me reflect on this issue and dared to ask a friend of mine who works as a waiter in a café around where I live. I asked him why these people spend the whole day in your café. He laughed and replied “Most of these men colonizing our terraces for long hours don’t feel at ease with their wives and kids at home. They just escape their marital life and take shelters in people’s pains and sorrows while reading newspapers”.

It’s obvious that nature does not stand emptiness and void. Cafés are not made to kill one’s precious lifetime. Cafés are not psychological hospitals where people alleviate their inner tribulations and cure their mental sicknesses.

In fact, there are few libraries in our neighborhoods, but most of them stay empty the whole time. People could cross hundreds of kilometers in order to seek healing miracles via sleeping in a shrine, but they cannot cross their front doors or go beyond the borders of their homes to have a couple of minutes reading in their neighborhood library.

Most of the Moroccan families decorate parts of their living rooms with some common and scary religious books that they hardly read. These books turned to be safe havens for spiders and landing places for dusts since they are rarely opened.

We invest lots of money beautifying our bedrooms, widening our living rooms and stocking food in our fridges, but very few among us include a library in the house construction plans.

What really aches in the heart is that when some people find you still reading after graduating and having a job, they just warn you to stop doing it, so as not to get nuts in the trip of seeking the unknown.

In our society, all concepts have been distorted. People cherish being ignorant and defend it to death while knowledge is viewed as a journey of wasting time and energy.

In our society, the majority of families merely send their kids to schools and universities for the sake of getting a job, not for the love of knowledge itself.

People need to understand that books help us understand who we are and how we should behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.

Some people claim that excess reading will undoubtedly lead you to inevitable craziness, where you risk walking naked, barefooted and throw stones at people. It is strange but true.

It’s true that you don’t have to burn books in order to destroy any nation’s culture and civilization. All it takes to do so is preventing its people from stop reading. And the question now is: what does prevent us from reading?

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By Moroccan Chef Alia

Morocco News Tribune

Ingredients

Chicken: 2 pounds (1 kg) of chicken drumsticks

Chicken: 1 pound (500 grams) onions (grated)

Chicken: 1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro

Chicken: 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley

Chicken: 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric, a

pinch of saffron threads

Chicken: 2 cinnamon sticks

Chicken: 1 tablespoon olive oil

Chicken: 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Chicken: 1/2 teaspoon smen (ghee / clarified butter)

Chicken: Water to cook the chicken.

Dried Fruits: Blanched almonds

Dried Fruits: Dates, raisins, and walnuts

Vermicelli: 1 pound (500 grams) of Italian vermicelli (very fine pasta)

Vermicelli: Water + salt

Vermicelli: butter

Directions

Step 1: Making the Chicken

* In a pot, drizzle the olive oil and vegetable oil. Add the grated onions, chicken spices, cinnamon sticks, and the

chicken. Mix all the ingredients together using a wooden spoon.

* Cover the pot and cook the chicken on medium heat for 5 minutes. Stir the chicken from time to time.

* After 5 minutes, add the finely chopped parsley and cilantro as well as the smen (ghee). Make sure to adjust the

amounto salt you are using in this dish to the saltiness of the ghee you are using. Otherwise, the chicken may become

too salty.

* Mix all the ingredients and add a little bit of water, just enough to cover half the height of the chicken.

* Cover the pot, increase the heat to medium-high, and let the chicken cook until done.

* From time to time, check on the chicken, stir it, and add water if necessary. The water should be covering half the height of the chicken until the chicken is cooked.

* The chicken should be done within 30-40 minutes. Taste the chicken, it should be soft.

* Remove the chicken from the pot and place it in a bowl.

* Uncover the pot, increase the heat to high, and let the sauce cook for 10 minutes until the liquids evaporate and the sauce becomes thick and silky. 

* Once the sauce has reduced, turn off the heat, bring back the chicken to the pot, cover and keep it there until ready to serve the dish.

Step 2: Preparing the Dried Fruits

* You can use any dried fruits of your choice, in the amounds your want or just skip them.

* Soak the dates and the raisins in two separate bowls filled with warm water at least 30 minutes before using them.

* To blanch almonds, just place whole almonds in boiling water for 5 minutes, then rinse them and rub them using a towel. The skin of the almonds will easily be removed.

* First, we are going to fry the almonds. In a flat pan heat vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, place the blanched almonds in the hot oil and fry until the almonds get a nice golden brown color.

* Once done, remove the almonds from oil and place them in a plate covered with paper towel to absorb any excell oil.

* Optional: Take some of the fried almonds and mix, using a food processor, with a bit of orange blossom water and powdered sugar. 

* Steam the raisins and pitted dates separately for 10-15 minutes until they soften up.

Step 3:  Steaming the Vermicelli

* To steam the vermicelli, I am going to use my couscous pot. However, feel free to use your regular steamer.

* Fill the bottom of the couscous pot with water and add 1/2 lemon.

* Take 2 tablespoons of the oil where your fried the almonds (or just regular vegetable oil) and using your hand, mix it gently with the vermicelli until it is completely coated with the oil.

* Place the vermicelli in the top portion of the couscous pot, cover, and steam on medium-high heat until you see the first steam coming out from the vermicelli. This will take around 15-20 minutes.

* Remove the vermicelli from the top part of the couscous pot, and place in a large plate. Add 1/2 cup of salted water to the vermicelli, mix with your hands, and let the vermicelli rest for about 5 minutes.

* Return the vermicelli to the couscous pot and steam again until you see the steam coming out from the vermicelli (this will take around 10 minutes). Note that while the vermicelli was resting, leave the fire on the bottom part of the couscous pot filled with water.

* Check the vermicelli. If it is not ready, you may have to steam it for a 3rd time. Remove it from the couscous pot, place in a plate, and add a bit of water (not salted this time, if the vermicelli is salty enough). Let it rest for 5 minutes and place back in the couscous pot. Steam for 5-10 minutes until done but make sure not to overcook it, otherwise, it becomes too soft.

* When the vermicelli is ready, place it in a large plate and fluff it (using forks) with a little bit of butter.

Step 4:  Final Steps

* In general prepare the chicken the dried fruits in advance and the vermicelli just right before serving the dish. Heat the chicken if necessary.

* To plate the dish first mix the hot vermicelli with the steamed raisins.

* In a large plate, place a layer of vermicelli. Put the chicken on top of the vermicelli and cover it with the thick sauce.

* Cover the chicken with the rest of the vermicelli into a dome shape.

* Optional: Place the ground almonds (with powdered sugar and orange blossom water) at the top of the dome.

* Decorate with the almonds, walnuts, and dates. 

Bon Appetit! 

(The video material is published with the author’s permission) 

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