Very moorish (+recipes)

It was a cold, drizzly day when I was picked up outside the ivy-covered brick walls of the Burnham Army Camp in Canterbury, after a long day judging a culinary competition.

Restaurateurs turned travel-touring couple Ian and Alison Metcalfe collected me for a visit to the Riccarton Farmers Market. On the way our conversation turned to the red city of Marrakech, and I became intrigued with the Metcalfes' tales of bargain-hunting in the souks and of romantic courtyard dining.

Ian described the vivid markets where every spice you can imagine is piled up in small mountain-like peaks.

The markets are cleared out every evening then replaced with a new set of transient tenants setting up rows of small restaurants side by side, complete with hanging lights.

Magical and exotic Morocco is found across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain. The food there is beautifully aromatic and very diverse, encompassing Berber, Moorish, Mediterranean and Arab influences.

Moroccan food has been refined over centuries by cooks from the royal kitchens, using spices, citrus, olives and aromatic rose and orange blossom waters.

Dadas, or the mistresses of homes, spend hours cooking with glazed earthenware and copper vessels and the kanoun, a clay brazier where kebabs and slow-cooking tagines simmer away.

Guests are seated around a low table on cushions with thick towels to cover their knees while the hostess serves a silver pitcher of sweet mint tea.

Moroccans almost always eat communally, with their hands or using bread as a utensil.

If guests are coming, the hostess will prepare perhaps dozens of small courses, such as bastilla, a crisp filo-like pastry, as thin as tissue paper, filled with chicken and spices then dusted with cinnamon sugar.

Depending on the abundance of harvest, these hot and cold plates offer wonderful, intense flavours of spice, salt, sweet and sour.

My introduction to Moroccan food was one of pure fire - harissa, a chilli garlic paste that startled every part of my body - only calmed down by a tomato, onion, melon and preserved lemon salad with crispy shavings of lamb.

Moroccan cuisine is truly wonderful food everyone should experience.