Mad for moroccan
Since it opened in April in London's Heddon Street, Momo has been one of the outstanding successes of the year. The 95-seat outpost of a Parisian restaurant, "404", founded by Momo Murad, has a two-week waiting list for bookings and serves on average around 275 covers, six days a week.
The trappings of exotic decor and mood, glamorous waiting staff and novelty all contribute to its winning ways, as do the prices (main courses around £10), but the authentic Moroccan cooking is the clincher.
It is prepared almost single-handedly in a basement kitchen by one-time press photographer Abdalla El-Rgachi. He launched the parent restaurant eight years ago and has scored a second hit over here.
Morocco has developed one of the great Mediterranean cuisines. It is practical, nourishing, intensely flavoured; its staple dish, couscous, is cheap, spicy and plentiful. Yet the repertoire is much wider, more sophisticated and far more subtle.
Tagines take their name from the conically-lidded clay pot in which they are served. In them, meat and vegetables simmer and steam. It is little different from a Lancashire hotpot, but the time needed for preparation is longer, the number of ingredients and flavourings more varied, and the options for chefs to experiment apparently endless.
The origin of tagines lies somewhere between the Moroccan cities of Fez and Rabat. Over the past 50 years, the classic recipes have been slightly modified. Smem, a kind of rancid butter, has been supplanted by olive oil, and mutton by lamb, and shorter cooking times have been introduced. However, the critical ingredients are unchanged - pickled lemons, ras el hanout (a spice mix) and coriander leaves, the trinity of flavourings that make the cuisine unique.
In a domestic situation, tagines are also a cooking utensil. At Momo, 60 portions of lamb and as many of chicken are prepared in batches in large saucepans, without noticeably impairing the quality. In some respects, the result may be improved since the meat is marinated overnight rather than for two or three hours.
