From time to time you might want to give a little razzle to your rice, or kick start your couscous. Or you might want to give a Moroccan flavour to meat or chicken.

All you need, to make like a Marakchi is a spoonful of Ras el Hanout, otherwise known as Top of the Shop, a mixture of up to 40 different spices that may or may not have aphrodisiac qualities.

• One and a half kilos of sardines
• 2 potatoes
• 2 pointy green peppers
• 2 large tomatoes
• Cumin
• Salt
• Olive oil

Preheat a medium oven. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Clean and wash the fish, dry them carefully and arrange them, opened, skin side down on the paper.

Slice the potatoes paper thin and lay the slices on top of the fish.

For 4

• 1 chicken
• 1 red onion
• 8 cloves of garlic
• 4 tsps minced fresh coriander
• 1 lime
• 1 and a half tsps pepper
• 2 tsps cumin
• 2 tsps ground ginger
• 1 tsp Ras el hanout
• 1 envelope saffron
• 2 large pinches salt
• Half a preserved lemon
• Olive oil

Wash whole chicken with salt and water and put in pan with lid. Add all the rest of the ingredients except the oil, using only the flesh of the preserved lemon, and a cup of water. Boil for 10 minutes then turn it over and add more water, doing this every ten minutes or so. After 40 minutes prod the chicken all over with a knife and give it another 10 minutes or so. Then put it into an oven dish in a hot oven to roast for 30 minutes. Add two tablespoons of olive oil to the chicken juice in the saucepan and boil it to reduce it to a sauce. Cut lemon peel into strips to use as decoration.

And her notion of minimal accompaniments. Serves 6

For the tagine

• 1.5 kilo of leg of lamb
• 1 red onion cut very fine
• 1 clove of garlic minced
• 2 tsps cumin
• 2 tsps minced fresh coriander
• 1 large tomato grated
• 1 tsp Ras el Hanout
• I packet powdered saffron
• 2 tsps ground ginger
• Half a cup of Olive oil
• Salt
• 1 bay leaf

Delicious additions

• Almonds in their skins
• Prunes
• Sugar
• Cinnamon
• Oil

Chunk the lamb and tip it into a pressure cooker. Add all the other tagine ingredients up to delicious additions and give them a good stir. Brown, stirring from time to time, for about 10 minutes.

Morocco: Marrakech and Imlil (December 2009) from Kogainon Films on Vimeo.