A Moroccan Feast at my Home
Yesterday’s blog was all about the preparation of a traditional Moroccan bisteeya and I was glad to read in the comments that a cooking lesson was appreciated! As I mentioned, last Friday evening I hosted a dinner party for thirty guests. We recently finished taping Martha Stewart’s Cooking School, which will be airing on PBS this coming autumn and I’m so excited! This dinner was for people who worked on that show’s production, both from PBS and MSLO. In addition to the fabulous bisteeya, there was also a delicious couscous with chicken, lamb, merguez, and vegetables. Couscous is a dish of semolina that is traditionally served with a meat or a vegetable stew spooned over it. Chef Pierre Schaedelin gave guests a choice of both. On yesterday’s blog, I showed you a cooking vessel called a tagine, and Pierre prepared a savory tagine of lamb and eggplant. There was also a spectacular dessert of assorted citrus sorbets. I really enjoyed myself and I think my guests did, too!
1 I decorated the green parlor with a big vase of fragrant trumpet lilies from the garden. Their aroma filled the house.
2 Begonias from my greenhouse collection graced these antique pedestals.
3 More begonias in another corner
4 The chartreuse blossoms of lady's mantle filled this vase.
5 A giant fern sat upon another pedestal.
6 Maidenhair ferns and another begonia on the green marble table in the entrance hall
7 Two beautiful flowering orchids
8 The table in the canary room was set with lusterware china and had flowering succulents as centerpieces.
9 The party was to begin with cocktails on the terrace, but a late afternoon thunderstorm changed that plan.
10 When the thunder and lightening passed, I conducted a garden tour.
11 Guests included Lisa Wagner and Michael Morrison from my television team.
12 After touring around, I led the group back to the house for drinks and hors d'oeuvres. My outfit was in keeping with the Moroccan theme.
13 With music by Khaled playing in the background, guests were treated to shots of Chef Pierre's fresh pea and mint soup from the garden and sweet corn velouté. Pierre's soups are always so creamy without any cream added at all.
14 There were also corn cilantro and ras el hanout pancakes topped with poached quail eggs. Ras el hanout is a complex, aromatic Moroccan spice blend, that usually includes cardamom, nutmeg, anise, mace, cinnamon, ginger, various peppers, and turmeric, but 30 or more ingredients may be used.
15 Khanh Phan, Project Manager, Station Relations for WETA, enjoying soup and a glass of pomegranate punch
16 The dinner menu: Bisteeya - Couscous Royal with Chicken, Lamb, Merguez, and Vegetables - Tagine of Lamb and Eggplant - Assorted Citrus Sorbets - Coffee and Tea
17 Pierre was assisted in the kitchen by Sarah Mastracco, from my television show kitchen staff. Here they are slicing the flaky bisteeya for the first course.
18 This is the tagine of lamb and eggplant, which slow roasted in the oven under the cone-shaped dome of the tagine.
19 Pierre garnishing platters of Couscous Royale
20 The Couscous Royale was made with Chicken, Lamb, Merguez & Vegetables. Merguez is a spicy sausage used in North African cuisine.
21 There were also Moroccan potatoes cooked with fragrant spices.
22 A fluffy couscous was steamed with plump raisins.
23 Pierre also made a beautiful and colorful vegetable stew to ladle over the couscous.
24 The main course was set up as a buffet in my kitchen and guests could help themselves to this spectacular meal.
25 Greta Anthony from my television show was quite happy with the menu.
26 I sat with my guests at the long dining table in the brown room. There was much merriment.
27 The group that ate in the canary room
28 It's berry season at the farm and all of these beauties were picked that day - gooseberries, white currants, black currants, and red currants.
29 Dessert was homemade assorted citrus sorbets and Pierre lined each dish with colorful fresh citrus segments.
30 He then place a scoop each of lemon, blood orange, and grapefruit sorbet and garnished the dish with fresh red and white currants. Beautiful and delicious!
31 With Michael Murphy, Chief Content Officer at KCPT in Kansas City, MO
32 With Karen Fritz - VP Program Development & Syndication at WETA
33 A photo with Donald Thoms - VP of Lifestyle Programming, PBS
34 Suzanne Masri - Senior Director, Station Relations at WETA, Sarah Carey of Everyday Food, and Karen Fritz
35 Gary Nardilla and Lisa Wagner
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Good morning Martha, love your outfit and accessories, the menu looks délicieux! Pierre is an amazing chef, love love the Couscous Royale. Beautiful evening thank you for sharing xo
Posted by: Rowaida Flayhan | June 28th, 2012 at 2:11 am
Martha, the food looks good, but is probably too spicy for my taste. But, all the flowers and plants are exactly to my "taste".
Your outfit is gorgeous!!!!!!! I've noticed that the simplier the lines of your outfit, the better you look style-wise. Your face always looks great.
I wish you'd have sent some of that rain down south. We need it, and will really need it after the rest of this week.
Gloria G!!
Posted by: Gloria | June 28th, 2012 at 4:16 am
What a delicious occasion and how beautiful everything looks...including you! I'm so excited about your new show. I can't wait to see it. All the best and thanks for this interesting and informative post.
Posted by: Burndett Andres | June 28th, 2012 at 6:47 am
Great party for great group hosted by great lady. PBS is going to have such wonderful shows with American Cooking and hope that there is also gardening. What can you cook without a garden?
Posted by: ann | June 28th, 2012 at 6:59 am
Yea!! Thanks for the picture of your beautiful China Martha! I also love the begonias, they look perfect sitting on your antiques pedestals. The food looks delicious especially the bisteeya. Your fans are so excited for your cooking show this fall. I personally have taped all of "Martha Bakes" and will do so with this new show. Thanks for sharing your dinner party, you looked Tres Chic!
Posted by: Cindy F | June 28th, 2012 at 7:29 am
The green room is a very pleasant colour of green. And I see you still use your Drabware tableware. I have a set of 12 as well. Lovely!
Posted by: Darrell White | June 28th, 2012 at 9:09 am
Could you recommend a cookbook for beginners on Moroccan cuisine? It looks delcious and healthy and yet I would get started with a book recommendation. These last two blog entries have interested me. Also I look forward to some posts on the philanthropy seminar which you attended. Scaling is important to all kinds of investment and I would like to hear and see your observations on it given your large investment in the center dedicated to your mother in NYC on ageing well along with your continued committment to entrepreneurs of all kinds!
Posted by: E. Teresa Touey | June 28th, 2012 at 9:11 am
I was amused by the Bedford Gray umbrellas
Posted by: Darrell White | June 28th, 2012 at 9:11 am
Hi Martha, Seeing yesterday's blog about you and Chef Pierre making that delicious Moroccan Bisteeya was like an introduction to your new PBS TV Show that we will get to enjoy next September and I can't wait! Sure hope you get to do more PBS shows about gardening, your farm, your animals, and everything having to do with Living! This blog today was another fabulous one and these photos are FANTASTIC! The flower arrangements throughout your home were beautiful and the table arrangements were superb! Having that garden tour after the thunder and lightning storm must have been a lot of fun for everyone and all of your friends sure did look happy inside and outside! It's easy to see how much fun all of you had and you looked marvelous and so happy! How nice that you had such great umbrellas for all of your friends to stay dry outside! All of the other foods and deserts that Chef Pierre and Sarah were producing looked so delicious! Sure would have been fun to be there, also! Thank you so much for all of your blogs-you are so inspiring, generous, and thoughtful to share these blogs with all of us and I love them all! Hope you have another terrific day! Jan
Posted by: Jan Erickson | June 28th, 2012 at 9:51 am
Martha,
The food looks so good! Thanks for sharing this blog. I will be on vacay going to Portland, OR, so I may not comment as regular as I do until next Friday.
Posted by: KLBrown | June 28th, 2012 at 10:04 am
Thanks for sharing! What an amazing experience for your guests. I'm going to try making a few of the dishes at home. I liked how you incorporated elements found in your garden into the dinner party.
Posted by: Andrea | June 28th, 2012 at 10:05 am
Hi Martha,
First of all I want to thank Jan, KLBrown and Gloria for their much appreciated birthday wishes of yesterday. I had a great day, ate a lot and only gained (point) .2 pounds but it was worth it! Thanks again gals.
~
Martha, everything looked delicious and your pictures are great. It looked like everyone was having a wonderful time and that is what matters – it is what I enjoy when entertaining. Thanks for sharing. Trish
Posted by: Trish | June 28th, 2012 at 10:17 am
Mmm, everything looks delightful! I love Moroccan cuisine! And the currants look amazing; I just put in a few gooseberry plants in my fledgling garden, and I am looking forward to having a crop like yours.
I am very excited to hear about the PBS series. That is great!!
Posted by: Ruth | June 28th, 2012 at 10:38 am
Good afternoon Martha.
The feast must have been a success! Your Moroccan style was superb. The food seemed to be very spicy for my taste, but very attractive.
Thank you for sharing these scrumptious tastes with us.
Malú
Posted by: Maria Lúcia | June 28th, 2012 at 12:10 pm
Hi Martha,
30 very lucky people. Viewing your gardens, being guess in your home and having dinner prepared by Chef Schaedelin. So looking forward to the new TV show.
Posted by: pat m | June 28th, 2012 at 12:27 pm
Beautiful again!!! Loved the menu and the beautiful berries. You do have so much fun Martha!!!! Friends, food and a fabulous place....your wonderful farm!!!
Posted by: Frances | June 28th, 2012 at 2:32 pm
Martha,
Your outfit was very becoming, and the food looked wonderful. Thanks for talking about your trumpet lilies. My daughter bought one last year that, unfortunately, did not survive spring weeding. I wanted to replace it, as the fragrance is lovely, but neither she nor I knew what type of lily it was. Thanks to your blog, I was able to tell my husband that I knew the name of "our" lily. When he asked how I found out its name, I simply stated, "Martha Stewart told me." P.S. I think the trumpet lily should be called a Martha Stewart lily...both are so beautiful
Posted by: Lee | June 28th, 2012 at 5:41 pm
All looks delicious and the setting lovely, showers and all!
Ah, a poor girl only dreams of such things, but the photos help!
Could you share some of the recipes?
Posted by: DCM | June 28th, 2012 at 8:21 pm
Thank you for sharing, so very happy to still have you with a new venue! Love the farm, beautiful setting, nice to see the canaries.
Posted by: Robin Ball | June 28th, 2012 at 8:39 pm
Martha,
What a gorgeous dinner party and I love your outfit!
Can't wait to see Cooking School!
Xo Dani
Posted by: Dani Fiori | June 28th, 2012 at 8:52 pm
Just Awesome! Wish I could join you. Aloha from the Big Island of Hawaii
Posted by: local liz | June 28th, 2012 at 10:09 pm
Have you heard about Alia? If you like Morrocan food, you must check out her Youtube channel. She was voted as one of the top Youtube chefs this year!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/CookingWithAlia/112363438841256
Posted by: Nancy D'Alessandro | June 29th, 2012 at 11:45 am
Yowsa! What an AMAZING meal. I can just imagine how special your guests felt. To have a meal at Martha Stewart's house and then such a delicous and carefully crafted one. Restorative beauty, that meal! I love Morrocan food.
Posted by: Karen | June 29th, 2012 at 1:14 pm
Hi Martha, I have just subscribed to all your connecting sites and am absolutely love it. I am from Australia, but when I want to get the magazines it does no allow me to do so, is this just for america, do they not sent outside USA. If not all good i will be happy with is available to me on line. keep up the good work, I also love your show that we get in australia, never know how old they are as there is never a date on it. thank you, rosa
Posted by: Rosa | June 29th, 2012 at 3:53 pm
All around beautiful, summer-y color scheme and tablescape. The fresh pea and mint soup, while most likely delicious, looked a bit unfinished - perhaps a micro green or a tiny mint leaf as its garnish? Perhaps 3 little kernels of roasted corn atop the corn velouté? Also, placement of the demi cups of green and yellow soup would have been more pleasing to the eye, not just to the palate, if they were on a diagonal, or in checkerboard-style? Maybe the photograph was the prep tray. Thanks for allowing constructive feedback. Take it with a grain of fleur de sel!
Posted by: Jo | July 2nd, 2012 at 10:18 am
I was there and Martha was the perfect host!!
Posted by: Donald THOMS | July 3rd, 2012 at 10:43 pm
Beautiful array of colors and textures. Enjoyed the pictures especially the sorbet. What appealing and gorgeous colors. What a refreshing end to an exquisite meal. Morocco is captivating in its mystery. Had the pleasure of a brief visit some years back during my stay with friends in Southern Spain.Too short a time to enjoy it's shopping and culinary delights more in depth.I am sure that the evening was delightful.
Posted by: Dina Maria Martinez | July 3rd, 2012 at 11:52 pm
After diligently looking for your bisteeya recipe -- trusting that you wouldn't advertise it if it was not on your site -- I realized that you were only putting in a commercial for your cookware and a 'look at me' ego boost. Sad business.
Posted by: anne Sauter | January 13th, 2013 at 3:18 am
I would like to know if I can get the recipe used for the corn, cilantro, and ras el hanout pancakes, please?
Posted by: Sally | February 8th, 2013 at 12:49 pm