moroccan tagine kefta (without the tagine)

“After spending weeks trying to find someone to teach me to cook in Morocco, I finally got lucky when Youssef, a new member to the hosting network, created a profile stating he’s a chef in Marrakech, happy to share his passion for cuisine with others!

“The riad where he works is quite nice (it’s a traditional Moroccan house with interior garden, converted into a hotel). Youssef explained that normally, guests who want to learn to cook have to pay for the lesson plus the meal (twenty five euros), so in order to teach me, I’d have to wait until the evening, around 5 or 6pm each day, and once the owners were gone, I could sneak into the kitchen and learn to my heart’s content.” (p.224)

For those who have been to Morocco, you will certainly have had your share of tagines. It’s the name of a dish, as well as the clay vessel it’s cooked in, usually with a cone lid and a knob for lifting it without burning your hands. In the streets, you’ll see simmering tagines slow cooking on coal-heated stands. But in modern restaurants, gas ovens are common, and some will cook part of the meal (usually longer-cooking meats) with pots and pans, before reassembling and dressing the final dish in a tagine for presentation.

As with crock pots and other earthenware, the physical vessel adds to the flavour of tagines. With this popular dish, however, the eggs and sauce do most of the work (you’ll get your first flash of what’s to come when you smell the refreshing ingredients blended together), and you can achieve great results by cooking in a simple frying pan.

This recipe traditionally has two ‘spices’ that may be hard to find: a colouring agent, used instead of saffron (which is too costly for many small kitchens); people also use turmeric as an alternative, which should be easier to find (it does have a distinct flavour though, so don’t add too much). The second ingredient is kefta spice mix, which despite numerous tries, I was unable to acquire a recipe for. Youssef would buy it from the local butchers, who mix it in with the ground meat that they sell. I searched the net for the secret (it can be bought online), but what I did to prepare for this blog entry (instead of using my kefta spice) was to add salt, cumin powder, ginger powder, chili powder, coriander powder, and cinnamon to the beef. Chopped garlic, cilantro, and red onion could also give it a kick.

The first element of the dish is the tomato sauce, which can also be used to spice up other recipes:

tomato sauce

a bit of water, red onion, fresh parsley, fresh cilantro, tomatoes cut into chunks, garlic, salt, bay leaf, black pepper, lots of cumin powder, ginger powder, chili powder, colouring agent, lemon ‘confit’ (lemons are pickled in Morocco (I actually managed to carry a bag of them out of the country and across continents with me), but what I use in this sauce when I don’t have any is some lemon zest)

– blend everything together, heat in pot/pan/tagine until reduced

tagine kefta

tomato sauce, ground beef or lamb, kefta spice mix (or your own adaptation of the suggested mix above), green peas or string beans halved, eggs

– combine spice mix with ground meat, and form bite-size balls
– heat tomato sauce in pan/tagine, add meatballs, peas/beans and cover, being careful not to overcook the meat
– in the last minute, crack the eggs into the sauce, cover to let steam (should remain runny), serve with lots of bread

enjoy!!