Nothing in Marrakesh seemed quite as ubiquitous as the tagine.  I love this style of cooking.  Driving to the High Atlas Mountains, I saw roadside restaurants with dozens of the earthenware ceramic pots lined on a table over low burning flames.  I don’t know how you could not like the Moroccan Tagine.  The flavor combinations, the tenderness of the meat, and the sweet smelling steam rising from the hole at the top of the pot, all attract locals and tourists alike for a late afternoon feast.

Tagine is the name for the pot, but is it also the name of the dish, you you may order a tagine of lamb on a menu (as you would order a stew, for example) which means it is cooked in a tagine, that triangle shaped pot in the photo.  According to Paula Wolfert who has a book on the subject of Moroccan eating, the meat can be a cheaper cut, like a chicken thigh or a lamb shoulder because it cooks for so long, that it eventually falls off the bone, full of flavor.  Also, cooking in a tagine  doesn’t require browning the meat first (really much attention after you get it started!).  Walking along a waterfall in the Ourika Valley, I lifted the lid of one a steaming tagine at the urging of our nimble guide. Beneath a hunk of meat, rounds of potatoes cooked in bubbling, aromatic liquid, I was hungry right away.

I ate two very memorable tagines during my four days in Marrakesh.  The first was the ultra common, and ultra delicious chicken with preserved lemon and olives. The second was lamb with prunes and walnuts, a great sweet spice combination.  I love that tagine cooking accepts all sorts of ingredients, it means whatever is in season,  plums, apples, cherries, almonds, walnuts, oranges, etc, can be used.  Those examples are just the trees I saw in bloom, I’m certain there are many more. In both dishes, the meat was succulent and dripping in juice.  The lamb was maybe my favorite, not overwhelmingly lamby and perfectly balanced by the dried fruit…oh I want some right now!

Here are two recipes that I intend to try as soon as I can, although my host brother in Madrid told me (lovingly of course) that the Moroccan dinner I made last week was best eaten by the dog. I think I might wait until I get back to the States….

Chicken Tagine with Olives and Preserved Lemon

Lamb Tagine with Prunes and Cinnamon

Enjoy!