Classic Moroccan cuisine - Tagine and Couscous

The thought of Morocco often conjures images of mint tea, cone-shaped tagines and the ever famous couscous, which has attained international fame and reach in all corners of the earth. The foods cooked in tagines resemble slow cooker-braised foods – meat and vegetables, sometimes with fruit, piled up in a tagine and slowly cooked over an open stove for many hours. The classic combinations are chicken with lemon, olives and almond; lamb with prunes or lemon and sometimes beef (called berber style in the Marrakech area) with vegetables. The tagine is an interesting cookware but the really pretty ones are for decoration only as the chemical paint colors used are not food-friendly. The good ol’ terracotta ones are the ones used in kitchens throughout Morocco. The best tagines are made in a town called Safi, near the coast of the Mediterranean sea. I really enjoy ‘Moroccan Salads’ – a spread of 4 or 6 (sometimes 10 in upscale restaurants) side dishes of all sorts of seasonal vegetables, very often cooked and nicely spiced with cumin, cardamom, cinnamon or a popular local combination spice called Ras Al’hanout.

One of the most memorable dishes I've had on a recent trip to Marrakech in springtime is from a restaurant overlooking the Djmaa el Fna called Le Marrakchi. It was a couscous dish, beautiful golden and freshly cooked semolina couscous, topped with a lamb shank that has been slowly braised with caramelized onions and raisins. The raisins are so plump; they are just like mini grapes. The sweetness of the raisins and the onions, combined with the slight meatiness of the lamb and the mellow rounded flavor of the couscous is a heavenly combination that is sweet, tangy, savory and earthy at the same time. It was an amazing dish and writing about it is making me salivate right now!