Tagine

What it is

The word tagine denotes both the earthenware pot with its conical lid and the dish cooked and served in it.¹ Among the dishes described in a 2021 study on food tourism in Morocco for WIPO and OMPIC, the tagine of free-range chicken (poulet beldi) with olives and lemon comes first.²

According to the same study, guests wash their hands before the meal in a copper or silver basin, the tass, which is passed round.³ When guests are invited, the dish stands in the middle in a tagine from Safi or a porcelain bowl, surrounded by salads; the host breaks the bread by hand, hands it out and invites everyone to eat with “Bismillah”.⁴ People eat with three fingers, using small pieces of bread to take up sauce with a little meat or vegetables, and tea and pastries follow.⁵

What it is made of

For chicken tagine the study lists a free-range chicken, ginger, turmeric, saffron, garlic, onions, olive oil, smen, a bunch of parsley and coriander, preserved lemons and green olives.⁶ Green olives belong to the everyday version; for the festive one, mostly at weddings, violet olives picked riper are used.⁷

Each coast has its own fish tagine: the tagra, with anchovies, sardines or other sea fish, is common in the north from Tangier through Tetouan, Larache and Asilah to the Mediterranean coast, and it is cooked in the neighbourhood oven after the bread has been baked.⁸ Around Agadir, Essaouira, Taroudant and Tiznit conger eel is cooked with onions and raisins, and in the south between Tan-Tan and Dakhla a fish tagine with rice.⁹

In Tetouan, 96 of 145 people questioned by Hassan Akdi and Noureddine Achboun named fish tagine as the most important thing they had eaten in the city, above all the tagine of chtoun.¹⁰ The fresh fish is laid in a circle in the tagine and seasoned with salt, cumin, paprika, olive oil, coriander, garlic, lemon juice, hot pepper to taste and a little tomato.¹¹

When

The study for WIPO and OMPIC names as occasions for chicken tagine feasts, the lunch on the third day after a birth, weddings, engagements and the feast that ends Ramadan.¹²

During Ramadan some Moroccans cannot imagine breaking the fast without fish, and fish tagine then stands beside harira, dates and chebakia.¹³ In Tangier and Tetouan people eat tagra, a sardine tagine from the oven, and in El Jadida a tagine of conger eel with onions and raisins.¹⁴ According to Morocco World News, a large tagine for everyone, with fish, chicken, lamb or vegetables, belongs on the table when the fast is broken.¹⁵