Tajine and tanjia: the Moroccan traditional cooking

Tajine and tanjia: the Moroccan traditional cooking

Tajine: Berber praise to slowness

The Berber term “tajine” refers to both the recipe and the cooking tool, a sort of terracotta plate, surmounted by a conical lid, reminiscent of a witch’s hat. And there’s something magical about its preparation, of a wonderful simplicity.

Just put the ingredients in this bizarre pot, lay it directly on the embers or on a “kanoun”, and arm yourself with patience. The magic begins. Slowly. There is no need of water, oil or anything else: the steam, released by the slow cooking, rise along the terracotta cone, to fall back on the bottom of the plate, thus moistening the food… And magically the meats become soft, and the different flavors marry gracefully: plums or dates with lamb, lemons and olives with chicken, eggs and tomatoes with «kefta» (beef meatballs). Without forgetting, of course, the spices, such as saffron, pepper, ginger, coriander, cinnamon, cumin… which envelop everything with their intense scent.

The tajine seems to have been invented by the Berbers, nomadic people for excellence, in search of a dish that was both for cooking and serving. In a country where water is a rare and precious good, this terracotta dish also allows you to cook by stewing everything offered by the territory: vegetables and dried fruits, with fish or meat.

Whatever the recipe, the ritual does not change: you remove the dish from the fire and place it on a table, and then you dip from the plate with bread. This is perhaps the most beautiful magic of the tajine: its conviviality.

Tanjia: between history and legend

The tanjia is the emblematic dish of Marrakech: more than a dish, a state of mind. The recipe is very simple. Cooking is all a poem. You must must bring his small jar to the “farnatchi” (the wood-burning oven that heats the traditional hammams).

There, the tanjia will cook for hours under the ashes. You must also know that the tradition of marrakchie wants the tanjia to be prepared exclusively by men!

The legend that there was once in Marrakech, a long time ago, a husband and his wife who spent their time fighting. One day, during one of these discussions, the wife cried to the husband: “You scream and scream, but you could never do without me. If I were not there, you would not even be able to prepare food”.

The husband took this insidious attack very badly. Then he began to prove to his wife that he would not starve without her. The problem is that he knew nothing about cooking. But he was not discouraged (the honor of all the males of the empire of Morocco was at stake).

He then took all the ingredients he found in the kitchen, mixed them in a jar and brought it to cook in the farnatchi, because it was not even able to use the brazier or the «canoun» (traditional oven).

The tanjia was born!

If you are going to stay at riad Alkemia for your holiday in Marrakech you will have the opportunity to see and taste some delicious dishes made with tanjia or tajine, and even learn how to prepare them with a Cooking class.