North Africa · Volume 14, The Tagine and the Preserve
Mrouzia
Fez
Illustration
- Time
- Hands on 2 hours 30 · Waiting 12 hours
- Researched
- Researched from 101 sources in the brief
Mrouzia exists because of Eid al-Adha. The home slaughter yields more meat than a household can eat, and mrouzia is what you do with the surplus: cook it under sugar, honey and fat until it will keep, then store it in clay jars for at least two months under its own fat. Note the ratio before you flinch at it: the raisins weigh half what the meat weighs. That is a preservation strategy, not a garnish.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. About 2 hours 30, plus 6 to 12 hours marinating.
Ingredients
- 1 kg bone-in lamb, shank, neck or shoulder, in large pieces
- 1.5 tbsp ras el hanout for the marinade, plus 1 tsp for later
- ½ tsp mixed black and white pepper
- 2 tsp ground dried ginger
- 1 cinnamon stick
- ½ tsp saffron threads
- 1 tsp smen, and 1 tsp salt
- 4 tbsp mixed olive and vegetable oil
- 500 g dark raisins, slightly tart preferred
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 4 tbsp honey
- 150 g blanched almonds
Method
- Marinate the lamb with the 1.5 tbsp ras el hanout, pepper, ginger, cinnamon stick, saffron, smen, salt and oil for 6 to 12 hours.
- Cook over medium heat 10 minutes, turning, then add water and simmer roughly 2 hours until tender.
- Meanwhile soak the raisins at least 1 hour.
- Add the raisins with the ground cinnamon, the honey and the remaining teaspoon of ras el hanout. Cook 20 to 30 minutes until the sauce thickens and goes glossy.
- Fry the blanched almonds and scatter them over.
What a modern chef changes
The ras el hanout split three ways, the sweetness moved late, the almonds treated as texture
Rungs 4, 2 and 6
Method
- Split the ras el hanout across three applications. A savoury, cumin-and-pepper-forward blend in the marinade, where it has two hours to survive. A teaspoon of whole toasted spice bloomed in the oil at the start. Then, off the heat, a pinch of a floral blend carrying rose, lavender and mace. Rung 4: the tradition's own two-stage dosing already recognises that the finishing hit is a different job.
- Brown the lamb separately and hard. Rung 2. Ten minutes of turning in a wet marinade is not browning, it is drying.
- Hold the honey back to the last 10 minutes. Four tablespoons of sugar over 30 minutes in a reducing sauce will caramelise and then burn on the base.
- Fry the almonds to order and salt them. Rung 6. Buy whole, keep them in the freezer, fry until they squeak and go gold, scatter at the table.