The vocabulary, by category

Definitions

Vocabulary you’ll meet in the recipes and the entries — the words that don’t (yet) have a page of their own.

Amlou · Amlu

A paste of toasted almonds, argan oil, and honey. Spread on bread for breakfast in the Souss; sometimes called 'Berber Nutella'.

SweetBreakfastCondiments

Atayأتاي · Atay

Mint tea — green tea (gunpowder), fresh spearmint, plenty of sugar — poured high to froth in the glass. The unbroken thread of Moroccan hospitality from morning through midnight.

SweetDrinksTea timeEveryday

Bastillaبسطيلة

The ceremonial pie — pigeon (or chicken) layered with eggs, almonds, cinnamon, and sugar between sheets of warqa, baked, and dusted with icing sugar. Sweet and savoury at once.

SweetSavoryPastriesCelebration

Briouatبريوات

A small folded warqa parcel — triangular or cigar-shaped — fried until crisp. Savoury fillings (meat, cheese, seafood) for a meal; sweet ones (almond paste, honey) for tea.

SweetSavoryPastriesSnacks

Chebakiaالشباكية

A flower-shaped, sesame-studded pastry, deep-fried then drenched in honey and orange-blossom syrup. The Ramadan companion to harira — every household makes a year's supply in the days before.

SweetPastriesRamadan

Farranفرن

The communal wood-fired oven. Households shape their bread at home, mark each loaf, and send it to the farran on a tray; it comes back baked and unmistakable.

BreadsEveryday

Ghoribaغريبة

A class of crumbly Moroccan cookie — almond, semolina, sesame, or coconut. Crackled tops, soft middles, served at weddings and on Eid.

SweetPastriesTea timeCelebration

Gsaaقصعة

The wide, low wooden bowl used for kneading bread, working couscous, and serving the latter at table. The vessel that defines the gesture.

BreadsEveryday

Hammamحمام

The neighbourhood steam bath. Its furnace, banked with embers all day, doubles as the slow-roast oven for tangia — the bachelor's pot buried beside the fire.

Everyday

Harchaحرشة

A semolina griddle cake with a sandy crumb, cooked on a flat pan and split open while warm to take honey or jam. The texture is somewhere between cornbread and shortbread.

BreadsBreakfastTea time

Kaab el Ghazalكعب الغزال

Literally 'gazelle's ankles' — a horn-shaped pastry filled with almond paste scented with orange-blossom water. The most formal of the Fassi tea-table sweets.

SweetPastriesTea timeCelebration

Khoubzخبز

Everyday bread — round, flat, slightly thicker at the rim. Baked in the neighbourhood farran (communal oven) or at home. The utensil and the staple.

BreadsEveryday

M'hammarمحمر

A style of tagine — meat or chicken braised down in butter, saffron, paprika, and ginger until the sauce reduces to a glossy red coat. Often finished with preserved lemon and olives.

SavoryUmamiStews

M'qalliمقلي

The yellow tagine — saffron, ginger, olive oil, no paprika. Usually chicken with preserved lemon and green olives. The bright sister to m'hammar's red.

SavoryStews

M'semenمسمن

A square, layered, pan-fried flatbread, folded out of an oily semolina dough. Sold by the stack at street stalls and eaten for breakfast with honey and butter.

BreadsBreakfastEveryday

Marqaمرقة

The base sauce of a tagine — onion, oil, water, spices, slow-cooked into a glossy reduction. The thing the meat sits in, the thing the bread mops up.

SavoryStews

Mechouiمشوي

A whole lamb (or shoulder) slow-roasted in a clay-lined pit, salted simply, served with cumin and salt for dipping. The set-piece of the celebratory feast.

SavoryUmamiCelebration

Soukسوق

The market — daily, weekly, or seasonal. Where the spice merchant builds his ras el hanout, where the fishmonger lays out the morning's catch, where a recipe begins.

Everyday

Tagraطاجرة

A wide, shallow earthenware dish, used for slow-baked fish or vegetable preparations — particularly in the north and on the Atlantic coast.

Savory

Tajineطاجين · Tajin

Both the conical-lidded earthenware vessel and the slow-cooked stew that emerges from it. The lid traps steam, drips it back down, and lets a small amount of liquid stretch over hours.

StewsSavory

Tfayaالتفاية

The sweet topping of caramelised onion, raisins, cinnamon, and honey that crowns a couscous or a chicken tagine — the Andalusi gesture inside the savoury course.

SweetSavoryCondiments