A reference
Glossary
The Moroccan cuisine and medina words that turn up in the notes — defined plainly, in the same voice as the rest of the journal.
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In the kitchen
The cooking words — pots, breads, soups, the spice jar.
- harira
- The Moroccan tomato-and-lentil soup of Ramadan. Lentils, chickpeas, fresh tomato, coriander, parsley, cumin, ginger, saffron, a finishing thread of flour-water, cinnamon at the end.
- bissara
- A thick fava bean soup, eaten in winter. Olive oil, cumin, and paprika on top. A breakfast soup in some regions, a supper soup in others.
- tagine · tajine
- Both the conical clay cooking pot and the slow-braised dish that lives in it. The lid traps and recycles steam, so meat braises in its own moisture for hours.
- tanjia
- A Marrakchi dish — lamb, preserved lemon, cumin, garlic — slow-cooked for hours in a tall clay urn, traditionally in the embers of a hammam fire.
- mechoui
- Whole lamb, slow-roasted for several hours in a pit oven. The shoulder pulls apart with two fingers. Feast-day food.
- khobz
- The everyday round bread of Morocco. Wheat and semolina, low-baked, often carried to the communal oven on a wooden board.
- msemen
- A square, layered flatbread folded and folded again, then cooked on a hot pan. Sweet for breakfast with honey, savoury for tea.
- baghrir
- The thousand-hole pancake — a yeasted batter cooked on one side only, lacy with bubbles on top. Served with butter and honey.
- chebakia
- A sesame-and-flour Ramadan sweet, fried into a flower shape and dipped in hot honey. Eaten at iftar alongside harira.
- ghoriba
- Moroccan shortbread biscuits, cracked on top, made with almonds, semolina, or coconut. Tea-time food.
- zaalouk
- A cooked salad-mezze of aubergine, tomato, garlic, cumin, and olive oil. Served cold with bread.
- taktouka
- A slow-cooked tomato-and-pepper salad — green peppers charred, tomatoes broken down, lemon and paprika to finish. Eaten cold.
- charmoula
- A herb marinade for fish — coriander, parsley, cumin, paprika, lemon, garlic, olive oil. Goes onto the fish before the fish goes into the oven.
- ras el hanout
- A house spice blend, name from the Arabic for "top of the shop". No two are the same — typically ten to twenty spices, ground fresh.
- smen
- Aged butter, salted, sometimes herbed, left to develop for months or years. A spoonful goes into couscous or harira at the table. Acquired.
- preserved lemon
- Small thin-skinned lemons, quartered, packed in salt and lemon juice for six weeks. Use the rind, not the flesh.
In the medina
The address — derbs, souks, walls, the courtyard inside.
- derb
- A small alley in a Moroccan medina — often dead-end, often known by a family name. The address of this house.
- medina
- The walled old city of a Moroccan town. Cars do not fit; donkeys do. Marrakech has one of the largest in North Africa.
- mellah
- The historic Jewish quarter of a Moroccan city. In Marrakech, also the source of the best fish in the medina.
- souk
- A market. In a Marrakech medina, often one trade per alley — a souk of dyers, a souk of slipper-makers, a souk of brass.
- riad
- A traditional Moroccan house turned inward, around a central courtyard with a fountain. Blank walls to the street. The sky is the only wall facing out.
- zellige
- Hand-cut tile mosaic, set in geometric patterns. Cooler at six in the morning than at four in the afternoon. The signature surface of a riad.
- ksour
- Plural of ksar — a fortified earthen quarter. Also the name of the quarter of the Marrakech medina where Derb 37 is found.
In the calendar
The days that have their own table.
- iftar
- The breaking of the fast just after sunset during Ramadan. Begins with dates and water, then harira, eggs, chebakia, bread.
- Eid al-Fitr
- The feast that closes Ramadan. Sweets first — chebakia, ghoriba, baghrir with honey — before any savoury food.
- Eid al-Adha
- The feast of sacrifice. Lamb, every part of it. Mechoui from a pit oven on the first day; tanjia, brochettes, offal stews on the days after.