Tanjia (A Moroccan, Marrakchi gourmet)

This dish brings a lot of memories..As a child I always used to get excited when my mother cooked Tanjia for dinner. The smell of slow cooked meat is mouth watering and waiting for it to get ready was immensely torturious!

To give you an idea of how good it is, many times my fathers’ friends used to ask him to have this dish when he invited them over for dinner! LOL

It is a special Marrakchi dish made with meat and spices. Originally it is a recipe cooked by men when they go for outdoor picnics in spring time to play cards and enjoy music. It is cooked in a pot of clay for about 4 hours, usually in the public hammam (bath) where it’s covered and buried in hot ashes. If you go to Marrakech, you don’t want to miss savoring this Moroccan gourmet!

So, here is the pressure cooker version of this gourmet. Of course I prefer the original version, but this is better than nothing, and it is not bad at all!

Ingredients:

1.5 kilo Lamb

2 tbsp cumin

1 tsp ghee (usually it’s more, I prefer it to be lighter)

1 pickled lemon cut into 4

3 - 4 large cloves of garlic

1/2 tsp saffron

1 tsp Rass lhanout*

A glass of water

Mix all the ingredients and add them to the meat. For best results you can marinate them overnight or for a couple of hours. heat the stove to medium, place the marinated meat into the pressure cooker, leave it from 4 to 5 min. Add the water and turn the heat to medium low. Cook it for about 90 min. Serve immediately.

P.S: Ras-lhanout*: is a blend of many ingredients can sometimes reach over fifty ingredient all washed, dried and ground. To learn more about it visit this link where you can also buy it online: http://www.formaggiokitchen.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=1428