That Translator Can Cook: Tagine

Lamb, vegetables, and dates spiced with cinnamon, garlic, red pepper flakes and salt; slow cooked in a traditional clay pot; and garnished with pomegranate seeds, fresh cilantro, and raisins.

Image Source: Basmaty

Tagine is not a dish that is only eaten during Ramadan, but it is one favorite dish to break your fast with during Ramadan. I’ve never had tagine; I’ve only visited the Levant, while tagine is a popular dish where the Imazighen (indigenous people of North Africa) live because it was traditionally made by them in a clay pot over a fire.

You may have heard the Imazighen being referred to as “Berbers,” and I’m guilty of this as well (because that’s what I was taught in Arabic class) but ‘Berber’ is considered a discriminatory term by the Imazighen, like if we were to refer to Native Americans as “American Indians,” or perhaps even the harsher names that I won’t repeat here. I’m afraid I don’t know much about the cultural attitudes regarding “Imazighen” and “Berber.” I’m ashamed to say I have used “Berber” in conjunction with “Tamazight” a few times in my translations, but no longer. According to the Society of Linguistic Anthropology, “this term, inherently discriminatory, was coined by Arab conquerors and also used by European colonizers. Barbari, in Arabic, means gibberish, babble, etc., and [it] also means barbaric.”

Let’s get back to the food now. Tagine can be found across North Africa, basically wherever the Imazighen lived, but I believe tagine is most popular in Morocco and can even be considered one of its national dishes. Tagine can come in many different flavors (spice blends), and meat and vegetable/fruit combinations. I chose a Moroccan recipe and one that uses lamb because many Ramadan tagine recipes use lamb.

Image Source: Etsy

Tagine (the dish) is called that because “tagine” in Arabic is the name of the clay pot (shown to the right) this dish was traditionally made in (and still made in today). The unique cone-shaped top traps steam as the food cooks. The clay pot is still used today because it makes the food tender and brings out its natural flavor. Some sources say that the tagine dates back to Harun al-Rashid (the fifth Abbasid Caliph who ruled from 786 to 809 CE), while others say it dates “back to the Roman Empire because of the portable ovens used by Romans that are similar to tagines.” While I can’t say for sure that tagines were not a Roman invention, I believe it’s entirely possible that the Romans could have emulated the tagine of the Imazighen because they liked it so much.

Here is how to make lamb tagine (recipe belongs to Basmaty):

Preparation: 10 minutes      Cooking: 2 hours      Serves: 4 people

Ingredients 

• 2 legs of lamb or mutton

• 1 red onion, julienned

• 2 tomatoes, chopped

• 3 cloves of garlic, minced

• 1 teaspoon of chili pepper

• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin

• 1 cinnamon stick

• 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes

• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste

• 1 teaspoon of ground ginger

• 1/2 tablespoon of fresh grated ginger

• Salt and black pepper to taste

• 1 cup of chopped dates

For garnishing:

• 1/2 cup of currants

• 1/2 cup of pomegranate seeds

• Fresh cilantro

Steps

1. Rub the salt and pepper into the lamb legs

2. Mix the garlic, fresh ginger, chili pepper, and cumin in a bowl, and rub this spice mixture into the lamb legs.

3. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a tagine or large oven-safe pot and sauté the julienned onion. Add the red pepper flakes and salt, and continue to sauté until the onions soften.

4. Add the lamb legs and brown each side.

5. Add the tomatoes, cinnamon stick, ground ginger, and dates; then add boiling water until it covers the lamb. Stir well. Bring it to a boil on low heat, then cover the pot. Put it into the oven, preheated to 180°C (~355°F), for 2 hours. After an hour, check to see if there’s still some liquid. Add more boiling water if needed. When the meat easily falls apart, then it’s ready.

6. Garnish the dish with the currants, pomegranate seeds, and fresh cilantro before serving.

* Advice from Basmaty: You should serve couscous as a side dish.

Translators’ Discussion

1. I wasn’t sure what حراء meant in وعاء كبير مقاوم لحراء الفرن. All I could find was that Hira was the cave where Prophet Muhammad apparently meditated. I assumed that it meant that the pot needs to be resistant to the oven’s heat, but you know what they say about assumptions. Can any Arabic speakers shed some light on this?

2. Is there any better way to say that meat is so tender it “falls apart”? The verb used in the recipe (تشقق) is reflexive, so I wanted to retain that feeling that the meat is so tender you don’t need a knife or to use any force to break it up. I didn’t use “fall of the bone” because frankly, given the size of a tagine, you probably will have to chop up the legs, plus no bones were mention in the entire recipe.