Tanjia
Beef shank slow-cooked for hours with preserved lemon, garlic, and smen (aged Moroccan clarified butter) until it collapses into a dark, unctuous gravy. Traditionally a bachelor's dish: Marrakech men without home kitchens packed a tall clay urn, called a tanjia, and dropped it off with the neighborhood hammam's furnace keeper each morning, collecting it fully cooked from the buried, dying coals by evening. Distinct from tagine in both vessel and cooking method.
Meat
⚠ Contains: Dairy. Always check your own ingredients — this isn't a guarantee for severe allergies.
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg beef shank or lamb shoulder, cut into large chunks, bone-in preferred
- 2 preserved lemons, quartered
- 6 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 tbsp smen (Moroccan aged clarified butter), or ghee
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp saffron threads, crushed
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 cinnamon stick
- Salt, to taste
- 1 cup water or beef stock
Steps
- In a Dutch oven or slow-cooker insert, combine the beef, garlic, smen, olive oil, cumin, saffron, ginger, paprika, cinnamon stick, and salt.
- Tuck the preserved lemon quarters among the meat, and add the water or stock.
- Cover tightly, using foil under the lid to seal, mimicking the sealed urn.
- Oven method: cook at 150C/300F for 5 hours, undisturbed. Slow cooker method: cook on low for 7-8 hours.
- The meat is done when it falls apart at a fork's touch and the sauce has reduced to a thick, dark gravy.
- Serve directly from the pot with crusty bread, garnished with the reserved preserved lemon.