Tasting Home Made Food in Morocco Essaouira
Essaouira is definitely the place to dig into some seafood. While exploring Essaouira I tried different restaurants and places to eat, but the best meal I had, was during my stay on AirBnb. A lovely manager of riad, Fatimzahra invited me for home cooked Moroccan fish Tagine dinner.
Tagine is probably most frequently served dish in Morocco. And while in Morocco, one has to try it at least once. During my trips to Morocco I ate many tagines, with beef, dates, figs and when fish tagine invitation came to me I was excited to finally taste the fish version. There are literally endless versions of this Moroccan stew and fish tagine is just one of them.
Since she is great cook, no need to mention she did the cooking and I made notes, learned and watched. If you are looking for authentic Moroccan fish tagine recipe, here it is.
Moroccan Fish Tagine Recipe
Ingredients for Fish Tagine:
- Fish – skinned fillets cut to mid sized cubes
- Sweet powdered paprika 2 spoons
- 1 spoon of cumin powder
- a pinch of black pepper
- 1 spoon of ginger powder
- 1 spoon of sea salt
- big bunch of parsley chopped
- 1 lemon (juice)
- 2 spoons of olive oil
- 3 minced fresh garlic cloves
- 1 minced onion
- 1 zucchini
Caramelised onion mix
- 3 onions
- 4 spoons of oil
- 2 spoons of sugar
- 1 spoon salt
- 1 spoon cinnamon
Marinade the fish with all ingredients (except zucchini) and spices, mix well with hands so the flavors mix as much as possible. In tagine put those slices of zucchini at the bottom of tagine add the fish marinade on the top and voila, time for cooking.
Cooking fish tagine 45 minutes on medium heat. We cooked on gas and it was mandatory to use heat diffuser, that prevents tagine from cracking. Diffuser should also be used if you cook on glass surface. Never put tagine directly to the heat.
While waiting for fish tagine to be cooked, we chopped the rest of the violet onions, we used three medium sized onions. In separate bowl mix chopped onions with 2 big spoons of white sugar, 1 spoon of salt, 1 spoon of cinnamon, 4 spoons of oil and cook slowly until the mixture gets sticky caramelised texture, the onions should be soft and glassy.
When this happens, add half a decilitre of water and continue cooking on weak fire for some more time and add another decilitre of water and cook a little bit more. Cooking time for onions is approximately same as for tagine.
When fish tagine is cooked, add the caramelised onion mix at the top . This gives the meal a sweet, caramel flavour. My host made a mixed salad on the side, some fried potatoes and a plate of olives was served along with Moroccan bread. We could easily invite two more people for this dinner and I am sure we all would have happy tummies.
If you really want to eat like locals, eat tagine with hand.
The beauty of cooking tagine is that basically you don’t need any recipe. Just be creative with ingredients and improvise according to your taste. Really handy for those who have hard time following recipes (like me!). Culinary night was definitely highlight of my stay in Essaouria.
If looking what else is out ther edo in this coastal town? Here are Top things to do in Essaouira you should not miss!
Morocco posts:
Have you been to Morocco – how did you like the food? What was the best dish you ever ate on the trip? Leave a comment!
You make me miss Morocco and the tajine. Although I had a lot of tajine in six weeks of traveling throughout Morocco, by that moment I felt a bit overwhelmed eating another tajine. But now I would eat it and enjoy it as well. Your blog is amazing, I will subscribe to eat and pick up information for my lifetime trip to Africa.
Oh yum, that looks delicious! Never tried the dish before, but I like the fact that you’ve put a recipe in your article, so I can try it myself as well! 🙂 I can totally understand that the best experience is to cook with a local!
You can totally cook it. The closest version to cook without tagine pot would be slow cooker:)
Yum! That looks amazing! I love Moroccan food and learning to cook it there would be amazing! I’ve not been to Morocco yet, but I’m hoping for next year! Hopefully I will get to cook with a local too!
If you go, there are lots of cooking classes all over in every major touristic city, but nothing probably compares cooking with a local. Maybe you will cook with Fatimzahra:)
oooh this sounds amazing! I have had lamb tagine before, but would love to go to Morocco to try the authentic version – and fish too! Eating local food is such an important part of travel for me, how lovely that you got to learn & eat with Fatimzahra 🙂
I She was perfect host. Her cooking skills are amazing!
When I was in Morocco, I had chicken cooked in a tagine but this looks equally delicious!! And there’s just something so beautiful about food being cooked in such a dish. 🙂
These pots are unique I agree. I regret not buying one!