Sea Bream and Vegetable Tagine

This was the first tagine I ever made.  I learned the recipe from Muna at a wonderful cookery school in Essaouira called L’Atelier Madada.  It is much easier than I thought and I use this as a base for so many different types of tagines now.   It takes just half an hour to prepare and about an hour to cook in a traditional Moroccan tagine on the gas hob – not the oven.  Read some hints about cooking with tagines in my full post on the cookery school.  This recipe makes one very large portion!

You’ll need

• A sea bream filet
• 1 big carrot
• ½ green pepper
• 1 medium sized potato
• 1 large tomato
• A small bunch of parsley – about 3 tbsp
• A small bunch of coriander – about 3 tbsp
• ½ a preserved lemon skin
• 1 garlic clove
• A pinch of saffron
• 1 tsp of paprika
• ½ tsp cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
• ½ tsp coriander powder
• ½ tsp of minced ginger
• ½ tsp turmeric powder
• Salt to taste – be careful because if you are using preserved lemon these are salty
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• 10 green olives

To make it

1. Finely crush the garlic and set aside
2. Finely chop the herbs and the skin of the preserved lemon.
3. Put both into a bowl and then add the ginger, spices, lemon, olive oil, saffron and a tiny pinch of salt.
4. Give this a stir and then add the sea bream, coat it in the mixture and then leave to marinade for about 10 minutes while you slice up the other vegetables – about 1 cm wide.
5. Then you can start layering.  Dip the carrot slices in the marinade and then cover the bottom of the tajine. 
6. Repeat with the potato then place the fish on top, skin side down.
7. Cover with tomato slices.
8. Cut half a pepper into stripes and place on the tomatoes.
9. Place the zest of the lemon on top and scatter with olives. 
10. Cook the tajine for about an hour on a low heat. You need to be close to the tajine to check if it doesn’t stick. You can always add a little bit of cold water if it starts to.
11. Serve with crusty bread to mop up the juices from the tomatoes that will gather at the bottom.