Moroccan Clay Pot

We had read about a meat market in Burbank. We drove to the valley to check it out on Sat. It turns out on Saturday only they bar-b-que ribs and sell slabs. We bought a slab, they were excellent. Really liked the sauce.

What we really went for was to get Veal Shanks. There was a recipe that we wanted to make from the new Paula Wolfert Book: Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking. We decided to make Marrakech-Style Veal Tangia with Preserved Lemons. It is slow cooked in the oven in a clay pot for 5 hours. The meat came out extremely soft and succulent. It was very tasty. We recommend this recipe.

We made a first course of a great salad from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook: Radicchio with Croutons, Hardboiled Eggs and Anchovy Vinaigrette. It is an excellent salad and easy to make. The recipe is can be found on our blog of: Jan 31, 2007. Click the date to get the recipe.

We have had many different Couscous over the years but we found a brand that is exceptional: M’hamsa Couscous from Tunisia. We really recommend it. Look for it at a gourmet shop near you. We think this is the best cous-cous. It can be found at Cube on La Brea, or ordered from their web site.

Marrakech-Style Veal Tangia with Preserved Lemons
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From: Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking

I tasted my first tangia in Marrakech, where it was baked over burning acorns behind a bathhouse, the fire having been set to warm the bath water inside. As so often when Moroccans build a I lire for warmth, they figure out a way to use it for cooking too.

In this case, tall amphora-shaped clay jars called tangias were nestled in the embers. Some of these tangias contained bony parts of veal or lamb such I is shoulder, feet, and tails; others were filled with limb and beef short ribs; and some with gazelle and camel meat.

I've had great success making this dish in a bean pot with veal, achieving a fine balance between the flavor of the meat, garlic, preserved lemons, spices, and preserved butter, or smen. Basically everything is packed into the pot at the same time, the top is covered with paper, and then the dish is cooked very slowly In a good tangia the meat juices become tres savoureux due to the mixing of salt, steam, aromatics, and the special flavor imparted by the clay cooking vessel. Serve with warm bread.
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Preferred clay Pot:

A 2 1/2 or 3-quart bean pot, Spanish olla, or any .earthenware casserole that is taller than it is wide.

1 3/4 pounds boneless veal shoulder or 3 pounds bone-in veal shanks or beef short ribs (we used 4 pounds of Osso Bucco.
1/8 teaspoon saffron threads
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ras el hanout or La Kama spices
14 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
4 large garlic cloves, lightly crushed
2 tablespoons homemade smen or unsalted butter
1 preserved lemon, rinsed and quartered

1. Preheat the oven to 250°F. Cut the veal into 4 roughly equal pieces. Soak the saffron in 1/4 cup warm water for 10 minutes.

2. Place all the ingredients in the bean pot; use a
wooden spoon to mix them gently; then press them
down to a compact mass. Cover with a small sheet of
crumpled wet parchment and a lid. Set in the oven and
bake for 4 hours.

3. Let cool down; then pour the stew into a bowl.
Skim off the fat and reheat in a conventional pan just
before serving. Serve in a warm serving bowl.


There's a sweet spot in my food memory for La Kama spices, the favorite tagine seasoning mix in Tangier, where I lived on and off for seven years.

La Kama
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La Kama spices are similar to the more famous ras el hanout (which literally means means "top of the shop") in that its formula varies from cook to cook. Some ras el hanout mixtures contain as many as fifty different spices, others just ten or twelve. A good La Kama mixture may be made with just five, as shown, here. You can increase the amount as you wish; simply maintain the same proportions.

1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
1 tablespoon finely ground black pepper
2 teaspoons ground Ceylon or Mexican cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Combine the ginger, turmeric, black pepper, cinnamo, and nutmeg and transfer to a small jar with a tight-fitting lid. Store in a dark place and use within 6 months.