Fish tagine

Name: Fish tagine
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: 1 preserved lemon, halved; salt and freshly ground white pepper; 1 large fennel bulb, cored and quartered; 1 litre fish stock (a good-quality fish stock cube dissolved in that amount of hot water); 1 kg monkfish or huss on the bone, skinned and cut into 3 cm slices; 1 tbsp chopped coriander; 4 tomatoes, skinned, deseeded and roughly diced; 1 tsp tomato purée; 2 large onions, roughly chopped; 1 tbsp olive oil; 1 tsp ground cumin; ½ tsp paprika; 1 tbsp finely chopped root ginger; 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped; 4 garlic cloves, crushed; vegetable oil, for frying; flour, for dusting; good pinch of saffron strands; ½ tsp crushed fennel seeds

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Fish etc.

By Mark Hix

Published 2004

About

Moroccan food is still relatively unknown here and for that reason often misinterpreted. The food is not so spicy and generally quite light, unless you fill yourself with couscous, that is. ‘Spicy’ shouldn’t always mean ‘hot’, and subtle spices like fennel and saffron give a delicate fragrance to tagines, especially of fish. If you have a conical tagine dish, this can be cooked - or at least finished - and served in it.