The vocabulary, by category

Definitions

Vocabulary you’ll meet in the recipes and the entries — the words that don’t (yet) have a page of their own.

Amlou · Amlu

A paste of toasted almonds, argan oil, and honey. Spread on bread for breakfast in the Souss; sometimes called 'Berber Nutella'.

SweetBreakfastCondiments

Atayأتاي · Atay

Mint tea — green tea (gunpowder), fresh spearmint, plenty of sugar — poured high to froth in the glass. The unbroken thread of Moroccan hospitality from morning through midnight.

SweetDrinksTea timeEveryday

Bastillaبسطيلة

The ceremonial pie — pigeon (or chicken) layered with eggs, almonds, cinnamon, and sugar between sheets of warqa, baked, and dusted with icing sugar. Sweet and savoury at once.

SweetSavoryPastriesCelebration

Batboutبطبوط

A small, puffed flatbread, pita-shaped, cooked on a dry pan. Splits open to take cheese, kefta, anything.

BreadsEverydaySnacks

Berredبراد

The teapot. Silver, enamel, or — at the bottom of the price ladder — aluminium. The handle is long because the pour is long.

Tea timeEveryday

Briouatبريوات

A small folded warqa parcel — triangular or cigar-shaped — fried until crisp. Savoury fillings (meat, cheese, seafood) for a meal; sweet ones (almond paste, honey) for tea.

SweetSavoryPastriesSnacks

Chebakiaالشباكية

A flower-shaped, sesame-studded pastry, deep-fried then drenched in honey and orange-blossom syrup. The Ramadan companion to harira — every household makes a year's supply in the days before.

SweetPastriesRamadan

Diffaضيافة

The formal feast. Long, layered, ceremonial — bastilla, two or three tagines, couscous, fruit, sweets, tea. What weddings, name-days, and important guests demand.

Celebration

Fakiaفاكية

Literally 'fruit'. The bowl of dates, figs, almonds, and walnuts that opens an iftar before the harira — the pause between the call to prayer and the first spoon.

SweetSnacksRamadan

Farranفرن

The communal wood-fired oven. Households shape their bread at home, mark each loaf, and send it to the farran on a tray; it comes back baked and unmistakable.

BreadsEveryday

Fekkasفقاص

Twice-baked Moroccan biscuits — a loaf is baked, sliced, baked again. Studded with almonds, raisins, anise, or sesame. Keeps in a tin until next month.

SweetPastriesTea time

Ghoribaغريبة

A class of crumbly Moroccan cookie — almond, semolina, sesame, or coconut. Crackled tops, soft middles, served at weddings and on Eid.

SweetPastriesTea timeCelebration

Gsaaقصعة

The wide, low wooden bowl used for kneading bread, working couscous, and serving the latter at table. The vessel that defines the gesture.

BreadsEveryday

Halwaحلوى

The umbrella for all Moroccan sweets — biscuits, fried pastry, pulled sugar, almond confection. The plate in the centre of the tea tray.

SweetTea timeCelebration

Hammamحمام

The neighbourhood steam bath. Its furnace, banked with embers all day, doubles as the slow-roast oven for tangia — the bachelor's pot buried beside the fire.

Everyday

Harchaحرشة

A semolina griddle cake with a sandy crumb, cooked on a flat pan and split open while warm to take honey or jam. The texture is somewhere between cornbread and shortbread.

BreadsBreakfastTea time

Iftarإفطار

The sunset meal that breaks the Ramadan fast. The order is fixed: dates and milk first, then harira, then chebakia, then everything else. In Moroccan cities the midfa al iftar — the iftar cannon — still fires at sundown; ten minutes later the streets are empty and every household is at the table.

RamadanCelebration

Kaab el Ghazalكعب الغزال

Literally 'gazelle's ankles' — a horn-shaped pastry filled with almond paste scented with orange-blossom water. The most formal of the Fassi tea-table sweets.

SweetPastriesTea timeCelebration

Kanounكانون

The charcoal brazier. A clay or metal bowl holding embers — for the kettle, for the tagine, for the warmth on a winter morning.

EverydayWinter

Keftaكفتة

Spiced minced meat, lamb or beef. Skewered for the grill, rolled into balls for the tagine, cracked into eggs for the kefta tajine. The most forgiving meat in the kitchen.

SavoryUmamiEveryday

Khoubzخبز

Everyday bread — round, flat, slightly thicker at the rim. Baked in the neighbourhood farran (communal oven) or at home. The utensil and the staple.

BreadsEveryday

Krachelكراشل

Soft sesame-and-anise rolls, sweet and tender. Eaten with tea, or with a triangle of Vache qui Rit smashed into the middle. The triangle is wrong. Moroccan children disagree.

SweetBreadsTea timeBreakfast

Kskasكسكاس · Kskas

The couscoussier. A two-tier pot — a wide-bellied bottom for the broth and meat, a perforated top for the grain. The steam rises and the couscous swells.

EverydayFriday

M'hammarمحمر

A style of tagine — meat or chicken braised down in butter, saffron, paprika, and ginger until the sauce reduces to a glossy red coat. Often finished with preserved lemon and olives.

SavoryUmamiStews

M'henchaالمحنشة

The 'snake'. A long coil of warqa wrapped around almond paste, baked into a flat spiral, dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar.

SweetPastriesTea timeCelebration

M'qalliمقلي

The yellow tagine — saffron, ginger, olive oil, no paprika. Usually chicken with preserved lemon and green olives. The bright sister to m'hammar's red.

SavoryStews

M'semenمسمن

A square, layered, pan-fried flatbread, folded out of an oily semolina dough. Sold by the stack at street stalls and eaten for breakfast with honey and butter.

BreadsBreakfastEveryday

Ma Wardماء الورد

Rose water — distilled from the damask roses of the Dades valley. Used like ma zhar, but more floral, less citric. The Kelaat M'Gouna rose festival in May times the year.

SweetCondiments

Ma Zharماء الزهر

Orange-blossom water — the distillate of bitter-orange flowers from the Fes-Meknes plain. A drop in a glass of water at a wedding, a teaspoon in pastry, a sprinkle on the hands before tea.

SweetCondiments

Maâlemمعلم

Master craftsperson. In the kitchen, the maâlem is the cook who runs a wedding, a hammam tangia, a school canteen. Maâlma is the feminine. The title comes by reputation, not certificate.

CelebrationEveryday

Mahjouba

A folded semolina flatbread, stuffed with onion and tomato, griddled on the spot. Five dirhams from a man with a hot plate and a folding stool — the food of the train station, the bus, the long wait.

BreadsSnacksEveryday

Marqaمرقة

The base sauce of a tagine — onion, oil, water, spices, slow-cooked into a glossy reduction. The thing the meat sits in, the thing the bread mops up.

SavoryStews

Mechouiمشوي

A whole lamb (or shoulder) slow-roasted in a clay-lined pit, salted simply, served with cumin and salt for dipping. The set-piece of the celebratory feast.

SavoryUmamiCelebration

Mehrazمهراز

The brass mortar and pestle. Heavy, ringing, ancestral. Where garlic is crushed and spice is bruised. The sound of it carrying through the medina is half the morning.

EverydaySpice blends

Melouiملوي

Msemen's thinner sibling — a long ribbon of oiled dough wound into a flat spiral and pan-fried. Crisper, more shattering, less foldable.

BreadsBreakfast

Merguezمرقاز

Spiced lamb sausage — paprika, cumin, harissa-bright. Coiled on the grill at the souk, slid into a sandwich, set beside the eggs at breakfast.

SavoryUmamiSnacks

Moussemموسم

A saint's-day festival. Music, horse riders firing rifles into the air, food cooked for thousands. The big moussems — Moulay Idriss, Imilchil, Sefrou — anchor the agricultural year.

Celebration

Mrouziaمروزية

Lamb cooked down in honey, raisins, and ras el hanout until glossy and black. The Eid tagine — often made from the slaughter sheep's leftover meat, which is the kind of thrift that becomes a feast.

SweetSavoryStewsCelebration

S'hourسحور

The pre-dawn meal of Ramadan, eaten before the day's fast begins. Filling, oily, slow-burning — eggs, msemen, smen, dates, the night-before's leftovers.

RamadanBreakfast

Sahlabسحلب

The winter milk drink — orchid-root starch thickened with milk and sugar, cinnamon and crushed nut on top. Drunk on cold nights, particularly in the north.

SweetDrinksWinter

Sebaaسبوع

The seventh-day naming feast for a newborn. Sellou and rfissa are made; an animal is slaughtered; the name is announced. Friends bring food to the mother for the seven days before.

CelebrationPostpartum

Seffaسفة

Steamed couscous or vermicelli mounted into a sweet pyramid, dusted with cinnamon and sugar, scattered with toasted almonds. The last savoury course or the first sweet, depending on the host.

SweetCelebrationTea time

Sfenjسفنج

The doughnut without sugar. Yeasted, fried in deep oil, threaded onto a length of palm fibre and carried home swinging. Dipped in honey, or in strong tea.

BreadsSnacksBreakfastFriday

Shibaشيبة

Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium). Added to mint tea in winter — a thread of bitter green, said to clean the blood. The smell is medicinal; the second glass is the one you want.

BitterDrinksTea timeWinter

Siniyaصينية

The engraved brass tea tray. The teapot, the glasses, the sugar cone, the box of mint — all live on the siniya. To carry it out is to declare a pause in the day.

Tea timeEveryday

Soukسوق

The market — daily, weekly, or seasonal. Where the spice merchant builds his ras el hanout, where the fishmonger lays out the morning's catch, where a recipe begins.

Everyday

Tagine bel Barkoukطاجين بالبرقوق

Lamb with prunes, almonds, sesame, and cinnamon. Sweet, dark, and slow — the wedding tagine of Fez.

SweetSavoryStewsCelebration

Tagraطاجرة

A wide, shallow earthenware dish, used for slow-baked fish or vegetable preparations — particularly in the north and on the Atlantic coast.

Savory

Tajineطاجين · Tajin

Both the conical-lidded earthenware vessel and the slow-cooked stew that emerges from it. The lid traps steam, drips it back down, and lets a small amount of liquid stretch over hours.

StewsSavory

Taktoukaتكتوكة

The pepper cousin to zaalouk. Green pepper and tomato, smoke from the grill, lemon at the end. Served cold, lifted with bread.

SavorySaladsCondiments

Tfayaالتفاية

The sweet topping of caramelised onion, raisins, cinnamon, and honey that crowns a couscous or a chicken tagine — the Andalusi gesture inside the savoury course.

SweetSavoryCondiments

Tridتريد

Torn sheets of paper-thin pastry layered with chicken, lentils, and broth. Said to be the Prophet's favourite dish; the rural ancestor of rfissa.

SavoryUmamiStewsCelebration

Zaaloukزعلوك

Charred aubergine and tomato, cooked down with garlic, cumin, and paprika until almost a paste. Eaten cold with bread. The summer salad that pretends to be a stew.

SavorySaladsCondiments

Zebdaزبدة

Fresh, unsalted butter — the young, sweet kin of smen. Whisked into bread dough, melted over baghrir, mounded into a small bowl beside the breakfast bread.

Fats & oilsBreakfastEveryday

Zitoun Beldiزيتون بلدي

Black, oil-cured, wrinkled. The country olive of the Moroccan table — bitter, salty, eaten with bread for breakfast or beside the harira. Beldi means 'of the country' — the opposite of roumi, which now means 'foreign' and originally meant 'Roman'.

BitterSaltyPreservesBreakfast

Znoud el Sitزنود الست

'The lady's arms'. Cigars of warqa filled with milk-and-almond cream, fried, soaked in syrup. A Levantine traveller naturalised by the Fassi pastry table.

SweetPastriesCelebrationTea time