Dafina

A pot left on the lowest possible heat overnight, with eggs buried in it whole that come out brown and dense.

Beef, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains beef.

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg beef shin or brisket, in large pieces
• 300 g chickpeas, soaked overnight
• 8 eggs, in their shells, scrubbed
• 6 potatoes, whole and peeled
• 200 g wheat berries or barley
• 6 dates, stoned
• 2 onions, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 teaspoons turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 100 ml olive oil
• water to cover
• salt and pepper

Method

1. THE EGGS GO IN WHOLE, IN THEIR SHELLS, AND COOK FOR TWELVE HOURS. They come out with the white turned beige and dense and the yolk crumbly and faintly sweet -- something quite unlike a boiled egg, and for many people the best thing in the pot. Scrub them first: the shells sit in the food the whole time.
2. IT IS NOT STIRRED AND IT IS NOT OPENED. The pot goes on in the evening and comes off the next day. Every opening lets heat and steam out of something that is only just cooking at all, and the dish depends on twelve uninterrupted hours.
3. THE HEAT IS LOWER THAN A SIMMER. A bare tremble, the lowest ring with a diffuser, a 110C oven or a slow cooker on low. Anything that actually simmers for twelve hours will boil dry and burn.
4. THIS IS NOT THE ASHKENAZI POT OF THE SAME IDEA. That one is written elsewhere and is not this: here there are dates, honey, turmeric and cinnamon, and the sweetness is deliberate.
5. Chickpeas soaked overnight, drained.
6. Oil in the base of a large heavy pot. Onions and garlic spread over it.
7. Beef on top, then the chickpeas, wheat berries, potatoes and dates arranged around it.
8. Turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, honey, salt and pepper scattered over.
9. The scrubbed eggs pushed down INTO the pot among the chickpeas, where they will be surrounded.
10. Water poured down the side to cover everything by 3 cm, and no more -- there is no evaporation worth speaking of under a sealed lid at this heat.
11. Brought to a simmer on the hob, then IMMEDIATELY down to the lowest possible heat, lid on tight.
12. 12 hours. Overnight. Not opened.
13. Served by lifting each thing out separately onto a platter -- meat, potatoes, chickpeas, wheat -- with the eggs peeled and set among them, and the liquid spooned over.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Morocco · All recipes