Taachat, Dumplings

Traditional recipe for 4 people,
Preparation and cooking time: 1 1⁄2 hours

For the dumplings:

• 1⁄2 kg wholemeal wheat flour 
• 200 g corn flour For the sauce 
• 1⁄2 kg lamb 
• 5 cloves garlic 
• 1⁄2 teaspoon saffron filaments, 
• 1⁄2 teaspoon powdered ginger 
• 1 glass argan oil, 
• 100 g oudi (clarified butter) 
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt  

Oudi is an ingredient of taachat and many other dishes. It is a butter without milk whey (the liquid obtained after coagulation of milk). It can be kept and does not go moldy, change flavor or aroma. To prepare it you melt butter and leave to stand until it goes hard. You then remove the upper part, eliminate the white liquid settled on the bottom of the container and finally melt the butter again. If desired you can add a pinch of thyme to give flavor. Put the diced meat in the base of a couscous pot, and brown on a low flame in argan oil and clarified butter. Add the whole cloves of garlic, saffron and ginger. Pour in 1 1⁄2 liters of water and remove half of the sauce when it boils. Cover the pot and leave to cook on a very low flame. Mix the two types of flour in a large vessel and knead with the sauce taken from the couscous pot until you get a friable dough. Use this to make fairly large dumplings with a hole in the middle. Cook them in the top part of the couscous pot in the steam of the remaining sauce. As soon as the meat is cooked and the dumplings are firm, stop cooking. Arrange the dumplings in a serving dish and moisten with the remaining sauce. Place the pieces of meat and cloves of garlic in the center of the dish. Serve immediately.

This recipe is typical of the Taliouine region. It can also be used for free-range chicken (beldi). Traditionally the dumplings are cooked with the sauce in the same pot. In this case the dumplings are put on sticks placed on the meat like a grill, and left to cook. The holes in the dumplings allow the sauce to soak in.