Moroccan Fish Tagine (Mqualli)

Ingredients

• 2 pounds firm fish, or eel
• 1 batch chermoula marinade
• 2 bell peppers, any color
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 large onion, cut into rings, optional
• 1 carrot, or celery stalk, cut into thin sticks
• 2 large potatoes, cut into thin slices
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• Pinch saffron threads, crumbled
• 2 to 3 tomatoes, seeded and cut into thin slices
• 1 lemon, cut into thin slices, or 1 preserved lemon, quartered
• Handful red olives
• Steps to Make It
• Make the Chermoula and Roast the Peppers
• Gather the ingredients.
• Make chermoula marinade. Reserve and refrigerate half of the chermoula, and mix remaining half with fish.
• Cover fish and refrigerate, allowing it to marinate for two hours or overnight.
• Roast peppers, peel and seed them, and cut them into strips. Or, alternatively, slice raw pepper into rings. Set aside.
• Make the Tagine
• Pour olive oil into a tagine, and distribute onion slices across bottom. Criss-cross celery or carrot sticks in center to form a bed for the fish.
• Mix potato slices with ginger, salt, pepper, turmeric, and saffron, and arrange potatoes around perimeter of tagine. Top potato with tomato slices, then distribute reserved chermoula over vegetables.
• Add fish and its marinade to center of tagine, and arrange strips of pepper on top of fish in a decorative manner. Garnish tagine with lemon and olives, and sprinkle salt and pepper over all.
• Cover tagine and cook over low to medium-low heat for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the fish and potatoes are finished. Reduce sauce if necessary until it is quite thick.
• Serve tagine directly from dish in which it was cooked, with Moroccan bread for scooping up the fish and sauce.
• Tips
• For best flavor, allow time for the fish to marinate.
• If you plan to make fish tagine frequently, you may want to reserve a piece of clay cookware specifically for this purpose as, over time, the clay will absorb the flavors and odors of the fish and seasoning.