This specialty of Fez—shaariya medfouna, which means “buried in vermicelli”—is a fabulous surprise dish—a chicken tagine hidden under a mountain of vermicelli. It is a grand festive dish, a kind of trompe l’oeil, as the vermicelli is decorated like a sweet dessert couscous (page 124), with alternating lines of confectioners’ sugar, cinnamon, and chopped fried almonds. It sounds complex, but it is really worth making for a large party. You can leave out the confectioners’ sugar if you think your guests are likely to prefer it without, and instead pass the sugar around in a little bowl for those who would like to try. The vermicelli is traditionally steamed like couscous, but it is easier to boil it. It is more practical to cook the chickens in 2 large pans and to divide the ingredients for the stew between them. In Morocco they also cook pigeons and lamb in the same way.
Recipe information
Yield
serves 10 or more
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Use two deep pans and put 1 chicken into each. To each pan, pour in 2 1/4 cups water, bring to the boil, and remove the scum. Add 2 chopped onions, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, and 1/2 teaspoon saffron. Add salt and pepper and simmer, covered, for about 1 hour. Turn the chickens occasionally so they are well cooked all over.
Step 2
Lift out the chickens and, when cool enough to handle, remove the skin and bones and cut the meat into medium-size pieces.
Step 3
Pour the chicken stock with the onions into one pan only and reduce by boiling it down until a thick sauce results. Stir in 1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) of butter, the honey, and the orange blossom water, if using, and cook a few minutes more. Taste, and add extra salt and pepper if necessary.
Step 4
Add the herbs and return the chicken pieces to the sauce. All this can be done in advance and reheated when you are about to serve.
Step 5
Fry the almonds in the oil until lightly browned, then drain on paper towels. Crush them with a pestle and mortar or coarsely chop them.
Step 6
Just before serving, break the vermicelli into small pieces by crushing the nests in your hands. Cook in rapidly boiling salted water for 5 minutes, until al dente, stirring vigorously at the start so that the threads do not stick together in lumps. Drain very quickly and then pour it back into the pan. Stir in the remaining butter, cut into small pieces, and some salt.
Step 7
Put the chicken with its sauce into a very large, deep, round serving dish. Cover with a mountain of vermicelli, and decorate this with lines of cinnamon, confectioners’ sugar, if using, and chopped almonds emanating from the center like rays.
variation
Step 8
For “buried in couscous” (couscous medfoun), the fine-ground couscous, seffa, is used instead of vermicelli. Prepare 5 cups as described on page 112 and heat it through in the oven. Cover the chicken with a mountain of couscous. As above, make a design by sprinkling thin lines of cinnamon and confectioners’ sugar, fanning down like rays from the top, and decorate the bottom of the mound with whole or chopped toasted almonds or walnut halves and raisins or dates.
