Moroccan flatbread, the right side for a tagine dish

On any cooking journey, there are lessons to be learnt, and nobody knows everything in such an exhaustive field as cooking. Just look at any page of Larousse Gastronomique.

So, a small but necessary confession: I didn’t know that until this week. Never having been to Morocco, I made the mistake that many foreigners make when visiting Morocco. “With couscous please.” Erm, nope.

My Chicago-based good friend Chris Pretorius, who knows his food and has travelled extensively, put me right the other day. 

“Your lamb tagine is very accurate and great,” he wrote. “Quite similar to the ones I make in that style. You know how sceptical I am about authenticity so don’t be offended if I point something out, because before my travels to Morocco, I made the same ‘mistake’.”

And then:

“Couscous is never served with a tagine. Couscous is its own dish. On a typical menu, you’ll have, say, chicken, lamb or vegetable couscous. Then you will have tagines, served either with flatbread or rice, even frites. Couscous is never served as a side, like rice, for instance.

“I always thought of Moroccan food as something with couscous, only to discover nothing is further from the truth. Hope this didn’t annoy you.”

Nah. What is life for if not learning? But it does annoy Moroccan restaurant staff, who will serve it with a measure of quiet disdain.

I love coming upon something new, so let’s put it to rights, right away. I needed to learn how to make flatbread in the Moroccan style.

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Breads are not really my thing, though I make a loaf now and then, most often a braai bread. I’ve made naan a few times, and I adore them. I’ve developed a “feel” for when dough is just right, so I must be getting somewhere with bread. And this one felt absolutely right.

Breadmaking is always a soul-soothing experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Particularly because they turned out really well. Have a go.

Tony’s Moroccan flatbread, for serving with a tagine

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

3 tsp active dried yeast

500 g bread flour

200 g wholemeal whole wheat flour

250 ml (1 cup) lukewarm water

125 ml (½ cup) full cream milk, lukewarm

2 Tbsp polenta

Water for brushing the flatbreads before baking

1 Tbsp white sesame seeds

Coarse salt

Method

Dissolve 3 tsp of active dried yeast in 125 ml lukewarm water. Make sure the utensil you dissolve it in is larger than 125 ml to its brim, otherwise the foaming yeast will spill over as it bubbles.

Sift the bread flour and wholemeal flour into a baking bowl. Make a sizable well in the centre.

Into this well, pour the yeast (scrape it all in, you don’t want to lose some), the lukewarm water, and the lukewarm milk.

Sprinkle a little flour into the wet mixture in the well, just enough to be able to mix it into a thin paste. Then cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave it for about 15 minutes for bubbles to form.

Stir the flour in towards the wet centre, then mix with one hand (I find it easier, for control) until you have a firm, pliable dough that is not sticky. If it’s sticky, it needs a touch more flour.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and get to work, kneading it for a full 10 minutes in the old method of push-and-pull, fold-and-repeat.

You should have a delightfully elastic dough to work with. Form it into a neat log and cut it into three pieces, as accurately as you can. If one or more lumps of dough are smaller, rob Peter to pay Paul until the trio is of even size.

Roll each lump of dough into a ball. Roll out on a floured surface in all directions until you have a disk of dough about 22 cm in diameter; that is, roughly the size of a standard pie dish. It’s flatbread, remember?

Preheat the oven to 220°C.

This is where the polenta comes in, in case you think we’ve forgotten it. Take a handful and sprinkle it on an oven tray, and repeat on more oven pans for the other two flatbreads.

Place the rounds of dough on top of their polenta beds.

Pour a little water into a small bowl and brush the flatbreads lightly all over.

Sprinkle sesame seeds on top, then sprinkle with coarse salt.

Cover with tea towels and let them rise for an hour. They won’t rise much but will achieve a bit of puffiness. 

Prick the flatbreads in many places with a fork or skewer, and bake for about 15 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack.

Serve them in wedges, with a goodly portion of a tagine dish such as this chicken and pear tagine.

If three flatbreads are too much for you, freeze the balance. Come back here next Monday for my next Lekker Brekker Monday recipe, and yes, it involves one of those flatbreads. DM

Tony Jackman is Galliova Food Writer 2023, jointly with TGIFood columnist Anna Trapido. Order his book, foodSTUFF, here

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.

This dish is photographed in a bowl by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.