M'dfouna — 'the buried one' — is a Berber tagine of the High Atlas, where eggs are cracked into a thick bed of spiced minced meat, onions and vegetables and then cooked covered until the whites set and the yolks stay soft. The word is the same root as seffa medfouna (the 'buried' vermicelli dish): both hide something inside a larger mass, and the discovery at the table is part of the pleasure. It is an everyday family dish of the mountains, made when there is minced meat and eggs and not much else, and it feeds everyone from one tagine.
The meat is savory and spiced, the vegetables soft and sweet; the buried eggs are the surprise, their yolks running gold when you dig in. Eaten with bread torn from a round khobz, it is hearty mountain food.
The eggs are added late, after the meat and vegetables have formed a thick, cooked base, and they cook by the trapped steam under the tagine lid rather than by direct heat from the bottom. This is why they set soft rather than rubbery: the temperature under a covered tagine stays around 90-95 degrees, hot enough to coagulate the egg whites but gentle enough to keep the yolks liquid. The conical tagine lid is the key piece of equipment: its shape traps and recirculates steam, creating an even, moist heat that cooks the eggs from above as the meat cooks from below.
Variations
Peas, potatoes and carrots are the usual vegetables. Some add preserved lemon. A Fassi version uses chicken livers alongside the eggs.
On the Palate
Where M'dfouna sits in the Moroccan flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 5
How it's made
6 steps · 30 min
- 18 min
In a tagine, brown 500 g minced lamb or beef in 2 tbsp olive oil; add 2 chopped onions, 3 crushed garlic cloves, 1 tsp ginger, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tsp cumin, salt; cook 5 minutes.
- 212 min
Add 2 diced potatoes, 1 cup peas, 1 diced carrot, and 1 cup water; cover and simmer 20 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
Watch outCook the vegetables until tender before the eggs go in — the base must be thick, or the eggs sink and won't sit in their wells.
- 32 min
Make 4 wells in the surface; crack 1 egg into each.
- 47 min
Cover and cook 6-8 minutes until the whites are set and the yolks still soft.
Watch outCover and cook just until the whites set but the yolks stay runny — the trapped steam under the lid cooks them from above, so lift the lid to check rather than turning up the heat.
- 53 min
Scatter chopped parsley and a pinch more cumin over the top.
- 63 min
Serve from the tagine with bread.
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