Ever since I had dafina at the home of Moshe and Titi Haliwa in Marrakesh a few months ago, I’ve been dreaming about it. Unlike bean-heavy Ashkenazi cholent, dafina is a Morrocan stew that’s loaded with meat, bones, chickpeas, rice, wheat berries, potatoes and eggs! I love that the components are cooked separately in little packets and that there’s something for everyone in this loaded overnight stew.
A little while ago, I attempted to make dafina but it was an absolute fail! It was tasteless and watery, and the delicious kishke stuffing that Titi had made with ground beef, bread crumbs and ground almonds came out like dry cardboard. I rarely fail so badly at recipes, but I knew I needed a real Moroccan grandma to teach me the ropes! Luckily, Brigitte Dayan, a longtime follower, invited me to join her mom and sisters one Friday afternoon to learn to make dafina together! They put out an amazing spread of some of Liliane’s homemade Moroccan pastries, and we got to work making dafina and boulettes – the most delicious Moroccan meatballs (recipe coming soon)
Of course Moroccan grandmothers never measure, so I was so grateful that Liliane took the time to roughly measure the ingredients with me. It was so clear to me how much love she puts into her dishes, and she even got all dolled up to cook together! Liliane told me all about her life growing up in Morocco, and how she once hosted the prince for a Shabbos meal! She shared how everyone in town would bring their dafina pot on Friday’s to be cooked in one central area, and then they would pick them up on Shabbat afternoon, or have a local muslim deliver it. Sometimes you would get the wrong pot (her mom put a special sign on the handle)! Liliane’s recipe is very savory, while the one Titi had made was more on the sweet side (she adds dried dates) but feel free to play around and make it your own!
Does your family have a secret dafina ingredient? Share it in the comments below!
Liliane Dayan’s Dafina
(measurements are approximate, Moroccan grandmas don’t measure!)
Feeds about 15 people
Chickpea layer:
8oz. dried chickpeas, rinsed
1/2 tbsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp sweet paprika
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp shawarma spice (Liliane added this when she came to America, they didn’t have this in Morocco)
1/2 tsp kebab spice (Liliane added this when she came to America, they didn’t have this in Morocco)
2 tsp consommé mix
1/3 cup canola oil
2 discs beef feet (Liliane’s secret ingredient!)
1 piece neck bone
1 piece flanken bone
Rice:
2 cups jasmine rice
5oz Carolina yellow rice (Liliane added this when she came to America, they didn’t have this in Morocco)
1/2 tbsp chopped garlic
3 tbsp canola oil
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp consommé mix
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 cup water (rinse the yellow rice bag with the water to extract the flavor)
Wheat Berries:
8oz whole wheat berries
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp consommé mix
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp kebab spice (Liliane added this when she came to America, they didn’t have this in Morocco)
1 1/2 tsp shawarma spice (Liliane added this when she came to America, they didn’t have this in Morocco)
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup water
13/4 tbsp chopped garlic
Potato Layer:
peeled Yukon gold potatoes (3 mini or 1 large per person – Liliane says there were only large ones in Morocco because “everything is big in Morocco!”)
1 peeled sweet potato
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 1/2 tsp turmeric
3 tbsp canola oil
1 egg per person
Meat layer: (can also add lamb neck or stew)
1 lb veal breast or kolichol
2 lbs cholent meat
1.5 lbs. neck bones
1 lb. flanken bones
Add salt, pepper, kebab spice, turmeric, paprika, cumin, consommé mix (at this point everyone was too tired to measure so just go with the flow!)
1/2 cup canola oil
Method:
In an 11qt oven-safe pot, star with the chickpea layer: combine the chickpeas, spices and oil. Top with the meat. (I remember Titi had dried dates mixed into her chickpeas so add that if you’d like!)
Mix the rice ingredients in a bowl, and then transfer to a sheet of heavy duty foil, folding it up into a flat rectangular packet. (Liliane prefers foil because she says cheesecloth makes the texture more mushy. I would try it with parchment paper as well). Repeat this process with the wheat berries, and place the 2 foil packets, side by side in the pot above the chickpea layer. Cut 5 slits in the foil to allow steam to escape.
Top the packets with the potatoes, spices and oil and then top with a layer of eggs.
Finish the dafina with a layer of meat and spices.
Add a bit of water to the bowls that you used to mix your rice and wheat berries, and pour the leftover drippings over the dafina. Then boil a large kettle of water and pour the boiling water over the pot until it’s almost full. Cover the pot with heavy duty foil, leaving it slightly opened for steam to escape, and bring the dafina to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 3 hours.
Before Shabbat, transfer the dafina to a 250 degree oven , adding more water if needed to just cover the meat.
To serve, Place the meats in one bowl, the chickpeas in another, separate the rice and wheat berries into small bowls, and serve the potatoes and eggs together. Top everything with plenty of sauce from the pot.
PS this is the longest recipe I’ve ever written!
Thank you so much to the Dayan family for welcoming me in your home to cook dafina together! I had a blast!
