The stuffed dates of a Maghrebi wedding table, Medjool from the Tafilalt opened and packed with orange blossom almond paste, then rolled in sugar and set out in tiers
Origin: The Tafilalt and Fez, Morocco
From the journey of Date.
Tmar mahchi means stuffed dates, and they are the fixed centrepiece of the sweet tray at a Moroccan or Algerian wedding, at Eid, and at any occasion where guests are received formally. Large soft dates are slit, stoned, and packed with almond paste scented with orange blossom water, then rolled in caster sugar and arranged in tiers on a brass tray with the other petits fours of the Maghrebi confectioner. The dates come from the Tafilalt, the Ziz valley oasis on the northern edge of the Sahara, and from the neighbouring Draa. This is Medjool country: majhool in Arabic, the unknown, a very large, very soft, dark date that was a local speciality of these oases for centuries before the twentieth century took it worldwide. In Morocco the fruit carries more ceremony than almost any other food; a guest arriving in the south is met at the door with dates and milk put into the hands before a word is spoken. The dish is old in form if not in its present ingredients. Apicius records dulcia domestica, in which a Roman cook drew the stone from a date, set a nut in its place, and warmed the fruit through in honey. Two thousand years later the Maghreb performs the same operation with almond paste instead of a whole nut and sugar instead of honey, and Spain performs it again at Elche with a rasher of bacon around the outside. It is one of the oldest continuously made preparations in this atlas, and nobody making it thinks of it as historical. Almond and date is not an arbitrary pairing either. Both grow in the same Moroccan valleys, both are stored dry through the year, and the almond supplies exactly the fat and the faint bitterness that a date on its own lacks.
Medjool is the right date and the Tafilalt is where it came from, but any very large soft date will do. A dry Deglet Nour will not: it splits rather than opening, and the texture fights the paste. For the Algerian version the paste is often scented with lemon zest as well as orange blossom water, and a walnut half replaces the almond on top. A quantity of the almond paste can be made in advance and kept wrapped in the refrigerator for a week. Bring it back to room temperature before shaping or it will crack. Ground almonds bought a long time ago will taste of nothing. Grind blanched almonds yourself if the packet in the cupboard is older than a few months.
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