Khlii aux œufs — Fez, Morocco

Khlii is a method for preserving meat by drying and then slow-cooking it in fat, once common across Morocco as a way to keep meat through the year without refrigeration. Strips of beef are salted and spiced, dried in the open air, and finally cooked down in fat until they can be stored at room temperature for months, submerged in their own preserved cooking fat. This version is reported from Fez, where khlii is closely tied to the city and turns up often at breakfast rather than as a dinner ingredient. The beef is cut into strips, rubbed with crushed garlic, ground coriander, cumin and salt, and left to marinate for a full day before drying begins, so the spices penetrate the meat before moisture starts to leave it. The strips are then hung in a ventilated, sunny spot for several days until noticeably firmer and darker, after which they are simmered gently in a mixture of beef fat and oil until fully tender. Packed into a jar and covered completely with the fat they were cooked in, the strips set as the fat cools and can then be kept without refrigeration for a long stretch, the fat acting as a seal against air. The most common way to eat it, and the one this recipe follows, is the simplest: a few pieces reheated in a little of their fat until sizzling, eggs cracked directly on top and cooked through, served with bread and a dusting of cumin. It is a winter breakfast associated with cold mornings, and its smell drifting from a kitchen is recognized well beyond the household making it.