Seffa Medfouna with Spiced Chicken

STEP 1: START THE CHICKEN

Melt the butter with the olive oil in a wide heavy-based pan over medium heat. Add the grated onions, ground ginger, ground turmeric, ground white pepper, crumbled saffron, cinnamon stick and fine salt. Cook gently for 6-8 minutes, stirring, until the onion has collapsed and smells sweet rather than raw.

STEP 2: BRAISE THE CHICKEN

Add the chicken and turn the pieces in the onion until fully coated. Pour in the water, tuck in the herb bundle, cover, and cook over low heat for 45-55 minutes, turning the pieces once, until the meat pulls away from the bone without resistance.

STEP 3: SHRED AND REDUCE

Lift out the chicken. Discard the skin, bones, herb bundle and cinnamon stick, and shred the meat coarsely with two forks. Boil the remaining liquid hard until the onion reduces to a thick, glossy jam, then fold the meat back through it. It should be moist but not wet; a wet filling soaks into the vermicelli and collapses the dome. Keep warm.

STEP 4: COAT THE VERMICELLI

While the chicken braises, put the broken vermicelli in a large wide bowl and rub the neutral oil through it with your hands until every strand is slicked. This is what keeps the strands separate through three passes in the basket, so do not skip it.

STEP 5: FIRST PASS IN THE BASKET

Bring water to a hard boil in the base of the couscoussier. Add the vermicelli to the basket, uncovered, and cook for 15 minutes from the moment vapour rises through the pasta. Turn it out into the wide bowl, sprinkle over about a third of the salted water, and rake it apart with a fork. Rest for 10 minutes.

STEP 6: SECOND PASS

Return the vermicelli to the basket and cook, uncovered, for another 15 minutes. Turn out, sprinkle with another third of the salted water, work through a third of the softened butter, and rake apart again. Rest for 10 minutes.

STEP 7: THIRD PASS

Return to the basket a final time for 15 minutes, until the vermicelli is completely tender with no chalky core. Turn out into the bowl for the last time.

STEP 8: SEASON THE DOME

While the vermicelli is hot, fold through the remaining butter, the icing sugar, the ground cinnamon and the orange blossom water. Taste it: it should read as clearly sweet and clearly perfumed, because it has to carry against saffron chicken underneath. Orange blossom water varies between brands, so add half, taste, and add the rest only if the perfume is not coming through.

STEP 9: BURY THE CHICKEN

Pile the shredded chicken into the centre of the tagine base, keeping it in a compact mound rather than spreading it to the edges. Cover it completely with the vermicelli and press the outside into a smooth, steep dome with cupped hands. None of the chicken should show.

STEP 10: DECORATE AND SERVE

Grind the fried almonds coarsely with the 2 tbsp icing sugar and ring the base of the dome with them, scattering over the raisins if using. Dust the dome with icing sugar, then draw lines of ground cinnamon down it from the apex, using a folded card as a straight edge. Set the lid on and carry it to the table closed. Lift the lid in front of the people eating, and let them break into the dome themselves.