What is harcha, the Moroccan semolina bread?

Harcha is one of those simple breads that becomes a small obsession once you try it warm. It is made from coarse semolina, butter, a little sugar and salt, and just enough milk to bring it together into a stiff dough, which is shaped into thick discs and cooked slowly in a dry pan until both sides form a crunchy, golden crust. No oven is needed, which is part of its everyday appeal.

Cut one open and the inside is pale, dense, and crumbly, with a texture much like a buttery cornbread — it almost shatters into sandy crumbs, which is exactly right. The flavour is gently sweet and rich with butter, mild enough to carry whatever you put on it. Eaten hot from the pan it is irresistible; left to cool it firms up, so warm is always best.

Harcha lives at the breakfast and afternoon-tea table, split and spread with butter and honey, runny jam, soft cheese (laughing-cow style is a classic guilty pleasure), or amlou. It is hearty and filling, the kind of thing that keeps you going through a morning of sightseeing. Street vendors and cafés sell it all day, and it is a fixture of the mint-tea hour when Moroccans pause to socialise.

You will spot harcha stacked at café counters and on griddle carts in every medina, often sold warm and wrapped in paper for a few dirhams. I love steering guests toward a vendor cooking them fresh, splitting one open, and slathering it with amlou — the argan-and-almond spread — for a wholly Moroccan breakfast. Order it warm, with mint tea, and you have the perfect simple start to a day exploring.