Smithy

Followup sometime later: the new Moroccan tagine cooking thread has further comparison between braising in clay pots and braising in other vessels. Those interested should make sure they check out that thread, too.

You have to understand, I have seen these pots in exactly 3 uses: (1) at our friend's flat in Luxor, where they were used to serve potatoes in tomato sauce (I think she cooked in a larger pot, considering the way the borma kept magically refilling as we heroically struggled to eat our way through the feast - hospitality and etiquette there is a whole different topic) (2) at the pottery stand, where there are oodles of wonderful clay pots of all sizes and purposes, all uncured, and (3) at our house, where until very recently this one has been holding an impressive collection of cones and pods from Southern California. However, I have seen the tagines (smaller pots, often used for moussaka, you can see one in my Braising Lab 1, or I can post another photo) in action in Egypt. The tagines have handles without holes, so there's no way to loop something through the handles to suspend the pot over a fire. The restaurants set these pots right down on the coals, or in the fireplace, or in the oven. There has to be a way to lift them out. As I recall there are tongs or a U-shaped implement on a long handle for reaching in to grab the pot. Those have to fit in under the handles. When I say "steadying point" I'm guessing, and it's just a guess, that the little triangular point fits into the crotch of the U or the tong to steady it just a bit more and keep it from pivoting too much on its handles. Now, I'm speculating on this borma and the hanging loops (main handles), but you could loop wire through the handles and then hang this pot from a horizontal rod that you could swing in and out of the fire, a la big pots in an early American fireplace. The problem is that this pot is so broad compared to its depth that it will swing like crazy if you have to stir it. You have to be able to steady it somehow, and the triangular things I called "steadying points" are strategically located at the farthest point of the rim from the hanging loops to do just that. Of course, it's also entirely possible that these loopy handles are for putting ropes through so you can hang these pots as planters (a future use for more pots at our house) and that the triangular points are there to strengthen the rim, or because they look cool, or because sometimes the pots go into a ring-shaped support and need 4-point support, or because they've been done that way forever and nobody knows why anymore. Thanks for reminding me about the different thermal characteristics of the Corning vs. these two pots. I suspect the lima pot has different characteristics than the clay too, but that they're a lot closer together. OK, it's decided. If the lima pot blows up, there'll be space atop the cabinet for a Rifi tagine.

Mm. It may be that more liquid is needed in the clay pot, to allow for the loss and concentration that happens during the cooking. That will ensure plenty of sauce at the end, for those of us who are sauce junkies. Will that overcover the meat, though? Is a tagine enough like other braises that the liquid level should really be a third to a halfway up the object being cooked? Or is it more of a set quantity of liquid to ingredients? If overcovering the meat isn't an issue, maybe a good rule of thumb is to double the liquid for a clay pot, or halve it for a metal pot, depending on which way you go. If overcovering the meat is an issue, I suppose one could live dangerously by adding water to the braising liquid as it, er, was schlurped up and out, to maintain a constant liquid level. The dangerous part would be letting the level get too low and adding too much cold water. The water would have to be hot, wouldn't it? Come to think of it, I did have to do that the other day with the lamb tagine from your web site. Come to think of it...ok, I really think the clay pots need more liquid. You absolutely should type up a djej mhammer recipe so other interested readers (especially Sackville, who asked) can try it too. If you don't, I'll be happy to do it - I logged on with that intent, but don't want to if you're in the process right now. If I do it, it will have to be from The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen. The other thing I think you could say relates to the discussion we're having right now. If you're cooking a tagine, how do you know much liquid should be there? There's a visual cue for the simmer (barely bubbling). There's a visual cue for the spice coatings (well coated, and heated until the meat is warming/steam begins to rise from the pot). There's a tactile cue for the meat (pull-apart, meltingly tender). What's the cue for the appropriate amount of liquid?

I'm still pondering some of the information above. Meanwhile, here's an edge detail of my Egyptian cooking bowl to show the hanging loops and the steadying points I mentioned upthread. Meyer lemons are in the pot for size reference and color interest. Now, I've another materials-related question to ask: I'm really interested to see what happens if I do one tagine in the Egyptian clay pot and another tagine in a glazed ceramic pot. I happen to have a ceramic casserole dish of almost the exact same dimensions as the borma. (Yes, that's my cone and pod collection in the lima casserole.) I suspect that the ceramic pot results will be similar to the Le Creuset in terms of liquid generated/retained but more like the clay pot in terms of browning, and as far as the overall flavor goes, who knows? My question is whether I dare try this particular ceramic pot on top of the stove, over low heat, over a flame tamer, as though it's a clay pot. It doesn't claim to be stovetop safe, but the more I think about clay pots and stove tops, the more I think about being able to boil water in a paper cup: as long as there's liquid inside, the cup doesn't burn. I think the clay won't break as long as the heat is low and there's something inside to help regulate it. What do you think? Fifi, this is especially directed at you, but any and all opinions will be welcomed right up to cooking time later this afternoon. My alternative, by the way, is a classic Corning round casserole. I'm sure that can take the heat, but its dimensions are different.

That makes sense, even if it makes my head hurt. Actually, it makes water sound like a cat: wants to go where it isn't. If I think about it long enough, I may actually come up with the hydraulic effect word you're looking for. Hmm. Paula's earlier description made me think of the cone as a cooling tower. Sounds like you're right on, Madam Materials Scientist. And I love the description of water galloping around!

You mentioned (see your quote) the pot has been sitting around holding pinecones. So it hasn't been used in a long time. Or ever? Do you remember whether you were supposed to soak it before curing back when you bought it? I'm only guessing but the huge evaporation of liquid might have happened due to the super dry walls of the pot. On the other hand, 1 cup of liquid for a chicken or its equal in weight in thighs doesn't need more than l cup. Tagines like braises do better with less liquid. <snippo> If the chicken came out right with the claypot, it would have been meltingly soft and juicy. Followed by broiling, you should have a crisp skin just barely holding the chicken flesh in place. Fifi: We need your help. Thanks for providing the name of the pot. I am beginning to set up a grid with names of pots, curing,et. I love your pot! It is beautiful. How high are the walls versus the diameter? I have some similar ones used in the eastern mediterranean to make moussake, and Turkish guvec (meat and vegetable stews). Guvec uses only the liquid the meat and vegetables throw off during the cooking to keep everything juicy. t. ← I really meant that I'd never used this pot for cooking before. It's a bit embarrassing to admit that, because we've had it for years, but all we ever saw this particular pot style used for was to serve potatoes in tomato sauce. I used the Egyptian tagine (which appeared in the braising experiments) and smaller bowls for moussaka, and am only now discovering the wonders of braising in general and cooking tagines in clay in particular. I finally got around to curing this pot last weekend, in order to try cooking tagines in it. The original instructions did not include soaking the pottery, and I suspect these pots would explode like your Turkish pots did if they were soaked and then coated, but I don't know. What I was shown was to wash the pottery with hot water and scrub pad (can't remember about detergent) to get the loose clay dust off, and let the pot air dry thoroughly. (Edited to add: air drying can be done in low-temperature oven, if desired.) Then coat it inside and out with molasses, set in the oven (upside down over foil works well), turn the temperature up to medium heat, and cook until done. It takes a few hours. You can tell it's done because the appearance of the molasses changes. It kind of beads up on the pot and forms a patchy crust. After the pot is cool you have to give it a quick wipe to get the loose molasses crust off; otherwise you get it all over everything you set it on. I've never had these pots (used or unused) leave water residue on furniture. That may be because I re-dry them after use. I learned the hard way that if they weren't quite dry they'd sprout a healthy mold colony (love that molasses) and I'd have to start all over. I don't know what Sabra does about that in Luxor, but I have taken to putting the pots in the oven on warm for a while after I've used and cleaned them. Caution on my terminology! I call this pot a "borma" (plural "boraam") but I think that's just a generic term for a clay pot. The Egyptians are quite specific about the tagine I used in the braising thread - that is a "tagine", pronounced more or less "DA-jin" and quite unlike the Moroccan cone-topped tagine. If there is a similar term reserved for this size and shape of bowl, I don't know what it is. I may be able to find out. Anyway, it's fun to say "borma", but keep in mind my extremely limited language skills. This pot's interior is slightly over 9" diameter at the rim - anywhere from 9-1/4" to 9-3/8" inside diameter at the top. The interior bottom where it more or less flattens out is roughly 7" diameter. It's about 2-5/8" deep. The walls of the rim are 1/2" thick except where there are two points for stabilizing it, at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock, and two sturdy loops for hanging, at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock. (How much longer, in this digital age, will we be able to use those expressions?) I'll try to post a photo tomorrow of what I'm talking about. The exterior is pretty round, even on the bottom, so it rocks slightly without a flame tamer, wok ring, or similar slightly larger circular stand. I'm sorry, I don't have the time to type in the recipe today. Saturdays are difficult around here.If anyone who has the book and feels up to the challenge, you have my permission. If not, I'll type it up tomorrow morning and then if you are all still interested we can discuss the claypot versus the LC. I'm very interested. If the chicken came out right with the claypot, it would have been meltingly soft and juicy. Followed by broiling, you should have a crisp skin just barely holding the chicken flesh in place. ← Thanks for those extra insights. I followed your recipe down to the quantities, but did wonder whether there's really some rule of thumb for tagines like braises - liquid should only be halfway up the meat, or some such. The chicken was quite tender and fell apart with the fork. I'm not only interested in pursuing the LC vs. clay more, I'm wondering about glazed ceramic vs. unglazed clay. I just might risk a casserole dish atop the stove on that experiment. Edited as noted above.

But really...I MUST not visit that site....tax time...tax time... ...although, they really aren't very expensive...

Welcome, TimZ! It's good to have you here! What kind of seasonings do you use on red meat after sealing (did you mean searing?) What kind of seasonings do you use on the chicken before searing? Finally, could you elaborate on what you mean by cutting the lemon in halves then frying in olive oil? Do you really mean to cut a lemon into two halves? (That sounds a bit big.) Or do you mean to cut it into slices (like coins) and then cut those in half?

That's a good point about the sauce. When I finally got it boiled down in the borma there was not very much left, but it was considerably thicker than in the LC. It almost looked like a starch had been added and not mixed in properly. I wonder, though, if the liquid is really going all the way through the sides. I was envisioning it being absorbed into the pot and then doing a slow back-and-forth exchange with the free sauce at the interface, with some liquid absorbed in the clay and unavailable for serving. I admit that might not account for nearly a 50% loss (somewhat less since the chicken still had fat to give up under the broiler). There's no noticeable moisture or color change on the outside the way you have with a clay water holder or those clay wine bottle coolers that were so popular back in the 70's. Is that because the heat from below (and with the wok ring, the sides as well) evaporates the water so quickly that it keeps the pot sides cool without being detectable on the outside of the pot? This particular pot, unlike some of its cousins in this house, has been sitting as a decoration, holding pine cones and interesting Southern California tree pods, until now. I thank Wolfert for getting me going on using it as it was intended.

Is there anyway you could share that recipe with us? I would be very interested in trying it! Your pictures and description of the dish are making my mouth water... ← I'm so glad you like the writeup! Since I began to post on eGullet I've discovered that it's a lot harder to make those photos come out than it appears. As for the recipe: I'd post a link if I knew of one, but this particular recipe may not be online. Maybe, if we asked politely, and even begged a little, the author would be willing to post it. Since she's actively participating in this thread, I'd rather she summarize the ingredients, proportions, and so on to the extent she's willing.

This report could go almost as easily back into the eGCI Braising Lab Q&A, or even the Paprika: confessions of an addict thread, as here. But I started posting about it here before I spilled almost 800 toothpicks all over my stove and counter, so I'll finish it here. Double-Cooked Red Chicken Marrakech-Style, from Paula Wolfert's The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen: Recipes for the Passionate Cook. Well, almost. The recipe calls for whole chickens, and I didn't want to cook that much. I used chicken thighs only, because I wanted to compare the dish cooked two ways: in my Egyptian clay pot and in a Le Creuset French oven (oval) of roughly the same bottom area. The geometries are different. I don't know how relevant that is. The clay pot was on a wok stand over a large coil of my electric stove. The LC was on a small burner, on my reasoning that it would transmit heat more readily than the clay pot and that the smaller coil would provide a lower heat for simmering. I used 6 chicken thighs per pot, and used exactly the same spice mix, garlic, water, etc. to the best of my ability to measure them. There were some differences in timing, since I'm being pretty careful not to overheat the clay pot and I have no such fears about the LC. Nonetheless I went slowly with both. I noted upthread that the heat from the coil came up around the clay pot sides more, with it elevated by the wok stand, than when it had been on a flame tamer directly on the coil. I realized later that I could have put the pot and wok stand over the small burner coil, and maybe concentrated the heat on the bottom. I may try that later, but tonight the LC was there and I had other plans for the back burners. Attention paprika freaks: this chicken has a lot of paprika in the coating, and it's goood. There's also garlic, cilantro that basically disappears, cumin, pepper, ginger, onion, saffron (if you haven't run out) and cayenne. The procedure seems to be what you do with tagines (correct me if I'm wrong, Wolfert, please): coat the meat with a seasoning (garlic, herbs, butter, spices in this case) , toss over low heat until things start to warm up, then add onions and water and bring to the boil. Then cover the pot, lower the heat and simmer. The LC came up to temperature first, and I had to cut its heat back. Eventually I had both pots simmering at the same slow rate, judging by the bubbles. I will not report the temperatures I measured last night, because I didn't write them down and I'm not sure I trust my memory. I do remember, however, that the simmering temperatures (at the bottom of the liquid) were within 10*F of each other. I simmered a little over an hour, and by that time the chicken in each vessel was fork-tender. Here's the Egyptian pot (borma) after liquid was added, and before the simmer started: and while simmering: Up to this point, the dishes looked the same except for the cooking vessels, so I won't duplicate with LC photos. Afterward, they diverged. The chicken in the LC was fully covered by liquid by the time the hour was up. The chicken in the clay pot was not submerged. After refrigeration overnight I defatted both dishes, rewarmed the liquid, and measured. The Le Creuset dish had 2 cups of liquid. The clay pot had 1 cup of liquid. As far as I know, both were as tightly covered during cooking. I definitely started with the same amount of liquid and solids. Here's what the clay pot chicken looked like after refrigeration (I didn't separate the meat and sauce overnight): Here's the Le Creuset version after the same treatment: That's a piece of chicken, submerged, in the upper center of the photo. There was twice as much liquid, by volume, in the LC dish as in the borma. After that step you separate the sauce from the chicken, boil down the sauce, rub some of the rescued fat (with yet more paprika and other spices) on the chicken, and broil the chicken until it's browned. Serve with the sauce and a garnish of preserved lemons. Zinfandel in the glass isn't a bad accompaniment. Dinner! LC chicken on the left, clay pot chicken on the right. Not much visual difference, especially with my photos. I've decided to blame the white plates. The differences: because the LC chicken had thrown off a lot more liquid, that made for a lot more sauce (even after boiling down) at the table. The clay pot chicken lost more moisture during the broiling stage, and the plate had a bunch of reddish oil around the chicken after that step. That must mean something, although I don't know what. I think the clay pot chicken was a bit more tender and fall-apart melty. The LC, however, did a fine job, and the chicken was plenty tender and flavorful. Both tasted wonderful. I wish, oh how I wish, that you readers could have been here for the event, but that wouldn't have left me many leftovers. I recommend you go try it for yourself. Nancy

Well...this thread is the daughter of one thread and the mother of another. If you think your Algerian mouth would disrupt the conversation, why not start an Algerian tagine thread? Seriously, I'd be interested to know how the cuisine and cooking methods shift with the geography.

I started a chicken tagine last night and did a double recipe: one in the Egyptian clay pot and the other in a Le Creuset of comparable bottom surface area. The LC sat directly on the burner, and I put the Egyptian borma on a wok stand. My take so far on the wok stand is that it elevates the pot off the electric coil, true, but then I had to turn the heat up to get a simmer, more than I needed when the pot sat on a flame tamer. I noticed that the sides of the pot got hotter than when the pot sat on a flame tamer, because the heat fanned out around the pot as air rose through the wok stand holes. Whether that's good or bad, I don't know. The wok stand certainly held the pot nicely. I'll see tonight how they turn out. A small disaster involving a box of 800 toothpicks falling out of the cabinet while I was looking for more saffron delayed me so much I had to do the "refrigerate overnight" thing. (I hereby resolve to put rubber bands around my toothpick boxes. And how could I have let myself run out of saffron? ) Nancy

I can't help you with okra recipes, but I'm here to tell you that my family had a pronounced Southern background and there was a lot of fried eggplant in my grandmother's house. I don't remember if Nana paired it with fried chicken, but I can't think why she wouldn't have. Edited to add: the fried chicken photos have not only been making me drool this week, but I've gained 5 pounds just reading the doggoned thread. My attempt was so feeble by comparison, but I still couldn't put the leftovers away and leave them alone. (That might have to do with the tight jeans, too.) Just as soon as I can put my clay pots away, I'm going to try some of these other methods.

For some reason, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" comes to mind -

WOW Zinfandel! Yeah! Cline California Zinfandel, 2002. I tried this wine last night, admittedly with some reservations. I adore Cline Mourvedre but have been disappointed in their zinfandels. That didn't stop me from picking up TWO DIFFERENT Cline zinfandels for comparison's sake once this WOW was picked, but then I didn't open the other one. I wish I'd tasted before reading your review, because it's difficult to know how much I might have been influenced, and now I'll come off as saying "me too" and "yabbut". But here goes: Nose: muted and delicate, yes. I didn't get any vanilla, dust or pepper. I did get fruit; mixed berries sounds about right. Legs weaker than some I've seen, but they were there. I forgot to check the alcohol content, but based on the legs and the overall flavor/impact of the wine I'm guessing it's lower than the zin I was drinking last week - say, in the 13% or maybe 12% range. (How's that for hanging it out there? I'll look tonight and see how much I've made a fool of myself. ) Flavors were brighter than the nose would indicate, yes. Cherry, maybe. Jammy raspberry, I dunno. I didn't get any pepper or heat, but I did get some detectable zinfandel spice - not as much as my favorite zins carry, but it was pretty good. Pretty smooth, full mouth feel, a bit of tannin. Good body, with a little structure but not much, if I'm using those terms properly. I agree on the short finish, but what finish was there was nice. Bottom line: if I wanted to show someone what the zinfandel fuss is all about, for my tastes, I wouldn't bother with this one. But if I wanted an inexpensive pleasant bottle of wine for a spicy food, this would be a good candidate. Tonight I may crack open that other Cline zinfandel - next step up - and see how they compare. Or maybe I'll wait until this one is gone and then try the two side by side after they've been opened at the same time. For those of you reading along, I just finished the eGCI course and am exercising my fledgling skills. I'd love comments if you see major gaffes here, or have insights on what else I could have been checking.

You're welcome! I'm excited for you! Let us know how your trip comes out, and feel free to ask more questions!

What do you mean? It didn't cure them, or you couldn't see a difference?

I can't imagine why people were discouraging about it. Cairo: You MUST go visit Khoushary Tahrir, near Midaan Tahrir (Tahrir Square). I can't remember the street it's on, but I can find out and let you know. Khoushary may be the closest thing to a national dish in Egypt. It's a hot meal of rice, macaroni, lentils, crispy fried onions, tomato sauce and another thing or two that I've forgotten, all in a bowl. At the table you add your own sauces to your tastes: a lemon/garlic sauce that's tart and almost sweet, and a hot red pepper sauce. Caution! The hot red pepper sauce really is liquid blow torch, and it does that slow burn thing that sneaks up on you. Pour a little into your spoon, swirl it in the khoushary, and do not lick the spoon until you've stirred thoroughly. I didn't believe my husband the first time he warned me about this, and my taste buds were seared for 2 days. But oh, under the heat there's a wonderful flavor. Khoushary can be found all over - it's cheap and filling - but I think Khoushary Tahrir makes the best I've had, anywhere. You pick your table and tell the waiter what you want: the 2LE bowl or the 1LE bowl. The 2 LE bowl is huge. I've lost track of the exchange rate, but last year 1 LE (pound Egyptian, in case you're wondering) was about $0.15 U.S. Cheap, filling, and good. Out in the Garden City area of Cairo is a Lebanese restaurant named Tabbouli. Excellent food, good prices. Yes, I know it's Lebanese, but Egyptian cuisine seems to borrow heavily from other Middle Eastern countries. If you go, PLEASE see if you can figure out what's in the taouk motefa - grilled chicken bits, but not the standard shish taouk, and let me know what you find out. I wish I'd tried to get a recipe. Prices are a bit more there than in the hole-in-the-wall joint, but they're still not bad. It's a nice sit-down restaurant with a good quiet atmosphere - a nice change from the street chaos. I've eaten there several times and it was all excellent. Their fattoush and fetta are particularly good. Go to that place hungry, because you'll be staggering by the time you leave. Don't hesitate to try cooked street food: shwerma, shish tawouk, tameyya on pita. (Tameyya is what we usually know as falafel.) When (not if) you go into the Khan el Khalili, make sure you try one of the roasted sweet potatoes from the vendors who ply their wares there. There are little hole-in-the-wall joints all over Cairo that do wonders with grilled chicken and grilled lamb. Unfortunately I know how to find them when I'm there, but not exactly where they're located. Baba ghanoush is another dish to make sure you try, wherever you get the chance. Try moussaka, also. The Egyptian version is different than the Greek version. I love them both. If you're staying in Maadi, the Sofitel there has a nice bunch of restaurants in the hotel, but they're all foreign cuisine (Tex-Mex, Italian, etc.) except for the breakfast buffet upstairs in the morning. (The breakfast buffet caters equally to foreigners and locals, and does justice to all its food.) For other meals, if you wander down the Corniche (river street) about a half mile you'll find a restaurant that's right down on the Nile - for a while I thought it was actually on a barge. Sorry I don't remember its name, but it was a grand discovery last year. Walk down the Corniche until you pass a big plant nursery, then a little farther you'll see a private club, then this restaurant. You have to go down a flight of steps toward the river to get to it. Luxor: Near the train station is The New Radwan Hotel. They used to have a fine restaurant with what seemed to be a classically-trained chef. Once he know how much we liked his food, he really went to town for us. Our meals typically came with little plate decorations like tomatoes carved into Jack O'Lanterns, or curled into flowers. We never had a bad meal there. The report I got a year or so later was that the staff had changed and the food wasn't as good. I hope that isn't true, but I can't say for sure. He did great things with fish, and with chicken and lamb tagines. Please note, an Egyptian tagine is not a Moroccan tagine (in terms of the spices or the cooking vessel) but it's darned good anyway. Out back of the ticket office where you buy tickets for the Valley of the Kings is a road that will take you to a place called something like The Pharoah Hotel or the Pharoah's Garden. They have a quiet walled courtyard where you can sit in the sun and enjoy the birds and trees as you sip your tea, bottled water, or Stella beer. Their baba ghanoush is the best I've ever had. I paid the rather puzzled cook a bit of baksheesh so I could stand and watch him make my order. I still haven't been able to reproduce it. Someplace in or near the souk street that peels off of Temple Street (near Luxor Temple) is a restaurant set back from the street, with an elevated platform that has tables overlooking the street. My husband always calls it the Happy Chicken because of the bright red chicken on the sign over the door. I finally got around to deciphering the sign last year and realized it said something entirely different, so if you ask directions (I advise against it) nobody will know what you're talking about. Just keep an eye peeled for the chicken sign. The St. Joseph Hotel and the Hotel Mercure have wonderful breakfast buffets. However, you can also go wander the streets and pick up pastries from the bakeries. We used to chow down on these fig-stuffed breadstick-looking pastries that cost pennies. Note, the baked goods have no preservatives, so you're best eating them the day you buy them. PLEASE don't go to McDonald's, for crying out loud. Just don't. From the Nile you can look through the Luxor Temple and see its sign. ("The Golden Arches through the Olden Arches", my brother-in-law commented). It does land-office business. But if you just wander up the street a bit farther away from the Nile, toward the souk street, you'll see a small stand or two that sell tameyya (maybe they call it falafel there) sandwiches. Much cheaper, much better. For safety's sake the usual advice is not to eat any produce that hasn't been cooked except fruit that you peel yourself, but that gets real old real fast. We take the basic precaution to drink only bottled water, tea, or Stella Beer. We have always avoided the fabulous-looking strawberries because there probably isn't any way to make sure they don't have pathogenic organisms. At first I avoided uncooked tomatoes, but after a few times back and forth I ate just about everything except the strawberries. There's a cucumber and tomato salad with a lemony dressing (I think they call it "salad baladi", meaning country salad, and it's ubiquitous) that I ate quite a bit and adored. You have to make your own choices about precautions, though. Everyone's system responds to new biota differently, and it's no fun missing the trip because you're lying around feeling ill. My husband has a cast-iron constitution and lived in Egypt for a while. He says the only time he's ever gotten sick was after he ate a salad from the salad bar at the Hilton or some such western hotel. I got sick once from something, and never could figure out what it was, but I lived, and started a weight-loss program that eventually led to 20 pounds off and kept off, so I'm not complaining. Make sure you hit Souk Day someplace, where the people shop, not where they try to send tourists. The folks bring their stock and produce in from the countryside, and even if you don't buy anything it's worth looking at the variety and quantity. Stacks and bales of garlic and onion. Ducks and chickens and rabbits in wooden cages, looking around, we can hope ignorant of their fate. Herbs, citrus, basketry, pottery. Tools of all kinds. If I remember anything about my Red Sea Coast times, which are considerably more limited, I'll post about that. They have the Really Good Fish. Even in the Nile Valley, if you're eating fish you'll be told it's Red Sea fish because the Nile is too polluted. (A fisherman friend thinks that may be a scam, but we never got to the bottom of that rumor.) Feel free to ask questions. Maybe this response will get some other people going. Edited mostly to correct misspellings of English words.

Oh man, I'd better order mine before they run out!

Never mind, I answered my own question again...

BWAAHAHA! I am enjoying this. Don't forget there's a Raytek out there calling your name, too.

Interesting article. It makes the methods discussed here sound pretty easy, doesn't it? I wonder why the milk works to make the black Chamba pots stronger? In this case does 'stronger' mean less susceptible to thermal shock, or less susceptible to breakage when dropped?

OK, here goes my dumb question. I'm wondering how the tagine would work with lean cuts of meat. Specifically, I have some deer meat that's quite flavorful but quite lean, and tends to dry out easily. I'm still trying to find ways to cook it without drying it out. Stew has worked pretty well. Would braising in the tagine work, or does the meat need more fat for that?

OK, I have a painfully dumb question. After becoming inspired by the previous couscous thread, I bought a Le Creuset tagine (although now that I've read this thread I wish I had held out for a crockery tagine, but I digress). I tried the Honeyed, spiced chicken tagine recipe that came with the pot. I lightly sautéed the onions & garlic & then added the chicken as instructed. I could not get the chicken to brown. It was delicious, but very white. The Chicken Tagine recipe Sackvill Girl posted sounds wonderful & I'd like to try it but it starts the same way as the first recipe I tried. Should I remove the onions after sautéing? How do I get the chicken to brown? Sigh, I did warn you that this was going to be a painfully dumb question. ← Ha, that isn't a painfully dumb question! You should see the one I'm about to post! I have some guesses and questions, and I'm sure the resident experts will chime in soon. First, I wonder whether the Le Creuset is changing the browning from what you're used to. Do you have other LC pieces? Other posters have noted that it doesn't brown as easily - although I have to say I haven't noticed that problem with my stuff. Second idea: was there too much liquid in the pan from the onions? Maybe you needed to let the onion juice boil off a bit before adding the chicken. My third idea goes to what Paula's been teaching here for other meats: brown the chicken at the end of the cooking, under the broiler. You might have to separate the chicken from the rest of the sauce for that step. That isn't the sequence in the recipe noted above, but it might work for you.