FlyingChopstik

I cooked the chicken tagine with sweet sour plums and pumpkin. There were a few quirks though. The alu bakhr plums are expensive but bwing my adventurous self, I decided to try them. After following instructions to bring them to a boil and tgen allow them to sit for 30 min, the consistency of the plums was like cooked dates, very pasty. They taste like a cross between dates, prunes, and goldenberries. I dont plan on ever using them again at that price. For the chicken thighs, Paula said to cook them in the tagine at for 20 minutes and then uncover and cook for 10 minutes more. From my experience of cooking Moroccan food and following her other taginevrecipes, most of them mention to cook chicken for an hour in the tagine. Forcthe squash i feel like a little bit more time is needed for cooking in the skillet to reach desired tenderness. This is the 1st Wolfert recipe from this book that Ive had issues with. The overall dish was delicious but in the future I would cook the thighs for an hour, substitute less expensive dried fruits such as apricots, and cook the squash longer.

Thanks for the feedback. I think i will definitely use parchment paper to avoid the dough sticking. For no knead bread the recipe requires that the pot is preheated so i guess you are to soak the pot and then preheat it?

Ive been reading numerous articles, blogs, etc where people mention that they use a Romertopf for baking breads, including the no knead bread. I am still a bit confused because there are mixed commentary on whether to soak or not to soak prior to popping the baker into a cold oven. Can anyone who owns a Romertopf and uses it for no knead share your method for no knead and whether you soak it or just preheat? I would like to make an enlongated version of this bread and have made an ok circular bread with my chamba pot. The Romertopf that I own is unglazed and its the medium size that can hold a whole chicken. (111) i think.

No problem! Let us know how it turns out and post photos of the dishes!

http://www.simmermat.com Simmer mat website

Before proceeding with this you may want to get a lead testing kit since many tagines in Morocco have lead based glazes and the glazes are not regulated as they are here in the States. This is from Paulas clay pot book. She says to soak the bottom dish in cold water for 12 hours. Drain ane wipe it dry. Cut a clove og garlic and rubbed the inside with it. Then fill the dish with water until its about a half inch from the rim. Add a 1/3 cup of distilled vinegar, set on a heat diffuser and slowly bring dish to a boil. Simmer until only half of the liquid remains.remove from the heat, allow to cool and then dry. As for the stove, im not so sure, but look up the SIMMER MAT. I use this on my gas stove and its great. I believe that it is ok for glass stoves but check out the website and you can call them too since they may be more familiar with your type of stove.

I have very little space. I store my Moroccan tagine on top of the fridge and my japanese tagine on top of a tall bookshelf where it looks like an ornamental piece.

Thanks haresfur!

Hey guys! I just bought a used unglazed romertopf clay baker on ebay. I know that you have to soak it before cooking in it but if its used (with the possibility that it hasn't been used in a while) do you have to do anything more to unclog the pores?

I have the 11 inch Souss for $29.00

Ive made pita numerous times and sometimes i get a puff, sometimes i dont. I use a preheated pizza stone in the oven at 500 degrees. My last batch had a slight puff but it looks less appetizing to me when they dont brown so sometimes after baking, ill heat up the cast iron skillet to very hot on the stove and brown them briefly. Sometimes i avoid the oven all together and grill them on cast iron pan with good results for puff and color.

Lamb tagine with preserved lemon, carrots and celery. Before, during and after. Tagine (flameware so it can be put on top of the stove....even browns meat) purchased here http://www.claycoyote.com/Flameware-Tagine-p/tagine.htm

Id consider how many people you plan to cook for. Usually i only cook for 2 people and the tagine contains enough food for leftovers over the next 2 days. Its also a good size to accomodate 4 to 5 people. The Souss tagine that i have can definitely fit 1 3 to 4 pound chicken with ample space for layering veggies. I would roughly guestimqte that its a little under 2 quarts.....

Hmmmm thats a tough 1. What does it smell like? Were they in the fridge?

I learned so much from Paulas books and her posts. I hope shes feeling better that she can rejoin our discussions on here.

Im not sure why my 1st batch went moldy. Maybe i didnt add enough salt. I know if it smells like furniture polish they are definitely bad so you did tge right thing by tossing them Smithy. Hassouni to be on the safe side id refrigerate but if youre brave and leave them out, let us know gow it turns out!

I got my Sous tagine from tagines.com. It looks much better in person than in the photo on the website. Its also not a very huge tagine but you can totally fit a lot of food in it because of its deep bottom. Probably 2 small chicken a 3 to 4 pound chicken can fit. I followed Paula Wolferts instructions and seasoned it by soaking it in water for 2 hrs, then after drying, i filled the bottom with milk, popped it in the cold oven and baked it at 350 degrees for 30 min. Turned the oven off and let the tagine cool in the oven. Then after rinsing and drying, i oiled it down inside and out with olive oil. It didnt get darker until after i cooked my first dish in it which is my favorite : chicken tagine with preserve lemons and olives. The dish tastes better then it looks! I have this bad habit of turning the cone top upside down when serving the food and all of the cooking juices run down the outside.

Some people dont refrigerate but i always do after ripening the lemons on the kitchen counter for a month. They continue to ripen at a slower rate in the fridge and will last for months. The first time i made them, i didnt refrigerate and they got moldy pretty fast. Every batch afterward, i refrigerate after ripening and the longest ive had them in the fridge before running out was 11 months.

Id like to cook tangia. Do you think that cooking it in a chamba pot produce the same results? Its more of a chubby round pot then the tall urn shaped bean pots.

Hmmmm youre lucky to have a tree Smithy! I wish! Cakewalk the meyers lemons are lovely. I will stick to those going forward. The eurekas might have been picked early. Is there any way to tell from looking at them?

Hey guys Some of the recipes in the book call for a clay flower pot saucer. I got one from home depot. Do we need to soak or season the saucers first? I dont recall seeing any instructions but i wanted to be sure.

Has anyone ever noticed a difference in the taste of a dish when using preserved meyers vs preserved standard lemons? I usually always preserve meyer lemons and they always taste amazing in the dishes that i cook them with. On a followup batch i had access to small organic typical lemons so i salted them as per Paula Wolferts recipe and left them on the counter for a month. I cooked with the peel of the lemon from this new batch and the flavor was very....absent. Ive cooked the same dish with preserved meyer and it came out with that authentic taste but with the standard lemon, you might as well have not used any lemon at all. Has anyone else noticed any differences???

The tfaya (family style couscous) was time consuming but so worth it. I over steamed the couscous and im thinking its because i had to struggle to keep the steam from escaping on the sides of my new couscous steamer from Clay Coyote. I usually use a couscousier but this time i cooked the meat in a Chamba soup pot. The second dish is what i am cooking now:fish tagine with tomato olive and preserved lemon. I made this before in a cazuela and it was delicious. I am cooking it this time in a clay Moroccan tagra from the northern Morocco. You can order the tagra from tagines.com.

This is interesting! Ill have to check it out!

Yikes! This is good to know even for regular dishes. So perhaps liquid foods shouldnt sit in la chamba for longer than 4 hrs?