mark__

no, sadly it doesn't separate. when i bought it, my plan was to cut the metal off somehow, using a saw etc. but i think the risk is quite high that the tagine might break. the metal is very tightly connected to the clay part. also, although it is not very traditional to have those metal parts, i really start to like my tagine as it is. ;-) i could imagine that it will become rusty at some point. let's see.

thanks Smithy ;-) turns out, my tagine cooking tonight was surprisingly successful. didn't follow a recipe, but improvised with some chicken meat, fennel, onions, raisins and carrots. spices were ginger, pepper/paprika, and turmeric. it was really tasty!

Hi, after my trip to morocco recently, i brought home two tagines that i bought last-minute on the market in marrakech. I don't like them too much, since they are glazed and slightly ornamented, and i am not sure whether they contain lead or not. so i made my way to a moroccan butcher in west london, to buy a non-glazed tagine. this is the one i found. it is rather unusual concerning the strange extras it has design-wise, but i really enjoy cooking with it. (since the butcher was moroccan, i haggled, and finally paid half price. hehehe): ;-) i can't remember having seen a tagine with such a metal ring and handles in morocco, but it is obviously not a tourist tagine. it even has a simple piece of metal on the bottom which funtions as a heat diffuser. that's it. just wanted to share my strange tagine with you ;-) regarding the cooking, i use it very often these days, maily to season it. i had some great meat cooked in it already, but nowhere near the tenderness i found in the tagines of morocco. (yet!) cheers, Markus