Wolfert

Richard: Here is another site providing pretty much the same directions on curing your la chamba pot http://www.tierranegra.co.uk/inst.html As the chambas age and are used for a long time, they tend to lose some of their blackness and turn a little reddish. I keep them looking spiffy by oiling them from time to time. The milk idea sounds like a good one from all I have read including the Washington Post article posted upthread as well as the chees\ casein introduction to the conversation. I would do as an extra precaution in the same manner as the restauranteur Manka does if in fact you will be using the pot a great deal. She uses these same chamba pots in her restaurant and they take a lot of beating. By the way, her very famous restaurant is in Inverness along the California coast about an hours drive from where I live. She is famous for her game dishes. I never noticed any tiny crazing, but perhaps it is just normal. These are artisanal pots and you get these special effects. If it bothers you then call Nidia and ask her about it. She is very helpful and I am sure she will either contact the folks who make the pots or simply know the answer and advise you. Please tell us as well. RAncho___Gordo: I love the deep polished wood look of the Riffian tagine. Yes, you are right that the Souss one takes on a completely different look...more mysteriously gritty but attaractive. It is all in the clay and we need to respect it. Well, you know that. Fifi There is another Moroccan claypot called a tagra which is special for fish. The tagra doesn't have the conical top and can be used as a gratin pan. It is especially good for baking gratins as well. The clay comes from another region of Morocco and is baked for what I call a tight seal. This tagra is prepared with the grated onion and salt cure mentioned upthread. And, from time to time I oil it to keep it from drying out. Shad roe with the green herb and paprika marinade called charmoula and a light ragout of fava beans is a popular spring dish in Fez. As soon as the two come into the market here in Sonoma, I'll prepare my recipe and put up a photo. It always looks magnificent in my tagra. Come to think of it, the chamba would be more dramatic...........hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..

Paula, is this about right or have I made things up? ←

CLAY POT WARNING! This is horrible. Is there any way to repair the table? We really are in new territory here. The chamba pots are soaked, oiled and baked. Wouldn't the baking dry out the water and the oil seal up the pores? The timing must be wrong somwhere. I will go to another site and see what they suggest.

My directions for the riffian tagine are exactly the same as Sami, the owner of tagines.com. writes. The only reason I add the ashis to enhance the color and look. Ask Sami if he doesn't think my addition of ash doesn't make tagines look as if they have had 50 years of loving use! When I sent him a photo of something I purchased from him after curing with the addition of ash. He wrote back and told me it looked like his grandmother's pot. I took that as a great commentary on my handiwork.. Ok, I'm going to do a bit of bragging here. Forgive me but you asked me for a recommendation for a Moroccan cookbook. In 1973, I published Couscous and other good food from Morocco. It has been in print all this time!

In the Washington Post article, all the Indian chefs mention the lactic acid in milk or buttermilk as part of the process. That's when I remembered the restauranteur Manka's comments about simmering milk to make her chamba pots stronger. Then I remembered that I knew this or something similar. I checked in one of my own cookbooks, 'P>W> world of food,' and I read the following tips on page 340: " Dealing with a cracked cazuela (a tip from Rosa Rajkovic, a chef in New Mexico): submerge the entire dish in milk in a wide pan, bring slowly to a boil, and cook l hour. The crack welds itself together, and the dish is as strong as new." I might as well post the remaining material from that page concerning the curing of a Spanish cazuela so we have all the information in one forum. Soak the entire cazuela in water to cover for 12 hours. Drain and wipe the bottom dry. Rub the unglazed bottom with a cut clove of garlic. Fill the dish with water to 1/2 inch below the rim, then add 12/ cup of vinegar. Place the dish on a heat diffuser over low heat and slowly bring to a boil. Let the liquid boil down until only about 1/2 cup remains. Cool slowly and wash. Your cazuela is now ready for use---the garlic created a seal. Smithy: I started this forum because I'm so worried about your moussaka claypots. I don't know if they should be soaked first. See my earlier posting on Aegean pots.

Was that back in 1994? I published a recipe for eggplant with charmoula in Saveur along with an article on returing to my old home in Tangier. If so, let me know and I'll search for the original issue.

If you are thinking of cooking "moroccan," then you should switch to grilling, steaming or roasting lean meat. Smithy, the house smells wonderful due to the browning molasses.

Sigh, I did warn you that this was going to be a painfully dumb question. ←

I just posted a topic on curing pots.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2005Mar15.html Interesting piece this morning in the Washington post on curing an Indian tandoor. I cure some unglazed Moroccan pots with a mixture of grated onion, oil and salt and bake in an oven until the seasoning turns black. Then I let the pots cool in a turned off oven. Certain tagines such as the one from the Rif at www.tagines.com are cured by simply mixing oil and wood ash and rubbing into the clay and baking until dark in color. In Turkey, I learned the hard way not to soak some unglazed pots in water until they have been rubbed with oil and baked. The pot broke into small pieces! The lachamba pots are soaked and oiled and baked. Recently, I was told to simmer the la chamba pots in milk to make them even stronger. Smithy uses molasses to cure her Egyptian pots. The French rub garlic all over a previously soaked and dried daube before baking it. Anyone know other cures for unglazed pots?

Nothing is written in stone but Moroccan charmoula, a combination of green coriander, parsley, garlic, vinegar, sweet and a little hot paprika and cumin, is a rub, or with the additon of oil a marinade or sauce for fish, vegetables, and sometimes chicken. In the States, many chefs have started putting it on lamb. It is very popular.

I can't think of a town around the Mediterranean where food isn't sold on the street--- to be eaten on the street. I think the Sicilians have us all beat with their French-style brioche stuffed with ice cream. A great breakfast treat on the run-- or walk---through the streets of Palermo.

I'm glad you mentioned this. I was thinking of measuring the heat of the coalsat 275. You're absolutely right, I need to measure the temperature of the simmering liquid inside the tagine. I'm curing some flower pot saucers right now to use as stands on the stove. One is brushed with molasses thanks to Nancy's suggestion, and the other is with coals and oil. .

Look on post #5 upthread. I will try cooking something in the tagine with coals this weekend. I have a raytek thermometer and will let you know. I wouldn't be surprised if the ideal heat will turn out to be 275 F. Stay tuned.

Fif: you are absolutely right on: a tagine is cooked over charcoal in a brazier and the coals are stoked or smothered with sand to keep the temperature slow... zi love the idea of wok rings for the electric stove. I hope someone will report back on that. Nancy: Tuesday is my day to go out with a group of New Yorkers and drink hard alchohol in an outdoor cafe. It's the wine country and it really upsets the tourists. We may all be in our late sixties, but we love the idea that the alcohol is preserving not only us but our sense of fun.. I purchased some molasses and will try your method on some claypots that I haven't cured yet. Your pots look really too wonderful not to try it out. Thanks for the tip..

I remember trying to duplicate the texure of soft, delicately flavored fresh green almonds in my Moroccan cookbook. It took two hours of simmering to transform regular blanched almonds to the proper soft state. Years later I learned that some Moroccan cooks simulate the texture of these sweet almonds by soaking dry ones overnight in water with a tiny pinch of baking soda. If you try this, be sure to rinse thm well before using. The Turks soak blanched almonds in many changes of cold water until they turn "snow white' The nuts are served over a bowl of ice cubes with glasses of watered raki. By far the most famous Mediterranean recipe for fresh almonds is the white gazpacho of Andalusia. Spanish cooks have told me that they soak dry almonds in cold water overnigh to mamke them creamier before drying the surface and pounding them to a smooth paste. And for walnuts:In the old days in the French Southwest, housewives resuscitated dried walnuts by soaking them in milk.

Fifi: your memory of the delicious cold water from a clay jar reminded me that the Turks make an unusual salt clay jar to keep water. As far as I know it is only in Turkey that these jars are produced with a large amount of salt. The high level of evaporation causes the jars to act like refrigerators, and the water is kept cool and sweet tasting thoughout an entire summer. If I understand it correctly, water stored in an ordinary claypot might stay fresh and sweet for a few days, while water stored in a salted clay jar can be kept without any deterioration of quality for a few years.

There is a type of reduction sauce called stratification. It is a simple way to make sauces by a series of rapid reductions. You start off with an acid, then you add a protein rich stock and then heavy cream, and, with whisking, allow the sauce to boil vigorously until many bubbles appear on its surface. From time time you stir this bubbling mixture with a wooden spoon until you catch a glimpse of the bottom of the pan. When you see the bottom, your sauce is finished and will adhere lightly to meat or fish. The idea is the cream has evaporated, allowing the remaining butterfat, in the presence of protein and acid, to bind the sauce and make it silky. “The faster the evaporation, the better the coagulation” is the rule for creating a sauce by stratification. It takes less than 10 minutes to complete the entire process in a heavy-bottomed pan, and the sauce will hold for quite a while. The following example is not my recipe, but was taught to me many years ago by the late Gascon chef Jean-Louis Palladin when he was still in Gascony and had 2 stars from Michelin. He served it with scallops. Tangerine Sauce 1/2 cups fresh tangerine juice 1/4 cup Fish Glaze, or 1 1/4 cups unsalted fish stock reduced by boiling to 1/4 cup 2 tablespoons demi-glace or 3/4 cup unsalted chicken stock reduced to 2 tbsp 1/2 cup heavy cream Fresh lemon juice n a small nonreactive saucepan, boil the tangerine juice until reduced to 1/3 cup. Add the fish glaze and demi-glace. Bring to a boil; add the cream and boil vigorously without stirring for 5 to 7 minutes, until large bubbles appear on the surface and the sauce begins to bind. From time to time, test by stirring with a wooden spoon to see if the sauce has thickened. You should be able to glimpse the bottom of the saucepan for an instant. If the sauce is too sweet, adjust with a few drops of lemon juice and season to taste If the sauce turns oily, you have reduced it too much; in this case add a tablespoon of water, and it will immediately smooth out. (At this point, the sauce can be held over warm water for up to 1 hour and reheated gently.) If sauce is too strong tasting or too thin, swirl in bits of butter, on and off the heat . c\P. Wolfert, 1978, 1983,2005

I am thrilled. REPEAT: I am thrilled with your response. The dish looks wonderful. And the more you use that claypot,the better it will perform. .

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/pDetail.asp?i...s=1&price=38.95 This one is from El Salvador. I'd compare prices with nutierra.com I have a feeling nutierra might be cheaper.

There must be many variations but the one I've tasted was made in the following manner: The eggs are well beaten in a bowl with the spices, salt and a tablespoon of two of cooled cooked vegetable juices. Fold potatoes into the eggs while they are still warm. Then add a few peas and herbs such as chef Zadi suggested aove, and taste for seasoning. Wipe out the tagine or other flat pan, gently heat, add some oil or butter and spread the mixture over the bottom of the han and cook until the potato-egg mixture begins to set on the bottom. Be sure to shake the pan once in awhile to develop a nice rounded edge. Continue to cook slowly until you feel you can cover the omelet with a plate and do an invert without messing it all up. Then you put in some more butter or oil and return the omelet to cook on the secnd side in the same manner, shaking the pan from time to time, to form a curved edged. Cook slowly enough so you develop a nice reddish brown bottom thanks to the use of good Morccan saffron, but keep in mind the center should be a little gooey. Slip onto a plate and serve warm .

That is a really nice tagine. You are lucky that you can control the heat on your stove and not have to use a heat diffuser. Please tell us some of the dishes you have made in it.

Step 1 says, among other things, to "toss the lamb with the spice mixture over very low heat for 2 minutes." Since I'm using an Egyptian clay pot on the stovetop for the first time, I'm being a real weenie about it: very low heat, electric coil with a flame tamer. So now I'd like to know how one determines "very low heat" and the "two minutes" bit. What should I have been looking for? you want to warm the all the spices in order to release their aromas and soften the meat and the fat. I added the water, onion and herbs before the pot even got warm, for fear of shattering the pot. that's ok Of course, since the pot wasn't warm the meat was still quite cool. It was well-coated with the spice mixture. You have a natural feel for cooking North African food. I feel very confident everything will be ok with the dish. - Step 3 says to transfer the cooked meat to an ovenproof serving dish and bake it at 450F for 15 - 20 minutes. You stated upthread that you wrote this recipe in the days before tagines were available in the U.S.A. and this recipe can be done with one pot. I'm doing the preliminary cooking now, to finish tomorrow (I hope) night. I think I'll let the tagine warm to nearly room temperature, then place it in the oven and let the over heat everything to 450F at the same time. Does that sound right? You might want to degrease the sauce on top of the stove. Then reduce it if it is too thin. The rest of your reasoning is right on.

chef zadi: I really am enjoying re-reading these old threads. Thanks for ressurecting them This one I never saw on line before and I know the dish. It is called Ammhemer in Morocco and just like a Spanish tortilla except the potatoes are boiled and while still hot are crushed with a fork and mixed with saffron, turmeric, eggs, salt, some vegetables in small amounts along with herbs and slowly baked in a covered tagine about 15 minutes to a side.

I went through my old notebooks last night and found two interesting tips on makingyour own food coloring just as they do in Tunisia. For green food coloring: pound parsley leaves in a mortar then wrap in cloth and squeeze to extract an intense green color. For red food coloring: pound semi-dried shreds of roasted beet, then wrap in cloth and squeeze to extract an intense red color.