Wolfert

The Emile Henry tagine can take high heat which might encourage the cook to cook faster and burn food.. On the other hand, lots of tagines need a little nuturing. Preserved lemons have a special flavor that comes from brining in salt over time. Meyer lemons are still in the market place and I urge you to make some now. You can purchase them at specialty food stores i If you don't have the time to wait, do the Five-Day method described in my Moroccan cookbook: Use a razor blade to make 8 fine 2-inch vertical incisions around the peel of each lemon to be made. (Do not cut deeper than the membrane that protects the pulp.) Place the incised lemons in a non-reactive saucepan with plenty of salt and water to cover and simmer until the peels become very soft. Place in a clean jar, cover with cooled cooking liquor, and leave to pickle for about 5 days. Use them up at once because they quickly rot. I love the fondue pot. It could be used for panades, gratins and bagna cauda. Thanks for the tip.

Of all the tagines on the market, the one I like least is Le Creuset. I think the bowl is too small for most recipes. And I detest the red color! If you want stoneware, there are three other choices: French Tefal's stoneware- tagine-crockpot works fine if you use less liquid. [ Emile Henry's Dijon colored tagine has a wider bowl and works like a dream. Claycoyote.com potters are working on a semi-stoneware tagine with better thermal shock properties. Stay tuned.

Samy from tagines.com told me to keep my unglazed tagines oiled, and that is what I do every six months or so. I haven't done what Smithy suggests and bake it again, but it sounds like a good idea.

Perhaps the following will help: 1. The unglazed baker aka romertopfs is never used on top of the stove. It is always soaked before using. 2. Chinese sandpots and South American black pots can be used on top of the stove or in the oven. They need only to be soaked once----before first time use.. 3. Unglazed Moroccan tagines, Turkish comleks, and Egyptian briams are all treated to an oil rub and a slow bake in the oven before first time use.Adding molasses, ash or honey is, in my opinion, cosmetic. Moroccan tagines are traditionally used directly over heat. Turkish comleks and Egyptian briams are used in the oven.

The seven day lemons are cooked. If you try to store them longer than a week they will rot.

This is what I think is the difference : The tagine is used for simmering meat, poultry, and vegetables to incredible tenderness with very little liquid. The conical top with its porous interior remains cool and recycles the slow producing steam from the contents below. The baker, on the other hand, is soaked for 15 minutes before each use. It is great for baking bread, roasting chicken and meat. The special quality of romertopf cooking comes from water stored in the pores of the pot, which is slowly released during baking, resulting in tender, moist food. Browning develops after the moisture is 'used up,"

The riffi and the souss tagines are personal favorites.

A very interesting piece in today's Times by Florence Fabricant on comparing some of the new tagines versus a traditional unglazed one. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/29/dining/29kitc.html She is absolutely correct that you need far less liquid when preparing a tagine in an unglazed pot.

Moroccans never refrigerate preserved lemons. As a food writer, for obvious reasons, I suggest keeping them refrigerated after opening.

There is a Basque-style lean pork chorizo made by Quijote . It's slightly smoked and has plenty of sweet paprika in it. I'm pretty sure The Spanish Table has it. If not, ask for something similar.

I think it's a good idea to brown the confit of pork in its own fat before adding it to any dish. You "push" up a subtle hazelnut flavor on the outside, while the inside remains moist. One way you might like it is to serve it at room temperature with a salad of green beans and shredded cabbage mixed with a mustardy vinaigrette. I

Usually the caul fat is sold frozen. I defrost it in lukewarm water with a drop of vinegar.

You can find caul fat in Chinatown.

If the lemons don't smell like furniture polish they are fine to use. Preserved lemons keep at least a year if stored in the fridge. In fact, they actually develop more aroma and flavor. If you are worried, you can simmer them in water for about 10 minutes before adding to a tagine.

Abra, Some lemons produce a lot more juice than others. When this happens to me, I add extra lemon juice and then top it off with some oil. It will be fine.

Try tagines.com and get the unglazed rifi or the soussi. Both are reasonable in price. I believe that only an unglazed terracotta tagine can produce the optimum version of certain Moroccan dishes. Why else would the tagine remain in use? For example, there is a traditional dish of lamb tagine with tomatoes and onions where the meat is cooked in a peppery sauce with saffron, and ginger, and thickened with grated onion and a few drops of water. After the meat cooks for an hour, it is topped with a two tiered layer of sliced onion and tomato along with some sugar and ground cinnamon. The topping steams over the meat for a long time, over very low heat. Then when almost all of the moisture evaporates, a caramelized crust has formed on their surface. At this moment, the meat is fully tender and the dish is ready to serve. Note: The slanted sides of the tagine top while cool throughout most of the cooking finally does heat up and helps with this final step of browning. If it doesn't happen, then run it under a broiler for an instant..

I think tart cherry jam would be great as an accompaniment. You might need more pastry to make individual portions. Otherwise, it is a great idea. Please let me know how it turns out.

I was afraid to suggest storing the pork in watery-oil for any longer than a week. Corinne, I think it would be ok if you separate out the water, reheat the oil, pour it over the warm pork in a clean jar, and sterilize it.

I use a dollop on grilled duck breast, with a pot au feu, charcuterie, or best of all in a salad dressing made with walnut oil. Keep an opened jar in the refrigerator and don't heat this mustard for too long because it loses its taste.

It is also called pomegranate concentrate. I like the Lebanese Cortas brand.

There are many turnover-shaped boreks, but they are made with other kinds of pastry dough. I know sou bouregi prepared in a tray, but perhaps there are regional variations. If so, I'd love to know about them.

In Turkish, sou means water and boregi means the pastry. This is one of the oldest and most traditional dishes of Turkish cooking. It does look like lasagna, but the dough is made with more eggs and is rolled thinner than pasta. Each sheet is cooked separately in boiling water then layered in a round or rectangular pan with a cheese or ground meat filling. It is slowly baked in the oven then finished on top of the fire in order to crisp the outer layer.

I don't remember saying that I like my olives moldy, but we can get to that in another forum. Preserved lemons are always left out in Morocco. If you are worried I would put them in the fridge to stop the process of developing mold. Another thing you might do: submerge the whole lemons in clean water and simmer for 15 minutes. Drain and use them right away.

I think the unglazed terracotta alcatra, a wider-at-the-top bowl, sold at some Portuguese cookshops will work well for cooking a cassoulet, but I don't think it will work as well for simply cooking beans. Photo of an alcatra: http://portodaspipas.blogs.sapo.pt/arquivo/250445.html Here is why___ The ideal pot for cassoulet (a combined dish of cooked beans and lots of other good things) should have a very wide opening at the top in order to produce a slow and steady evaporation of excess moisture and a brown glaze. The ideal pot for a simple cooking of white beans should have as narrow as possible opening. The beans cook with just enough liquid to cover along with some aromatics and plenty of olive oil. The narow top inhibits evaporation. A perfect example is a fiasco of Tuscan white beans. Photo of a fiasco: http://www.apt.arezzo.it/itinerari_natural...ges/fagioli.jpg

I wouldn't use all pork fat to make duck confit. If you are low on duck fat, youu can "top off'" by adding some rendered pork fat , but going all porkfat would, I think, corrupt the flavor. . Please don't consider using commercial lard to make any kind of confit. It produces a horrible flavor. I know because I tried it once! You can get good rendered pork fat from a German or Hungarian butcher or make your own. On the other hand, if you want to cook pork and duck for confit at the same time you can mix the two fats---half and half.