Tagine as cookware

[helenas]

Thank you so much for the Q&A and your participation on egullet: i often repeat one of your first posts here: "And then there's the adventure of the ingredient, the new spice, the new grain. There's the adventure of the new pot..."

I would like to ask for your help in selecting the right tagine. What is best distributor here in US? What size to choose if cooking for 4 people mostly?

BTW, we had a thread on Cooking in Tagine previously.

Thank you, Helena

[Wolfert]

Hi Helena:

Your posting of my comment on the happiness of acquiring a new pot made me smile. Thank you for that.

I read the posts here on tagines and noticed that some people like the le crueset model. For me it doesn't work because it's too small, and, primarily, because it's not earthenware and therefore doesn't "breathe."

I've found www.tagines.com to be a great source. He has about 6 or 7 styles, some glazed, some unglazed. I particularly like the Riffian one, the Ourika\Soussi tagine and the Tangier tagine. Even though they're different, they all work well with a flame diffuser.

Food really tastes different when cooked in clay. You might want to take a look at my piece on this subject in the November issue of Food&Wine, in which I offer some guidelines and a really good tagine recipe of lamb and prunes.