Moroccan Tagine Cooking

[hathor]

Almost makes you want to crack a pot and see how it works!

I said...almost!!

[Kim D]

Samy of tagines.com told me he was completely sold out due to the NY Times piece by Florence Fabricant earlier this year. Ah, the power of the press!

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Samy must be overwhelmed.

The order status for my Ourika has not changed since April. I'm still slightly hopeful that I'll receive it. The last correspondence from them said that they were still awaiting a shipment. Unfortunately I used a one-time Visa number and it has expired. I figure if I don't hear back from my latest email and voicemail, I'll just reorder at some point.

Last weekend at the annual Printers Row Bookfair, I picked up Paula Wolfert's Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco. I made Preserved Lemons last year. Now all I need is a good tagine (my Le Creuset Tagine does not count).

- Kim

[majkeli]

Woohoo! I've received my replacement rifi tagine and tried the Chicken Tagine and Beef with Prunes dishes mentioned on another thread here. Both were fabulous, but they each took around 5 hours to cook! Much longer (like 3 hours longer) than the recipes suggest.

The instructions with the tagine say to cook at medium low heat on the stove top or 350 degrees in the oven, but I'm wondering how hot is too hot on the stove? Medium low could be completely different depending on your equipment, and I'd sure hate to crack my new tagine by overheating it.

I'm using a Simmer Mat as Paula recommended and when I turn my stove to medium low my probe thermometer touching the little bump in the mat reads 324 degrees. But at that setting it takes an hour to come back up to a simmer after adding ingredients. Is it safe to turn it up to medium to bring the dish back up to temp? Medium raises the heat to around 380 degrees.

Maybe I should be taking the temperature from inside the tagine? I'm just full of questions!

[Wolfert]

Maybe I should be taking the temperature from inside the tagine?

Yes.

[Abra]

My tagine, alas, has still never arrived. Hey Paula, welcome back!

[etalanian]

I waited for three weeks after returning from Morocco for my tagine to arrive (I bought it in Fez) and when it did arrive it was in hundreds of pieces. I ordered a tagine from tagines.com and will patiently await the delivery, having read the problems mentioned upthread.

While awaiting the broken tagine, I ordered the CousCous and other Moroccan food book from Amazon. Having been born without the virtue of patience, I was eager to make a tagine right away. I used a wide, shallow, covered enameled cast iron pan (Creuset or Copco, can't remember) and the tagine turned out quite tasty and tender.

I didn't think to take a photo, but it was the Lamb with Prunes and Apples from the book. I hadn't realized that I was out of prunes, so I subbed figs. Absolutely amazing. I served it with couscous cooked according to the directions in that book, and a stew I made up to put in the bottom of the couscousier, based roughly on a couple of Paula's recipes. I got to use the banged up second-hand copper couscousier I picked up in a stall in Fez. The couscous was fluffy, tender and delicious. The directions were clear and very helpful.

I knew to put the tagine on the top rack of a hot oven for the last few minutes, because of this thread.

THanks for all of the advice given in this thread.

Eileen

PS: If anyone has an authentic recipe for the small, fairly flat, round loaves of yeast bread that are everywhere in Fez and Marrakesh, please PM it to me. I would be forever in your debt.

[Wolfert]

I'll post some recipes for street flatbreads tomorrow. I'm still en route to Sonoma and don't have my books with me.

[Wolfert]

Small Semolina Griddle Breads called h'archa

Makes twelve 5-inch rounds

2 scant cups (14 ounces) pasta flour

l cup (6 ounces) coarse semolina

1 stick plus 2 tablespoons (5 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and foam skimmed off

4 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 small onion, halved

In a mixing bowl, combine the pasta flour and semolina. Add the stick of cooled butter and rub the mixture together with your hands until sandy. Mix in the sugar and salt. Mix 1/2 cup of warm water into the dough; it should be crumbly. Let stand a few minutes, then gradually add more water until you have a soft dough, about 1 cup in all.

Transfer to a food processor and pulse 30 seconds to blend. The texture should now be very soft and moist. Turn the dough out onto an unfloured work surface. Using lightly buttered hands, knead it until silky, 1 to 2 minutes. cover the dough and let rest for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat a cast-iron grill, a comal or a ridged pan over medium heat. Preheat the oven to 250 F. Lightly grease the cut side of the onion with melted butter and quickly rub the heated pan. Cut the dough into 12 equal pieces. On a buttered or oiled baking sheet, press out one portion of dough into a 5-inch round. Cover loosely with plastic and repeat to form the remaining flatbreads. Cook the breads, one at a time, until they are golden and speckled with black spots, turning once; it should take 4 minutes total. Serve the breads hot off the pan, or wrap in foil and keep warm in the oven for up to 30 minutes.

If this is not the bread you found in Fez, try the recipe for mtsimen on page 128 in the Couscous book.

Edited June 28, 2006 by Wolfert (log)

[hathor]

Small Semolina Griddle Breads called h'archa

Makes twelve 5-inch rounds

2 scant cups (14 ounces) pasta flour

l cup (6 ounces) coarse semolina

1 stick plus 2 tablespoons (5 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and foam skimmed off

4 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 small onion, halved

In a mixing bowl, combine the pasta flour and semolina. Add the stick of cooled butter and rub the mixture together with your hands until sandy. Mix in the sugar and salt. Mix 1/2 cup of warm water into  the dough; it should be crumbly. Let stand a few minutes, then gradually add more water until you have a soft dough, about 1 cup in all.

Transfer to a food processor and pulse 30 minutes to blend. The texture should now be very soft and moist. Turn the dough out onto an unfloured work surface. Using lightly buttered hands, knead it until silky, 1 to 2 minutes. cover the dough and let rest for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat a cast-iron grill, a comal or a ridged pan over medium heat. Preheat the oven to 250 F. Lightly grease the cut side of the onion with melted butter and quickly rub the heated pan. Cut the dough into 12 equal pieces. On a buttered or oiled baking sheet, press out one portion of dough into a 5-inch round. Cover loosely with plastic and repeat to form the remaining flatbreads. Cook the breads, one at a time, until they are golden and speckled with black spots, turning once; it  should  take 4 minutes total. Serve the breads hot off the pan, or wrap in foil and keep warm in the oven for up to 30 minutes.

If this is not the bread you found in Fez, try the recipe for mtsimen on page 128 in the Couscous book.

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This sounds delicious! But, I would like to check just one point with you. "Transfer to a food processor and pulse 30 minutes to blend." That sounds like a long time to pulse....just wanted to double check that, particularly as I'm going to need to do that by hand. Thanks!!

[Wolfert]

Judith,

Thanks for catching that error!

[etalanian]

Paula,

Thanks so much for the bread recipe. I will bake it this weekend and let you know how I did.

Eileen

[ChocoGrok]

This is a wonderful thread with yummy pictures

The tagine pot reminds me of the Chinese red clay (Yixing) teapot which ages with the tea drinker, developing a history as it is infused by the flavor of different tea leaves.

At the risk of committing a culinary faux-pas, i would like to ask if anyone has tried cooking tofu in a tagine? Tofu is a wonderful sponge for flavors. My family uses it often in braising.

Edited July 21, 2006 by ChocoGrok (log)

[Abra]

Hurray, my rifi and the little condiment tagines I ordered finally came, a little over 4 months from when I placed my order.

Here's my beautiful new tagine family. Now to re-read all of the stuff on seasoning the rifi, and then on to the lovely task of deciding which dish to make to put it through its paces.

[andiesenji]

This is a wonderful thread with yummy pictures

The tagine pot reminds me of the Chinese red clay (Yixing) teapot which ages with the tea drinker, developing a history as it is infused by the flavor of different tea leaves.

At the risk of committing a culinary faux-pas, i would like to ask if anyone has tried cooking tofu in a tagine?  Tofu is a wonderful sponge for flavors. My family uses it often in braising.

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I have not tried cooking tofu in a tagine. However I have used one large tagine bottom (top suffered a fatal accident) for clotted cream. It is the right size, perfect depth and will maintain the low heat needed.

[andiesenji]

Hurray, my rifi and the little condiment tagines I ordered finally came, a little over 4 months from when I placed my order. 

Here's my beautiful new tagine family.  Now to re-read all of the stuff on seasoning the rifi, and then on to the lovely task of deciding which dish to make to put it through its paces.

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Beautiful tagine, Abra.

With what dish will you "break it in"???

[hathor]

Abra, your tagine family looks just beautiful!

Must be something the air, I bought a tagine on Friday, from a Halel butcher. Then I came home and read thru this thread to get advice on seasoning. Now, I'm worried...my tagine is glazed on the inside. Does that automatically mean lead? Let's say it's not lead, do you still rub olive oil onto a glazed surface?

This seemed like a 'practical' sort of shop, not a 'for show shop'. But between my bad Italian and the shopkeeper's bad Italian, who knows what got lost in the translation!

Anyone have any insight onto the glazing? It's a fairly heavy tagine, if that means anything.

Grazie mille.

(next up: where on earth will I find merguez?, or more acurately, "where in Umbria will I find merguez?)

[Abra]

Judith, you can make your own merguez without much difficulty. Let me know if you need a recipe.

After a soak overnight, and a good rubdown and bake with cherry wood ash and olive oil, my tagine looked...almost exactly the same as it did before! I've got it in the oven again now, a second ash amd oil rub plastered all over it.

[Wolfert]

Judith,

There are a few popular ways to cure a tagine Slaoui. My method is to soak

the bottom dish and the top in water for a few hours. Drain and wipe dry. Rub the unglazed side of the bottom with a cut clove of garlic. Fill the dish with milk or water to one-half inch below the rim. Place the dish on a flame tamer over low heat and slowly bring the liquid to a boil. Let the liquid boil down until only about one half cup remains. Cool slowly, drain and wash. Drain dry.

BTW: You don't need to cure the top.

Photo of a traditional tagine slaoui:

http://www.tagines.com/pd_beldi.cfm

Edited August 6, 2006 by Wolfert (log)

[hathor]

Thanks Paula. I'll give the milk cure a try. I didn't think that rubbing oil on a glaze would do a whole heck of a lot.

Now it looks like I have to go make my own merguez! Messing around with casings first thing in the morning is always a little....disturbing...

Earthenware is pretty much my first choice to cook in, so I'm really looking forward to playing around with my tagine. It's even cool enough to light a fire and cook it in the fireplace. Who doesn't like a new toy??

[majkeli]

I've been loving my tagine. I cook in it at least once a week. One of my co-workers is Morrocan and he thinks the dishes I've been making (most from Paula) are exactly like the ones he grew up with, but maybe he's just being nice for the free lunch.

Thanks you to everyone in this thread for turning me on to tagine cooking. If only I'd seen this thread earlier I could have saved a fortune on Le Creuset, All-Clad, and Falk Culinair purchases and just bought one tagine.

[peanutgirl]

So Abra... did you break in your rifi yet ?

Is there a tagine recipe equivilent to cleaning out the fridge? I threw this together for dinner tonight (chicken, onions, garlic, cilantro, preserved lemons, zucchini & yellow squash, red bell pepper, potatoes, salt & black pepper, cumin, ground ginger, and a handful of olives) . I'm sure it's not authentic by any stretch... but it tasted good. I snapped this picture about 30 minutes shy of being done.

Carrot Orange Salad

Tomatoes & Cucumbers

We skipped couscous tonight and just had pocketless whole wheat pitas to sop up the juices.

[Marigene]

Thank you all, for the information in this thread. After reading it, I had to buy a rifi........it's all cured and now I am breaking it in with a chicken. Let's hope it will be edible.

[Marigene]

The Moroccan style chicken was sooooo good! I used olive oil, chicken stock, cumin, cinnamon, paprika, red pepper flakes, cloves, garlic, fresh ginger, bay leaves, saffron, onions, lemon rinds, cilantro and green olives. Also made couscous with apricots, chives and pinenuts and fresh tomatoes and cucumbers as the sides.

Sorry the pictures aren't better.

[gmori]

Just found this thread and am very interested in trying out some of these dishes.

Does anyone know where I can buy a tagine in the Toronto area? I'm sure they're available here but I have no idea where to start my search. Thanks!

Jerry

[Smithy]

Just found this thread and am very interested in trying out some of these dishes.

Does anyone know where I can buy a tagine in the Toronto area? I'm sure they're available here but I have no idea where to start my search. Thanks!

Jerry

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Hi, Jerry, and welcome to eGullet!

I don't know Toronto so can't help you directly, but I'll suggest is that you look around for a Moroccan connection in Toronto. Are there any Moroccan grocery stores in your fair city? What about Moroccan restaurants?