Moroccan Tagine Cooking

[Okanagancook]

Lamb tagine with preserved lemon, carrots and celery.  Before, during and after.

Tagine (flameware so it can be put on top of the stove....even browns meat) purchased here http://www.claycoyote.com/Flameware-Tagine-p/tagine.htm

[Hassouni]

Dumb question: I don't have any of Wolfert's books...any good recipes for tagines? I have a ton of beef in the freezer, I'm fond of lamb, and I have a whole mess of preserved lemons I made.

[FlyingChopstik]

Not a dumb question. A bunch of her tagine recipes can be found online just google wolfert tagine recipes. i also have a chicken tagine recipe that i adapted from her that i will message you.

Another good source that i like to use is on youtube. The womans name is Sabah and her channel is called Soussous kitchen. Ive tried many of her recipes including couscous, tagines, and harira and they are all really good.

Dumb question: I don't have any of Wolfert's books...any good recipes for tagines? I have a ton of beef in the freezer, I'm fond of lamb, and I have a whole mess of preserved lemons I made.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Dumb question: I don't have any of Wolfert's books...any good recipes for tagines? I have a ton of beef in the freezer, I'm fond of lamb, and I have a whole mess of preserved lemons I made.

 

Pick up The Food of Morocco from your local library.  That or from amazon overnight.  As another option bramcookware sells autographed copies of her books.

 

My advice would be to start the lamb in a pot with the anova right now.  Then in a couple days when you've figured out your recipe you'll be all set.  Most of her lamb recipes call for bone-in lamb shoulder cut in one and one half chunks.  I get best results butchering out the bones, bagging up the chunks, and cooking sous vide.

 

Since you've got the lemons, try Wolfert's Lamb Tagine with Baby Spinach, Lemon, and Olives (p 364).

[Smithy]

Dumb question: I don't have any of Wolfert's books...any good recipes for tagines? I have a ton of beef in the freezer, I'm fond of lamb, and I have a whole mess of preserved lemons I made.

I'm pretty sure I've seen a recipe among her stuff for cumin-scented beef tagine; if there isn't one, there should be. Along those lines I would try dusting chunks of beef with cumin, salt and a bit of pepper. I'd start in the tagine with a little oil and some onions, then add the beef until it was warming, then add garlic and, oh, maybe some water if necessary. Two ways I can think to finish it are tomatoes, cooked down at the end, or perhaps tomato paste; or - going in another direction altogether - a light touch of orange juice, cooked down. (I have cumin, beef and orange on the brain but may have made the whole thing up). I'm not too sure about preserved lemon with beef, but since the lemon goes well with lamb, chicken and fish, why not?

I don't have any of Paula's books with me but I do have another with some interesting-sounding recipes: The North African Kitchen: Regional Recipes and Stories, by Fiona Dunlop. It was a Christmas present and I haven't had a chance yet to try any recipes. Two that might be of interest to you are Beef and Okra Stew, and Lamb (tagine) with Pumpkin and Apricots. If either of those sounds tempting, PM me for more information. There may be a delay, however; my internet connection is exasperatingly unreliable at present.

[FlyingChopstik]

I'm pretty sure I've seen a recipe among her stuff for cumin-scented beef tagine; if there isn't one, there should be. Along those lines I would try dusting chunks of beef with cumin, salt and a bit of pepper. I'd start in the tagine with a little oil and some onions, then add the beef until it was warming, then add garlic and, oh, maybe some water if necessary. Two ways I can think to finish it are tomatoes, cooked down at the end, or perhaps tomato paste; or - going in another direction altogether - a light touch of orange juice, cooked down. (I have cumin, beef and orange on the brain but may have made the whole thing up). I'm not too sure about preserved lemon with beef, but since the lemon goes well with lamb, chicken and fish, why not?

I don't have any of Paula's books with me but I do have another with some interesting-sounding recipes: The North African Kitchen: Regional Recipes and Stories, by Fiona Dunlop. It was a Christmas present and I haven't had a chance yet to try any recipes. Two that might be of interest to you are Beef and Okra Stew, and Lamb (tagine) with Pumpkin and Apricots. If either of those sounds tempting, PM me for more information. There may be a delay, however; my internet connection is exasperatingly unreliable at present.

Smithy this sounds good! Id also like to suggest to add chopped parsley and cilantro, which will add great flavor. In the initial prep i would also add some saffron to the seasoning.

[Smithy]

FlyingChopstik, that's a great idea! In fact, it reminds me that one of my favorite ways to make clay-pot chicken involves seasoning the chicken with generous amounts of paprika, cumin, saffron, garlic, sometimes preserved lemon, with (at the end) parsley and (if I'm the only one eating it) cilantro. Hmm, it's been a while since I made that. Maybe I'll have to rectify that.

[mark__]

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

[Smithy]

Markus, that is a fascinating tagine, and a great find!  

 

I love the haggling process.  It's best when both parties walk away thinking they got a good deal and had a few laughs.  

 

Welcome to eGullet, by the way.

[mark__]

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!

[FlyingChopstik]

Mark that tagine is interesting. It must be convenient to have the diffuser and handles attached. Does it separate?

[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.
 

[Hassouni]

My Souss tagine arrived and looks lovely.

 

Question about seasoning. Should it be oiled and baked immediately after it's soaked? I didn't have time to do the second step after soaking yesterday so now it's more or less dried out again. Also, the info sheet that came with it from tagines.com says to bake it for 2 hours, but upthread, doesn't Wolfert say 10?

[FlyingChopstik]

I let the tagine dry before oiling and baking it.

So with my tagine, i let it dry after soaking, rubbed it inside and out with olive oil and put a little milk in it. 1 parts milk to 3 parts water and fill tagine bottom about 3/4th full.Then i put it in a cold oven and baked it for 30 min. Wash (dont use soap) and allow dry. Rub doen inside 1 more time with olive oil. Allow it to soak it up and then use, store.

[FlyingChopstik]

Oh forgot to mention i baked at 350 degrees and then after 30 min of baking, turn oven off and let it sit in the oven until it completely cooled down

[Hassouni]

I let the tagine dry before oiling and baking it.

So with my tagine, i let it dry after soaking, rubbed it inside and out with olive oil and put a little milk in it. 1 parts milk to 3 parts water and fill tagine bottom about 3/4th full.Then i put it in a cold oven and baked it for 30 min. Wash (dont use soap) and allow dry. Rub doen inside 1 more time with olive oil. Allow it to soak it up and then use, store.

[FlyingChopstik]

In the bottom portion of the tagine, not the oven.

[Hassouni]

Right, that's what I meant. What does having water in it while baking do?

[Smithy]

I don't think it's the water so much as the milk she included with that water. The casein in the milk would help seal pores and small cracks (if any - but there shouldn't be) in the bottom. The liquid would also help keep the base cool while it baked. I don't remember doing that when I cured my tagine, but it's a long time ago.

[FlyingChopstik]

Thats exactly right Smithy. Paula wrote somewhere on this site about the milk and how it strengthens the tagine. I used a mixture of milk and water to stretch the milk a bit. I also seasoned my friends' tagines this way.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

In The Food of Morocco Wolfert says (p 18):

 

"To season a new unglazed tagine:  Rub the pot with a cut clove of garlic.  Fill the shallow bottom dish with water or milk, place in a cold oven, and set the temperature to 350 deg F.  Bake the pot for 30 minutes, then turn off the heat and let it cool in the slowly receding heat, 2 to 3 hours.  Drain off the liquid, wash the pot, dry it well, and rub with olive oil."

 

I was speaking on this topic earlier this evening with the husband of a friend.  He is Moroccan and had just returned from a trip to Morocco.  He had not heard of using milk.

[Smithy]

Dumb question: I don't have any of Wolfert's books...any good recipes for tagines? I have a ton of beef in the freezer, I'm fond of lamb, and I have a whole mess of preserved lemons I made.

Hassouni, look what I found today! D'Artagnan's has posted Paula's recipe for Moroccan Lamb Tagine with Melting Tomatoes & Onions, with her permission.

[Hassouni]

First tagine: lamb with eggplant, from the Moroccan food About.com site. I used shanks.

 

 

 

 

Served with bread from Whole Foods that looked remarkably similar to moroccan bread ("pan paesano")

 

So for a first attempt I was blown away by how easy a process (I'd venture to say lazy, in fact) and how well it came out.  

 

Questions:

• When stacking the vegetables on top as I've often seen, are they cooking by steam alone? The very tops of the eggplants were a bit underdone
• Isn't it normal to cover the meat with grated onions? Per the recipe, i lined the oiled tagine bottom with sliced onions, then garlic, then herbs, then placed the meat and sprinkled the spices on top, then when the meat was half done, placed the eggplant and preserved lemons around the meat.
• How long does it take for meat to be truly falling-off-the-bone tender? The above dish went for about 4 hours and while tender, it wasn't *quite* at that stage.
• Bone-in meat tends to be pretty fatty. Is 1/4-1/3 cup layer of oil at the bottom of the tagine really necessary given the fat from the meat renders out? The final dish, while delicious, was VERY oily/fatty.

Edited February 14, 2015 by Hassouni (log)

[patrickamory]

After four hours I would have expected the shanks to be falling off the bone, but perhaps you were nearly there. Tagine cooking always seems to take an enormous amount of time.

 

Also somewhat surprised the eggplants weren't done. This is probably a foolish question but you did cover the tagine, right? If so, you might want to try rotating the lid to find the optimum balance between steam escaping and being trapped.

 

The grated onions on meat can be called for in some recipes and not others, IIRC.

 

Tagine recipes generally call for a large amount of oil, because the unglazed clay absorbs quite a bit of it. In this case, you could trim the shanks or defat the dish before serving I'd think.

 

Looks delicious!

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I've come to cook my lamb sous vide before adding it to the tagine, but maybe that's just me.  I would also turn the ingredients a time or two while cooking.