Tagine Cooking

[Miss J]

Tagines - I love 'em. I like their rich flavours, combination of sweet & savoury, and beauty of the elegantly shaped casserole they're cooked in.

Does anyone have a favourite tagine? How about comments on the pot, and whether or not you can ever truly duplicate a real tagine without having a dedicated tagine cooking pot? Does the Le Creuset version work, or is it just a waste of money (rather like their wok)?

Miss J

[Adam_Balic]

I got my Tagine in Fez so it is about as authentic as you can get. I can see no reason why the Le Creuset version wouldn't work, although cooking in terra cotta sometimes gives a certain "earth" flavour to dishes, so you obviously wouldn't get that with the Le Creuset version.

There are a few Tagines that I like to make:

- Beef and Prune.

- Lamb with quince

- chicken and preserved lemons.

- fish (v. simple just cultlets with a few spices)

-  also several Medieval recipes (North African and European) which adapt well to the tagine. eg. "Duck with Figs" is a Medieval French recipe, which is very similar to some of the tagine you see in Morocco (does contain wine though).

Comments: Don't be temped to cook it in the oven, the results just aren't the same. Preserve you own lemons, easier then pie. Ras el Hanout is a "must have" spice blend for this type of meal. Collected four different versions of this spice blend from different towns, all different, but reconisibly that from the same group. Actually, I may like it because it reminds me of being in the spice souks when ever I use it.

[Suvir Saran]

Chicken Tagine with Olives

1 whole chicken skinned, cleaned and oven ready

Marinade:

Salt to taste

1 teaspoon ground white pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup melted butter or ghee

1/2 teaspoon of saffron strands, dry roasted and ground finely

1/2 teaspoon of paprika

1/2 teaspoon ginger powder

2 ripe, vine grown tomatoes, pureed

1 medium red onion, pureed

2 cups of water for cooking after marination

Vegetables:

1 1/2 cups purple or green cracked olives, stoned (if making an olive tagine)

1 1/2 preserved lemons, flesh discarded and seeds removed, cut into large chunks (optional with both recipes)

2 teaspoons of cilantro leaves, chopped finely

Sprinkle the chicken with salt and white pepper inside and out .  Keep aside for 20 minutes.

Blanch the olives by plunging them in boiling water.  Leave for no more than a minute.  Rinse them under running water.  Drain and set aside.

In a heavy bottomed pan or a large tagine plate mix all the ingredients for the marinade.  Marinate the chicken in this mix for another 20 minutes.  Keep stirring as you marinade to make sure the flavors get evenly distributed.

Boil  2 cups of water in a heavy saucepan ( add potatoes or turnips if using at this point).  Add the chicken and all the marinade to this water.  Cook covered on a very low flame until the chicken is tender (approximately an hour).  Turn the chicken several times to ensure that all sides soak the liquid.  If necessary, add more hot water while cooking.  Remove the chicken when cooked and set aside covered in foil to keep it warm.

Add the olives, and the lemons if you are using them to the sauce and cook on a low flame for 10 minutes.  If the sauce is too runny, raise the heat and boil the sauce for about 5 minutes to reduce it.

Serve a la Le Maison Bleue with the chicken in the center of the tagine and the sauce and the olives over.  Garnish with the chopped cilantro and gold or silver leaf.  Cover the tagine and serve immediately.

Fresh bread and harissa must be provided on the side.

PS: Le Maison Bleue is one of the most beautiful, sensuous, romantic and spectacular hotel I have ever seen.  It is at the entrance of the Medina in Fez and has the most beautiful restaurant in the ground level.  All rooms look onto this restaurant.  The owner, Mehdi El Abadi is the grandson of the Ex-Judge of that area and also an advisor to the late King.  The library of his grandfather has been made into the hotel and restaurant. A lovely Moroccan lady, sadly, I forget her name, has been with the family for decades and it is she that cooks new dishes everyday.  And you are served several course meals.  Live musicians and dancers of the Gnawa style enchant you and fill the air with music and sounds that haunt one as they eat and also inspirit the setting with the magic of Morocco.

We ate their several times.  And even 2 years later, miss it very much.

The November 2000 issue of Food Arts Magazine has the restaurant on its cover.  For those that care to see.

I did a demo with the Tagine recipe in Food Arts.  They are much easier to prepare than one imagines.  And the result is actually very good.

Below is the link to my story on Tagines.

Tagines

[Steve Plotnicki]

I was always partial to Lamb with Prunes and Almonds. Love that cinnamon. But I find that eating tagine outside of France (since I haven't been to North Africa) is not a rewarding experience. Kind of like cassoulet in America usually isn't a rewarding experience. My favorite place to eat them went out of business, Charly el Bab-El Oued in the 17th in Paris. Right now when I have the jonses for a tagine I head to Mansouria in the 11th or Timgad in the 17th. There is also a store in Paris, possibly the Moroccan Cultural Center, on rue Faubourg-Saint-Honore right where it intersects with Avenue l'Opera that has an amazing assortment of tagines. Both decorative for serving, and simple for cooking.

[Suvir Saran]

My experiences with Moroccan food in Paris were also much better than any in NYC.  We were with a senior diplomat and his wife from Morocco.  We went to places they considered authentic.  But none of us could forget being haunted by the sheer simplicity of the tagines of Maison Bleu in Fes.

One thing to remember about buying those decorated tagines, is that you cannot cook in them.  Never.  You could serve in them at best.  I have been told by merchants that these have lead.

If you check the link I give above, the plain terracotta color one is all you can and should ever use for cooking.  A large heavy bottomed pan does just fine if you do not have a tagine.  In fact, in many Moroccan kitchens in the cities, they do just that and then serve the food in tagines for effect.

[helenas]

Suvir,

Can your tagine recipe be done in the oven? i have a lousy cooktop and i do most of the brasing in the oven. Besides, i have a great terracotta cazuela with a lid, that i've just bought in Williams-Sonoma for baking tiellas, and i thought it can be great for tagines as well.

[Suvir Saran]

Helena,

I have never tried it in the oven.  Can you at least sear the chicken in some olive oil or ghee on the stove top and  then bake it?

I am not sure what the results will be.

I have only ever made a tagine in a tagine and in the test kitchen in a pan on the stove top.  The results were consistent and equally tasty.

[anil]

There is no real tajines    Some use Lamb, some use chicken; some use dates, some apricot. They do it differently in each region. Berber folks add lentil and vegetables to their lamb.

Bottom line, it is a stew, and a way of cooking with tajine terracota pots. There is a name for what Suvir described (i.e his Chicken with Olives), an it escapes my mind :confused:

Ask any moroccan, and he/she will tell you that their recipe is the best    I on the other hand eat 'em all.

[Adam_Balic]

While a Tagine is anything cooked in a Tagine (ie. The name of the meal comes from the name of the dish it is cooked in), do you not think that the cooking vessel itself influences the way the dish turns out? The cooking of the dish ontop of a very low heat source, means that the water vapour condenses at the top of the lid and then drains back into meat. That part is similar to a lot of other stews but, it isn't a "stew" in the French/British sense as you don't add that much liquid to the dish itself, infact most of the liquid comes from the meat/Veg.

If most Morocans are now cooking Tagine in other vessels, then does that now mean the character of the dish has changed? Let's face it for most people "Tagine" means a dish of spiced meat/veg with vague Moroccan connections (Tunisians also have Tagines, but they are a very different type of preparation). If you cook a Tagine in anything other then a Tagine then is isn't a Tagine it is a stew, but who is going to bother with that level of "correctness". It would be like telling somebody that their Paella isn't a Paella, just "rice", because it isn't cooked in the correct vessel, by a man out in the open.

[anil]

.......

If most Morocans are now cooking Tagine in other vessels, then does that now mean the character of the dish has changed? Let's face it for most people "Tagine" means a dish of spiced meat/veg with vague Moroccan connections (Tunisians also have Tagines, but they are a very different type of preparation). If you cook a Tagine in anything other then a Tagine then is isn't a Tagine it is a stew, but who is going to bother with that level of "correctness". It would be like telling somebody that their Paella isn't a Paella, just "rice", because it isn't cooked in the correct vessel, by a man out in the open.

I would have to ask that of a Morrocan    Tajine is a special vessel, and yes, shape does influence the way the dish turns out.

[Miss J]

I would have to ask that of a Morrocan    Tajine is a special vessel, and yes, shape does influence the way the dish turns out.

That's it. I am SO getting a proper tagine. I just won't be able to rest until I've relegated my bog standard Le Creuset to Euro-stew duty.

Miss J

[anil]

.......

That's it. I am SO getting a proper tagine. I just won't be able to rest until I've relegated my bog standard Le Creuset to Euro-stew duty.

Miss J

Here is a picture of Tajine - an earthenware pot with a conical

top covering :)

http://www.saveurs.sympatico.ca/ency_6/agneau/tajine2.htm

[Suvir Saran]

I am sure like with all Indian cooking; there were once dishes one uses for making different things.  While some villagers are still using the appropriate dishes, most urban folks cook with what we are all familiar with in terms of pots and pans.  There is certainly some flavor and largely aesthetic beauty that has been compromised.  But it would be sad if we lost the very art of cooking for we did not have space or sources to find the ancient and appropriate cooking accoutrements.

Certainly one can debate and I would be on the side saying that original pots and pans do make a difference, but I fear it is a very slight one.

If you are getting a tagine, please get the one Anil sent you the link of.  They are the original and classic.  I have worked with the Le Creuset one.  It does not impart the terracotta sensibility to the dish and does not look as exotic either.

If you are worried about the space, open the link I gave above with the tagine recipe, you can see the tagine in proportion to my own simple kitchen stove.  The magazine had sent the photographer to my home.  It will give you an idea of what the scale is of the tagine.  I bought a largish one for if I were going to make a tagine, I would rather serve 6-8 people or even 10.

[Adam_Balic]

Suvir, I bought a tagine in Fez that looks the same as yours. Initially, because I was afraid of putting it onto direct heat I used it in the oven. Basically, this didn't work as the meat dried out. I now have a flame difuser, and use it on top of the stove, with much better results.

My question to you is do you think that the dish tastes different if cooked in a conventional pot or is this just an artificial perception I have? I'm quite sure that food cooked in terracotta tastes "different", but I'm not sure how real this is.

[Suvir Saran]

Adam, I feel food cooked in terracotta does change the flavor if the food is not overly spiced.  

But what kind of terracotta pots?  Most and I say that after having been at Chelsea Market yesterday, and seeing the tagines they were selling, are all glazed to make them easier to transport, such glazed ones, do not impart any flavor at least to my taste buds.

There are some tagines where the conical inside of the top part remains unglazed.  If that is the case, you may end up with at least some aroma from the terracotta.  In the old days, the terracotta was not glazed and they made more pots as the old ones broke.

Adam, I have never used a flame diffuser, but that could be a good thing for the longer life of your tagine.  In Morocco they sit their tagines on direct flame.  And I have had mine now for over 2 years.  Better being safe than sorry.

[Adam_Balic]

Yes, while inner surface of the "bottom' is glazed, the inside of the pot isn't. As it heats up you can smell terracotta. I saw the Tagine cooked on direct flame, but it was not as intense a flame as what I have on my cooker, so the diffuser seemed sensible. Also of have Spanish and Italian terracotta ware to use it with.

[Suvir Saran]

Adam.. When do we get invited to try some of these foods?

I love the smell of terracotta.  Most often you can smell it more when you are cooking.  And later, as you eat, the smell is not as strong.  But certainly it is laced in the flavors one savors in the dishes cooked in these vessels.

[Adam_Balic]

Well next time you are Scotland......

I have a set of terrracotta Catalan creme pots, which flavour the custard slightly. I rather like the flavour.

[Suvir Saran]

Would you mind elaborating on the custards you make in the cooking forum?

Please.... They sound awfully wonderful even in the very little you share here.  

I love custards.

[wingding]

In Paula Wolferts' couscous book, there is a chicken tagine made with a long cooked tomato jam,that is a knockout.Honey is added at the end of the hours of tomato simmering,and the sauce is very rich and intense.A great dish to make in high tomato season.I'm looking forward to making some again in August.

[anil]

Two minor points;

1. I think it is tajine as transliterated  

2. I am not a cook, I appreciate cooks and what their magic does, so I tend to give cooks - traditional as well as modern/trained-inn-cooking-schools their last words om subtle differences between one kind of vessel vs another - hence the issue of terracotta tajine  

[Suvir Saran]

Anil,

What was the point of point 1) above?  I seem to not understand.. Sorry!

Would you explain please?  

[Suvir Saran]

Wingding, what book is that recipe in?  It sounds wonderful.

[wingding]

Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco;Paula Wolfert;Harper & Row

[anil]

One should try Al Baraka, a morrocoan restaurant in UES. Their delivery van has a tajine on the roof. The restaurant reminds you of Souks in Casablanca,Marrakesh etc.