We have been working on a special order from Kathy in Mississippi for a Tagine. We made one for ourselves and love the way it cooks a one dish meal. The word can be used to denote the dish or the vessel it is cooked in. Any number of combinations of grains and veggies and fruit and meats and seasonings makes a great tagine. The recipes can be done in a covered skillet and are still called a tagine but the results in a stoneware Tagine using a slow oven are remarkably different.
The conical shaped lid helps preserves moisture in the food as the steam condenses on the inside of the lid. The shape of the lid also creates circulation of heat and steam within the vessel infusing the food with the spices you choose and blending flavours. The low indirect heat produces a rich unique dish as the food slowly simmers and if you choose to use meat it becomes very tender. The blended flavors and retention of even moistness is delightful and the display of the layered ingredients when the top is removed is beautiful.
When Kathy ordered a Tagine it reminded me to get ours out and use it more. One of our favorite dishes to make is a wonderful recipe for an Algerian version of Apricot Chicken with pine nuts. The recipe we found instructs you to pack the prepared ingredients into the top while upside down and then place the bottom onto the top and invert. Popular recipes just layer food and stack it in the base approximating the shape of the top.
The original photos that inspired us to make Tagines were of a wedding feast with huge pryamids of rice with olives and lamb and fruit and vegetables and nuts baked together and gloriously on display. There are many fantastic cookbooks focused on this method of cooking available and with garden season in full swing we will be doing many versions of this easy one dish meal in a stoneware Tagine!
Lee, you are going to kill me. My wish list grows ever longer. Must. Come. Up. With. Plan.
Posted by: Stacey Sherman Johnson | 07/12/2011 at 06:01 AM