I love my Tagine

To start with, you pronounce the word: taa-ZHEEN (with a soft "jz" sound as in "asian").

A Tagine (or Tajine) is a deep circular dish made of crockery, with a conical lid. It is used extensively in Northern Africa (especially places such as Morocco) for slow-cooking food over a fire. In other words, it is the original crock-pot.

The deep dish holds all the juices of the succulent stew, while the innovative conical lid allows the food to be steamed and baked at the same time. All while cooking over a slow flame.

The unique shape of the tagine allows air to circulate above the food without escaping. There's usually a steam hole in the lid to make sure pressure doesn't grow too much, but it also keeps in most of the moisture. This allows your tagine to slowly steam and roast the food from above, while simultaneously broiling from the heat at the bottom.

This combination of cooking-methods allows the food to slow-cook from all directions to make a perfect, fragrant casserole.

Tagines actually come in two kinds. The first kind are those used for cooking (such as those pictured here) - which are practical and hardy. They can also be decorated, but they are definitely functional.

The second kind are highly decorated, and are simply used for serving. They are often painted in bright colours, and may not be suitable for cooking, but look very beautiful with their decorative lids. They will keep the food warm at the table for a long time.

Sizes vary considerably, from tiny decorative tagines used for putting spices or salt on the table, through one-person-meal sized cooking tagines, up to giant multi-person meal sized monsters that are difficult to fit on your table. The majority that I saw for sale in Morocco, were of the two to four person size (as pictured here), and I found this to be the most practical for every day use.

When you are purchasing a tagine - make sure you are buying the correct one for your intended use. You don't want to put a purely decorative tagine onto the stove or the base may split in the heat. That would be disappointing!

Buying a heat-mat is a good investment for your tagine's long life.

Whether you have a gas or electric stove, you will find that the heat is generally directed largely to a small area on the surface of your tagine. Over time, the high temperature will cause the crockery to expand in some spots much more than in nearby areas, and will slowly cause minute stress-fractures in the pottery. This will eventually weaken the structure of your tagine - which is a Bad Thing.

To prevent this, always use a good heat mat. This will spread the heat out evenly over the bottom surface of your tagine and allow the tagine to heat up evenly. Incidentally, it also means less likelihood of your food burning in one particular spot of the tagine - an added benefit.

I personally use a SimmerMat which I find pretty darn good quality. It can be used on either a gas or electric hob, and fits perfectly under quite a large tagine.

Tagines are pretty sturdy pieces of crockery, but they do require a little preparation to perform at their best. This only needs to be done once (when you first buy it).

NOTE: not all tagines will require this treatment! Especially the decorative ones, but most cooking tagines will. It's not very common, but some cooking tagines are fully glazed with a heavy glaze, or made from stoneware so no amount of oil or water will get into them. These don't need treatment.

To test if your tagine needs treating:
If your tagine has any non-glazed surfaces (rough to the touch), you will need to treat it as below. If not - then I suggest pouring a glass of water into the base and seeing if it slowly soaks away overnight. If so - it needs treatment... otherwise, you may not need it. Earthenware tagines (eg terracotta) are more likely than stoneware to need treatment.

Directions:

To start with, you need to soak your tagine (both base and lid) in water for 24 hours. This can be done in the sink or in a bigger pot. The water will slowly soak deep into the pottery. This changes the specific heat of the tagine and helps with the next step of the process.

The next day, put the tagine onto your heat mat on the stove, and pour in about half a cupful of cooking oil. Turn the heat on low, and allow the tagine to slowly "simmer" in the oil.

The water will escape from the pottery, and the oil will soak in instead - this will make sure that the tagine has a good layer against the food that you will later cook on it.

This preparation makes it easy to clean in future, and will help your tagine last a lifetime.

I moved to England and now my Tagine is thousands of kilometres away from me :(

So do I give up my now-favourite style of cooking? Of course not!

So: what's a good substitute for a tagine if you find yourself without one?

To start with - the process of cooking that a tagine gives you is a combination of baking, frying and steaming. So your replacement probably needs to combine these.

My best solution so far is a deep-sided saute pan with a heavy bottom and a well-fitted lid. The heavy-bottom will slowly-release the heat without scorching, and the high sides with a lid will allow the steam to sit on top of the food.

If your tagine recipe requires you to brown your meat beforehand - just do that in the pan on high before you drop the heat for rest of the cooking process.

If you don't have (and can't buy) a saute pan, then just toss it all into a lidded heavy pot (so the food doesn't scorch) over a very low heat... or even use a crock-pot (a slow-cooker) to do the rest.

If you have any other ideas for alternatives to actual tagines - please share them below!

A lovely, fresh, zingy recipe - this one is great with a side of couscous and some lentil salad.

Ingredients:

• Chicken - ~4 thigh fillets (or equivalent) diced
• Preserved Lemons - - ~ half a lemon (or to taste) - diced as fine as you can manage
• Olives - ~100gm
• 1 Medium onion (sliced in rings)
• Garlic - 4 cloves (or to taste) - diced fine or crushed
• fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves - ~1 cup finely chopped
• Ras El Hanout (mixed moroccan spices) - ~ 2 Tbsp

Method:

1. Place heat-mat and tagine base on stovetop. Add three tablespoons of cooking oil.


2. Switch the heat on low to allow it to begin to heat while you continue adding ingredients.


3. Scatter the onions and garlic into the base, and scatter the spices and preserved lemon over this. We put these on the bottom so the flavours will filter up through the rest of the ingredients as they cook.


4. Add the chicken pieces


5. Cover the chicken pieces with the chopped coriander. This will enclose it so that it does not dry out - especially if we lift the lid later.


6. Add the tagine lid and leave to cook for half an hour - or until throughly cooked.

A warm, luxurious recipe, this one will fill you up with delicious sweetness. Great for cool winter evenings when you want something earthy and spicy.

Ingredients:

• Lamb - ~250gm - large cubes
• Prunes - ~100gm - de-pitted
• Eggplant (Aubergine) - ~2-3 cups - diced into large cubes (1")
• 1 Medium onion (sliced in rings)
• Garlic - 4 cloves (or to taste) - diced fine or crushed
• Ras El Hanout (mixed moroccan spices) - ~ 2 Tbsp

Method:

1. Place heat-mat and tagine base on stovetop. Add three tablespoons of cooking oil.


2. Switch the heat on low to allow it to begin to heat while you continue adding ingredients.


3. Scatter the onions and garlic into the base, and scatter the spices over this.


4. Add the lamb and prunes


5. Place eggplant so that it covers the lamb - this will enclose it so that it does not dry out - especially if we lift the lid later.


6. Add the tagine lid and leave to cook for half an hour - or until throughly cooked. You do not need to stir it, but it won't hurt if you do... just don't spill any over the side if you do.

The title-photo of lamb tagine with quail eggs is courtesy of flickr user FotoosVanRobin.

The photo of A Tagine with Cuscús con pollo y verduras is courtesy of flickr user mabel fiores.

The photo of Stacked tagines is courtesy of flickr user babeltravel.

The photo of Chicken Tagine with Olives in the accompanying recipe is courtesy of flickr user petroleumjelliffe.