TAGINES THE TASTE OF MOROCCO.

Few flavours are more evocative of Morrocco than preserved lemons. Not all tagines use preserved lemons, but their is no sustitute lemon peel, lemon grass, fresh lemons all have a unique taste, but nothing on earth tastes like preserved lemons.

INGREDIENTS TO MAKE PRESERVED LEMONS

Ingredients

250g coarse sea salt
12 lemons , unwaxed, 6 juiced, 6 quartered but still joined at the bottom
8 black peppercorns
3 star anise
3 bay leaves

METHOD
Pack a little salt into each lemon and squash back into shape. Wedge them into a large sterilised jar, layering with salt, bay leaves, peppercorns and star anise as you go. (To sterilise, wash in hot soapy water, rinse and put in the oven at 140C/fan 120C/gas 1 for 15 minutes.) Pour over the lemon juice (if there's not enough liquid to fill, top with water) then seal. Give the jar a turn every few days to redistribute the salt and leave for 4-6 weeks.

"Smen, an aged butter is quire similar to similar to Asian ghee, except it has added herbs. it is a favourite ingredient in Moroccan dishes. It is aged in small tagine pots in a cool, dry place until it acquires an aroma and consistency similar to a soft creamy cheese.

Berber farmers in southern Morocco typically bury a tightly sealed pot of smen on the day of a daughter's birth, using it to flavour the couscous served on her wedding day. Two teaspoons is usually is sufficient to impart the characteristic taste to the sauce of a tagine.

Makes 1 1/2 cups
1 pound unsalted butter
2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
1 tablespoon sea salt

Method
In a medium pot melt the butter over a low heat. Tie the leaves of oregan wiht twine and add to the butter. Simmer until the butter turns into clear and the white sediment sins to the bottom, which takes about half an hour.

Skim off the foam ansd then discard the oregano . Strain the butter through a clean fine muslin dish cloth twice until the butter is clear. Transfer to a hot sterilized glass jar, add the salt and stir to melt. Let stand in a cool place until the butter becomes pungent, about a fortnight. Refrigerate after opening.

Cooking Tagines come in many sizes and shapes,hand painted glazed Tagine, basic glazed Tagine,traditional clay Tagine or rustic Tagine all Tagines are suitable for the Hob, Oven or use with a Charcoal Brazier. They can also be used as serving Tagines, when the meal is cooked.

One of the beauties of tagines is the fact thast they are made very dinky as individua portions and these make exceptionally pretty individual serving dishes.In Morrocco, breakfast fair is quite hearty abd this can easily serve dinner guests. Though I have to admit I love to serve it for breakfast in
This breakfast does not taste nbest when used with cheap sausages, use the recipe for a time when you want to splash out.

Breakfast Tagine
serves 3-4

6 large beef sausages sliced into thick chunks.
olive oil
1 large onion, chopped coarsely
1 large red pepper, chopped coarsely
large pinch chili flakes
300g lean lamb minced
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 inch piece of cinnamon stick
2 fresh bay leaves
4 large Italian tomatoes, chopped coarsely
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Large bunch of fresh spinach leaves
4 eggs
a few sprigs of coriander

Method
Fry the sausages for a few minutes until bwrown in a little olive oil. Add the onion and pepper and saute gently until the onion is slightly slightly caramelised. Add the chili flakes and stir through the hot oil. Add the lamb mince and fry until cooked. Add the cumin, cinnamon stick and bay leaves and fry for a minute. Add all the tomatoes, stir to combine, add a few pinches of salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper, and cover the pan. Let simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes.

Take off the cover, add the sausages and simmer, uncovered, until the sausages are cooked through and the mixture has reduced a bit. Add the spinach and stir through until the leaves just collapse, add ant extra seasoning.

Make 4 slight indentations in the mixture with a large spoon and crack an egg into each. Cover the pan for about 5 minutes or until the eggs are cooked to your liking. Garnish with the coriander.

If I had to pick ten of my favourite cookbooks this would be one of them, perhaps that sounds strange that I can't get it to less than ten, but as a chef I have over three thousand! This fabulous easy chicken dish is easy to prepare it differs from any thing on the other side of the Meditteranean becasue it has no tomatoes, and the presence of preserved lemons, olives and fragrant spices such as cinnamon, ginger, saffron and turmeric. Moroccans traditionally serve this with flat bread alone, but I love to serve it with a salad with a heavy lemon garlick dressing.

Ingredients

Large Free-range chicken
1 Large onion, finely chopped in a food processor
4 Garlic cloves, crushed
100g Butter
1 tablespoon Ground ginger
1 Cinnamon stick
¾ teaspoon Turmeric
¾ teaspoon Saffron strands
3 tablespoons Lemon juice
100g Kalamata olives
100g Small preserved lemons, halved, flesh discarded
50g Chicken liver, chopped
10g Coriander, chopped
10g Flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped

Method
Put the chicken into a tagine add the onion, garlic, butter, ginger, cinnamon stick, turmeric and saffron, then season. Pour in 700ml water, cover and bring to the boil over a medium to high heat. Reduce the heat and leave to simmer, spooning the sauce over the chicken and turning it over now and then until it is just cooked through - about 40 minutes. Lift the chicken onto a plate and cover with foil.

Add the lemon juice to the casserole, increase the heat once more and simmer the sauce rapidly until reduced by about two-thirds. Return the chicken to the casserole with the olives and pieces of preserved lemon, cover with a well-fitting lid and simmer for a further 20-25 minutes until the chicken is tender. Lift the chicken onto a large, warmed platter. Add the chicken liver to the sauce and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the herbs and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and serve.

Rick Stein's Mediterranean Escapeswas published to accompany Rick Stein's new five-part television series for BBC2, this new book starts where French Odyssey left off - at the mouth of the Rhone in the port of Marseilles. Reluctantly abandoning his idyllic canal boat, the Anjodi, Rick takes to the public ferry system which plies between the islands and coastlines of the Mediterranean. The book contains over 100 recipes divided by types of ingredient or types of dish - from mezze and tapas to calamari and couscous.Although Mediterranean food is always considered to be very healthy, by virtue of its ingredients, Rick will not shy from luxurious ice creams and sticky pastries and the book will also include basic recipes, accompaniments and sauces. He introduces the book with a diary of his gastronomic journey, recounting the many interesting characters and interesting dishes he discovered en route. Mediterranean food is first and foremost the simple cooking of simple ingredients so it translates extremely well into everyday dishes that cooks of all levels will enjoy making, and above all, eating.

About the Author
Rick Stein OBE is one of Britain's favourite cookery writers and chefs. In 2004 he was named the BBC Food Personality of the Year at the BBC Radio Food and Farming Awards for his Food Heroes television series. His other tv programmes include Rick Stein's Taste of the Sea and Seafood Lovers' Guide - which won the Television Programme Award at the Glenfiddich Award for Food Book of the Year, and Taste of the Sea, which won both the 1995 Andre Simon Memorial Fund Food Book Award and the 1996 Good Food Award for Cookery Book of the Year. His most recent seafood book, Rick Stein's Seafood, won the coveted James Beard Foundation Cookbook of the Year Award in 2005. Rick Stein owns The Seafood Restaurant in Padstow, Cornwall, which every year attracts thousands of fish lovers from Britain and abroad. He also runs the highly acclaimed Padstow Seafood School, two smaller restaurants, St. Petroc's Bistro and Rick Stein's Cafe, a deli and a fish-and-chip takeaway. Rick was awarded his OBE in 2003 for services to tourism.

Few meals are more satisfying than a hearty taginethe rich, fragrant Moroccan stew that is served from its own elegant cooking vessel. Meat, poultry, fish, or vegetables are simmered gently in the steam of the pot's conical lid, and the food, deliciously flavored with spices and fruit, remains tender and moist. In Ghillie Basan's collection of aromatic tagines you will find some of the best-loved classics of the Moroccan kitchen, such as Lamb Tagine with Prunes, Apricots, and Almonds, and the tangy Chicken Tagine with Green Olives and Lemon. Also included are less traditional but equally delectable recipes for beef and meatball tagines. If you enjoy a succulent fish dish, you can try Monkfish Tagine with Potatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, and Olives, or Red Mullet with Lemon and Mint. For vegetarians there is a varied choice, from a sweet, syrupy tagine of Yams, Carrots, and Prunes to a summery dish of Artichoke Hearts with Peas and Saffron.

1 tablespoon virgin olive oil
2 yellow onions, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced finely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly ground cumin
3 cinnamon sticks
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 cups peeled and diced organic butternut squash,
2 cups peeled and diced sweet potato
2 jar of rinsed chickpeas,
2 x 14 1/2 oz cans of diced tomatoes
1/4 cup of freshly squuezed orange
zest of one prange
2 Tablespoon honey
1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives
1/2 cup pitted apricots
1/4 kilo kale
kosher salt and fresh black pepper
1 cup almonds, toasted and crushed (pistachios are also great)

Method
Drizzle the pumpkin sweet potato wqith olive oil and roast in a 400 F oven for about 30 minutes.

Heat oil in a stock pot over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute until translucent stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add the cumin, cinnamon sticks coriander and paprika and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the pumpkin sweet potato chickpeas, tomatoes, juice, apricots and honey and bring to a boil. Transfer to a taginr dish and simmer i nthe oven for twenty minutes, add the olives, and the kale Add olives and kale and cook unitl the kale is cooked, about five minutes. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with the toasted almonds.

The name translates as "top of the shop," because it is a mixture of the most expensive spices.

Makes about 1/2 cup

2 teaspoon allspice berries or 2 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
2 whole nutmeg
40 threads Spanish saffron
4 teaspoons black peppercorns
3 teaspoons blade mace or ground mace
2 three-inch cinnamon stick
4 teaspoons green cardamom seeds
4teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoon ground turmeri

If you want to use any whole spices toast them to make them armatic, by dry frying
for about four minutes. Dont stop stirring here as once burnt these spices are ruined. Remove from heat andcool. I then pulverise then in a coffee grinder reserved for spices, but a pestle and mortar will do fine.

Moroccan Spice Mix
1 cinnamon stick, chopped in pieces
8 whole cloves
1 teaspoon cayenne
2 teaspoons cumin seed
1 teaspoon fennel seed
1 teaspoon coriander seed
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
11/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon brown sugar
Chicken
3-4 lbs chicken thighs, skin on, bone in
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon, halved
1/4 bunch fresh cilantro
1 head garlic
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Apricot Couscous
1 cup couscous
11/2 cups warm water
10 dried apricots
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2 green onions, green parts only
2 handfuls fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Green Olive Sauce:
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus 2 tablespoons
2 shallots, sliced
1 fresh red chile, halved lengthwise
1/2 pound large green Spanish olives, pitted
1/4 bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1/2 lemon, juiced

4 pieces lavosh bread, cut in 1/2

To prepare the Moroccan Spice Mix for the Chicken: Combine the cinnamon stick, cloves, cayenne, cumin, fennel, coriander, and paprika in a dry skillet over low heat and toast for just a minute to release the fragrant oils; shake the pan so they don't scorch. In a spice mill grind the toasted spices together, with 1 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt and the brown sugar. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Massage the chicken skin with the spice rub, and season. Place lemons all around the chicken in a roasting pan. Toss peeled garlic cloves all over the chicken. Drizzle the oil all over the chicken. If you have time, let the chicken marinate for 30 minutes to really get the flavors down deep into the meat. Cook chicken for an hour. Allow the chicken to rest for 10 minutes so the juices can settle back into the meat. Save the lemons to squeeze over the chicken.

To prepare the Apricot Couscous: Put the couscous in a medium bowl; pour the water over it, stir with a fork to combine. Cover and let sit for 10 to 15 minutes, then uncover and fluff with a fork. Put the apricots, cranberries, green onions, and cilantro on a cutting board and coarsely chop everything up; add this to the couscous. Add lemon juice, drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Toss gently to combine.

To prepare the Green Olive Sauce: In a small skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Saute the shallots and chile over low heat for 8 minutes until caramelized, then scrape into a food processor. Add the olives, parsley, vinegar, lemon juice, and 1/2 cup of oil; puree a good 3 minutes until totally smooth.

Serve chicken with couscous on the side. Squeeze with cooked lemon if desired. Add your choice of green vegetable. Another option is a sandwich, where you wrap shredded chicken in the lavosh and add some green olive sauce.

Ingredients
7 large carrots, peeled and grated
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
Orange flower water (kewra water), for sprinkling
Pinch of sea salt

Mix all the ingredients together and let marinate for one hour before serving.