Tajine

A Tajine is a dish named after the pot it's cooked in. Simple,  perhaps.
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Alice is a Danish friend in Kopenhavn.  She bought the tajine (left) in Morocco a few weeks ago and starting working on it immediately (right).

The dish is of glazed earthenware, has two pieces, attractively decorated. It cooks and works nicely as a serving dish.  It is placed over embers to cook very slowly.  In a modern kitchen, a diffuser needs to be used between the dish and the hotplate, to moderate the temperature  and also to risk not cracking the  dish. Modern ones are made with a heavy cast iron bottom with the  funnel top of earthenware.






A modern tajine - not as romantic but might be easier, cast-iron base and ceramic lid.






Tajines are stews or casseroles or ragouts, whatever.  They are mixtures of meat, lamb, chicken or  fish with vegetables.  They are sometimes just vegetables. They often incorporate fruit, dried or fresh, nuts and honey. The aim can be for a sweet sour balance but they are always aromatic with saffron and or a spice mix, ras el hanout, ​more often than not  (see below).

Popular, traditional or classic combinations might be...

• Chicken with preserved lemons (see post 6th April, 2018) and green olives (not black, saffron optional)
• Lamb with prunes and almonds
• Fish with braised fennel and preserved lemon (saffron optional)
• Yellow root vegetables with chickpeas, saffron and dried apricots (saffron)
• Lamb with raisins and honey  

                          
They are beautifully aromatic, sometimes spicy hot, sometimes not. You get the idea.
A Tajine is not a Couscous. You eat a Tajine with bread on the side, not couscous.  You eat couscous with a Couscous (see post 20th Oct. 2017). 

Would you like to cook a Tajine?  Can you prepare a Tagine without a tajine? Do you need a tajine?

Perhaps not...

• You don't really need one.
• An earthenware tajine needs careful handling.
• It's a storage nightmare.
• If you want to cook in it, it needs a diffuser to protect it from the heat of a modern stove, unless it has a modern cast iron base.
• It's possible but rare to find a tagine large enough to serve more than four people. They are vey shallow.
• You can cook the same dish in any  saucepan or casserole (e.g. Staub, Le Creuset etc.).  

Perhaps yes...

• They are very beautiful, authentically atmospheric, one could even say rather romantic.
• There's a "wow" when the funnel lid is removed.
• They tick all the boxes for eating SLOW.
• Le Creuset (and others) make a modern one with a very useable base.
• BUT the most important thing is in the funnel.  As it simmers, steam rises and runs back down the funnel as liquid, up and down, up and down, concentrating the flavours, thickening, cohering.  This is the whole point and it works.

​So first, get going with some preserved lemons and some ras el hanout.

(I've made the assumption that you know how to get a stew going.  For a Tajine, start with lots of onion, two at least for a serve of 4 and go from there.  If you'd like a real recipe, just contact me.  I'm happy to oblige.)

Comment below 👇

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