TIP OF THE DAY: Try A Tagine

April 10, 2014 at 8:35 am · Filed under Cooking, Recipes, Tip Of The Day, Vegetables-Salads-Herbs

A tagine (tah-ZHEEN) is a Moroccan stew of vegetables with meat, poultry, fish or seafood. More specifically, it’s a Berber dish from North Africa that is named after the type of earthenware pot in which it is cooked, originally over coals. (A similar dish, tavvas, is made in Cyprus.)

There are traditional clay tagines, some so beautifully hand-painted as to double as decorative ceramics; modern tagines, such as Le Creuset enamelware; and even electric tagines for people who don’t have stoves or ovens.

You can buy a tagine, but you can make the stew in whatever pot you have.

HOW A TAGINE WORKS

The traditional tajine pot is made of clay, which is sometimes painted or glazed. It consists of two parts: a round, flat base pot with low sides and a large cone- or dome-shaped cover that covers it during cooking.

The cover is designed to promote the return of all the liquid condensation back to the pot, allowing for a long simmer and moist chunks of meat. The stew is traditionally cooked over large bricks of charcoal that have the ability to stay hot for hours.

A modern enamelware tagine. Photo courtesy Le Creuset.

Tajines can also be cooked in a conventional oven or on a stove top. For the stove top, a diffuser—a circular piece of aluminum placed between the tajine and burner—is used to evenly distribute the stove heat to permits the browning of meat and vegetables before cooking. Modern tajines made with heavy cast-iron bottoms replace them.

A traditional hand-painted tagine. You can
buy this one online.

MAKE A TAGINE

This vegetarian tagine recipe is from FAGE Total Yogurt. You can serve it as a side or as a main dish with sliced grilled chicken, lamb or salmon.

Prep time is 30 minutes, cook time is 1 hour, 10 minutes. Serve with couscous and a crisp salad.

RECIPE: MOROCCAN CHICKPEA & VEGETABLE
TAGINE WITH YOGURT DRESSING

Ingredients For 4 Servings

1/4 cup sunflower oil

1/2 large onion, peeled and thinly sliced

2 large garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon each of ground cumin, cinnamon and turmeric

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste

1-3/4 cup chickpeas

1-3/4 cup chopped tomatoes

1-1/4 cups vegetable stock

1/2 cup eggplant, diced

1/2 cup zucchini, diced

1/4 cup baby corn

1/4 cup sugar snap peas

1/4 cup baby carrots

For The Dressing

1 cup Greek yogurt

4 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley and coriander

Salt & pepper to taste

Preparation

1. HEAT half of the oil in a tagine or other pan. Add onion, garlic, and spices. Fry over a low to medium heat for 5 minutes until golden.

2. ADD the chickpeas, tomatoes and stock. Cook for 20 minutes.

3. STIR FRY the vegetables in a separate frying pan or wok with remaining oil, and then add to the chickpea mixture.

4. BRING to a boil, cover and simmer for a further 20 minutes.

5. MAKE the herb yogurt dressing: Mix the yogurt, chopped parsley and coriander together. To finish, add half the yogurt, adjust seasoning to taste and serve with the rest of the yogurt on the side. NOTE: Don’t boil the stew after adding the yogurt or it may separate.

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