tagine cooking

my mom sent kris a tagine for his birthday which means, really, she sent us a tagine. we have several tagines hanging around, like these cuties for salt and pepper...

or these for bracelets

but i'm so happy to finally have one for cooking!

after going through the seasoning process of soaking (in which we learned it's extremely difficult to form a water tight seal over our kitchen sink drain) and then baking the empty tagine this beauty was ready to cook us some dinner!

we made this on a sunday night because, i'm not sure why, i thought it was going to take a long time to cook. but with about 5 minutes of chopping prep and 30 minutes-ish of cooking this would make an awesome weeknight dinner! we usually have farmer's market veggie medley dinners on tuesday but i predict a chunk of those dinners are going to end up in the tagine now. tagine tuesdays! i like it.

i looked at recipes as guidelines but didn't really end up following any of them exactly. what i took away from my brief research is that tagine cooking is pretty forgiving and if you fill it up with things that you like you're going to end up with an end result that you love. one thing i'll remember for next time is to add a bit more seasoning than i think it'll need. oh and one more thing, if i was doing this combination again (or any where one vegetable is likely to cook much faster than another) i would add the potatoes and then maybe halfway through add the zucchini because the poor zucs were a little too cooked i think....still yummy....but not perfect. i must say though, for a first attempt at tagine cooking this turned out great! here's what we put in ours:

moroccan tagine

ingredients:

2 cups water

potatoes, chopped

zucchini, chopped
tomato, chopped
onion, chopped

green olives, pitted

dried apricots, chopped

toasted almonds

cous cous

moroccan spice mix*

place the water in the tagine and sprinkle some spices on top (i'd say i put 1-2 tablespoons) chop up the potatoes, zucchini, tomato, onion, olives and apricots and place in the tagine. sprinkle some more spice mixture on top. here it is all ready to go....

put the lid on and cook on medium low heat for about 30 minutes until potatoes are tender and the water in the bottom has thickened and turned a bit saucey. serve over cous cous and top with toasted almond slivers. like this!

*i know, having this already on hand this made it almost too easy. if you don't have a premade moroccan spice mix here's what's in it: cumin, coriander, parsley, chili, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, sugar, salt and pepper and orange oil. so basically throw in a little of nearly every spice you have.

-d

moroccan tagine

A friend of mine described me the other day as a "part-time vegetarian" which is an accurate description of my approach to food and eating. And I feel that this tagine, in some way, encapsulates that idea. It is a take on the Moroccan classic, well spiced and flavorful without being fussy. We opted to add chicken, as I was cooking with my more carnivorous family, but the recipe actually comes from a vegetarian cookbook (we very loosely interpreted it from New Vegetarian Entertaining by Jane Noraika. Ironic, I know. And honestly, it was perfect. And would have been perfect sans chicken. It makes a lot, and the leftovers are just as tasty. I can't wait to make it again. And again.

I am including a recipe for homemade harissa as well, but we used a canned harissa I had on hand. A warning - it is hot stuff!! Use sparingly.


Moroccan Tagine

2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 white onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp ground turmeric (I found the best ever bargain on turmeric - 50 cents an ounce - at Polcari's, in Boston's North End)
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 red serrano chili, seeded and finely chopped
3 cups canned diced tomatoes, about 28 ounces
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup dried currants
1/2 cup black olives (we used kalamata) pitted and chopped
1 large baking potato, peeled and cubed
2 cups carrots, peeled and thickly sliced
1 can chickpeas
parsely, chopped
cilantro, chopped

2 chicken breasts, optional

1. if using chicken, slice in strips, and brown in 4 quart saute pan. remove from pan.
2. add more oil to the pan, and onions and spices (turmeric, cumin, coriander, cinnamon) and the chile, and cook until the onions are softened and translucent, about 10 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and tomato paste and cook for 10 minutes. And the currants, olives, potato and carrots. Continue cooking slowly over low heat for about 45 minutes, until the carrots and potatoes are tender.
3. return the chicken to pan (if using) along with chickpeas, and bring to a boil. Sauce should reduce slightly.
4. Stir in parsley and cilantro, season with salt and pepper. Serve over couscous, and drizzle with harissa.

Harissa Sauce
3 large fresh red chilis
1 garlic clove
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp tomato paste
pinch of salt

1. Put the chilis in a dry skillet and cook over gentle heat until the skins begin to blacken and blister. Remove from heat, let cool, and remove the seeds.
2. Put the chilis and remaining ingredients in a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Sauce will keep, refrigerated, for 2 to 3 weeks.