Talking of Tagines

… which I know we weren't, but in a roundabout sorta way we were - the tagine is a cooking pot used for slow cooking meat and vegetables.

The North African tagine is smaller and shallower than the Middle Eastern which is larger and deeper.

This slow cooking method is similar to stewing except that we would generally stew meat and vegetables in liquid – i.e. water or stock. The tagine is so shaped – it has a distinctive tall, conical shaped lid, so that the water formed from the ingredients turns into vapour, running down the sides of the conical lid inside, to the edges of the base ingredients. The meat and/or vegetables brown which you would not get with the stewing method where the ingredients are submerged in water.

The tagine was generally made out of clay or earthenware and sat cooking gently over a fire with the heat dispersing evenly all around the tagine – the end result is a naturally reduced sauce.

These cooking vessels were used for centuries before such luxuries as ovens. Which begs the question – when you consider how small a tagine is – what happens when there's a party – good question – answer – cook the food in giant pots, made out of copper, aluminium or stainless steel and you can buy or rent – known as “qdra”.

With “street” and “souk” food the stews are cooked in saucepans as they are in the poorer areas and more remote countryside too - known as “marqa”.

The word nowadays, though completely incorrect, has come to mean the contents of the pot, i.e. a stew in its various forms, for example - “M'quali” are cooked in oil and containing saffron and ginger and the sauce is yellow. “M'hammer” are cooked in olive oil or butter and spiced with cumin and paprika and the sauce is red.

So, in restaurants the “tagines” or “stews” are made in the larger pots and then transferred to the smaller tagines to serve at table.

If you are a lover of the sweet and savoury combination of flavours then this is the cuisine for you since the “stew” is very often enhanced with either apricots, dates, prunes and/or honey – I could go on!