By Manos Angelakis
Photo courtesy Robert Rose Inc.
 

The tagine is a wide, shallow terra cotta pot with a conical lid that is extensively used for cooking in North Africa, especially by the Berber tribes of the Atlas Mountains, and is a classic cooking implement in Morocco. 

The tagine is meant to be used in a low temperature oven (about 350ºF would be the highest temperature) as Mediterranean wood-burning ovens come down to that temperature when cooking is done on wood embers. Many recipes, especially stews and ragoût require initial browning of the meat to seal in the juices and add to the richness of the dish by caramelizing the exterior of the meat. A tagine is not particularly good for that, as the clay can not withstand the high heat required for browning. So, browning should be done as a preliminary step, before combining all the ingredients to cook in the tagine.

Cooking with a tagine creates a very tender result, no matter what the basic ingredients are, and is very aromatic and flavorful as many spices are used in the recipes.

This book offers instructions on traditional Moroccan cooking, including a section on the individual herbs and spices that have been used in North Africa for at least the last 5,000 years, plus a list of ingredients, such as capers, couscous, dates, figs, pomegranates, nuts and lemons necessary in North African cooking (it also includes a list of the medicinal properties of each herb, spice, and fruit). Another advantage for the home cook is the inclusion of recipes of spice blends and combinations used in cooking that gives to the dishes their unique flavors and aromas. At the North African souk every spice merchant has his own “secret” blend of spices and herbs – sometimes as many as 100 – that add specific aromas and taste to the local dishes.

Most of the recipes are based on lamb, chicken and fish or seafood as the protein. Beef is represented but in a smaller number of dishes and so are the vegetable recipes. Very interesting is the section on Dips, Sauces & Marinades that indicate the influence of French cooking in their erstwhile North African colonies.

For the North American cook who wants to discover different tastes, here are recipes and cooking practices collected by Pat Crocker, an award winning cookbook author and culinary herbalist, from a part of the world that is fairly unknown to the average American housewife.  

© September 2011 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.