Tagine (North African Slow-Cooked Stew)
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Overview
A tagine is both a conical earthenware pot and the slow-cooked stew made in it. It is North African, Moroccan and Algerian above all, and no single country is claimed. **This page had no recipe card at all in the source: no ingredients and no method.** Both have been reconstructed from what its article describes, and that is flagged. The pot is the reason the dish works. The wide shallow base sits over low heat while the tall cone above it collects rising steam, condenses it on the cool inner surface and returns it to the food. That means a tagine cooks in very little liquid over a long time without drying out, and the flavour concentrates rather than diluting. A heavy casserole with a tight lid approximates it. The variations are enormous, and the source lists them well: lamb, beef, chicken or fish; dried fruit and nuts in some, fresh herbs, olives and preserved lemon in others. Ginger, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon and saffron are the common spices. Berber tagine is distinguished by the vegetables arranged around the meat rather than mixed through. One important note the source gets right: what Tunisians call a tajine is not this at all. Tunisian tajine is a baked egg dish closer to an Italian frittata, and it has its own page here.
AFN Heritage Note
A tagine is a North African stew named after the conical earthenware pot in which it is cooked, and is also called maraq or marqa. The pot's shape returns condensed steam to the food, allowing long cooking with very little liquid. The Tunisian dish called tajine is unrelated, being a baked egg dish.
Ingredients
Dietary tags are provided by contributors as a guide, not verified by AFN, and they depend on the products you buy. If you have a serious allergy, check every ingredient yourself. Cooking, allergies and your own judgement
Directions
- 1
Combine the meat with the garlic, ginger, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, saffron, salt and pepper, and leave it to sit while you prepare everything else.
- 2
Warm the olive oil in the base of a tagine or a heavy casserole over medium heat and cook the onions until softened.
- 3
Put in the seasoned meat and turn it to coat in the onions and spices.
- 4
Arrange the carrots and potatoes around the meat rather than mixing them through, this is the Berber arrangement and it also stops the vegetables breaking up.
- 5
Pour in the water or stock. You want far less than you would use for an ordinary stew: the pot returns its own steam, so the liquid does not cook away.
- 6
Cover with the tagine lid, or a tight-fitting casserole lid, and cook over low heat for around 2 hours, until the meat is tender.
- 7
Put in the dried fruit, or the preserved lemon and olives, for the final 20 minutes.
- 8
Scatter with fresh coriander and parsley and serve from the pot with bread or couscous.
Africook’s Notes
Personal notes from Nympha Nzeribe- Use much less liquid than you would in an ordinary stew. The pot recycles its own steam, and drowning the food defeats the design.
- Keep the heat low throughout. A tagine is a slow pot and high heat cracks earthenware as well as toughening meat.
- Arrange the vegetables around the meat rather than mixing them in. It is traditional and it keeps them intact.
- Add dried fruit, preserved lemon or olives near the end. Long cooking dissolves fruit and dulls preserved lemon.
- Season an earthenware tagine before first use, soaked in water overnight, then oiled and warmed slowly, or it will crack.
- A heavy casserole with a tight lid works if you have no tagine. The result is close.
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