Tagine
Cooking everyday can be very boring and I am glad that I don't have to do it any more (hubby has taken over that job yahoo!) However, once in a while I get inspired to spend some time in the kitchen and be creative.
Laura Caulder's show "French Food at Home" is always an inspiration, even if she's cooking something that doesn't appeal to me. There's something about her "style", her "demeanor", a .... je ne sais quoi (oh that's bad I know!). She's always dressed in a classy but simple dress, with cool music playing in the background while she uses basic ingredients to prepare a sophisticated meal. The whole atmosphere makes me want to wrap a silk scarf around my neck and hop on a plane to Paris!
I recently watched her episode on cooking "French African" dishes and I was inspired to make a tagine.
A "tagine" is sort of like a stew. Meat, vegetables and spices simmered in a "tagine dish" (above). It is very popular in North African countries, especially Morocco. I made chicken with olives and lemon and included spices like ginger, cumin and saffron. Here is the link to Laura's recipe Laura Calder's Chicken Tagine . I served it with couscous and it was quite tasty, if I do say so myself! I did not use a tagine dish, just a Dutch oven type pot instead.
I must admit that this is not the first time I've seen a tagine dish. Many moons ago, while travelling in Morocco, I recall seeing these exotic looking pieces of pottery (often elaborately decorated) in the markets and bazars. The food cooked in them was often featured on the menus in restaurants there. We rarely ate in restaurants in Morocco simply because we were travelling on a shoe string and mostly bought food in the market that we prepared ourselves at our "tent site".
A group of fellow travellers that we were camping with purchased a tagine dish and used it to cook with at our camp site. The recipe they used is unknown ... let's just say it wasn't exactly traditional Moroccan fare!
Lemon Confit was used in Laura's recipe and I actually made it! However, it has to sit for at least 3 weeks, so it will be a while before I can tell if it is worth the effort.
Here is Martha Stewart's" recipe/method of preserving lemons ..... Lemon Confit.
Martha Stewart's Lemon Confit Video
Laura Caulder's show "French Food at Home" is always an inspiration, even if she's cooking something that doesn't appeal to me. There's something about her "style", her "demeanor", a .... je ne sais quoi (oh that's bad I know!). She's always dressed in a classy but simple dress, with cool music playing in the background while she uses basic ingredients to prepare a sophisticated meal. The whole atmosphere makes me want to wrap a silk scarf around my neck and hop on a plane to Paris!
I recently watched her episode on cooking "French African" dishes and I was inspired to make a tagine.
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| amazon.co.uk |
A "tagine" is sort of like a stew. Meat, vegetables and spices simmered in a "tagine dish" (above). It is very popular in North African countries, especially Morocco. I made chicken with olives and lemon and included spices like ginger, cumin and saffron. Here is the link to Laura's recipe Laura Calder's Chicken Tagine . I served it with couscous and it was quite tasty, if I do say so myself! I did not use a tagine dish, just a Dutch oven type pot instead.
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| My attempt at Tagine! |
I must admit that this is not the first time I've seen a tagine dish. Many moons ago, while travelling in Morocco, I recall seeing these exotic looking pieces of pottery (often elaborately decorated) in the markets and bazars. The food cooked in them was often featured on the menus in restaurants there. We rarely ate in restaurants in Morocco simply because we were travelling on a shoe string and mostly bought food in the market that we prepared ourselves at our "tent site".
A group of fellow travellers that we were camping with purchased a tagine dish and used it to cook with at our camp site. The recipe they used is unknown ... let's just say it wasn't exactly traditional Moroccan fare!
 |
| A picture I took of a fellow camper cira 1975! Calder's Episode on French-African Cooking featuring a Tagine dish |
Lemon Confit was used in Laura's recipe and I actually made it! However, it has to sit for at least 3 weeks, so it will be a while before I can tell if it is worth the effort.
 |
| My lemon confit ... preserved lemons, basically lemons packed in kosher salt! |
Here is Martha Stewart's" recipe/method of preserving lemons ..... Lemon Confit.
Martha Stewart's Lemon Confit Video
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