Morocco in My Kitchen: My Tagine Love Affair

Tajine
PHOTO: EA STEWART, MBA, RD

Product Reviewed:
Emile Henry Tagine

Step in to my home, decorated with vibrantly colored tiles, arches leading into almost every room, and Moorish iron scroll work adorning my railings and staircases, and you will have no doubt: I am in love with all things Moroccan! Until now this love affair was missing one thing — I’d never had much experience cooking Moroccan cuisine. That changed with this Emile Henry Flame™ Top Tagine.

If you’re not familiar with a tagine, it is a traditional North African cooking vessel made from clay and used to cook a rich stew of the same name. This dish often consists of meat and vegetables, along with fruits, nuts and legumes. One of the unique things about a tagine is its wide, shallow base and tall, conical lid. When heated,  either on the stovetop or in the oven, the design allows steam to circulate above and around the ingredients, infusing the dish with rich flavor and tenderness.

For my first foray in to cooking with a tagine, I chose a classic one-pot recipe of chicken, chickpeas and apricots. I started by seasoning my tagine with a little milk heated over the stove (something suggested on the Emile Henry website). In hindsight, this was perhaps the hardest part because, for a brief moment, I forgot the milk was heating and ended up scalding the bottom of the pot! This resulted in a little extra scrubbing to remove the burned bits. But after a brief water soak, and some muscle power, my tagine was shiny and new again.

From there on out, cooking in my tagine was a breeze, and I especially loved that I had no additional pots and pans to clean up! In my opinion, this alone is reason enough to highly recommend this Emile Henry Flame™ Top Tagine.

But if that was all I wrote, I wouldn’t have shared just how moist and delicious the chicken, chickpea and apricot stew turned out to be due to the infusion of spices and steam created by cooking in the tagine.

Add to this the fact that this new Moroccan inspired dish was gobbled up, not only by my husband and me, but also by both of my children, without any complaints, and you will truly understand why I am having a love affair with my new tagine.

EA Stewart on BloggerEA Stewart on Twitter
EA Stewart
EA Stewart, MBA, RD, is a registered dietitian and nutritionist specializing in wellness nutrition, weight management, celiac disease and gluten-free, FODMAPs diet therapy, and LEAP food sensitivity testing. Read her blog, The Spicy RD, and follow her on Twitter.