Total Pageviews

Please add your name as a follower of this blog if you wish to do so.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Lamb, Chicken And Vegetable Tagine


Great dish from North Africa. It should be cooked and served in a special dish. It is a conical shaped dish which allows the heat inside to circulate while it is cooking. I don't have one but I hope to get one soon. The dish gives a more festive flavor to the whole idea of having dinner from North Africa. This tagine has lamb and chicken but it is usually one or the other. Dried figs can be added to it as can dried apricots. I am sure you could make a very successful vegetarian tagine. This is a dish you can't get enough of. It is marinated the day before in cumin, garlic,a little lemon peel,olive oil, turmeric and cinammon sticks among others. The flavors are very intense and complex and as it cooks you can smell them coming out. To watch the progression of this dish as you prepare and cook and then sit down to enjoy it is to go on an exotic journey. The spices alone and individually are so diverse and so many that you wonder how someone could come up with such a combination. Did they do it all at once, did they try many times before they got the right combination.
To smell them all together in this dish makes you want to sit under a tent with the cool breeze and some moroccan music .
Like most stew type dishes it is best to let it sit for a little bit to allow the flavors to mesh before serving. Serve with rice or couscous.

No comments: