Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Tagines



One of my favourite restaurants when I lived in Brussels was a place called Hemisphere which served world cuisine, mostly Moroccan, Indian, Tunisian, Asian. As a vegetarian it's not always easy to find somewhere to eat that has a lot of choice for us herbivores (... do I have to eat dried-up pasta again??) so over time the food has taken a back seat when it comes to my enjoyment of a night out. Having a meal out is still my favourite thing to do, but the ambience of a restaurant has become more important to me when choosing a restaurant.

The reason that I liked Hemisphere is because not only did it have a very extensive veggie menu, but the decoration is fantastic. I've actually gone there on my own a couple of times, had a nice meal with a glass of wine and just looked around me at the proprietor's collection of this that and the other thing from all over the world.

One of the great things about this restaurant though, is that they serve most of their food in tagines.



A tagine (or tajine) is a cooking or serving pot that has found its origins in Morocco. There are two types - the cooking one is (understandably) made of tougher material and works in a similar way to a pressure cooker or slow cooker. The serving one is more decorative but can't withstand high temperatures.

You can really serve anything you like in a tagine but the usual recipe of a tagine (the meal has the same name as the dish) is like a stew of meat, fish or poultry simmered with a mix of veg and spices - usually served with bread or cous cous.



I'm on a recent quest to acquire a couple of these serving tagines, I then plan to round up a couple of people, serve them dinner in the tagine and force them to ooh and ahh over my new gadget!

Here are a few nice ones I've seen on tagines.com








The ones I've shown cost in or around $40. post and packing is extra. I've a vague memory of seeing these in TK Maxx lately, where I'm sure you'd get them cheaper. I'll let you know if I track one down...

7 comments:

**MY LIFE** said...

Just wanted to say you have a great blogg.

Take care
XENA in Sweden

MT said...

Thanks for making me smile Xena!

Anonymous said...

Rachel Allen has a lovely recipe for a Lamb Tagine (maybe you can leave out the lamb), she makes it in a caserole pot though. I have the recipe, I'll photocopy it for you!!

MT said...

Oh great - thanks! In all the recipe books I have I don't think I have one tagine recipe!

Petchie75 said...

I bought a nice, quite small tagine in Morocco and it broke in the suitcase - my father glued it back together but I only keep it as decoration.
Remember when we went to Les Hemishperes last year? A great evening!
I have put up some photos of the new apartment in PR and description - hope you like it!

MT said...

Yes! One of many great evenings! I'll have a look at the pics...

Unknown said...

Yup Mary, they definitely have them in TK Maxx I saw them there just the other day, although not with such pretty patterns as the ones you show here.