HOT HOME PRODUCTS
Spice up your meals with a tagine
February 28, 2009
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Vicky Sanderson
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
With roots that reach back long and deep into the Middle Eastern history, Moroccan cooking is a flavourful, fragrant marriage of culinary traditions, according to chef and food consultant Gary Hoyer, who describes the cuisine as a "a sensual, aromatic love affair between traditional royal cuisine and home cooking."
While overseeing a restaurant menu based on Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern cuisines Hoyer cooked extensively with a tagine, a cooking vessel long used in that part of the world that's been gaining fans among North American home cooks.
The tagine has two parts – a flat, circular base unit, and a large cone-shaped cover that rests inside the base. Form brilliantly follows function in the design. Invented in the desert, where water was scare, the tagine's conical top allows moisture escaping from the ingredients to condense on the lid and fall back onto the dish, creating meltingly tender meat out of even the most affordable cuts using a minimum of liquid.
Originally, tagines were made entirely of clay, sometimes painted or glazed. At some point, separate tagines that had been painted or decorated with filigreed silver ornamentation came into use for serving.
One Toronto source for traditional clay cooking and serving tagines is Haven Furniture and Furnishings at 1543 Dundas St. W. Owner Ali Bessi is usually at this warehouse location near Dufferin, but to be sure call ahead (416-645-0147). Clay should be seasoned before use, directions for which can be found on Bessi's website.
For serving candy, nuts, and antipasto, Bessi also carries "baby-sized" tagines, which stylist Arren Williams recently pointed out to me would also make a cool drop spot for keys by the front door.
Tagines are now made out of other materials, notably with heavy cast iron bottoms (great for heat distribution) that can be used both on a stove top and in the oven.
I love the Trudeau Tagine, with its black cast iron pot and a white stoneware lid with a pronounced sweep and a polished metal knob. It sells for about $100 – although be warned that as of late last year, the company was getting ready to discontinue the line, so there may be very few of these models. However, Ashton Green and Household China & Gifts still had this product as of last week.
One home cook complained that the height of the Trudeau Tagine means one of the oven racks must be removed in order to fit it in. True, but there's actually no need to put the tagine in the oven – all the cooking can be done on the stove top.
In fact, Hoyer, who is also an instructor at the George Brown School of Hospitality, suggests that using the oven can work against the vessel design, since keeping the top cooler will increase condensation. Bessi is less adamant on this point, and feels it's fine to use the oven. (For tagine recipes from both men, go to my blog).
Le Creuset's enamelled cast iron cookware is famous for its quality. It, too, makes a lovely tagine, more squat than the Trudeau, that comes in gorgeous bright colours (a signature feature of the brand). I read a complaint on one foodie forum that the Le Creuset has spillage problems, but I've had no problems with this since I discovered jut how little liquid the tagine requires.
You can find Le Creuset products at Junors-The Kitchen Collection, where a 1.7- litre tagine sells for about $164, roughly 25 per cent less than the manufacturer's suggested retail price of $205. For other Le Creuset retailers, check lecreuset.ca.
Emile Henry, another well-known French manufacturer of ceramic ovenware, has also added a tagine to its "Flame" line of glazed clay cookware, which can be used on electric or gas stove tops and is dishwasher safe. Junors sells a 2.5-litre model for $120. For other retailers and more information, call Emile Henry's distributor, Browne Canada, at 1-866-306-3672.
Ikea has an attractive, affordable tagine with a non-stick, anodized aluminum base and a stoneware top that comes in black and dark grey with raised circular pattern. It sells for about $80.
Home cooks worth their salt will be asking themselves if similar results can't be achieved with a Dutch oven with a well-fitting lid that's suitable for braising. The answer is yes, but the presentation won't be as dramatic!
Another option is a clay cooking pot, such as those made by Burlington-based potter Barbara Taylor, whose products I recently discovered at the National Home Show. Find out more at earthworkspottery.com.
Vicky Sanderson's Hot Home Products runs Saturdays in New in Homes. vswriter@sympatico.ca.
Visit Vicky's On the House blog.
Toronto Star