Tagines

Appears in
Food of the Sun: A Fresh Look at Mediterranean Cooking

By Alastair Little and Richard Whittington

Published 1995

  • About
For tagine, substitute the word ‘stew’. If you are a romantic, leave it where it is. Tagines are the meat dishes which sit closest to the heart of Morocco, rich and aromatic without being fancy or contrived. It is also the name for the earthenware casseroles with conical lids like witches’ hats in which the meat is simmered. Tagines are everyday food in the same sense as a Lancashire hot-pot, or a shin of beef stew with caramelized carrots. The difference is purely environmental and perhaps a tad psychological. Consider... our stews are warming; we eat them in autumn and winter, while pointedly eschewing them when the calendar tell us we have entered summer. The instant the temperature soars into the low sixties, Britons eat salads of toad-skin lettuce soused with malt vinegar to cool their heated blood — perhaps fearful that a pot of stew might make them explode. Yet tagines are eaten in Morocco when you can fry an egg on the pavement, hot food in a hot country. It is only we of the north who provide such a pointedly calorific time-frame. Other lands are not so costive. Think of curries. You don’t have to see frost patterning the windows before you enjoy a burst of chilli on the tongue which, come to think of it, is just as well for the people of Madras and Bombay.