I have written a lot about Jay and his brother and their deaths which rocked my world and made me realise we have to take each day as it comes. I dedicated this calendar / recipe book page to them back in 2018 after his Brother died in a car accident and then I wrote a blog about Jay in 2021 after he too died. If you want to see the e recipe book- click here:
The history of tagine dates back to the time of Harun al-Rashid, the fifth Abbasid Caliph.[5][6][7] The earliest written records about the concept of cooking in a tajine appear in the famous One Thousand and One Nights, an Arabic-language story collection from the ninth century.[7]
Today, the cooking-pot and its traditional broth are primarily prepared in the Middle East and North Africa. There are different ways to prepare the tajine. In the original qidra style, saman (clarified butter) is used to lubricate the surface and a puree of chopped onion is added for flavour and aroma. For muqawlli-style cooking, the ingredients are placed in olive oil to enrich the flavours.
There are many descriptions of how to prepare a tajine from Arab scholars. A famous description is the one from ibn al-Adim (1192–1262):
The traditional tajine pottery, sometimes painted or glazed, consists of two parts: a circular base unit that is flat with low sides and a large cone- or dome-shaped cover that sits on the base during cooking. The cover is designed to return all condensation to the bottom. That process can be improved by adding cold water into the specially designed well at the top of the lid.
Tajine is traditionally cooked over hot charcoal leaving an adequate space between the coals and the tajine pot to avoid having the temperature rise too quickly. Large bricks of charcoal are used, specifically for their ability to stay hot for hours. Other methods are to use a tajine in a slow oven or on a gas or electric stove top, on the lowest heat necessary to keep the stew simmering gently. A diffuser, a circular utensil placed between the tajine and the flame, is used to evenly distribute the stove's heat. European manufacturers have created tajines with heavy cast-iron bottoms that can be heated on a cooking stove to a high temperature, which permits the browning of meat and vegetables before cooking.
Tajine cooking may be replicated by using a slow cooker or similar item, but the result will be slightly different.Many ceramic tajines are decorative items as well as functional cooking vessels. Some tajines, however, are intended only to be used as decorative serving dishes.
Then the Onion, Garlic and spices
Then add the chicken to the onion and spices with the stock and cook for an hour then add the honey, dates and almonds and cook for a further 30 mins. I had to use two pans and with only one working ring that took me 3 hours, but the smell was amazing!
Regular readers will know I batch cook at weekends and eat one portion and then keep the rest in the fridge or freezer until needed. Then all I have to do is cook some rice, reheat the Tagine and I have a nice healthy hot meal in 15 mins without all the preparation, cooking and washing up!
One for today and 3 for next week!
Needless to say the Graphic design was by Chester Delos- Santos- the creative and marketing genius behind the British Kabayan!
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Hello, I am The British Kabayan! Feel free to read my stories.
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