Tagines & Couscous E-Book

Ghillie Basan

• Herausgeber: Ryland Peters & Small
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Seitenzahl: 102

Beschreibung

Tagines are the rich and aromatic casseroles that form the basis of traditional Moroccan cooking. These hearty one-pot meals, flavored with fragrant spices, are cooked and served from an elegant, specially designed cooking vessel, also called a tagine. In Ghillie Basan's collection of deliciously authentic recipes you will find some of the best-loved classics of the Moroccan kitchen, such as the sumptuous Lamb Tagine with Dates, Almonds, and Pistachios, and the tangy Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemon, Green Olives, and Thyme. Also included are less traditional but equally delicious recipes for beef and fish—try Beef Tagine with Sweet Potatoes, Peas, and Ginger or a tagine of Monkfish, Potatoes, Tomatoes, and Black Olives. Substantial vegetable tagines include Baby Eggplant with Cilantro and Mint, and Butternut Squash, Shallots, Golden Raisins, and Almonds. Recipes for variations on couscous, the classic accompaniment to tagines, are also given, plus plenty of ideas for fresh-tasting salads and vegetable sides to serve alongside and complete your Moroccan-style feast.

Leseprobe

TAGINES

& COUSCOUS

RYLAND

PETERS

& SMALL

LONDON NEW YORK

TAGINES

& COUSCOUS

Delicious recipes for Moroccan one-pot cooking

Ghillie Başan

photography by Martin Brigdale and Peter Cassidy

Design and Photographic Art Direction Steve Painter

Senior Commissioning Editor Julia Charles

Production Controller Toby Marshall

Art Director Leslie Harrington

Publishing Director Alison Starling

Photography Martin Brigdale and Peter Cassidy

Food Stylists Ross Dobson, Bridget Sargeson and Lucy McKelvie

Prop Styling Helen Trent, Martin Brigdale and Steve Painter,

Indexer Hilary Bird

First published in the United Kingdom in 2010

by Ryland Peters & Small

20–21 Jockey’s Fields

London WC1R 4BW

www.rylandpeters.com

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Text © Ghillie Başan 2007, 2008, 2010

Design and photographs

© Ryland Peters & Small 2007,

2008, 2010

Printed in China

The author’s moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

EISBN: 978 1 84975 673 0

ISBN: 978 1 84597 947 8

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

Some of the recipes in this book have been published previously by Ryland Peters & Small in Tagine and Flavours of Morocco.

Notes

• All spoon measurements are level.

• All eggs are medium, unless otherwise specified. Uncooked or partially cooked eggs should not be served to the very young, the elderly, those with a compromised immune system or pregnant women.

• When a recipe calls for the grated zest of citrus fruit, buy unwaxed fruit and wash well before using. If you can only find treated fruit, scrub well in warm soapy water and rinse before using.

• Sterlize preserving jars before use. Wash in hot soapy water and rinse in boiling water. Place in a large saucepan, cover with hot water, bring to the boil and boil, covered, for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave in the hot water until using. Invert onto kitchen towel to dry. Sterlize lids for 5 minutes, by boiling. Jars should be filled while hot.

• Ovens should be preheated to the specified temperature. Recipes in this book were tested in a regular oven. If using a fan-assisted oven, follow the maker’s instructions for adjusting temperatures.

CONTENTS

The Secrets of Tagines

Traditional Lamb Tagines

Beef, Kefta and Sausage Tagines

Chicken and Duck Tagines

Fish and Seafood Tagines

Vegetable Tagines

Couscous Dishes

Salads and Vegetable Side Dishes

Index

the secrets of tagines

Colourful, decorative, scented and a feast for the senses – the food of Morocco reflects a fascinating mix of the cultures that have left their mark on the region: the indigenous Berbers with their tradition of tagine cooking and couscous; the nomadic Bedouins from the desert who brought dates, milk and grains; the Moors expelled from Spain who relied heavily on olives and olive oil and brought with them the Andalusian flavours of paprika and herbs; the Sephardic Jews with their preserving techniques employing salt; the Arabs who introduced the sophisticated cuisine from the Middle East; the Ottoman influence of kebabs and pastry making; and finally, the finesse of the French.

The root of Moroccan cooking can be traced back to the indigenous Berber tribes. Steeped in tradition, the rural Berbers are proud of their ancestry. They have lived in North Africa, between Egypt and the western coast of Morocco, as far back as archaeological records go. Originally farmers, living alongside the nomadic Taureg and Bedouin tribes of the desert, the Berbers would have made an impact on the food of the region long before the invasion of the Arabs and, although they had to convert from Christianity to Islam and adopt new religious and culinary customs, they are keen to make the point that they are not of Arab descent. Many rural Berber communities speak their own languages and dialects but those who are literate also speak Arabic and, in some areas, French. Berbers also fiercely uphold some of their own culinary customs, such as the festive pilgrimages, moussems, which are held in tented enclosures where traditional dishes, such as couscous, are cooked in vast quantities and shared. Another feature of Berber culinary life is the diffa, which is a festive banquet, varying in content in accordance with the wealth of the family, to mark special family occasions such as weddings and births and religious events.

It is Berbers we have to thank for tagines and couscous. A tagine is a glorified stew worthy of poetry – aromatic and syrupy, zesty and spicy, or sweet and fragrant are just some of the words that come to mind. It is a dish of tender meat, fish or succulent vegetables, simmered to perfection in buttery sauces with fruit, herbs, honey and chillies. An authentic tagine is in a class of its own and has become a fundamental feature of Moroccan cuisine.

The name ‘tagine’ (sometimes spelled ‘tajine’) is also given to the vessel in which the food is cooked: a shallow, round, earthenware pot with a unique conical lid designed to lock in moisture and flavours. In it, the food cooks gently in a small amount of liquid. The finished dish can either be served piping hot straight from its cooking vessel, or tipped into one of the decorative versions of the pot, glazed in beautiful shades of blue and green, to take to the table.

Although originally a Berber dish, the tagine has evolved with the history of the region as waves of Arab and Ottoman invaders, Moorish refugees from Andalusia and French colonialists have left their influences on the cuisine. Classic tagines include combinations of lamb with dried prunes or apricots; chicken with preserved lemon and green olives; duck with dates and honey; and fish cooked with tomatoes, lime and fresh coriander. In the modern Maghreb, the Berbers are still renowned for their tasty, pungent tagines made with lots of onions and smen, a rancid clarified butter (see page 11) which is very much an acquired taste! The method employed in tagine cooking also varies from the countryside to the cities. In the north, in cities like Tangier and Casablanca, where the Spanish and French influences are evident, the meat is often browned in butter or oil and the spices and onions are sautéed before adding the rest of the ingredients, whereas Fassi and Marrakchi tagines are often prepared by putting all the ingredients together in water and then adding extra butter or smen towards the end of the cooking time.

Traditionally, tagines are served as a course on their own, with freshly baked flat breads or crusty bread to mop up the delectable syrupy sauces, and are followed by a mound of couscous. The more modern way is to combine the courses and serve them with an accompanying salad or vegetable side dish. On festive occasions, the custom is to pile up a huge pyramid of couscous and hollow out the peak to form a well into which the tagine is spooned. However, most earthenware tagines are not big enough to cope with feasts, so large copper pots are often used instead.

The great secret of an authentic tagine is to simmer the ingredients over a low heat, so that everything remains deliciously moist and tender. Meat tagines may be cooked for several hours, the meat simmering gently in a seasoned, fragrant liquid until it is so tender it almost falls off the bone. Generally, dishes of vegetables, pulses or fish do not require long cooking times but still benefit from the tagine method in terms of enhanced taste and texture. Traditionally, tagines are cooked over a clay stove, or brazier, which is stoked with charcoal to maintain constant heat. Such stoves diffuse the heat around the base of the tagine, enabling the liquid to reduce and thicken without drying out. Wood-burning ovens and open fires are used, too. However, wonderful tagines can also be produced using a modern hob or oven. Most authentic tagines have a little hole at the top of the conical lid to release some of the steam, so that it doesn’t try to escape at the seam between the base and the lid. If there is no hole, you will probably need at intervals to tilt the lid at an angle to release the steam yourself. When cooking in an oven, it is generally only the base of the tagine that is used.

When it comes to buying a tagine, there are several different types and sizes, as some represent a Berber tribe, a particular village or a region of Morocco. There are a number of cooking tagines to choose from, but few of them come with a warning about their vulnerability over a conventional gas or electric hob. Most of the factory-made vessels, whether they are glazed or not, tend to form hairline cracks when they are placed over a gas flame; and they cannot be used on an electric ring. So what do you do? For a glazed earthenware tagine, a heat diffuser is essential, otherwise it is worth splashing out on the durable cast-iron version with a glazed, earthenware lid produced by Le Creuset. Their version looks just like a beautifully authentic glazed tagine but the cast-iron base enables it to be used safely on gas or electric hobs. A solid, heavy-based casserole is a good substitute, as long as you keep the heat very low. But for a tasty, succulent meal, full of flavour and adventure, it is well worth attempting to cook with the genuine article.

smen (aged butter)

This pungent butter, used as the primary cooking fat in some tagines, is left to mature in earthenware pots for months, sometimes years! You can substitute it with ghee (clarified butter).

500 g unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 tablespoon sea salt

1 tablespoon dried oregano

Makes about 500 g

Soften the butter in a bowl. Boil 150 ml water in a saucepan with the salt and oregano to reduce it a little, then strain it directly onto the butter. Stir the butter with a wooden spoon to make sure it is well blended, then let cool.

Knead the butter with your hands to bind it, squeezing out any excess water. Drain well and spoon the butter into a hot, sterilized jar (see note on page 4). Seal the jar and store it in a cool, dry place for at least 6 weeks.

preserved lemons

Added to dishes as a refreshing, tangy ingredient or garnish, preserved lemons are essential to the cooking of tagines. You can buy jars of ready-preserved lemons in specialist shops and some supermarkets, but it is worth making your own.

10 organic, unwaxed lemons, preferably the small, thin-skinned Meyer variety

10 tablespoons sea salt

freshly squeezed juice of 3–4 lemons

Makes 1 large jar

Wash and dry the lemons and slice the ends off each one. Stand each lemon on one end and make two vertical cuts three-quarters of the way through them, as if cutting them into quarters but keeping the base intact. Stuff 1 tablespoon salt into each lemon and pack them into a large sterilized jar (see note on page 4). Seal the jar and store the lemons in a cool place for 3–4 days to soften the skins.

Press the lemons down into the jar, so they are even more tightly packed. Pour the lemon juice over the salted lemons, until they are completely covered. Seal the jar again and store it in a cool place for at least 1 month. Rinse the salt off the preserved lemons before using.

chermoula

A distinctive Moroccan marinade, chermoula is often employed in fish dishes as the flavours of chilli, ground cumin and fresh coriander marry so well and complement the fish perfectly.

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

1–2 teaspoons cumin seeds, crushed or ground

1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and chopped

freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons olive oil

a small bunch of coriander, roughly chopped and/or a small bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped

Makes 1 small pot