I first discovered tagines on a short trip to Marrakech and I was immediately entranced by their full frontal flavours and the combination of sticky sweet dried fruit and slow cooked tender meat. It was a revelation – fruit and meat? It was like having pudding and a main course all at once, and you can’t go wrong with that.
Marrakech itself is a magical city, pink and dusty on the streets, but through doorways you’d glimpse cool white and blue tilework and hear the tinkling of fountains. Birdsong echoes through orange trees as the call to prayer sings out across the rooftops. Rooftops where we sat in the desert heat sipping sweet mint tea and gazing across to the snow clad peaks of the Atlas mountains.
The old city is built around the Djemaa el-Fna, an enormous square full of story tellers and snake charmers, touts and traders, all trying to tempt you into the labyrinthine byways of the souk. At dusk, smoke rich with the aromas of grilling meats wafts up into the air as freshly cooked couscous is piled on to plates and steaming mutton stew is ladled over the top. Sheep’s heads are pulled from bubbling soup tureens and sweet pigeon pastries are messily munched.
And so began my long, slow, inexorable slide into a full-on North African, Middle Eastern and Turkish culinary addiction. There is something just irrisitable about the combinations of fragrant herbs, warm spices, sticky dried fruit and slow cooked meats.
We do see it in some of our own traditional cooking as well – original mincemeat, pork and apple sauce – but not nearly to the same degree. The Moroccans have mastered the art of combining sweet and savoury into a coherent whole.
I generally prefer to make something with mutton or lamb, but sometimes only chicken hits the spot. And so it was with some excitement I jointed my West Country bird and laid out the honey and shallots ready for some slow simmering. This particular dish doesn’t use fruit, but the honey gives it a similar sticky sweetness. And you could add raisins along with the shallots.
The tagine
Enough for four with a veg side/salad and bread/rice/couscous
This (as are most of the tagines I cook) is based on a recipe from Claudia Rodin’s Arabesque, probably one of my favourite, and most used, cook books. She explains things so clearly and her recipes are pretty straightforward to follow, adapt and make your own, almost always with good results. In other words, Rodin does a Slater – taking simple recipes and enabling you to make magic from them.
I served this with saffron and raisin rice, a grated cucumber and mint salad, and minted peas.
1 chicken – jointed
400g baby onions/shallots
2 tblsp rape seed oil
1 onion
1 generous pinch saffron
1 tsp powdered ginger
1 tsp powdered cinnamon
1.5 tblsp runny honey
Black pepper
250ml water
A handful of roughly chopped parsley
Boil the shallots whole in water for five minutes. When they cool down cut off the straggling roots, slice of the top of each one and peel the skins.
Chop the onion and fry gently in the oil in a heavy bottomed pan or casserole dish. When it has softened, stir in the saffron, ginger and cinnamon, mix it round for a minute or so and then add the chicken. Brown it a little and pour in the water.
Bring it to a boil and then immediately turn it down to a simmer. Cover and let it bubble away for 15 minutes, turning the chicken pieces once.
Take out the boneless breast pieces and set aside. Add the peeled shallots, give it a stir, cover and leave to cook for about 30-40 minutes until the meat is falling from the bone. Turn the chicken once during this time and give it a stir to stop the onions from sticking.
Take the chicken out, remove the lid, add the honey and stir it in well. Turn the heat up and stir until almost all the liquid has boiled off and you’re left with a slightly viscous, sweet sauce.
Taste it and add enough black pepper to balance the sweetness. The shallots should be soft, silky and on the verge of disintegration. Add the chicken and heat through. Serve on to plates and scatter over the parsley.
Tags: chicken, levantine, Moroccan, onions, shallots, tagine
I thought I wanted to go to Marrakech before but, with your rich description, I know I definitely want to go. I bought Joe Brown a tagine last year which we’ve actually only used once. I think if I were a meat-eater, we’d probably use it more and it’s the thing that makes me wonder whether to venture back into carnivorous ways again.
When we went (about 6 or 7 years ago) we bought not one, but two tagines… that we have never used
You can cook all the food easier (and maybe better) in a casserole. The tagines were designed for cooking over charcoal i think – and I bet they’d be good for that. They do, however, make wonderful serving dishes.
As for venturing back into carnivorous ways – it’s a slippery, but delicious slope… I do try to make sure at all costs that I know where the meat i eat comes from and the animals have led as happy life as possible (UK, free-range etc etc).
Je suis globalement en accord avec cet article.
Merci voyage maroc