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Foodie: Outdoor Dining - Time out with my Tajine

Foodie: Outdoor Dining - Time out with my Tajine

Author: Kasia Yoko
Date: 2017-03-10

There really is nothing better than food cooked on the fire. Whether it’s a potjie, a grill, braai or a rustic pizza, nothing beats a bucolic experience, and it has been proven (not sure by whom) that everything tastes better when it has that mild smoky flavour.

Since the purchase of my clay tagine, I have been planning my weekends away to incorporate my culinary gift. The Tajine has been designed in a way that makes it real easy to cook on fire.

Nothing beats the satisfaction of preparing a meal over an open fire. The most basic requirement for cooking with wood is the fire. A good cooking fire has a very low flame with plenty of glowing embers and is best lit some 30 minutes to one hour before you begin cooking. Slow-burning hardwoods such as avocado and ironwood will provide the correct degree and duration of heat necessary to produce a good pile of cooking embers.

Historically Tajine is an ancient originally Berber dish, a succulent stew made of meats and vegetables and traditionally cooked in a conical clay pot to allow the steam to rise, condense and drip back down to the stew. The traditional method of cooking is to place the tagine over coals, and typically the dish includes meat, chicken or fish, and most often vegetables or fruit. Because this meal takes a long time to prepare, the woman of the house starts preparing the lunch tagine as soon as breakfast is over.

Moroccan and Algerian tagine dishes are slow-cooked savoury stews, where spices, nuts, and dried fruits are also used.

Common spices include ginger, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, and saffron. Paprika and chilli are used in vegetable tajines. The sweet and sour combination is common in tagine dishes like lamb with dates and spices. Tagines are generally served with bread. Because the domed or cone-shaped lid of the Tajine pot traps steam and returns the condensed liquid to the pot, a minimal amount of water is needed to cook meats and vegetables. This method of cooking is practical in areas where water supplies are limited or where public water is not yet available.

Personally I do not like adding fruit to my dishes and love the savoury woody dishes on my Tajine. So I look to my roots and use the tagine more like a poitjie, and add all my favourite veggies.

I start with braising my spices with fresh garlic onion and ginger in vegetable oil with one tablespoon of butter (for that nutty flavour). I add red and yellow peppers and fresh leeks stir with the garlic and onions and on top of that I add my root vegetables. For the meat eaters out there, you can add whatever meat you want, cover and cook for at least two hours over hot coals.

Remember you must establish a good fire with a large base of glowing embers to master the art of open-fire cooking. Experience, practice, timing and a grasp of basic cooking principles are the best guides, so persevere and enjoy cooking outdoors…