From Tangine to Masala

From_tagine_to_masala_1 I’ve been a big fan of Middle Eastern cooking since I was little. Back in the ’70s, my parents used to take my sister and I to the Cedars of Lebanon restaurant in NYC. I loved the lamb shishkebabs, stuffed grape leaves, pita bread, and hummus. My sister and I were amused that the Lebanese waiters were always sneaking us pieces of baklavah, too. So when From Tagine to Masala by Mike Harrison came in the mail, I was thrilled to have a guide book to many of the dishes I loved as a youngster.

The author is an interesting fellow. Mike worked for different private and state institutions in around 17 different countries, including Tunisia, Senegal, Iraq, Turkey, Tajikistan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. From Tagine to Masala is the culmination of more than 20 years of gathering recipes from across the Arabian trade routes and the broader Islamic region. He writes about Moroccan cuisine at GulfNews.com.

Tagine But the best thing about From Tagine to Masala? Now I have an excuse to buy a Le Creuset Enameled Cast Iron Moroccan Tagine Pan. It’s really cool – and totally impractical – so at $130 a pop, maybe not. Don’t worry, you won’t need a fancy pan to make Mike’s lemon chicken tagine.

Lemon Chicken Tagine
(There’s a kilograms to pounds conversion calculator below.)

Ingredients:

250g chicken pieces
50g chopped chicken liver (optional)
50g choped onions
5g chopped garlic
5g ginger powder
2g saffron power (try Mustapha’s Moroccan Saffron)
2g saffron flower
5g white pepper powder
5g salt
10g vegetable oil
10g butter
30g preserved lemons
30g preserved olive

Preparation:

Place the chicken in a thick-bottomed sauce pan with the oil and chopped onion.
Season with salt, saffron, ginger, pepper, chopped garlic, and add some water.
Simmer gently, then bring to a boil, and turn the pieces of chicken over.
Add pieces of chicken liver (optional).
Cook for another 25 mintues, making sure that the sauce doesn’t boil away.
Place the chicken in a tagine bowl (you can use an oven proof skillet), pour over the sauce and decorate with preserved olives and lemon.
Pour a little melted butter over the chicken and finish off in a hot over for a few minutes until the chicken is nicely browned.

The only problem with Mike’s cookbook is that the British to U.S. measurement conversions aren’t very tidy. Since we’re using unusual (to us) spices like saffron, measurements should be as accurate as possible – at least the first time you cook the dish.

Lucikly, there are many good tagine recipes available online with U.S. measurements. There’s also a terrific website devoted only to tagine recipes, so check that out as well.