tangine slow cooking

A few years ago, I purchased a tagine, an earthenware cooking and serving pot common in North Africa, with which to experiment. Have you ever tried cooking with a tagine? Or another type of clay pot? There's something special about cooking with clay. The heating is more even than what you would get in a regular skillet, and the liquid that gets released from the food while it cooks bastes the food keeping it moist. A tagine used on a stove-top gives you that wonderful slow, even cooking that you would normally get from an oven-braise. The conical top returns moisture to the food below, and when the dish is done, you can serve it right in the pot.

My first foray into cooking with the tagine was with this Moroccan chicken dish which turned out beautifully - succulent, tender, and full of flavor.
Preserved lemon is traditionally called for in this dish (very easy to make, by the way, all you need are lemons, salt, and time), and in my opinion, worth making just for this dish. But if you don't have any, you can easily use thin slices of regular lemon. Also, you don't absolutely need to use a tagine to make this dish; just use a large, shallow, thick-bottomed, covered skillet

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Place almonds on a baking tray and bake for 6-8 minutes or until toasted. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool. Reduce oven to 150°C.
2. Step 2
   Meanwhile, heat half the oil in a large flameproof casserole dish over high heat. Add one-quarter of the beef and cook for 2-3 minutes or until browned all over. Transfer to a heatproof bowl. Repeat, in 3 more batches, with the remaining beef and half the remaining oil, reheating pan between batches.
3. Step 3
   Heat the remaining oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook for 5 minutes or until onion is soft. Add the saffron, cinnamon, cumin and ginger and cook for 2 minutes or until aromatic. Add the beef, stock and water. Bring to the boil. Remove from heat. Bake, covered, in oven for 2 hours or until beef is tender. Remove from oven and add the dates and honey. Cover and set aside for 10 minutes or until cooled slightly and the dates are soft.
4. Step 4
   Sprinkle the almonds over the beef tagine and top with coriander to serve.

Find recipes that make the most of seasonal produce in our summer collection. You may also enjoy our salad collection and healthy 

• 85g (1/2 cup) whole blanched almonds
•  2 tablespoons olive oil
•  2 (about 1.5kg) beef rump steaks, cut into 2cm pieces
•  2 brown onions, halved, thickly sliced
•  2 garlic cloves, crushed
•  1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
•  2 x 7cm cinnamon sticks
•  2 teaspoons ground cumin
•  2 teaspoons ground ginger
•  375ml (1 1/2 cups) Campbell's Real Stock Beef
•  375ml (1 1/2 cups) water
•  150g (1 cup) fresh dates, halved lengthways, pitted
•  2 tablespoons honey
•  Fresh coriander leaves, to serve

.Like most slow-cooking methods, making a tagine is easy and requires very little work from the cook - the pot does it all! Follow these tagine cooking tips.

There are many types of tagines, but they all work the same way. The conical lid allows steam to circulate during cooking, which then creates condensation that drips back onto the meat, fish or vegies, keeping food moist.

Some tagines are designed for the oven or stovetop, while others are simply used as decorative serving dishes. Traditionally, tagines are made from earthenware, but these require special care, so for convenience many cooks prefer tagines made from metal or flameproof glazed ceramic. Just thinking of Moroccan food immediately conjures thoughts of spicy, slow-cooked meat dishes cooked gently in one magical pot: a tagine. The word tagine refers to both the conical-shaped dish and the food that's cooked inside it, which is usually a blend of delicious sweet and savoury flavours. Traditionally the ingredients were packed into the pot, the lid was popped on tight, then it was cooked slowly over a smouldering charcoal fire. At home it's cooked slowly in the oven or on the stovetop.

Tagine know-how

Like most slow-cooking methods, making a tagine is easy and requires very little work from the cook - the pot does it all! Follow these tips.

• Getting started: Bring the tagine to room temperature before cooking - if you place a cold tagine, especially an unglazed earthenware tagine, on a hot surface it can crack.
• Adding the ingredients: Lightly cook the onion and spices. Add the meat and pour over the liquid, then cover with the lid. Place in the oven or leave it to cook on the stovetop. Since the tagine creates steam as it cooks, you don't need to add too much liquid to the dish.
• Serving: The beauty of the tagine is that it's a great serving dish, too. Just remember the base is hot so protect your table.
• Tagine alternative: You can make a tagine even if you don't have the dish - just use a deep frying pan with a lid or a flameproof casserole dish.