Cooking With Tajine

Tajine is a cooking implement. It is the Moroccan traditional slow cooker. Made of clay, tajine comes in to two parts, a base section where food is layered and piled and then covered with a cavernous cone shaped top section, and slowly cooked to tender perfection. The round shallow base has a flat-bottom with a lip where the cavernous cone shaped top section sits. It is designed to capture and retain condensation and to avoid dryness during the cooking process.

Traditionally, a tajine dish contains meat, either lamb of beef in addition to pulses or lentils and vegetables. For vegetarians cooking in a tajine cannot be any simpler. You can substitute the meat with either tempeh or hard tofu, or even the extra soft round tofu.

Cooking with a tajine is really easy and not dissimilar to an electric slow cooker. All the ingredients are layered in the base section, starting with root vegetables like slice potatoes and cubed carrots followed by chunky meat. Concentrated stock or chopped tomatoes well seasoned with condiments, spices (like ras-el-hanout, stock cube, etc.) and fresh herbs like parsley or coriander can be added to the tajine.

Cover the tajine, place over a low heat source and allow to simmer very slowly for at least 90 minutes to 120 minutes, depending on the volume of food to be cooked. As a result dishes cooked in a tajine is thoroughly moist with a soft melt-in-your-mouth texture.

If using a clay tajine, a heat diffuser, also know as a simmering mat is crucial. It helps to distribute the heat evenly over the flat surface of the tajine and also protects the tajine from over heating. Repeated direct contact with flame can cause clay tajine to crack over a period of time.

In Morocco tajine is served as a centrepiece where it is customary to share a meal. It is often serve with bread, rice or couscous.

Zainil Zainuddin
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