To the uninitiated cooking with a tajine can be intimidating, even to a non-vegetarian. But on the contrary cooking with a tajine is easy once you understand how it works.
Tajine works similar to a traditional slow cooker or a Dutch oven, i.e. it is designed to cook over a low but constant heat source over a long period of time.
For best result, food is stacked accordingly in the tajine; food requiring more cooking time is placed first followed by other ingredients. Oil is optional when cooking with a tajine, but for best result use good quality olive oil. Place one or two tablespoons just enough to thinly coat the base of the tajine.
Root vegetables like potatoes and carrots are best placed at the base by slicing the vegetables to about 1cm thick and arrange them to completely cover the bottom of the tajine. Between layering, flavour the vegetable slices with flavoured salt and pepper.
For an authentic Moroccan taste, dust a pinch of ras-el-hanout before placing the next layer of sliced vegetables and repeat until all the vegetables are neatly layered. In ArabicRas-el-hanout means "top of the shop" or "head of the market." Itis an exquisite spice blend from Morocco, and often may contain as many as 30 different ingredients made mainly of exotic spices and aromatic herbs. It is also often referred to as Moroccan spice.
Next food group to go into the tajine is chunky pieces of tofu or tempeh and other vegetables such as pumpkin, zucchini or eggplant cut into 2.5cm x 2.5cm cubes. Pile the food in the middle of the tajine like a pyramid on top of the layer root vegetables.
And to hold and bring together all the diverse flavours and ingredients, are two or three medium size chopped tomatoes generous flavoured with salt, pepper and chopped fresh coriander or flat Italian parsley. Place the chopped tomatoes, herbs, salt and pepper and mix well before spooning the mixture evenly over the vegetables.
Cover the tajine, place over a low heat source and allow to simmer very slowly. Depending on the volume of food, cooking time varies between 90 minutes to 120 minutes. As a result dishes cooked in a tajine is moist and tender with a soft melt-in-your-mouth texture.
Zainil Zainuddin
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You can find our more about vegetarianism at my blogsite: http://platelicking.wordpress.com or from my website: http://veganstips.com/
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