Chicken Tagine (or Tajine) -recipe

Tagine, can be made in several ways and from several ingredients. You may use chicken or lamb, even goat. Other alternative is the vegetarian style from vegetables. Obviously, there is huge diversity of the ingredients, only our fantasy can limit to serve different tangine variants.
The most delicious I have ever tasted was made of the meat of a goat, but unfortunately it is hard to get this type of meat, so we have to be happy with chicken.
If we don’t own a tangine pot we can use an iron pan with top, but it has to be big enough to place the pieces of meat next to each other.


Shopping List

· One chicken approx. 1 and a half kilo
· 2-3 bundles of spring onions
· 3-5 cloves garlic
· 2 bunches of parsley
· 2 pieces of carrot
· 1 teaspoon original saffron
· 1 teaspoon coriander seed
· Half teaspoon grounded ginger
· Half teaspoon Rome caraway seed
· Half teaspoon full pepper
· Half liter vegetable soup
· Marinated lemon skin
· Salt, olive oil

Preparations

I chop up and salt away the chicken and put it away. I chop the white part of the spring onion, and the garlic. I clean the carrots cut them lengthwise and finally I slice them into four or five centimeter pieces. Now I prepare the seasoning mix by putting the full pepper, coriander seedsend Rome caraway seed into a mortar and grinding them not too smooth. Mix the saffron and ginger with them. I prepare the vegetable soup. I chop the parsley and cut the marinated lemon into thin bands (before doing so take out the inside and throw it away and wash the skin in hot water.)





















Making Tangine

Heat the oil in the pan and heat up the chicken part, if ready take them out. If necessary add some more oil and put the onion in it and blast it. Add the garlic as well. Draw aside the pan and put the seasonings on to the onion and garlic. Mix it carefully. Now I place the meat pieces and carrot slices onto the onion-seasoning base. Add the vegetable soup which should cover the meat as far as the half or the three-quarter of it. Put it back the cooker and boil it suddenly on strong flame. I turn the flame lower cover my dish and cook it for about fifty minutes or even an hour. After that add the parsley and lemon skin, and mix it heartily then leave it for five or ten minutes. Let the taste mature a bit and then serve.


Tips and Ideas:

If we do not own a mortar a strong walled pot will do and we can use the end of a rolling pin to crash the seasonings. Do not ever buy grinded pepper, coriander or caraway. If you use goat meat add a half cinnamon bar, in case you prepare it from lamb do add mint instead of parsley. You can try these ingredients if actually you made it from chicken.
We can try to add several kinds of dried fruit, like apricot, plum or raisins. Our Tangine will be delicious in that way too.
You can store tangine in the fridge for two or three days.


Serving:

Eat tangine with bread, for instance flat chick-pea bread, or with piadina. Furthermore it can be eaten with cuscus or as I had last time with, tabbouleh which is a bulgur salad known all over the Arabic world (the recipe will be available in my next post)
This tagine rejoices us with a very simple way of cooking but really refined spicy taste. It is absolutely delicious. The site of it is very spectacular as well, meat pieces in warm yellow gravy from the saffron, but the flavor overshadows the picture. You have the harmony of exotic spices and the fresh greenness of the parsley, and the piquant sour-salty taste of the lemon.
This time I would not like to recommend wine with the dish, because the spicy taste rules the food, and I don’t think I know any wine that would go with our dish.
Perhaps some strong flavored Arabic tea will do.

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