This was a dish I made while I was in France…since my dad was in the hospital, my mom and I just cooked simple meals because by 1pm we needed to be at the hospital. Tagines are wonderful if you don’t have to much time to eat but still want to enjoy a healthy and flavorful meal. Clay pot cooking is one of my favorites, and as soon as you try it, you will have a difficult time going back to a regular-pan cooking. It preserves all the aromas of each ingredient and infuses all the flavors together.

Like in papillotes, you can cook anything you like in tagines, just be creative, with a little audacity, and you’ll get a fabulous dish. A couple of years ago, it was not as easy to find a tagine claypot, but nowadays, most stores carry them (at least in California);  tagines are becoming more trendy, simply because it has traveled outside borders and everyone has discovered their health benefits, and still keeping amazing aromas.

I have seen many types of couscous in France (in France we call the actual grain semoule, couscous being the Algerian dish, made with vegetables, meat and semoule) different kinds of whole grains, such as kamut, quinoa, spelt, etc…since my mom had diabetes, I tried to make dishes that were good for her, or at least that did not aggravate her diabetes. This quinoa couscous is a perfect grain to go with any tagine. Of course people who don’t like squid can use other ingredients such as shrimps, or white fish. I kept the couscous simple with no major strong flavors, to really enjoy the tagine broth, couscous being a minor addition in this meal, necessary but secondary.

Ingredients for 3

• 1 lb squid
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 1/2 leeks, cut in 1 inch pieces
• 1/2 lb fava bean, peeled
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tsp ras-el-hanout
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1 inch ginger, grated
• salt and pepper

For the quinoa couscous

• 140 g quinoa semolina
• 1 tbs olive oil
• vegetable broth
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• salt
• cracked pepper

Preparation

For the tagine

Heat olive oil in tagine and brown the onions. Add leeks and cook for about 5 minutes. Add squid, and all other ingredients except for the fava beans. Mix all ingredients well. Bring a pot of water to a boil, and cook fava beans for three minutes. Remove from heat, drain and peel fava beans. 10 minutes before end of cooking time, add fava beans to the tagine, cover and let it cook for another 10 minutes. Sprinkle with fennel leaves or mint and serve with couscous.

For the quinoa couscous

Proceed like for a regular wheat couscous. Bring vegetable broth to a boil. Coat couscous with olive oil using your fingers. Add broth to the couscous, cover and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Using a fork, separate the grains, add lemon juice and cracked pepper. Adjust with salt if necessary. For broth quantity, I cover the couscous with 5mm of extra broth above couscous.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2011/03/ocean-tagine-tagine-with-squid-fava-beans-and-leeks-and-simple-pepper-quinoa-couscous/feed/ 10 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2010/03/artichokes-are-back-in-town-tagine-of-artichokes-chickpeas-potatoes-red-peppers-and-olives/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=artichokes-are-back-in-town-tagine-of-artichokes-chickpeas-potatoes-red-peppers-and-olives http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2010/03/artichokes-are-back-in-town-tagine-of-artichokes-chickpeas-potatoes-red-peppers-and-olives/#comments Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:03:41 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=7447 Les artichauts sont de retour – Tagine d’artichauts, pois chiches, pommes de terre, poivrons, et olives vertes

It looks like artichoke season is starting and you see them come out on the shelves, one of the largest producer being close to the Bay Area in Castroville (they claim to be the artichoke capital of the world, which is quite a big statement, but they certainly do produce a lot of them), we have in San Francisco, lots of beautiful artichokes, the babies, the medium, the large, you pick which one you want. I even planted some in the garden, but seems like it takes over 300 days for them to grow, so I cannot count on my own crops this year!

I had some fresh chick peas left from last week and I just wanted to use them in a tagine. They remain green and taste so good but cook very quickly so when using them in a dish, they only need to cook for 15 minutes or so, therefore add them at the end. I love tagines, I could eat them every day. The flavors of all the spices infusing with all those wonderful vegetables is a pure pleasure to cook (and to eat of course too). After 10 minutes of placing the tagine in the oven, the house starts to be filled with incredibly aromas. It’s like a pure perfume. Ca embaume.

As in the majority of my tagines, I used Ras el hanout which is a traditional mix of Moroccan spices and literally means “the roof of the grocery store” in arabic. A few common spices included in Ras el hanout are cardamom, mace, cloves, nutmeg, pepper, lavender, ginger, nigella, turmeric, etc..but so many more. It’s used in Middle Eastern cuisine to enhance many dishes such as couscous, meat dishes, etc…

The composition of Ras el hanout can vary from 24 to 21 spices but can go as far as 40 spices, so there are so many variations of Ras el hanout as there are cooks, manufacturers and tastes. I bought a big bag of spices in a Moroccan grocery store in France that will last me my lifetime, and that is a very nice blend, not one spice overpowering the mix, and a very well balanced combination. Unfortunately the manufacturer did not include the list of the spices he used, so I am afraid I won’t be able to know what has been used and to what quantity. In France we have a huge Arabic population, probably the biggest among all other European countries, which means a lot of stores with great products and very inexpensive.

Anyone who loves artichokes and spices, will really enjoy this dish, besides the beauty of tagines is that it might take you a while to clean the artichokes, and peel the potatoes, but then you just put it in the oven and cooks by itself, comme une grande fille!

Ingredients for 4

• 2 large potatoes, peeled and cut in big squares
• 8 medium size artichokes, trimmed
• 5 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 1 large red bell pepper, cut in big square
• 1 cup fresh chick peas
• 1.5 tbs Ras el hanout
• 1 preserved lemon, cut in 4 quarters
• 1/2 cup green olives, cut in halves
• chili powder
• salt and pepper

Preparation

In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients together except for the chick peas and using your hands mix well.

Place the vegetables in your tagine pot, cover and cook in a pre-heated oven at 390F for about one 1h30 min. Add chick peas 20 minutes before removing tagine from the oven. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve as a side dish or as a main dish, with a quinoa or couscous accompaniment.

From what I’ve seen and heard, I have found very few people crazy about octopus…unlike me, I love it, like every thing else that lives in an ocean. The thing with octopus is that it needs to be well cooked, and prepared the right way or it can get hard to chew, and rubbery. I have tasted an octopus carpaccio in a small restaurant in Como Lake, Italy, where the octopus was cut in paper thin slices, then marinated and topped with rucola, lemon juice and olive oil. Octopus is very popular in Mediterranean cuisine and despite its strange prehistorical aspect, has an extraordinary delicate flavor and can be prepared in many different ways.

For this recipe, you can cut the octopus in smaller pieces if you don’t like to have big chunks of tentacles in your plate. I wanted to make octopus pieces as big as the mangoes. Don’t get intimidated by this strange animal with its long legs and tentacles, you’ll be surprised by its delicacy.

I found this recipes couple of years ago on a tagine recipe book (I forgot its name, I only remember it was a purple book), the little twist is the addition of the spice mixture you can buy at some specialty counter at our Nancy’s market. You can make it as well, keep it in a air tight container and use it in fish dishes, it’s really a great mix. Every year when I come home, my mom makes this tagine for me, she knows I am crazy for octopus, the only problem is that she used a whole octopus this time, this one weighted 5 lb, so there was enough octopus for an army. How much octopus can you eat?

Cooking octopus in clay tagine pot makes it very flavorful and tender, the addition of mangoes 20 minutes before removing it from the oven adds a sweet touch that gives this dish an exquisite exotic touch. I use my tagine very often and cooking in clay pot makes a big difference in terms of flavor. I even bought another clay pot here, that will need to fit in my suitcase and arrive in San Francisco in one piece. That will be my last day challenge.

Ingredients for 4-5

• 2 lb octopus
• 1 1/2 onions, sliced
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp spice mix
• 2 firm mangoes, not too ripe
• salt and pepper

Spice mix for a small jar

• 2 tbsp turmeric
• 1 tsp anise seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tbs parsley flakes

Preparation

Clean octopus under running water, remove beak, eyes, etc…

Cook octopus in boiling water for about 30-45 minutes. Remove from water, drain and let it cool. Cut in small pieces about 1 inch thick.

Heat olive oil in your tagine, and brown onions. Add octopus, paprika, spice mix, salt and pepper. Mix well. Cook in a pre-heated oven for 1h30 hour at 375-380F. 20 minutes before removing from the oven, add mangoes, cover and cook until the mangoes are cooked but still firm and not mushy. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve with white rice, steamed potatoes or herbed quinoa.