I won my pretty tagine dish in a Cookpad recipe competition last year but took my time to use it. I did occasionally take it out of the cupboard to admire, and puzzle at how impractical it was.
Deep base contradicts the very meaning of tajine – ‘shallow dish’. The lid seemed impossible to take off when hot as there’s no handle, indent or anything in its shape that would assist a safe grip. The magic it’s supposed to do, condensing the steam from the food and raining it back down, means that no steam escapes and if you add liquid to your chicken or lamb, as all available recipes suggest, you’re cooking soup. Those were my worried assumptions.
Sadly they proved completely right. My first tagine was soup and it was nearly inaccessible as I couldn’t get the lid off by stealth or force. Chicken tasted like boiled. Vegetables tasted like raw.
This is an adjusted recipe: do not be tempted to add more liquid unless you peeked in (well done, you) and saw it becoming too dry. And actually – just cook it in a shallow casserole dish.