Zoom on… the tagine… or the tagine?
Let's take advantage of our excellent veal tagine with dried apricots & beans, couscous pearls to learn more about this dish that we do not know enough about and especially to answer the eternal question: the tagine or the tagine?
A tagine or tagine or tajine designates on the one hand, a cooking and serving dish, wide and shallow surmounted by a conical cover in terracotta sometimes glazed. It comes from Berber cuisine and also widely used in traditional Maghreb cuisine. It also designates the food preparation from Northwest Africa cooked in this utensil. It is a kind of stewed stew that can be made with a mixture of meat, poultry or fish, vegetables or fruits and spices and olive oil. The preparation of the tagine, the ingredients and the spices used differ according to the regions of North Africa, which is why there are as many cooks as there are recipes.
It is therefore a steam cooking most often without fat, to enjoy without moderation!
Paul Peyre, linguist and etymologist, highlighted the common root of tian (from Provencal tian) with tajine, also designating the dish and the dish. We indeed find the consonances t / ij / n common to one side and the other of the Mediterranean. On the other hand, the Historical Dictionary of the French language-Dictionaries Le Robert by Alain Rey, indicates that the words tian and tajine are borrowings, one from the old Provençal Occitan, the other from Berber from Greek. old "têganon".
CQFD, let's forget the feminine and definitely use THE tagine.
And even if it means traveling to the countries of North Africa this week in our menu, I also wanted to deepen the harissa that we find mixed with a light mayo with the vegetarian. Harissa is simply a mashed red peppers from Tunisia. The peppers are dried in the sun and then crushed with spices, such as cumin, coriander and caraway, without forgetting the sundried tomatoes. It is generally used as a condiment.
Happy tasting everyone!
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