
Tagines are the rich and aromatic casseroles that form the basis of traditional Moroccan cooking. These hearty one-pot meals, flavored with fragrant spices, are cooked and served from an elegant, specially designed cooking vessel, also called a tagine. In Ghillie Basan’s collection of deliciously authentic recipes you will find some of the best-loved classics of the Moroccan kitchen, such as the sumptuous Lamb Tagine with Dates, Almonds, and Pistachios, and the tangy Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemon, Green Olives, and Thyme. Also included are less traditional but equally delicious recipes for beef and fish—try Beef Tagine with Sweet Potatoes, Peas, and Ginger or a tagine of Monkfish, Potatoes, Tomatoes, and Black Olives. Substantial vegetable tagines include Baby Eggplant with Cilantro and Mint, and Butternut Squash, Shallots, Golden Raisins, and Almonds. Recipes for variations on couscous, the classic accompaniment to tagines, are also given, plus plenty of ideas for fresh-tasting salads and vegetable sides to serve alongside and complete your Moroccan-style feast.
Author
I am a writer, broadcaster, and food anthropologist with fingers in several pies! As a single parent living off the beaten track in the Scottish highlands it is the only way to survive. In the media, I have been dubbed ‘The Original Spice Girl’ and ‘World Food Expert’ but really I’m simply a hospitable hermit! I love to live a little bit wild but I also love to share what I have. I spent my childhood in East Africa and my teenage years in Scotland, followed by a Cordon Bleu Diploma in London and a degree in Social Anthropology from Edinburgh University. After working and travelling in Europe, Turkey, the Middle East, North America, India, Southeast Asia, and vast chunks of Africa as an English teacher, journalist, and food and travel writer, I returned to the Scottish Highlands. Here, in a remote part of the Cairngorms National Park I have gradually turned a ruined croft into a home where, snowbound in winter with a 3 mile cross-country ski to and from the car to bring in supplies, I have raised my children on my own. Abridged from Ms Basan's website