Tagines
What is a tagine (tajine), you may ask? "Tagine" or "tajine" means "stew" in Arabic, and originally referred to the tagine pot in which the dish was cooked in. The tagine pot is an earthenware pot, made entirely of heavy clay. It is painted and glazed, and has a distinctive conical lid. The word "tagine" also came to refer to the dish as well, a type of stew, often spicy, consisting of meat, poultry, or fish that is slow-cooked or simmered for many hours in the tagine pot. Since this is a special method of cooking this type of stew by mixing and developing the spices and other ingredients together in a particular way, if you cook a tagine in a pot other than a tagine pot, then it isn't a tagine any more: it is a regular stew. Tunisians have tagines as well, but they have their own ways of preparing tagines.
