Saturday, September 17, 2011

Tajine pot: Thai Panang Curry

Let me introduce you to the world of Tajine cooking. My girlfriend introduced it to me, and planned to buy one in Taiwan for the longest time. So today, she finally saw one she liked at a store near the Breeze center. So she bought it. She instantly went to the japanese book store in old Sogo (Fuxing) and bought a Tajine recipe book. For those unfamiliar with Tajine, it is "is a dish from North Africa, that is named after the special earthenware pot in which it is cooked. The traditional tajine pot is formed entirely of a heavy clay, which is sometimes painted or glazed. It consists of two parts: a base unit that is flat and circular with low sides, and a large cone or dome-shaped cover that rests inside the base during cooking. The cover is so designed to promote the return of all condensation to the bottom. With the cover removed, the base can be taken to the table for serving." For our first trail run, we decided to make Thai Panang Curry over Thai long grain rice. Ingredients include potatoes, bamboo shoots, green peppers and chicken. The food turned out great! She found that the Tajine really cooks the food a bit faster. Much like a pressure cooker as she said. The only faults that we came into were: the pot is too shallow to cook for more three portions and the lid doesn't have a ventilation hole. Too much steam would build up and start spitting curry all over the place instead of letting some steam off through a ventilation hole. If only I had a drill. But then again, I wouldn't want to possible ruin the beautiful orange polka dotted design the lid had. Thats ok. We'll make do. What dish do I want to add to the kitchen arsenal? Hmmm...escargot dish?

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