Lola at the Coffee House

I love it when logic prevails

No Mac. It was this--





No. If you do that it is still called coffee.

If you make chicken stew in a tagine it is still chicken stew. As it is if you make it in a casserole dish.

If I bathed Mary I imagine it would be in a muck sweat.

A tagine is made in a kiln.

I don't think I ever use the word "saucepan".

I need to be in the mood to tell of my billygoat experience. Journalese is designed to write about things whatever the mood. Deadlines demand it. Stern remarks somewhere on writing hungry and writing full. The post coital euphoria style is my favourite.

The last para. of the link reads--



I assume you are in possession of an "average British kitchen". Rabbit stew on Salisbury Plain is made in a billycan.

. You cant look that up in Wikipedia spendi, you have to experience it.

That's being economical with the truth. I think that Felicite's aim was to fill up the space between adverts for cooking utensils and connected items with as little effort as maybe. Product placement. It gets the Grauniad readers toddling off to B&Q.

Or perhaps a relative has imported a job lot of tagines. Who knows?

Alan Titchmarsh should be knighted for services to vanity shopping.

Same article - I think I then went and looked up recipes for the lemons online and picked one..
that was yesterday, so I forget.


Meantime, I am hoping Wassau can find in his heart to run out and supply us with some of these Sicilian pastries -


These are in a photo by David Liebovitz, the american man who lives in Paris and writes an excellent pastry and other subjects blog, which I'd recommend to anyone at the cafe but Spendius. Spendius will be fine with his sack of sugar from the grocers.

Here are links for the other kind of preserved lemon - not the salty kind

http://whatscookingamerica.net/Q-A/LemonPreserving.htm
http://www.ou.org/ou/print_this/56212

I made a recipe like this using lamb. It was delicious. It also called for a preserved lemon. All I could find looked too salty. Not that I don't like salt. But I love lemon flavor (I eat lemons for a snack). So I used fresh lemon. As I said, it was delicious. My guest liked it too.

Wiki, that stallwart group function, says this about tajine/tagine:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tajine


A tajine or tagine(Arabic: طاجين tajin from the Persian: تابه‎ tabe[1]) is a historically Berber[2] dish from North Africa that is named after the special earthenware pot in which it is cooked. A similar dish, known as tavvas, is found in the cuisine of Cyprus. 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 sits on the base during cooking. The cover is 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. Tajines are also used and made in Morocco.
More recently,[when?] European manufacturers have created tajines with heavy cast-iron bottoms that can be heated on a cooking stove to a high temperature.[citation needed] This permits the browning of meat and vegetables before cooking.
A tagine is a unique type of ceramic or clay cookware that's popular in Morocco. The bottom is a wide, circular shallow dish used for both cooking and serving, while the top of the tagine is distinctively shaped into a rounded dome or cone.
The word "tagine" also refers to the succulent dish which is slow-cooked inside the cooking vessel. Typically, a tagine is a rich stew of meat, chicken, or fish, and most often includes vegetables or fruit. Vegetables can also be cooked alone. Although tagines are traditionally made of clay or ceramic, some Western cookware companies are now making tagines from other materials. The use of ceramics in Moroccan cooking is probably a Roman influence. Romans were known for their ceramics, and likely brought that tradition to their rule of Roman Africa.
Ceramic tagines are exquisite examples of Moroccan artisanship, and many are show pieces as well as functional cooking vessels. Some tagines, however, are intended only to be used as decorative serving dishes.
Unglazed clay tagines are favored by some for the unique earthy nuance they impart to dishes. Like their glazed counterparts, they come in all sizes. The smallest might hold enough food for one or two people, while the largest can hold a meal for eight people or more. Moroccan Tagines or Stews
Tagines are primarily used to slow-cook savory stews and vegetable dishes. Because the domed or cone-shaped lid of the tagine traps steam and returns the condensed liquid to the pot, a minimal amount of water is needed to cook meats and vegetables to buttery-tenderness. This method of cooking is very practical in areas where water supplies are limited or where public water is not yet available.

No need to run out. Wassau backed them up for us this morning fresh. Delicious.

The pastry bottom right osso is one I see made regularly in my own residence. I have one left at the moment from the last batch.

There is nothing Sicilian about it. It's a cream cake. Made in England by English hands out of butter, sugar, flour and eggs and dairy cream. It is called Victoria Sponge cake with cream.

They are very good and particularly when the outside is crusty.

Maybe they taste better if they are thought of as being Sicilian as being so would impute poshness. By which I mean a public demonstration of the ability to sustain pecuniary damage to no practical purpose.

Mac lives in Manchester osso which means that water is in plentiful volumes. His production was chicken stew and he called it a tagine to impress us all with his sophistication. I trust he didn't have his elbows on the table when he was getting his laughing tackle around it.

Naughty Spendius! Scolding everyone about their poshitatude, or poshiness, whichever you prefer. I'm sure they make the same pastries in Italy, as well as in England. Why Wassau, aided by Sybil made these same pastries right here in the cafe this morning on a moment's notice. They may have a bit more sugar and sweetness to them than those made in England by English hands. Wassau's hands are French, but now, I suppose they're American since he was born of French parents in the good ole USA. That's why his name is pronounced [Wa Zo] with the accent on the second syllable.

Now why are you so grumpy and bossy for the last two days? Is something bad happening to you? Have you had bad luck?

Only in the sense that I am two days older.

In England we can get Sicilian sponge cake mix in a squeeze tube. You just half fill a few of those paper shapers by holding the nozzle in them and squeezing, I presume you are good at that, stick them in the oven for 20 minutes, slice them at a posh angle and insert double Devon cream to taste. No Mafia.

The one in the photo that I know is the sfogliatella in the middle - looks like a sea shell. I read it originated in Salerno in southern Italy, but is also routinely found in Sicily, Naples, and Rome, and no doubt places between. I went crazy for them. Too hard to make in my kitchen, waaah. Also found in Milan, since that is where this photo was taken. I don't know that all of the pastries were 'sicilian' type, but that one was at least in the neighborhood.

You really present as quite the prune, Spendi.

For your trouble, I'll add this video

A reliable way to get a bad desert in southern Italy is to order anything ending in ".. ingles".

Now spendi, I don't think you can squeeze that thing being prepared in the video out of a tube. I really don't. But still, in a pinch, when you're not at the bakery, the tube squeezed things are better than nothing, I'm sure.

Yes, georgeO, but what about those ending in telle? It looked pretty good to me. But maybe I'm just especially hungry right now. Wassau, can you make some more those things in the video?

I agree wholeheartedly with. ...telle as a guide for pastries. But my experience in Italy has been that the only way to get a lousy meal there is to order roast beef , gnocchi, or zuppa ingles.