Tagins or Earthenware Cooking

 

(Photo: forums.egullet)

Traditionally in Egypt, Tagins are used for oven-baked vegetable stews in the countryside, but even city-dwellers cook special dishes in them. Authentic dishes are cooked at home in a “Bram” or برام, in Arabic, for recipes such as “Roz Me3ammar”, a rice dish with a creamy texture, made with tasty morsels of chicken. The delicious Egyptian dessert Om Ali is also baked in the oven in a "Bram".

Shali Lodge Hotel facebook page, photo: Copyright Suzy Bakos Photography

Ideal for slow-cooked dishes in the oven, the Tagins (clay pots and pans) hold their temperature for a long time, even after you take them out of the oven. Another particularity of earthenware is that it's porous, so food looses some of its moisture while the closed oven retains it. Perhaps this is the secret to the special taste of this age-old method of cooking.

While Tagins are found throughout Egypt, savvy Chefs use clay pots of various shapes and sizes, especially made to order in Upper Egypt, where skilled potters continue to produce this traditional crockery. There are deep Tagins, shallow ones, round and oval, but all impart their simple, wholesome glow on the food they hold. Even pizza is more appetizing this way, hot from the oven!

Siwa Dates

Photo by Combos Momn

Dates are Siwa’s pride and joy! With so many traditional varieties, many Siwans prefer dates to chocolate or baked sweets, as this form of sugar is natural.

Dates are used in many creative ways from date-filled crepes to date soufflé and date-stuffed biscuits. Traditionally, the pitted dates are used as a delicious and highly nutritious filling; for example in the preparation of Elhuji, a dish made of eggs with dates and olive oil; and Tagilla, made of flour, dates, water and olive oil. A date syrup can be used as a condiment.

Some of Siwa’s date production is bought up by Italians who love to eat dates at Christmas time, a tradition that goes back to the early days of Christianity when the Magi brought dates along as gifs for the newborn king. Dates in the Muslim world are traditionally eaten first to break the fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

Visitors to Siwa remember fondly a unique dish they enjoyed at breakfast: eggs cooked with dates, a memorable combination!