Actually, I've never heard of cooking anything under a brick within the context of Algerian cooking. However, we do have a method of cooking tagines with a flat terra cotta lid on top of which hot ashes or coals are placed. When I taught a Tuscan cooking glass a few months ago I discovered a way of duplicating an Algerian cooking method using a cooking dish for pollo al mattone. I purchased it at Sur La Table at the same time I bought my Portuguese made terra cotta tagine.
As luck would have it the lid for the pollo al mattone vessel also fits on my oven safe tagine!
I cooked this using the base of the pollo al mattone vessel, I'll post another dish I made using my tagine as a base later. The chicken was simply seasoned with herbs, garlic, salt and pepper.
This method produces a very moist finished product with a flavorful, slightly caramelized sauce. The vessel can be used on the stove top or oven, but I prefer the oven for faster cooking times because the lid heats up. There's no need to baste at all using this method, so it really saves time and effort.
As regular readers of this blog know, I am generally wary of recommending cookware or gadgets. But this method makes baking chicken so easy with delicious results I can't resist adding it to my "must have" list.
Your food photos are amazing! I’ve been lurking on your blog for awhile and finally thought I’d say something…. your photography is excellent.
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Posted by: gülten | January 23, 2008 at 03:48 AM