Tagines were the original Crock-Pots—the very first “set-it-and-forget-it” appliances. Tagines (the name for both the stew and the dish it’s cooked in) hail from Morocco, but their popularity now spans worldwide—and for good reason: cooking meat over low heat for long periods of time in flavorful spices and liquid yields a tender, aromatic result. The cone-shaped top on traditional tagines helps in this, promoting the return of all condensation to the bottom, allowing the stew’s ingredients to cook evenly.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a tagine though—you can also cook this in a dutch oven or other large pot with a fitted lid.

Note: Remember to buy your raisins and almonds in the bulk section for the best prices.

"How on earth did you finagle hanging out with Rick Bayless?!" my mother texted me last Thursday evening, after seeing a slew of photos in my Instagram feed of the world-famous chef out and about with a group of Bay Area food bloggers and myself. 

"I'm not really sure!!" I texted back, giddy. In truth, I was invited by Negra Modelo to join a blogger tour of the Mission District in San Francisco with Bayless, culminating in a party/cooking demo wherein he would talk about Negra Modelo and working with Latin American ingredients, but in a looser sense, I really wasn't sure how it all happened. How did I get so lucky as to get to do this kind of thing---for a living, no less? 

(I should probably also say here that I am a total dork when it comes to meeting celebrity chefs. Introduce me to a famous actor and I am totally cool. But put me in aroom with a Michael Chiarello or Alex Guarnaschelli and I will flush like a tween meeting One Direction for the first time. So needless to say, meeting Bayless in person made me a little bit nervous, and a whole lot excited. 

Fortunately, Bayless could not have been more down to earth, which put me immediately at ease. The tour also could not have been more delicious. 

We started at a fantastic Mexicatessan, where we sampled fresh huaraches, which are thick, often stuffed, corn tortillas, similar to pupusas. 

We ate them with Mexican crema and plenty of fresh cabbage, and, of course, cold Negra Modelo. So delicious. 

Next, we headed to an incredible Mexican butcher, where we learned about the local history of "flap meat", also known as carne asada. 

And what's a tour without dessert? Obviously, we had to make a stop at Reyna Bakery, a long-standing family-owned Mexican bakery, where we tasted several different Mexican pastries. These, which were filled with sweet berry preserves, were outrageous.

 

Our next stop was a Mexican restaurant in the SoMa neighborhood of San Francisco, and just as we begun wondering how we were going to get there, a trolley showed up.

That's right. A trolley. (I know it looks like a cable car, but I assure you, there were no cables in sight.)

As you can see here, Bayless is definitely participating in Movember. (Also pictured here, sitting next to him, is his super-cool culinary assistant, Katy.)

Then, we were off to the party portion of the evening (as if the tour hadn't been fun enough!). There, I was greeted by two awesome things:

My cute boyfriend. 

 And a cold Negra Modelo. 

The night was incredibly fun. We learned about several Mexican ingredients, including avocados, chiles, onions (as it turns out, there is a difference between white and yellow onions--use white ones when you want raw onions for salsa or guacamole, and rinse them first!), and, yes, beer. 

I've long been a fan of Negra Modelo (which I can honestly say goes with just about anything) and the opportunity to drink it while eating delicious food AND hanging out with the great Rick Bayless was just too wonderful to pass up.

As we nibbled tacos and sipped our Negra Modelos, I looked over at two of my dearest food blogging friends, Amy and Sean, raised my glass, and declared, "We have a good life." 

Also wonderful, was the awesome group of food bloggers I got to spend the day with. Some of whom I knew, and many of whom I got to meet for the first time. If you want to check them out, here they are:

• Amy of Amy’s Healthy Baking
• Amy of Cooking with Amy
• Amy of Very Culinary
• Annelies of The Food Poet
• Anita of Dessert First
• Beth of OMG Yummy
• Cassie of Ever in Transit                                                                                      
• Irvin of Eat the Love                                                                                
• Jane of This Week for Dinner                                                                          
• Jasmine of Simply Real Moms                                                                     
• Kimberly of Bake Love Give                                                                               
• Sara Deseran, cookbook author and restauranteur                                               
• Sean of Hedonia & Punk Domestics
• Stephanie of Lick My Spoon
• TerriAnn of Cookies & Clogs
• Trish of Mom On Timeout  

Special thanks to Negra Modelo for making this incredible day happen (Negra Modelo on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter or follow their hashtag#ThePerfectComplement), and to the great Rick Bayless for joining us and sharing such wonderful kitchen wisdom! I was compensated for this post, but all opinions are my own. 

A couple of years ago, I ran a holiday cookbook special, where I sold personalized, signed, gift-wrapped copies of my first book, The BrokeAss Gourmet Cookbook. It was so fun and successful, that this year, I decided to do it again with Pizza Dough: 100 Delicious, Unexpected Recipes, and this time I am stepping up my game. 

This year, for $50 (plus shipping, which usually runs about $5), I'll ship you or someone you love a beautiful signed, personalized, hard-bound copy of Pizza Dough: 100 Delicious, Unexpected Recipes, plus a gorgeous tea towel, and a large wooden spoon, so you or your giftee can get started cooking right away. 

I cannot tell you how proud I am of this book. I mean, just look at these gorgeous photos of delicious dough creations (taken by the wildly talented and delightful Frankie Frankey).

From pizza...

...to ooey-gooey cinnamon rolls

 

...and focaccia

 

...to sopapillas

And so much more.

Let me take care of your holiday shopping this year! Simply fill in this form and I'll send you a digital invoice. Once you've paid the invoice, I'll start putting your order together and you can officially stop worrying about your holiday shopping for the year.

This holiday season, give the gift of pizza dough! 

Questions? Email me! I'm at gabi@brokeassgourmet.com. 

Tandoor ovens, perhaps best known for their role in cooking naan and Tandoori chicken and fish, are a mainstay in Indian and Pakistani homes and restaurants. They get extremely hot and are used to quickly cook food, often charring it a bit in the most pleasant of ways.

I don't have one in my tiny apartment kitchen, but that's never stopped me from making my own naan, and, feeling inspired by some delicious Pakistani food I had recently, I decided to put a tandoor spin on roast chicken.

As you know, I'm a big fan of roasting chicken at a very high heat, yielding a crisp skin and tender, juicy interior. Since this is in a similar vicinity as tandoor, cooking, I figured that if I applied Tandoori flavors to chicken legs before roasting them at a high heat, i I could get a similar result to traditional Tandoor chicken. Though the skin is typically removed before roasting in the case of Tandoori chicken (and you can feel free to do so if you prefer), I decided to leave it on, because as far as I am concerned, crispy chicken skin is the new bacon.

I started by making a marinade of spices (look for these in Indian specialty grocery stores like Vik's--they're amazingly cheap when you buy them in bulk!) and yogurt (regular whole milk yogurt, Greek yogurt, plain soy yogurt, or plain coconut milk yogurt all will work), which my chicken legs bathed in overnight (though you can still get delicious chicken if you only have an hour to marinate). The chicken and onions went for a nice long dip.

After tenderizing (the calcium in the yogurt activates enzymes in the meat which breaks down the protein, keeping it ultra-juicy after cooking), the chicken and onions get roasted, just like with regular baked chicken, and that's when the magic happens. The spices impart a deep, dark red color, the skin crisps, and the onions get all charred and roasty.

The lemons and cilantro aren't required, but they do add an amazing pop of freshness. Serve this one with homemade naan (I made my new favorite kind -- chickpea flour!), and a crisp green salad or slaw. 

Check out my first board for Learnist, all about cooking the most delicious (not to mention the cheapest) part of the chicken: the legs!