Excerpt: Syracuse.com

Look up the definition of tagine, and you’ll find yourself reading a description of a pot, along with the slow-cooked Moroccan stew that goes in it.

The pot is made of clay, and has two parts – a saucer-shaped bottom and a cone-shaped lid.

The stew is a medley of Mediterranean/North African fruits and spices, usually (but not always) made with meat, cooked slowly and served in the tagine pot.

The ingredients and the pot are all about mingling flavors and maximizing aroma.

“The lid holds in the steam, and when you open it, the steam escapes,” said Moroccan-born chef Joelle Mollinger. “All the spices and fruit smells are mixed together in one.”

Mollinger was born in Casablanca, then moved with her family to Paris when she was 14. She became a chef, and cooked professionally in New York City restaurants. She and her restaurateur husband, Alain Castel, came Upstate in 2007 and opened Joelle’s French Bistro in Skaneateles.

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